Nomerz Interview

Sunday, January 20, 2013

The faces Nomerz 2011 Perm

Russia’s Nomerz has become well known in the past few years for his amazing street art. He seems to find the perfect buildings and structures, and then brings them to life with faces in his trademark style. His art is largely figurative but goes beyond the usual faces he’s best known for, and he has another distinct style that is far more colourful. Global Street Art caught up with him to ask about his art, the buildings he brings to life and his contrasting styles!

Mostr Nomerz 2012 Ekaterinburg

Knowledge from Nomerz

Nomerz is not part of my name, it’s just a set of letters. But over the years the letters have grown to have a strong meaning to me. I have always loved to draw, from my earliest years. I started graffiti about 8 years ago. I saw it on the street, and I thought – I want to try it. I liked it, so I switched from paper to the wall.

Glutton Nomerz 2012 St. Petersburg

I paint in the street, in public spaces, but I do not position myself as an invader of the city or a destroyer. I position myself as a creator. With my street art work, I fill the urban emptiness. I am inspired by the process of painting, city, people, music, movies and art by other artists. All this is interesting: it pushes the creation of art works.

My main direction now is to work with the features of the object. And the main project I’m working on now is a series called “The living walls”. I have other projects and drawings too. I just don’t show everything. I study design at the Arts and Humanities Institute. I’m curious to experiment and to try new things. I’ve also made some color-experiments (you can see on my website), but it’s not all that I do!

The City Sentinel 2012 Rostov on Don

The big brother Nomerz 2010 Nizhniy Novgorod

I travel a lot on my country, and I always try to draw something in each city. So my characters have appeared in different parts of Russia. I think objects that work for my living walls project are everywhere, you just need search. All cities have their own characteristics, but there are also details that unite all street artists in the World. I think we all share an invisible bond.

For now my main place to create is on the street, but it is not the only place for my ideas and projects. I’ve participated in some of gallery projects too.

Nomerz 2012 Kazan

I usually paint in abandoned places where there are few people: where I will not bother people, and where other people would not stop me. And when I do work in public places, I try to do them quickly and at night. I’ve never had serious problems with the cops. Besides, sometimes I work on legal grounds under various festivals. I do not know how people relate to my art work. Most of the reactions I’ve heard, it seems people like it. But people are different! Maybe they annoy someone, or some people are frightened even. Some people may just not notice them and just pass by.
I have many plans and projects, I want to travel and paint. And I’m doing an interesting video-project, which I’m not going to talk about it in detail yet. I hope everything will work out!

Breaking out Nomerz Tula 2012