Kre8

In all the arts, including fashion or music, the development of an original talent is a fascinating journey. Kre8 (Kevin Vigil) has arrived at his fame as a painter through a life fully lived in different parts of the world. Each had an impact on his art. His story begins in Germany, where he was born, the son of an American GI. Like many military families, they moved around the world with different postings. Kevin was only five when they arrived in Denver. At age 14, he was approached by a local band of graffiti writers, the start of decade-long spree. He coined the pseudonym “Kre8” from the acronym for “Knowledge Reveals Evolution” – with the 8 representing the infinity symbol flipped vertically. At that time, especially in New York and Miami, street art was crossing the bridge to the art scene, but Kre8 proudly kept it more street than art. To understand his paintings, it is essential to recognize the role of this early passion: “Graffiti isn’t as loose as people think—it’s actually very structured. Graffiti is a language that only graffiti artists can speak. It has made me who I am.”

As his choice of subject matter confirms, Dalí is a primary point of reference for Kre8, but he has also been influenced by other Surrealists, including Rene Magritte, as well as Modernist masters such as Pablo Picasso and Andy Warhol, and Abstract Expressionists including Jackson Pollock.

When he moved to Florida at age 25, his creative life took a turn. He began working as a tattoo artist, a natural enough extension of graffiti even if it meant shifting gears from huge walls to small patches of skin. The tattoo business taught him a tremendous amount about being an artist. In New Jersey and eventually New York, over the course of the next seven years he made a name for himself at the top of the tattoo world. But the lure of Florida was too much and he headed back to Miami, where his transition to painting blossomed. The key to appreciating Kre8’s originality is the way he negotiates the delicate balance between color and black-and-white. “The color—the abstract—is us, as people,” he says. “We are the burst of inspiration that’s coming out of the black-and-gray world. No matter how black-and-gray the world is, we still shine.”