Let’s set the scene: brick walls crumbing, tossed cigarettes burning and broken fire hydrants spraying. Facing a building that resembles a slum appears one narrow metallic door on a large red building with the fading number 144. No windows and no light, but a lively figure appears. Federico Massa, aka Cruz welcomes us into his studio. Wearing a black polo and dark blue jeans, the 31-year-old Milano looks ten years younger.

Federico moved to New York less than a decade ago, where he “discovered the mexican culture, food and music,” he says as some traditional Mexican music emanates from his laptop.

New York is his muse. “Mother Fucker Rose“ (the above picture) was created for an exhibition. “We are in New York so it is full of rats,” he says. “If you look at it his skulls — it looks fun and the roses gives the piece a different light – its so red, it looks like the rat is going to give you something nice but in the end it’s not – it’s poisonous.” This sums up a lot about Federiccos’ work: he pays  meticulous attention to details and symbolism.

In collaboration with  Fabio “Berse” Roncato

Cruz’s logo is a small iena. Animals are an important component of his pieces. He explains, “the iena is a self portrait, my logo, I started eight years ago and I was really focused on these. I did t-shirts and more, I used it like my logo, my symbol, my character. People who know me see part of me in the iena.” After spending a few hours with the artist, you can see it too. He is a very calm man, but extremely passionate and enthusiastic. In his eyes emanates a touch of crazy, of fun. One of his favorite artists is Greg “Craola” Simkins.

His influence is striking in Federicos’ work. Simkins plays with the similar theme of animals, he depicts them as robotic shifting creatures in a fantasy world.

Cruz is known for enjoying experiments with different media. He has sculptures, rat skulls, printed posters, photographs and even large scale plexi-glass lamps in his studio. “I love to switch to a different kind of support. It’s more fun!” he says jubilantly. This is what his art is about: having fun, something he did not always have in Milan.

Federiccos’ experience with the art world in Milan seem disappointing. “The people did not know anything about street art. You would have to work for an art curator and they did not know anything about street art either,” he says moving his hands in the air. “It was only for the business cause at the time street art was in style. But the response I received did not satisfy me as an artist. That was why I left for New York. Once I got here, I did not know anybody, I had to start all over again. You have to be driven, you need to know what you want to do.”

The artist always knows where he’s going, all of his pieces collide together as one unified theme appears. “I have a kind of aggressive thematic, many angry monsters but it really depends on how I feel when I do something. I do crazy, I do angry.”

Currently, Cruz plays a lot with tentacles. It started while he was doing one of his signature portraits. “I love to switch supports and I love to do collaboration”  Stefano Ortega, a photographer, and him have been working together on creating breath taking pieces where Cruz plays around with animals.  “I love the shape of octopus and how I can work with it – it can be so freeing and at the same time very restrictive.” He even refers to it as his “octopus mood.”

Cruz uses many crosses in his pieces not for religious innuendos though. “The crosses in [my work]  are related to my name so I like to add crosses. I am not really into religion, I don’t like blasphemy either. I respect religion. The cruz in my portraits are a good connection between the Mexican culture, the Italian one and my name.” It all ties in together.

Their is a lot more to expect from Federico Massa. His talent and ability to surprise his viewer is never ending. So lets wait and see what is coming up next.

The post Exclusive Interview with Federico Massa, the Man Behind Cruz appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.