Gaia, a New York City native, has been bringing art to the streets since 2007.  Usually consisting of anthropomorphic imagery (a combination of human and animal bodies), Gaia’s art depicts messages of anger, greed and hope. When creating the street art, he mainly works with wheat paste which does not hold up against weather. Wheat paste, on the other hand, allows the artist to spend more time constructing the piece before going to the street where it is then applied to walls- very quickly. Powerful and international, Gaia’s work is infectious.

Drawing on his new and evolving body of imagery depicting human and animal figures, Gaia’s work reflects on the ancient themes of animal and human sympathies, but now in the context of the city and the human built environment. Working with myth and symbolic animal figures, Gaia’s street murals are like the works of an urban shaman drawing on a positive force from animal protectors. Gaia employs recognizable animal figures to remind us of lost human connections to nature and the environment. He constructs an image of a reversal of the “natural order” where animals intervene as protectors and avatars for a new awareness of the human condition in the natural world. He is known world-wide for street murals placed in areas to elicit surprise and reflection by passers-by who encounter the symbolism and fragile narratives of his work.

-Martin Irvine, of the Irvine Contemporary Gallery