Mr WANY: Expression starts on the street

Riccardo Aimerito
May 5
4 min read

Mr. WANY, born Andrea Sergio in 1978 in Brindisi, Italy, is one of the most iconic figures in European street art. Since the early 1990s, he began in the world of writing, and expanded his artistic language to include illustration, tattooing, graphic design, and installation. His work blends the flowing lines of traditional calligraphy with the spirit of urban culture, creating a unique and personal style rooted in both energy and depth.

A pioneer of graffiti art in Italy, WANY has held over 10 solo exhibitions and participated in more than 300 group shows and festivals worldwide. His works appear on the walls of cities across Europe, the U.S., Australia, and Asia, bridging different cultures and artistic forms.

In 2006, he founded Amazing Day, a street culture festival that has become one of the most influential in Europe, gathering artists and communities year after year.

For WANY, art isn’t about sticking to one form—it’s about freedom. The street is his studio, and his canvas can be anything: walls, subway trains, bodies in motion, or even memories. His work moves like language—shifting, expanding, always finding new ways to connect.

One of his most interesting projects, Semiotic of B-boying, took his exploration of movement to a new level. A former B-boy himself, WANY collaborated with Red Bull at the BC One Camp in 2016, turning dancers' movements into visual traces. Their gestures left bold marks on canvas—like calligraphy in motion.

“Calligraphy is the closest thing to the soul,” he says, capturing how dance and painting can both express emotion and rhythm through line and flow.

In 2018, he launched Ephemeral Beauty, a deeply symbolic series inspired by a true story: In the late ’80s, New York City dumped retired subway cars—many covered in graffiti—into the ocean to form artificial reefs. The operation, called “Silent Whales,” saw these cars plunge into the sea with huge splashes, like whales diving deep.

To WANY, those trains were temporary urban creatures—once ignored like caterpillars, transformed into butterflies through graffiti and street art, only to vanish into the depths.

“The butterfly eventually disappears,” he says, “but the moment it flies—it’s free.” His work honors the beauty and fragility of urban art, and the underground culture it came from.

Amazing Day

Amazing Day is the urban culture festival founded by Mr. WANY in 2006. Born as a spontaneous gathering among friends, it is now one of the most representative street art events in Europe. Every year, artists, musicians, and enthusiasts come together to create in urban spaces—through murals, music performances, breakdance battles, workshops, and many other collaborative formats.From the beginning, WANY insisted it be a free festival, promoting authentic cultural sharing and intergenerational exchange.

Interview with Mr. WANY

1. Why did you want to start Amazing Day? What do you think is the most meaningful part of it?

Amazing Day started as a birthday celebration between me and a close friend.

“We just found a place to paint, played some music, and invited friends over.”To their surprise, that simplicity drew more and more like-minded people, and over time, it naturally evolved into an annual event.

What WANY finds most special is the way the festival brings together people of different generations and backgrounds:“Some people come to paint, others just to watch—but everyone finds a sense of belonging.”

2. What is the difference between creating something on your own and organizing a workshop or event?

“My creative process has always been free and instinctive. Most of the time I don’t even sketch—I just pick up a spray can and start.”

For him, street art is pure, direct expression.

But over the years, Amazing Day also became a platform for passing on culture.

“We’ve put a lot of focus on younger generations. We do a lot of workshops, especially for kids—not to teach them how to draw, but to help them express what they feel.”

He believes the future of urban art lies in active public participation:

“Getting people involved with their hands matters more than just having them watch from the sidelines.”

3. How do you see the relationship between street art and urban ecology?

“A city isn’t just buildings—it needs emotion and imagination. Urban art humanizes it.”

He recalls how some forgotten corners of the city were brought back to life thanks to Amazing Day: “Just a touch of color, and the place changes. People start noticing it again.”

4. Have these experiences changed the way you to approach street art?

“I used to think only about personal expression. Now, I think more about connection—with people and with society.”

He wants urban art to be a way of relating as well.

He collaborates with the spray paint brand Loop to develop eco-friendly water-based paints: “Graffiti wasn’t very eco-friendly in the past, but now we want to improve that. If we bring color into the world, we also have to take care of it.”

5. You’ve announced a highly anticipated book. Can you tell us more about this project?

"Mr. Wany – The Book – Since 1990" is a journey through my artistic output, from the very beginning to today.

It spans over thirty years of drawings, sketches, artworks, projects, travels, tattoos, comics, exhibitions, collaborations, and self-published material — all collected in three volumes of around 200 pages each, housed in a collector’s box set.

The first 100 copies will be a Collector’s Edition, numbered and featuring special details. From copy number 101 onward, the Limited Edition will be available, with only 600 copies produced in total.

The book will be bilingual (Italian-English) and released in 2025.

I wanted it to be a carefully crafted publication, with a hardcover, high-quality paper, and a generous format (24 × 30 cm) to give each image the space it deserves.

It’s more than just an archive — it’s a love letter to everything I’ve created so far.

It’s the honest story of my artistic journey: from the early illegal works to private commissions, ongoing stylistic research, comics, tattoos, advertising graphics, and design. A path that travels from style writing to street art and ultimately lands in the new muralism.

It’s a part of me, put onto paper — something I hope will outlive me and become my legacy.