Local urban artist El Norteño wins state award

Store to Fix Sad Faces

This past week, on Monday, Dec 12, local Tijuana urban artist Alonso Delgadillo, who paints under the name of El Norteño, was awarded the Premio Estatal de la Juventud de Baja California 2011, giving an official stamp of approval to the life’s work and trajectory of this local artist whose most important work appears in the streets.

Alonso Delgadillo in front of his mural on La Nueva Vision Rehabilitation Center

“The award signals an important recognition of my trajectory, and it will open doors for me, bringing me closer to other institutions who can help make it possible to develop more projects,” says Delgadillo, born in Guadalajara but native to Tijuana since he was a child.

But equally important for Delgadillo and other urban artists, is that this government award is an important moment of recognition of a still widely misunderstood art form: graffiti or urban art.

Virgen painted inside an abandoned house

Delgadillo’s art follows the path of many urban artists today: with a Master’s Degree in Graphic Design, international art experience painting urban art in the streets of Buenos Aires Argentina, and projects that allow him to give back to the communities of Tijuana.

Many still see urban art and tagging in the same light, as negative scars on the urban landscape. Yet urban art has enjoyed wide public support in Tijuana in recent years. EnTijuanarte  has commissioned murals along Avenida Revolución while this past year, community arts group Reacciona Tijuana organized a group of local and international artists to paint murals in Colonia Camino Verde,  while Festival Tijuana Interzona 2011 teamed up with local artist to paint murals in outlying colonias to the east of the city.

El Norteno, on Calle 5ta, Zona Centro Tijuana

And this official government support grants a lot of legitimacy to the form.  “It’s important,” says Delgadillo,  “to know that a representative of urban art has been recognized by the government as a talent of the state.”

The intention of the Instituto de la Juventud de Baja California is to celebrate young people in Mexico, supporting young leaders who are working on solutions to come of Mexico’s most pressing social & economic problems.

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