Artist profile

Akuma

A Valencia graffiti and mural artist whose layered compositions bring manga, anime and contemporary popular culture into dialogue with Japanese symbols.

VSA / Artists / AkumaProfile reviewed 25 September 2026
Pink-haired anime-style character and bold Japanese lettering painted on a wall.VSA / Artist work
Anime-style mural by Akuma — Image published by @jackie_herer on the artist’s official Instagram account; work by Akuma. Source: Official Instagram · @jackie_herer. Web-sized copy converted or compressed for display; no editorial retouching. Source-attributed editorial use from an official public Instagram post; the image is not openly licensed, so written reuse permission should be confirmed for long-term publication. Used for cultural context; the scene may have changed since capture.

How to recognise the work

Japanese visual culture through a graffiti lens

Dynamic figures, manga and anime references, spray detail and traditional Japanese symbols meet inside tightly layered compositions.

  • Manga influence
  • Japanese symbols
  • Acrylic and spray
  • Layered figures

A language formed between references

Akuma describes a visual language that begins in graffiti and muralism, then brings in manga, anime and franchises remembered from childhood. The references are recombined rather than reproduced as isolated quotations.

Precision, gesture and layered paint

Acrylic and spray allow crisp, vector-like passages to sit beside more painterly marks. That contrast between control and spontaneity is central to both the wall work and the studio practice presented in Valencia.

A practice rooted in Valencia

Valencia reporting identifies Akuma as part of the city’s graffiti and urban-art scene for more than a decade. A 2026 joint exhibition with Yeko expanded that public-wall vocabulary into paintings and an immersive mural setting in La Saïdia.

Official links

Sources