Concrete Jungles: Dzia’s Street Art Menagerie

Originally published by UP Magazine.

On the 19th Day, Dzia rested.

For 18 straight days this summer, the Belgian street artist toiled away alone, applying spray paint to concrete in the traffic corridor below an ecoduct constructed to allow animals to pass unharmed above a busy highway in the town of Halle.

Day 18 was typical of the days Dzia spent on this and countless other animal murals: It started with a basic chalk sketch, followed by base colors, then boldly applied outlines, then his signature geometric flourishes and the glimmering highlights that bring his work to life. On this final day, the output was a pair of lepidopterans, a golden butterfly with wings highlighted by large dots in shades of blue with white accents and a white moth, its wingtips and head accented in shades of orange.

“I like the concept of giving animals their space back and letting them breathe life into urban areas,” Dzia told UP Magazine. While street art and graffiti historically bow to urban themes, Dzia and others like to bring animals into the mix, often making the sometimes overlooked point that humans are not alone on the planet.

“Humans think they are number one, but sometimes they forget the importance and the natural rights of animals. This can lead to the destruction of the balance in nature. So my main goal is to show respect for wildlife and to restore awareness of the place animals occupy on the planet,” he said.

Dzia working on a fox mural along the Animalis route in Mechelen, Belgium

Dzia is hardly the first street artist to turn to the animal kingdom for inspiration. Witness the nine new animal murals by British street-art virtuoso Banksy that appeared across London in recent days. Unlike earlier Banksy masterpieces that featured humanized animals like chimpanzees wearing signs and rats with paint brushes, these latest works were anatomically correct silhouettes, their meaning unclear.

Realistic depictions of animals like Dzia’s are a bit rare in the U.S., where animals are far more likely to be humanized or cartoonish. In other countries, however, street artists commonly captured their zoological subjects more realistically, but with flourishes that hew to their individual styles.

Chinese artist DALeast is known for his distinctive style that blends fragmented lines and shapes to create intricate, though realistic, animal murals in motion or dissolving into abstract patterns. Columbian artist Praxis blends realistic animal images with stylized text and backgrounds in his tireless advocacy for animal rights worldwide. South African, Sonny, creates large-scale murals of wildlife and endangered species, mixing a photorealistic style with abstract elements and vibrant splashes of color.

Dzia’s work in Belgium and other spots across the globe brings to mind the work of Portuguese artist Bordalo II, whose animal works are largely realistic but are augmented by abstract textures and unusual colors, as well as the work of the American artistic SMiLE, who uses stencils to create lifelike depictions of wildlife and domestic animals.

A fox considedrs a butterfly, by DZIA on the side of house in Heerlen, the Netherlands

Among the best-known creators of zoologic street art is Dzia’s countryman ROA, who has become internationally renowned for his monochromatic depictions of local fauna. His massive black-and-white murals of rodents, birds, and mammals native to each area he visits have appeared on buildings from London to Los Angeles.

“ROA is king in what he is doing,” Dzia said. “I have a different approach and style. My creatures are living and breathing, claiming their place in our society.”

Dzia’s style is realistic to be sure. His monumental depictions portray a wide range of wildlife, from insects and birds to elephants and rhinos, in dramatic poses, their faces expressing various emotions: surprise, high alert, anxiety, fatigue, anger. At the same time, though, the works are possessed of a distinctive swirling abstract geometry that sets them in motion and gives them life.

“The eyes of these creatures are the most important component that can trigger and intrigue the viewer. My works unfold naturally on their own with their unique features, including expressions. I don’t think much when I’m painting, I just do stuff instinctively to be honest. The faster I create, the better the outcome, and the bigger I paint, the easier it gets,” Dzia said.

Art by DZIA in Glasgow, Scotland

“What I like about painting animals is to study their shapes and to transform their anatomy into a complex line flow. I paint quickly and in-situ to make sure the original idea stays true to its form. I don’t sketch much in advance and create the end result by intuition. My work is very spontaneous,” he added.

Dzia is doing more to protect animals and their habitat, providing artwork for a program called Animalis, in collaboration with Belgian nature and wildlife organization Natuurpunt. For Animalis, Dzia depicted various local fauna along a 100 km route south of Antwerp.

“We are focussing on education, communication and awareness of local endangered wildlife in our region. By integrating street art into vital spots where wildlife is threatened and needs care and preservation, we’re hoping to draw attention to the issue,” Dzia said.

Like most street artists, Dzia was drawn to graffiti in his early teens. “A classmate introduced me to the scene. Since then, it all made sense. I liked the culture, the music, clothes, and friendship,” he said. He went on to earn a master’s degree in fine art from the Royal Academy of Fine Art in Antwerp before adopting the spray paint can as his primary tool.

Once a graffiti artist, tagging and doing modest works wherever he could, after spending more than 20 years building his reputation, he no longer does unauthorized paintings. “I started painting without permission, but now all my work is commissioned, or at least with permission. I never had any problems with authorities in Belgium, they know who I am and what I’m doing so it’s really easy these days,” he said.

Today, Dzia calls himself an “independent artist” who sells work in galleries from time to time but earns his living doing commissioned murals. Still, he loves finding just the right urbex settings to commit art.

“I prefer to be independent. I think my artwork works great in contrast with a historic environment, like old urban buildings with raw walls, a lot of character and history. I make a living painting walls on commission, but I continue painting the streets with passion,” he said.

A Dzia fish painting part of the UPNORTH Street Art Festival -Rost Norway 2017

The mural in Halle, south of Brussels, is Dzia’s fourth ecoduct, having completed two in Oud-Heverlee and one in Hoeilaart. The project is hundreds of feet long on two walls and includes depictions of rabbits, squirrels, bugs, birds and bats set amid green trim and white-and-blue floral accents.

What’s next for Dzia? Though he jokes that he’ll retire and turn his artistic style and legacy over to his sons, he doesn’t have any grand plans beyond continuing to honor animals in his public art.

“I’m still very interested in reflecting upon the way animals are depicted in art and giving them the respect and honor these creatures deserve,” he said.