Kingi Graffiti Art Print by Frizzell & Son

Limited Edition Digital Print

Print size in millimetres: 800 x 500 including the border
Limited edition of 50 Epson Fine Art 11 colour pigment prints on 308gsm hahnemuhle rag paper, signed by both Frizzells below image

Kingi, reads this print, one of four street art style collaborations between Otis and Dick Frizzell (Frizzell & Son). Dick writes “This is a project I’ve been wanting to get out of my head for a long time. I saw a fabulously crude silver ‘throw-up’ under a bridge in Kingsland about nine years ago...a curious blockbuster hybrid that disappeared in the time it took me to come back with my camera. Somehow in the process of trying to recall the letterforms this idea of a ‘one- word’ painting developed along with the research. The hunt for the right ‘iconic’ word ultimately led me to the Kahawai. Could’ve been that flash of silver...or the fact that I was catching a lot of them down at Waimarama at the time. Don’t know, but that was it...more fish. But how to represent it? Do a painting of the big silver bomb...or actually spray it? Spraying it seemed to be the only logical response but because my spray can skills are practically zero I knew I was going to need Otis to give me a hand. Then Otis and Mike Weston approached me (serendipity!) with this idea of a collaborative exhibition and I had the perfect context! And the perfect excuse for something that felt pretty experimental ...outside my usual practice. So we worked on it together...from the get-go. I researched Blockbuster styles and made some clumsy stabs at designing the words...which Otis ‘politely’ corrected. And so on up to the point where the designs were locked down and I ordered the canvases. And let Otis loose on them. Because I’m down here in Hawkes Bay and he’s in Auckland we had to do the initial to-ing and fro-ing by email. Otis doing all the hard work while I responded to progress photos with the old ‘left-hand down a bit’. Building up underpainting. When the canvases had reached a suitable crescendo I flew up to Auckland and we went at them together. Me playing the angry grocer scrubbing out Otis’s random tags, until the canvases were carrying an appropriately loaded history. After a pause to convince ourselves that the time was right Otis took a deep breath and ‘threw-up’ the large ‘words’ over the whole fabulous mess. I loved all the build-up towards that one magnificent heart-in-the-mouth moment. And I’m seriously impressed with the result. It’s been a long time coming and it’s 100% right. Thank you Otis!”

Kingi features in these collections of similar prints at NZ Fine Prints:

Dick Frizzell Prints
Otis Frizzell Prints
Street Art