Mr.Wany

Andrea Sergio was born in Brindisi, Italy, in 1978. By the age of only 12 years he was already known as Wany and his reputation had already started to grow. “I was twelve years old and started writing ‘wan yell’, a name that meant to literally ‘scream yourself pale’. I thought it was like the name of an American Indian tribe member. I derived my current name from the nickname I had in my district because of my pale – or ‘wan’ – white skin colour, and this is what I wanted to shout from the walls of my city!”
 
Only 4 years later Mr Wany had graduated from Liceo Artistic Brindisi and won his first regional contest. He then went on to graduate from the ‘International School of Comics’ and became an independent illustrator for the Japanese market as well as doing some work with Dynit, one of the most important publishers of Japanese cartoons and comics. During these years Mr Wany’s reputation grew and he was invited to paint at meetings throughout Europe and the US. He also won a major national writing contest and started to get commissions from huge multinational companies such as Nike, Adidas, Coca Cola, D&G, Volkswagen and MTV, to mention just a few. Despite such success Mr Wany only started to paint canvases and produce instillations in 2000, some ten years after he began painting walls and trains. Then, in 2007, he received great acclaim for his show in the ‘Street Art Sweet Art’ exhibition in Milan which was seen by sixty thousand visitors and resulted in a multitude of proposals from galleries and art dealers.

Mr Wany has been influenced by numerous people throughout his career and has particular admiration for the Los Angles scene as well as anything good and original, including the destructive style of artists such as Aroe, Askew, Dems, Smash, etc. He paints almost exclusively in a freestyle manner and is best known for his powerful characters or ‘puppets’, as well as his punk-style letters. “I started to discover my own style back in 1994; this was when I painted my first train. The lines of my pieces became more rounded and letters were dictated more by adrenalin and motion. But, they are continually evolving and the results are the fruits of experimentation between forms and colour.”  

Mr Wany also has names for his most regular characters such as Pink Rabbit, Baby Fridge, Dark Kreck, and 3 eyes. “My characters do not represent the common everyday reality, but instead represent a surreal vision that I create though decoding symbols and experiences… The puppets are actually like actors who recite the thoughts that I want to express, although they are often much simpler to understand!”

It is clear that Mr Wany is a man of many talents and with an insatiable drive for learning and progress; he is even planning to set up his own gallery called AleAndrew Shop Gallery bringing together the many exponents of street culture including books, publishing project, events and limited edition gadgets. “My philosophy is to have a mix of styles with the bomber mentality! The same old Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. I think it should be a complete vision spanning 360 degrees, including all that is in this current mix of the artistic and the vandalistic.”

Click on the images below to view previous/current works.  To see art available to buy click here . 

Walls