He's considered a contemporary art world master—working across genres from graffiti to tattoo art to illustration—but was born both color blind and nearsighted. Mike Giant spent the first eight years of his life in a little town where everyone knew everyone on Lake Erie. Then there was a long stop in Albuquerque, New Mexico—a childhood that involved BMX, heavy metal and punk—but come 1993, Giant landed in San Francisco, where he had graphics gig with Think Skateboards and started throwing up graffiti with his own crew.

The larger than life moniker is the result of a minor spill as a teenager; his real last name is Lesage. "I had been writing for a month or two and I was hunting for a name that would stick," he has said. "I was skateboarding with some friends one afternoon in '89, and I fell really hard, shaking the ground. One of my friends said, 'Damn, you went down like a giant!' Something clicked in my mind at that moment, and it's been my alias since." An alias that while "not a great letter combination," he admits, has been tagged all over the streets of the Bay Area.

"It's the base expression of our art form," Giant has explained when asked about this building block of graffiti culture. "If you can tag with some style, all the other higher forms of writing are easier to learn. To me, tagging is just as important as pieces, throw-ups, and blockbusters. They all work together to build a complete writer."

And a complete writer he is. Beginning in 2001 Giant started showing his work—which nods at Mexican folk art and Japanese illustration—in galleries around the world, including a buzzed-about collaboration with Shepard Fairey called "Giant vs Giant." He relocated to France, and then moved back to New Mexico where he ran his own tattoo shop until recently. Up next, he's back in SF for a solo show at White Walls that opens on October 11th; judging from the writing on the wall, this is one that you won't want to miss!

White Walls is located at 835 Larkin Street; Giant is scheduled to attend.

- Caroline Stanley

Similar Topics:gallery, san francisco, Street Art

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