Even though warmth is decreasing in Mannheim, Germany as the sun slowly heads towards autumn, Portuguese artist “THE CAVER”, brings back a little summer heat with his new mural, “Feels like home”. Created for STADT.WAND.KUNST 2020 (SWK), the warm blue, red, and yellow tones of his somewhat disconnected objects, seem to strike a chord with the summer that has just gone by. Located on the side of a Hotel, access to the wall was via the roof of the neighboring pre-school. For five days CAVER and his Portuguese assistant VIRUS, painted the twelve-meter-high wall with abstract forms and figures, with vibrant colors of GOLD spray cans, ending with classic graffiti fat black outlines. The origin of the mural’s content not a magical figment of his imagination. No… all objects he saw shortly before departure around his home in everyday use. A little piece of his home in Mannheim.
“Feels Like Home” by Porto based artist THE CAVER in F7, 5-13 Mannheim (Germany)
About Nuno Barbedo aka THE CAVER
The graphic designing, illustrator, clothing label creator, and tattoo studio owner has his roots firmly set in the practice of graffiti. Since the age of fifteen, the now thirty-seven-year-old Nuno Barbedo (as his parents call him), has been using cans to create art. And in the case of the SWK mural “Feels like home”, he used two hundred of them to be exact. Apart from the fifteen or so large-format murals CAVER has created around the world, he has also recently re-designed the CI for Portugal’s most famous local beer brand. Equally, at home on the streets, or in an abandoned factory, CAVER admits it takes him longer to complete a one-meter square canvas in the studio, then it does to complete a one-hundred-and-fifty-meter square mural.
His second time in Germany, while in Mannheim for SWK he also connected with many local graffiti writers. Leaving not only colors on a wall for SWK, but also a smattering of color in collaborations around the region. We can only hope.
THE CAVER Mural for STADT.WAND.KUNST “Feels Like Home”
For now, it’s back to his hometown Porto. But for CAVER, this wasn’t supposed to be the end of travel for 2020. With commitments in New York and Jordan being called off thanks to the Coronavirus, it looks like he will need to get back to that small canvas in the studio that still isn’t finished.
Follow THE CAVER on IG
Photography by ©Alexander Krziwanie / MONTANA-CANS