Taking a distinctive and personal pleasure in the process behind every t-shirt graphic he puts out, Erik Brunetti presents societal and personally relevant subjects as varied as ornithology, weaponry of the Sioux Indians and Polo through a particular and focused set of eyes. His path, which took him to Los Angeles, was similar to that of many others: without money but very well dressed.
Brunetti spent a decade of fervent creativity in Los Angeles that made him a “celeberrimus pictor”, as Frank Buccieri called him in 1997. His field of action suddenly expanded; he roamed it without contradicting himself, specifying the terms of his thought and making these terms
increasingly convincing as he gradually achieved the ability to
integrate his cultural contribution into a historic context by
inventing an entirelynew structural function for the two-dimensional simian form.
The “ape” is a key figure in the history of street wear. It is Brunetti’s real “explosion”; an intellectual work that would set forth a new symbol for an entire generation.
As wild and furious as Brunetti’s life is, between brawls, gun shots & “escapes”, there is a succession of ambitious works that were scrupulously executed, in pursuit of the idea of art as an affirmation of the truth of things, as consciousness of life and death. When asked about the academic rules of design, Brunetti simply replied: “Useless.”