Imon Boy: the anonymous street artist travels from Malaga to Seoul

Imon Boy is a recognisable name along the A-7 motorway. And many will have seen his drawings on ruins and abandoned buildings in the Axarquía. But spray paint and anonymity are only one part of his life, and not even the main part, however much his paintings of police and graffiti artists playing cat and mouse have gone viral.

Now the street artist from Malaga, who keeps his identity a secret, has left aside – for the moment – his image as an urban artist and has explored another medium, his most personal diary, in his first solo project for South Korea.

Eleven small and medium-sized pieces were exhibited earlier this month at the Kiaf Seoul international contemporary art fair and there has already been a lot of interest to buy them.

Through the fair in Seoul, Imon Boy has added a new Asian venue to his CV after making his debut in January in Hong Kong with a solo show -he had previously participated in group exhibitions- at AishoNanzuka, the gateway for artists such as Javier Calleja and Julio Anaya to the powerful eastern market.

And it doesn’t end here: as soon as he returns from Seoul, he will turn his attention to his next exhibition in Singapore taking place early in 2025, at the Tang Contemporary Art gallery. But although his career continues to grow, there are some things that don’t change: few, very few, know his real name. “I’m fine as I am,” he says.

In the series being shown in Korea, the artist’s distinctive oval-faced, big-eared character reads a book, listens to music and sits at the computer. A girl exercises at home, walks the dogs and has a cup of coffee on the terrace. These are everyday scenes, small routines that make up anyone’s day. Also that of the person behind Imon Boy.

They are modern, of our time, but some details invite you to travel back in time. The girl wears leg warmers and a headband. And the boy writes on one of those sturdy, wide laptops with CD-Room input, wears wired headphones and has a pre-social media mobile phone. He even reads on paper rather than on a screen.

Imon Boy returns to his origins and recovers the nineties inspiration of his early works. A child of the ’90s, in his early days his paintings had nods to the films, anime and video games of his childhood and adolescence. Over the years, these references became diluted, his character became more defined and the outside world – from his experience as a graffiti artist to his passion for scuba diving – gained weight in his painting.

The exhibition he held a little over a year ago at the CAC Málaga brought him face to face with his initial creations. And it was, he says, “a turning point”. “It made me remember the old work and helped me to find myself with them. I haven’t abandoned anything, but I decided to go back to the interiors,” he explains.

In the background, in one way or another, there is always the Mediterranean. Sometimes the reference is direct, with a walk on the beach or a surfboard; but other times it simply slips in through the window or the terrace at home. Because that also forms part of his identity, of his reality as a young man brought up in a coastal town in Malaga, in a summer resort for others but home for him where it was normal to spend hours and hours on the beach. “I always have in mind that aesthetic of the less touristy Costa del Sol where I grew up.”

There are no spray paints or policemen in the work he has taken to Seoul with LaCausa Art Gallery. “My painting talks about me, it’s my diary, and obviously my life is not just about painting graffiti. In fact, it’s something minimal that I only do from time to time with my friends. Everyday actions are what you see in the paintings,” he clarifies.

In any case, he has never been a regular graffiti artist. From the outset, he has shied away from the ego, rivalry and testosterone that often surrounds this activity, and this is reflected in paintings in which he depicts the graffiti artist’s relationship with the law with kindness and a sense of humour. The first thing his paintings provoke, in fact, is a smile. Then comes reflection.

He has been doing one project after another for years, but he admits that now he is more selective. “I like to spend more time on the painting, to make them with more details.” And that forces him to turn down offers that he would otherwise have accepted. “I have opted for quality rather than quantity (…) I want to enjoy the works.” And despite this philosophy, his diary is full between now and the end of the year as he will take part in group exhibitions in Beirut and New York, while he prepares his work to take to Singapore in 2025.

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