Behind Pink Walls

Mathias Ruiz, Aka "Behind Pink Walls" is a French Pop Art, Street Art and Urban artist that specialize in Mixed Media and sculptures. 

Born in Caracas "Venezuela" in August 1978 he grew up in West Africa until he was 20 years old. 

From his youngest age, in France, he loved going to flee markets and auctions with his grandfather, to look for old objects and art pieces. In Africa he discovers the "African Art", get attracted and intrigued by local artisans that work with materials like bronze, cast iron, and watch for hours artists painting and sculpting. 

Back in France "Toulouse" and Spain "Barcelona" where he studied International Negotiation he is influenced by the urban environment and grows his interest for the Street Art, Urban Art and starts his first pieces associating different materials and founds from the street.  

By 2006 he leaves Barcelona and arrives in Los Angeles where he works in the Fashion industry but stays connected to the Art world by representing different street artists and collaborating with galleries. 

He keeps his passion for vintage objects by going regularly to Flee markets always hunting for original objects that he will reuse in his deferent artistic projects and creations. 

At 40 he decides to focus on his passion and dedicates his time at creating his own collection to become an artist. 

He associates in his work different styles of expressions, materials like vintage frames, acrylic photography, stencils, spray paints and Neon lighting in order to create special lighting and grab attention to his pieces. 

Strong and powerful colors like "Hot Pink" and "Red" are always present as they are the artist favorite colors and represent his passion for life and adventure. 

The admiration for his grandfather that was a French resistant during WW2 created a constant interest for military objects like bullets, missiles and rockets that he uses in some of his collections as an artistic support. 

Animals are also very present in his artworks, he has a strong bond for feline that he developed by growing up in Africa and dedicated an entire collection to them with an exquisite combination of photography's and neon lighting!