David Anasagasti, better known as Ahol Sniffs Glue, is a Cuban American artist from Hialeah, Florida. His raw yet instantly recognizable street murals evaporate the divide between high and low art. He often draws inspiration from the urban environment and systems of society which dehumanize its inhabitants. Ahol’s deceptively simple, yet complex renderings both portray the veneer of our everyday surroundings and the dull, job-related conflicts often encountered in a dysfunctional workplace. He is best known for his signature drowsy eyes, reflecting his unique vision of life, labor, and unrequited love of the mean streets of Miami.
While the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic created panic and uncertainty the world over, Ahol took the time that quarantine provided to both change himself and democratize access to his artwork. In collaboration with the bike company Rapha, he began biking around the city he calls home, and as a result changed his health for the better. Combining his newfound love of biking with his old love of painting, he began tagging trash he would find on his bike routes. He would then upload the photos as "free art" for his large social media following to find. This project continues to this day, and has grown to include NFT's minted by the artist for those lucky enough to have found his art, a vibrant community of 900+ people interested in the project on the platform Discord, and ongoing collaborations with Florida International University.
This project is the primary focus of David Anasagasti's current residency as an entreprenuer/artist at the FIU Ratcliffe Art + Design Incubator. In collaboration with the Wolfsonian Public Humanities Lab-FIU, all media associated with this project has been preserved here in the FIU Institutional Repository.