Calicho Arevala came to New York City from his native Colombia several years ago to work as an architect. “I did a variety of jobs as an architect. Project manager and so forth,” he says. Architect was an excellent day job. However, inspired by the energy and possibilities of New York, he soon commenced adventures in the art world.
“A door is always a door, and a window is always a window. That’s architecture. It’s not going to change all that much.” Arevala says. “I believe my art has the potential to make more of an impact. My focus is to make art with a message.” He also hopes to become a point of reference for other artists of his generation.
He chose street art to amplify his impact. He cites the amazing Ron English as his main inspiration in this endeavor.
It was Flaco, the Eurasian eagle owl that escaped from the Central Park Zoo, that led to some of Arevala’s most noted efforts since his arrival. He did a total of eight murals featuring the bird. These ephemeral pieces helped initiate an effort to make windows in the city “crash proof” for birds. Flaco died when he slammed into a window while flying. More and more, since Flaco’s death, the planes of glass windowpanes are being adorned with dots that warn birds visually that glass is a barrier, not a portal.
That was one of Arevala’s goals when he did Flaco murals. “I suppose you can say something good came out of what happened to Flaco,” he says with a shrug. Then he adds, “The murals were street art. They didn’t last very long before someone painted over them. That’s the nature of street art.” Of the eight murals, the one in Freeman Alley on the Lower East Side survived the longest – more than a month.
At his suggestion, we met in late December at Caffe Reggio on MacDougal Street in the Village, to discuss his various endeavors. The extravagantly mustachioed Calicho showed up wearing (shades of Robert Motherwell) white pants with black marks like runes. They are part of the MLC brand – a “slow fashion” line of repurposed clothing that is painted by artists and sold under the Coco Redux label.
I was lucky to be invited to the Halloween fashion show of Calicho’s stylish pieces in the Oculus at the World Trade Center. It was an exciting debut of pieces from lingerie to dresses to various accoutrements. He recruited some beautiful models who helped make the evening memorable. Lee Klein, art critic for the Village Star-Revue who knows far more about fashion than I do, and who attended the event with me, declared it an absolute success.
Christened Carlos Arevala when he was born thirty-five years ago in Bogota, Colombia, his grandmother came up with the nickname Calicho. “It really doesn’t have a meaning. She made it up and it stuck.”
Currently, the artist is in a cogitative state as he chooses his next projects, which he expects to announce and begin in February. Calicho Arevala’s paintings and drawings are often included in group shows in SoHo, Tribeca, the Lower East Side and elsewhere. His first one man show here was at One Art Space in Tribeca. You can sign up for his email list on his website, calichoart.com and stay up to date on all his efforts.
