Luis Masai

I grew up living above my parent’s restaurant, which meant that I didn’t get a lot of time to hang out with my dad but when he finished service, I would join him in the studio to do my art homework. When he wasn’t being a chef, his other passion for painting took over, I guess it was then that my love for painting really started to flourish. I can’t say that I enjoyed education too much, so when I realised that I could study art at university I pursued that and acquired a degree in Falmouth, Cornwall. 

I have been living in London now since 2010 and fulfilling this idea of making an income from my creativity. I maintain a fairly balanced combination of painting in the studio and painting murals in the public domain. I get huge enjoyment from both elements and embrace the influences that both practices have upon each other.

My subject matter focuses on animals but always strives to find a human reference to juxtapose an element that might not be previously obvious. For example, with my show Afro-fabrication I entwined fabric patterns to the animals in an attempt to comment on a human desire to cover up, or indeed use flamboyant colours to attract a mate. last of my kind, documents critically endangered birds with references to extinct musicians. The idea for this series of work was to question why humans often fail to recognise a disappearing species yet mourn the death of a celebrity.

My recent documentation of endangered creatures and raising of awareness of statistics has on occasions brought the notion of activism to light. I find this title a bit daunting as I only see myself as an artist, but I definitely see the power of visual language upon a wider audience and I’m enjoying utilising that power via my murals and the modern world of social networking.

Take a look at some of Luis’s other work on his website