You might not know the name Hasan Kamil, but if you live in Swansea it is likely you'll have seen his artwork. Hasan's style is bold and colourful and it is all over Swansea, on the front of pubs like the Dark Horse in Mumbles and on hoardings across the city.
Born and bred in the city, 31 year-old artist and designer Hasan spends half his time in Bristol and rest in his hometown working on new pieces. "Everyone who's creative in Swansea seems to leave to live somewhere else, including me", Hasan said, "But I think if everyone stayed in Swansea then it would have an even richer scene."
Hasan explained he was part of a larger artist community across South Wales who worked together on a range of projects and said that companies like Fresh Creative Co. were doing exciting work in the local area. Most recently, Hasan painted the former 'gentleman's club' Studio 95 which will soon become a hostel. The artist has also worked with Oner Signs to paint temporary signage outside what will be the new community hub in the city centre 'Swansea Hwb'. You can get more Swansea news and other story updates straight to your inbox by subscribing to our newsletters here.
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Many of Hasan's pieces are an ode to Swansea's unique history and the captions beneath his social media posts are like pages out of a history book (except ones more young people might actually read). As a teenager, Hasan honed his artistic skills in Swansea's underground graffiti scene and became inspired by those who came before him.
He explained: "When I first got into graffiti, the main place to paint was the Hall of Fame (HOF) which is the old abandoned copper works before they were gated up. It was like a gallery of all the amazing graffiti writers in Swansea that came before. It was mind-blowing and it was in such a historic building. I used to feel some sort of weird ownership over the copper works because we were the only ones still using it." You can read more stories about Swansea here.
Hasan said he enjoyed painting portraits of Swansea icons like Glynn Vivian and Dylan Thomas but also highlighted the city's industrial past in pieces like 'The Pit- Portrait of a Miner' which can be found on a hoarding in the city centre. Taking inspiration from his hometown's complicated identity, Hasan said: "It's the opposites that inspire me, the gritty, industrial, and quite rough parts found around the city centre, as opposed to the areas of outstanding natural beauty found down the Gower."
He has painted across the UK on many exciting projects, but some of Hasan's favourite jobs have been the ones closer to home. Last year, Dylan Thomas Community School commissioned him to paint the walls of their English and Languages corridors and a Tycoch resident asked him to paint the front of his house. On why these pieces are important to him, Hasan said: "It's usually down to meeting interesting, lovely characters and it's satisfying to inspire people to get into any form of art or anything creative."
Inspiring others and making art more accessible is what Hasan seems to be most passionate about.
Despite being pleased that there was now an appetite to pay artists to do more work in the city, he said young people should be able to do it for fun on a weekend in designated painting areas. He explained that for ten years he did not get paid to paint and simply painted because he loved having ownership of his own work. This is something he feels more young people should experience and he is calling for more designated painting spaces in Swansea as there is currently only one legal wall near Singleton Park.
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