zosen + mina

Even in the liberally graffitied streets of Barcelona, it’s hard to miss a Zosen y Mina mural. The bright colours and bold shapes, strident against the stone, like an overactive children’s storybook unleashed from the page. It’s only when you look closer that you detect the presence of two distinct styles, gently nestled one against the other. The first filled with curious characters and geometric shapes, the second all luminous pastels and wavy abstractions, like a softer Kandinsky. Together, the message is clear: Zosen Bandido and Mina Hamada may collaborate, but they do so as individual artists who have discovered in each other the missing piece to their own practice.

In some ways, the two could not be more different. Mina was born in America but grew up in