Graffiti Artist XEVA Shares What Part He Focused On The Most While Creating BTS’s Graffiti Portraits

BTS, who recently celebrated their 10th debut anniversary, shared joy with fans worldwide by covering the whole city of Seoul purple. They also revealed a portrait graffiti of the members at the HYBE building to celebrate. Media outlet Xportsnews met with graffiti artist XEVA to discuss the process behind creating the artwork.

First-generation graffiti artist XEVA is an artist who boasts an unrivaled presence by collaborating with famous domestic and international brand campaigns and advertisements. Many were excited to see XEVA, who uses vibrant colors to create fresh and new art, create the BTS members in his own style.

When asked how it felt to work with BTS for their 10th anniversary, he stated, “It was a great honor. Through this portrait graffiti of BTS, a group representing the era, I feel proud to be able to do something worthy at this point in time.”

Looking back on his work, which took nine days, XEVA commented, “It was not a leisurely schedule. It was almost a bit burdensome to complete one member almost daily. However, fans who visited the site gave snacks and cheered for me, so I did not get tired and enjoyed the work and could finish it.”

It was also not easy for him as he had to bring the entirety of BTS while still bringing out each member’s different personalities and styles.

The part I am the most careful about in portrait graffiti work is the artist’s impression. The impression is more important than other abstract patterns or decorations, so I focused on each member’s impression and invested a lot of time. In addition, I also paid a lot of attention to achieving a balance between each of the members.

When asked what was the main focus of this work, he stated, “Each member has a certain color that they wore for the filming of the 10th anniversary. We made the most of this color and arranged the members for the overall balance of the work.”

He added, “Because they are a musician above all else, I valued the ‘flow’ of the work and thought about how to make the seven members look like a single work (symbol) by applying purple all throughout.”