Arker Kyaw remembers the night of November 3, 2012, when he and his friends ventured out at 3am to adorn a Yangon street with a portrait of a grinning Barack Obama. He remembers skittering around in the dark, trying to avoid the police, who had not yet achieved the level of enlightenment that would allow them to see art as a public good.
He remembers that night well because it inspired him to pull street art out of the shadows, and now he’s changing the game for young artists around the country.
Arker Kyaw, 24, is at the helm of a collective of street artists called Right Team, which recently opened No. 2 Art Area – a sprawling compound where young street artists can view, display, create and practice their crafts. Arker Kyaw spent hours creating some of the giant, elaborate murals that now surround the compound, but he insists that the purpose of the venue is to encourage new talent to take over.
“We wanted to make something different – a legal area for street art,” he told Coconuts Yangon.
Arker Kyaw once got busted for painting a portrait of former Myanmar president Thein Sein in public. The cops gave him a choice – a month in jail or a K200,000 fine. He opted for the fine.
But he points out that not all street artists can afford to buy their freedom.
“Life is difficult for an artist. Many of us live poor,” he said.
Therefore, Yangon’s new sanctuary for street art offers more than just safety from the law. It is helping to change public perceptions of street art so that old enemies become fans, friends and maybe even consumers.
“We can’t tell yet what the impact will be, but we hope No. 2 Art Area will help people see street art as beautiful and valuable,” he said.
One of the young artists who has joined the crusade is Kyal Cin Thit – a 14-year-old street artist who insists that art must change with the times.
Kyal Cin Thit’s talents came to light after she was chosen last November to help create a mural at Yangon’s Indonesian International School, which she attends as a student.
While photos of the mural spread on social media, she was chosen to display seven paintings at the Myanmar Ladies’ Art Exhibition at Yangon Gallery last December. The experience taught her the importance of finding the right community within the Yangon art scene.
“All of the ladies at the exhibition did realism – flowers and faces. I was the only modern artist there,” the young artist told Coconuts Yangon.
She said she felt that the other artists at the exhibition did not consider her paintings to be ‘real’ art.
“I can draw human faces, but I don’t like to. The world is modernized, so art should be, too,” she said.
Kyal Cin Thit’s painting style is bold and original. It incorporates graffiti and emoji-esque cuteness. And luckily, Arker Kyaw was one of the people who saw her art on Facebook and sought to incorporate her into his crew.
Two of Kyal Cin Thit’s paintings are now on display at No. 2 Art Area.
Kyal Cin Thit says she hopes to use her the platform to send a message to young artists: “Try everything. Never give up.”
Now that No. 2 Art Area is here, a new generation of young artists can confidently heed that call.
No. 2 Art Area is located here, off Sayar San Road on Union (Pyidaungsu) Road. Check out their Facebook page here.
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