The Richmond Mural Project 2015 has begun and we’re here to help you learn more about the artist who will be adding to R
The Richmond Mural Project 2015 has begun and we’re here to help you learn more about the artist who will be adding to RVA’s already world-class collection of murals. Below is a profile of one of the RMP 2015 artists. Keep an eye out for the rest in the coming weeks, and make sure you come out for the RMP 2015 opening party July 18th 4-8pm at Sabai – 2727 West Broad st.
See a mural you like? put it on Instagram and tag us in it – then use the hashtag #RMP2015 and the person with the most murals tagged at the end of the festival will win an original piece of art by RMP Artists.
Today’s Muralist: Jerkface
Location: 807 1/2 w Clay St.
Jerkface’s murals are highly recognizable because they depict your favorite childhood characters.
Spongebob, Homer Simpson, Batman and Charlie Brown are all captured in his work.
As a Queens native, he’s known in New York as someone who keeps art local in an increasingly competitive scene. His art is described as whimsical and nostalgia-inducing.
His pop culture-centered work is always fun to look at because it never takes itself too seriously.
The pieces are amusing and bring up playful memories of Saturday cartoons and afternoons laughing at Cartoon Network. Each piece is rendered with precise blocks of colors created with spray paint.
In an interview with Animal New York, Jerkface explains the draw of painting cartoons as murals.
“It’s really a personal journey back into my favorite childhood characters,” he said. “The fun of recreating them and helping others relive their own childhood, it doesn’t get any better.”
When asked to explore the difference between graffiti and and street art, he said “graffiti is unsanctioned, not accepted by the masses and not meant to be. Street art is the opposite. Street art gets a lot of love, graff don’t, not by the masses anyway.”
There can also be some fluidity between the two spheres. He said he doesn’t think he fits exactly into either category, but he supports the community.
“Even if I didn’t like graff, if someone from New York was slaying the scene, I’d be proud of them,” he said. “I was doing shitty burners in the 90s when I was 15. I did my first legal wall [November 2013].”
“I don’t think I’m either, I came up in the scene on canvas,” he said. “I’m just a creative kid from New York hustling his ass right out the frying pan.”
He does express one significant difference between the realms of street art and graffiti.
“When you’re doing sanctioned street art, the worst part is just that it’s hard to make a living just doing murals,” he said. “On the other hand, the worst part about graffiti is catching a bullshit arrest.
Jerkface’s work is also a game of color and expression.
“The proper distribution of color can generate various emotions from the viewer,” he said in an interview with Bottleneck Gallery.
“When using iconic characters in my work, I try to minimize their facial expressions so that the more obvious mood generated from the face does not override the subtle mood created by the color play.”
He was classically trained on canvas, but entered the New York street art scene in 2012.
“I’ve always been an artist, since I was young,” said Jerkface. “I didn’t do very well in high school and art was my way into college. From there I had a teacher who got me interested in cubism. I also got into graphic design and down the road the two became one.”
His work can also contain a hint of irony, like the mural of Richie Rich he did outside the luxury brand, Rag & Bone. The mural, depicting capitalistic greed, graces the exterior of a store whose brand sells $300 silk tank tops.
Image: Bowery Boogie
His work will bring more excitement to the Richmond art scene, don’t forget to check him and other artists out as they put up their murals all this week.
