Dallas

Dallas Artist Merging Old School Art With New School Technology

Dallas artist Manuel Herrera, aka Allo, has been an artist since he can remember. 

"I was a graffiti artist back in the day. Well, I’m supposed to say that I was a muralist. I was a muralist," Allo said.

He turned that love for street art into a legal profession.

"[I] wanted to pay homage to the masters who have come before us. [I] am bringing art history to the 21st century on a new age platform," Allo said.

He does it with a mobile app that he helped develop. 

"Just think of it as a really fancy snapchat filter," he said. "What it does is it recognizes all these shapes and the particular arrangement, and it’s got to be so precise. What it does is it says, 'oh, I recognize that photo and I am going to swap it to the original.'"

His art is just as his name is.

"Allo. If you look up the definition it means to be different from the beginning. So I just thought from the beginning I’m going to be different. Doesn’t matter what it is or what I do," Allo said.

His idea behind using such recognizable pieces is to bridge the gap between old and new generations.

"Growing up, I didn't have a lot of access to museums and galleries and I wanted to make the art more accessible, and at the same time I wanted to pay homage to our masters and make sure that they were given respect," he said.

He recently finished his first mural in the Victory Park district of downtown Dallas. 

While he has had great success with his art, he said he often gets asked the question, "Isn’t this just a copy of something that already exist?"

"What I tell people is, I’m not responsible for the compositions. I’m not responsible for any of the line work. I’m not even responsible for any of the color I put in my own work. I'm just pulling it from the masters and showing off why they were so brilliant... but in this new way that integrates technology into it," said Allo.

For a closer look at Allo's latest works, you can visit FGIII Fine Arts Productions office at 2101 W. Clarendon Dr. Suite 200 Dallas, Texas, 75208.

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