Open Home #5

SOWHAT!!! His real name “Ziv Lahat”, was born in the 80s. He takes the name of artist “SOWHAT!!! ” in relation to “Miles Davis”. Born in the Ivory Coast, he lived in Paris and now lives in Israel. He is influenced by many artistic fields such as : Tribal cultures, ethnicity, street art, graffiti, stencil, skate culture, surf culture, vegetable culture, Soundsystem Culture, Music Culture (From jazz to gothic music), Psyart, Tibetan and Buddhist art, lowbrow art, kustom kulture (50’s, hot rods, pinstripes, exotica), tattoos, wines, Parisian life and many others… He studied fashion design in Paris ( ESMOD ). He has participated in exciting areas in the fashion world, including advertising his own costume shoes. He collaborates with some sneaker boutiques and an article on my shoe art is written. He is also Stylist, Personal Shopper and Fashion Designer for a few companies in the fashion industry. His work techniques are mixed, as are his influences. He works extensively with spray cans, markers, tweezers, brushes, acrylic paint, pencil, watercolor, wood and clay. He uses any medium to express his art.

STEVE PITOCCO Painting is for the artist a personal language that goes without words, and allows him to connect with others. Sensitized to artistic expression by his father, a versatile artist who was, among other things, Salvator Dali’s assistant for his eponymous book, it was at the age of fifteen that he discovered urban art and put his famous Koeurélé for the first time in the street; a heart drawing symbolizing passion and freedom.
His first graffiti in Cachan, in the Paris suburbs, pushed him to open up to urban cultures, to travel, and reinforced his idea that art would have a major place in his adult life.

Driven by the desire to make a living from his passion, he entered the “Strate” school of industrial design. After graduating, he was spotted by the luxury brand Alfred Dunhill, then by Reebok for whom he designed “urban textile lines” and was in charge of the brand’s graphics for the EMEA zone. He then collaborated with other big names in the fashion industry such as G-shock, Lacoste, Casio, and Swarovski.

In his quest for experimentation, Steve Pitocco created the Opful agency, then Packnowledge, and mixed his strokes and his path with those of major artists such as Takashi Murakami, Grand corps malade, Alicia Keys and Kery James.

Graffiti is the extraordinary experience of seeing paintings come out of the galleries, but as time goes by, Steve Pitocco’s work becomes more mature and personal. The artist decided it was time to move from the street to the studio, and at the same time enrich his approach with new mediums and processes.

Still inspired by urban culture but driven by a desire to reinvent himself, he decides to move away from spray cans and refine his personal technique; and to put on canvas a recognizable line. His own. He then breaks away from his “previous” work, and detaches himself from a painting that he considers too full and noisy to refocus on the essential. Black and white, the aesthetics of the sketch, and his own vocabulary that he has been specifying for years: “Filing”.

This “Filing” technique is the result of years of free experimentation, of the energy of an artist who refuses to stand still. Steve Pitocco performs this calligraphic dance by engaging body and mind. “I lift my brush as if to step back, not to impose my line on the support. By depositing my flow of paint, I involve my whole body to find the path of exchange, I direct it, it guides me; a dialogue is established.