What do Hermès Birkin bags, Khloé Kardashian and Miley Cyrus have in common? Alec Monopoly
Graffiti artist ‘Alec Monopoly’, known for painting on New York and Los Angeles billboards – even Miley Cyrus’ leg – turns his gaze on iconic transport
This week, he was in Hong Kong, where he painted one of the city’s oldest and most beloved modes of transport – the tram.
A post shared by Alec Monopoly (@alecmonopoly) on May 15, 2015 at 2:59pm PDT
We met Monopoly – “Art Provocateur” of the Swiss watch brand TAG Heuer since last December – on a scorchingly hot day just after he had tagged a bright pink tram at the Whitty Street tram depot.
A post shared by Style_SCMP (@style_scmp) on Sep 12, 2017 at 12:54am PDT
He had decorated the tram on all sides with his preferred motifs. While the artist enjoys referencing pop culture, it was his use of Rich Uncle Pennybags during the 2008 financial crisis that propelled him to fame – capturing the imagination of the public, and attracting the eye of some of the world’s most famous names.
“In 2008 I was playing the game Monopoly and saw on the news Bernie Madoff being arrested, and then a light bulb kind of hit my head: this would be an interesting painting,” he says.
“I started doing a painting on a small canvas, [but] I never finished this painting. I actually went out into the streets and started tagging it, and that’s when I became known – people just seeing it and identifying with it.”
