Sebas Velasco was born in 1988 in Burgos, a city in northern Spain. He has drawn since he was a small child, but his artistic journey truly began in 2004 when he started painting graffiti on the walls of his hometown at fifteen or sixteen years old, fascinated by the album covers of metal bands his brother brought home and trying to copy Iron Maiden’s Eddie mascot done by Derek Riggs. Afterwards, he moved to Bilbao where he graduated in Fine Arts at the University of País Vasco (UPV/EHU), getting in touch with and specializing in painting and defining his creative process while completing a Master’s Degree.

He now lives and works in San Sebastián, creating nighttime scenes of the urban everyday that are mysterious, gloomy, but not necessarily forlorn. His large-scale murals incorporate elements of the surrounding architecture and marginal cityscape, while his canvas paintings are painterly, blurred, and focused on the emotional and psychological trajectory of a life lived alongside the wreckage of a city, often depicting solitary figures seeking adventure in gritty, industrial scenes. His photographic, expressive brushstroke style reveals a precise academic technique that contrasts sharply with the rawness of the street content in his works, with many of his canvases acting as windows into everyday moments where strangers are caught in the act with their writer friends, and during these moments, darkness has become increasingly important.

Over the last few years, Velasco has aligned himself with the great documentarians of the transitional countries of Eastern Europe, making frequent visits to countries of former Yugoslavia, Poland, Hungary, and Ukraine to observe the shifting relationship between the urban environment and economical/political structures. He uses a combination of spray paint, acrylic paint, and oil to create his murals and canvas paintings, sometimes incorporating stenciling and other forms of street art into his work, creating a unique blend of traditional and contemporary techniques where it is in the streets where he finds inspiration for his studio work.

In 2013, he was selected by the Antonio Gala Foundation to take part in an artistic residence grant, where he developed his painting project “Around the Wall.” He has participated in fellowships including the Landscape Paular organized by the Royal Academy of San Quirce in Segovia and the second Cátedra Extraordinaria de Albacete taught by Antonio López. He has received several awards, including first prize in the Second International Sports Drawing Contest organized by the Association of Catalan Sports Federations and first prize in the tenth Climent Muncunill Award for young artists.

His work has been exhibited individually and collectively in different galleries across Spain, the United Kingdom, and Germany, including shows at SC Gallery in Bilbao, MEAM (European Museum of Modern Art) in Barcelona, and Gallery Poulsen in Copenhagen. He has collaborated with artists he admires including Axel Void, Zoer

ism, and Sainer, and during his career has painted walls in different cities around the globe while maintaining his studio practice.

His strengths: ability to merge street art techniques with academic painting tradition, documentation of urban decay and marginal cityscapes with psychological depth, mastery of atmospheric nocturnal lighting creating mystery without melodrama, exploration of post-industrial Eastern European urban environments often overlooked by contemporary artists, technical versatility moving seamlessly between spray paint murals and oil canvas paintings.

Career highlights: Antonio Gala Foundation artistic residence grant 2013, first prize Second International Sports Drawing Contest, first prize Climent Muncunill Award, participation in Royal Academy of San Quirce fellowship and Antonio López’s Cátedra Extraordinaria, exhibitions at MEAM Barcelona and SC Gallery Bilbao, large-scale murals across Spain and Europe, continuous studio and street practice spanning two decades.