Spanish-born Gonzalo Borondo (1989) began tagging city walls as a teenager. He later refined his skills studying fine arts in Madrid and Rome. Since 2007, Borondo has been a distinctive figure in contemporary street art. He explores memory and place by creating works that seem to emerge from surfaces. His experiments include glass, ceramic, straw, and wood. All are connected to the history of the site. This unique approach defines much of Borondo’s contemporary street art practice.
Borondo treats painting like archaeology. He layers, scrubs, scratches, and washes out images. This reveals haunting, fragmented figures that feel wounded yet beautiful. His painted glass panels are a signature of Borondo contemporary street art. Light plays a role in revealing and erasing the image as viewers move around.
Many of Borondo’s site-specific projects are emotionally charged. In one protest, when a mural was removed from a wall in Turin and placed in a paid exhibition without his consent, Borondo had it painted over. This act affirmed his belief that context is inseparable from contemporary street art and its meaning.
His installations have appeared worldwide. From Berlin’s Urban Nation Museum to a chapel in Selci, Italy. In 2018, he won the Arte Laguna Prize for Cenere (2017). The work blended land art and urban art. It expanded the reach of his contemporary street art beyond traditional walls.
Borondo’s work suggests that what remains after erasure can be just as powerful as what was first created. In the quiet space left behind, memory still breathes. His contribution to contemporary street art continues to open new ways to understand urban space and human fragility.
