3/5/2023 0 Comments Gentrification of paletro man![]() ![]() Billboards are a ballsy move, the risk is so high,” he said.Įxplaining a piece showing a boisterous orgy over an AHF billboard about STDs he did last year, he added, “I don’t know, I feel like showing dudes fucking on a big billboard and orgy, it forces the alpha graffiti guy to be like, ‘Oh that dude just got up on a billboard and that’s sick. graffiti it’s so derived from tag-banging and stuff like that. “I always hated uber-masculinity… Graffiti has a little bit of that in it. I got made fun of (in school) - like, ‘you fucking faggot!’ It was weird I know who I am, but now it’s like this fucked up thing where it’s like, am I gay? Fuck! What the fuck?”ĭrop all that - along with raw talent and clamorous drive - into the biggest-swinging-dick universe of graffiti and you get something that feels subversive, rather than just rote anti-establishment. “I don’t want to prove that I’m the alpha dog. But now I have more confidence because I can paint.” He’s “comfortable in being straight,” but still rankled by the strictures of machismo. I grew up with three sisters, was insecure as a kid… I was just a fuckin’ fat little kid!” he laughed. That preoccupation is bookended by a fixation on traditional notions of masculinity. While acknowledging it’s “cliché to say as a graffiti person,” he pointed out all of his work in some way deals with authority, with “what happens when you don’t necessarily feel like you can match up to authority, or you can talk to people who are above you. Obviously, the Keyser Söze thing is working in his favor. He was arrested in New York earlier this year, but has yet to see the inside of an L.A. ![]() He doesn’t drink or do drugs, and looks too tender to be the one bombing billboards. In the flesh SICKID is ebullient, childlike but wily, with a Cheshire Cat grin and an untamed cackle. His fine art paintings, meanwhile, employ more psychological depth, narrative, and a detailed illustration style - all on view at his first solo show this Saturday at Superchief Gallery, which includes 40 new works and a “church” built for the occasion. You can spot a SICKID billboard by the lines and palette, the hilarity and controlled chaos. But somewhere along the way, a style emerged that is more than the sum of its early influences. The illustration program at Art Center sharpened his skills (he dropped out last year), and anime remains an obvious influence. SICKID: Enterprise (Courtesy of the artist) I’m still figuring out shit about myself.” “I kinda wanted to get more personal with my stuff. You can do anything on the street, basically,” he tells the Weekly. “The street art boom had already passed before me, but that led me to believe you can do more than just letters. native who grew up amid the visual cacophony of K-Town, SICKID was weaned on Transformers, Robotek, early Cartoon Network and comic books, gravitating more toward the character-driven work of artists like Barry McGee, Neckface and Miss Van than letters. Think feminized, naughty McDonaldland characters painted on an Egg McMuffin billboard.Īn L.A. His riotous, dementedly cute, occasionally pornographic figures often riff on extant marketing campaigns - engaging source material with inspired cartoon humor rather than just tagging over it. ![]() is a notorious quickdraw when it comes to removing graffiti, but billboards and walls along arterial routes like Sunset Boulevard offer maximum exposure for public work like SICKID’s before it inevitably disappears. If you spend much time east of Vermont, you’ve likely seen the work of SICKID - the feverishly prolific, and, until recently, teenage street artist who has been dominating Eastside real estate for the past few years. ![]()
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