Florencia Durán and Camilo Núñez studied industrial design together at university and later began painting murals together on a grand scale. It started humbly, just with graffiti and stencils on open walls on local street. The results were good though, and they decided to try making a living from it as they traveled. Now, with quite a lot of experience under their belts, they enjoy getting to know new cultures and accurately representing things from them in each new mural.
In Spanish “Licuado” means shake or smoothie and the artists say they chose this name to highlight their blend of talent. They like that after a work is completed there is no way to distinguish between who painted what, just that the overall project has been completed. Both artists in their own way add to the distinctive and unique result; like ingredients in a smoothie after it has been blended.
In their art, they aim for the non-obvious and atypical, but not to such an extent that people in the area won’t feel a connection to, or won’t identify with the subjects they paint. To achieve this, the collective spends a few days in the neighborhood, they talk to the inhabitants, take pictures and over-all spend time there. This they turn into a sort of study in culture, where the objective is to find the positives and beauty of everyday life, not specifically in the conventional way but through observing gestures and subtleties.
Common elements in their works are various types of cultural symbols and portrayal of ethnic groups, cultural issues involving women, and inspiration from mythology and classical art.
You can follow what Collectivo Licuado is up to on their Instagram accounts: @theic_licuado for Camilo and @fitz_licuado for Florencia, as well as on their official website www.colectivolicuado.com/