The recent survey made by Cresme highlights how Italy is a country full of underpaid architects. Therefore the need arises to rethink the role of this profession so that it is functional to a society with completely new needs. Antonyo Marest is the living example of how an architect can be reinvented in a country, Spain, which in our percentage lives our reality.

Our first meeting took place on the occasion of the Fuorisalone of this year, at the Idispace Design where his show inspired by Tropicalism was staged. His works range from restyling of buildings, skate parks, museums to clothing, photographs, sculptures, furniture and graphics. An all-around artist, a river full of positivity that blends the Memphis Milano style with Miami’s Tropical Art decò. The melting pot of repeated patterns, abstract geometrism, flamingos and palms are also characteristic elements of its extravagant outfits.

His works show us how urban art can perfectly integrate with existing architecture and become an accessible and powerful tool for enriching, enhancing and transforming spaces through color.

Who is Antonyo Marest?

I am first of all a dreamer and then an artist, designer and architect.
I have been living in Madrid since 2013 but I was born in Alicante.

When you started the faculty of architecture, probably your dream was to be an architect when you understood instead that you would become an artist?

I have been painting since I was a child and have always been in the world of street art. Unfortunately, when I finished my studies at the university, the world crisis began, construction was not a market where you could easily find work, so I decided to reinvent myself. But I believe I have never abandoned architecture because I moved from interior design to the study of ephemeral architecture where work is certainly faster and more creative.

So it was almost a natural process

Exactly, as a child, I have always dirty my hands painting and creating. I inherited my love for art from my father, a great unrecognized artist but a great teacher for me.

In addition to your father, what were the key figures of your life who helped/inspired you to take this path in life?

What inspires me are people, travel, contact with the new and the unknown.
The great Ettore Sottsass but also the lodging of the Art Deco architects: Albert Kahn, Joseph Nathaniel, Wirt Rowland and Smith Hinchman & Grylls.

Do you remember your first work of street art?

The first time I took a spray in my hands was 1999, but in 2001 I made my first real mural. To do this, I was inspired by the magazines I found in the graffiti shops I used to frequent at the time.

Where are you now and what are you working on?

Right now I’m in South Korea and I’m doing several murals for some local brands. It is the second time I come here and it will not be the last one. Asia is a continent that has a lot to discover where urban art is currently taking a lot of ground.

Your independent artistic career allows you to travel a lot. Do you have any stories to tell us?

This year is already the twelfth country I do! I really have to thank this life and this job. There are too many stories to tell and I would like to do it in front of a big cup of coffee but I can tell you that in general everything is wonderful, the people who meet the new places you discover, everything!
A curiosity that really happens often is that in almost all the places where I always go I wrong the measures of the walls!

What are your plans for the future?

Now I have to go to Mexico to paint a hotel in Tulum then to Berlin for a shop, a boat in Vigo in Spain, a show in Lisbon and one in NY and several rooftops. Also, I have a very important project in Italy that I would like to reveal but it is still top secret!

A dream project?

I would like to be able to design more furniture and decorative elements and I would like to visit all the places in the world but above all my dream and be able to continue living my dream.

Leave us with your motto:

Live the moment, which is not a generic ‘’carpe diem’’ but a ‘’live the here and now’’ without thinking about tomorrow