The popular Ukrainian duo Interesni Kazki, Aleksei Bordusov and Vladimir Manzhos, better known as AEC and Waone respectively, announced yesterday that they will go their separate ways in the future. The message will surely come as a shock for some of their most ardent fans, but it is a fact that marks the beginning of new exciting times for both of these two talented artists.
The duo, that for years created amazing fairytales across the planet, met in 1999 while painting traditional letter graffiti in the crew Ingenious Kids (IK). In 2005, after being exposed to innovative street art they had seen abroad, they began collaborating as Interesni Kazki and abandoned style writing in exchange for compositions with characters existing in a dreamlike universe. In 2010, they had their first solo show in France at Galerie All Over and have since exhibited in galleries in Italy, Los Angeles and New York. Their large-scale murals can be found all over the world, in countries such as Mexico, Croatia, Portugal, Spain, Slovakia, India, South Africa and the United States.
Now seventeen years later Waone and AEC are ready to follow their own paths. The magic surrealism of Interesni Kazki has not faded away, it just took a new turn.
Vladimir Manzhos (Waone), has expressed that he will continue exploring the world of monochrome painting we saw in his last mural Matter: Changing States, although he promised not to forget colourful murals either.Aleksei Bordusov (AEC) on the other side will keep the same path creating colourful, vibrant and existentialistic artworks, as well as black and white drawings of his own.
The image above shows their last collaboration painted for the 352Walls project in Gainesville, Florida back in January this year. Below a few images of their collaborative work. I wish them all the best for their future careers!
Author: Fran
Founder and editor of Urbanite. Street Art lover who after the finishing her MA thesis on the Mexican and Norwegian muralist movement in the 1920-50s, developed a fascination for street art and graffiti that eventually led to collaborations with different art blogs, including the creation of this one.
Great post, and their works have been truly fantastical. I look forward to seeing their solo stuff.