Strongly inspired by nature, Charquipunk (Sebastián Navarro) delights us with his vividly colored and seemingly moving pieces, bringing the cities he paints and their gray walls to life. A native of the coastal community of Concón, Chile; you will find most of his pieces in the street-art-Mecca of Valparaíso, just south of where he grew up. His passion began, as many things do, very modestly with some sketches he made during his free time. These he later translated into murals that can be found all across Chile.
Now, after almost 20 years in the street art scene he has quite a body of work behind him and the progression in his style and choice of subject is apparent. His earlier works tended towards realism, portraying animals and naturalistic scenes while blending in some elements of fantasy. Many of these pieces are based on folklore and contain imagery from various South America folk stories. Such representations are the most common among his murals, however, not the only ones in his thematic repertoire.
More recently he has become quite fond of painting birds and states that his home is full of books on the subject. In order to paint more convincing renderings, he has literally spent years studying, especially observing those native to his home of Chile. Another personal trademark is his use of felines, in honor of his pet cat. And one other style he has been using quite a lot in recent times is a sort of impressionistic technique where, using simple multicolor lines of spray paint, he creates stylized hummingbirds, animals, and natives wearing headdresses.
His love for nature has also led him to one of his personal projects, the so-called “láminas” or “plaques,” where he depicts an animal that is in danger of extinction; writing both its common and scientific names below the painting. Through this initiative, he has traveled to Peru, Portugal, Colombia, as well as to different regions of Chile; creating murals everywhere he goes.
If you are interested, updates on his works can be seen on his Facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/sebastian.n.amaya