Boy Kong Combines Traditional, Street Art Sensibilities

Boy Kong, a painter and muralist who resides in both Orlando and New York City, combines both traditional painting and street art to make absorbing three-dimensional work. Pieces like “First Flower Tiger Pelt” use both affected textural elements with acrylics and oil and materials like horse hair and custom wood-cutting to create wholly new creatures. The artist’s murals and oil on panel works are more traditional in dimension, yet all carry a kinetic vibe in which the subject is reacting to the shape of the canvas.

“Inspired by a mixture of Ukiyo-e, Surrealism, Graffiti art, and animal folklore, Kong’s visual style juxtaposes these elements with a mastery of color and rhythmic application,” says the gallery Gitler & _____. “In short time his body of work has become immediately identifiable without succumbing to a signature aesthetic.”

See how this sensibility manifests itself on outside walls in the mural below. The artist often uses animals as his subjects, playing with mythology and surrealism, contorting his subjects.