Soika the Vomiter, also known as Soika John McVomter, is a Filipino who is based in Cebu. While Cebu might seem like a tropical paradise to outsiders, there are many locals who know only too well that beneath the touristy veneer lie a lot of slum areas. And in these slum areas… Art. Street art is big in Cebu, especially in the slum areas. And it’s art that really speaks. It expresses the personalities and the opinions of the local people, people like Soika.
From a young age, Soika has been getting kicks out of making people uncomfortable. He is a self-confessed bully and a vandal with a compulsion to draw dicks on any surface that he can. His street art style is unusual and totally unique to him; celebrating anti-beauty and awkwardness over creating art that has an aesthetic appeal. Soika’s art is anarchistic and anti-social and somehow very loveable. His combination of semi-realistic portraits and stylised, childish drawings is intriguing because it’s simply his style. He didn’t learn to do that in an art school and he isn’t exposed to and influenced by successful artists the way that an artist in London or New York would be.
Soika’s style is his own, and as he says in this video, he has no intentions of changing it to please anyone. And while he is already exhibiting his art in local galleries, it seems unlikely that he will become a sell-out to mainstream art styles. He’s the real deal.
You can follow Soika on Facebook, where has posted some delightfully crude sketches and other art works. See if you can find Superman’s penis…
