Street Art Chile (Pb), PALMER ROD

Chile has long been a centre for radical propaganda painting. As early as 1940 leading Mexican and Chilean artists, including David Alfaro Siqueiros, Fernando Marcos and Gregorio de la Fuente, were painting murals in Chile. Today, Latin American street art is as innovative as any in the world, and Chile plays a leading part.

Much as Spain witnessed a boom in the arts post-Franco, so, since the end of Pinochetâs dictatorship in 1990, Chile has embraced an era of new freedoms. Chile has made up for lost time. The contemporary artists and graffiteros shown on these pages have their roots in Latin American propagandistic murals, but look forward.

Artists such as Bomber West, Charqui Punk, Dana Pink, Elodio, Inti, Piguan, Pussyz Soul Food, Ritalin Crew, Vazko and Yisa are informed by Latin American, European and North American (especially West Coast) art and music, but have their own Chilean slant. Their carefully planned visual and verbal jokes, strategies and techniques are derived from an array of sources: Pica.