Sun, 2017

Icy & Sot   New & remarkable Artists

Icy and Sot, are two brothers, two artists, who were born in the Northwest of Iran, in Tabriz. The eldest, Icy was born in 1985 and Sot in 1991. Together, they have fill the streets and the walls with their stencils. In 2008, they decided to leave Iran to have more freedom and creativity and moved to Brooklyn, New York where they currently live and work.

Coming from a generation of children of war, the two artists promote very meaningful messages. In 2006, it was with paint bombs that they decided to fight all the atrocities that surrounded them. They claim messages of peace, justice and hope by raising high and strong the human rights banner. Art is the best weapon against ignorance and conflict, and these two artist have understood it very well.

Icy and Sot became two influential and important artists in Iran, who have changed the landscapes of urban art. It is thanks to skateboard, which they are passionate about, that they discovered grafitti and stencil, the two worlds being inseparable. Thus they criss-cross the city and undertook a really creative crusade. Brick by brick and wall by wall they started dismantling preconceived images of Iranian tradition.

Either through giant sculptures or with wall stencils they try to create conscience, to encourage viewers to question their actions. It is social, political, and ecological issues that they treat with cans of Coke in form of skulls to represent our consumer society, or arms covered with dollar bills that are blocking our view.

Street-art is illegal in Iran, like everywhere else, and it is even easier to get caught by the authorities. This is why the two young brothers decided to go to New York in 2008. They started a tour of Europe in order to find other social issues specific to each country.

Together, Icy and Sot's work has been exhibited all around the world, on the streets and on galleries in France, Germany, Norway, Switzerland and Italy.