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Spraygraphic Interview with Artist Obi Kaufmann
By Spraygraphic | December 22, 2008
Spraygraphic Interview with Obi Kaufmann
SG: Please tell us about yourself?
OK: I am a painter. I want to say that I am an illustrator or a graffiti artist, my work includes elements of both, but I can’t call myself really either. I also curate art shows at Zza’s Wine Bar on Grand Ave in Oakland and I publish a zine called Swee(t)Art which is about Oakland Visual Art.
SG: Where do you currently live and work?
OK: North Oakland. My lover and my hater.
SG: What mediums do you work with?
OK: I am loving the spray paint. I was trained in traditional oils and you just can’t beat them for luminosity.
SG: Describe your working process when creating a new work.
OK: Technically, my process involves drawing with pencil directly into oil paint and then dusting it with the spray color. Nontechnically, I spend a lot of time dreaming, for lack of a better word. The nature of my work is very fantastical but I am not a fantasy artist. There is an almost narrative quality to it. I draw nearly indecipherable creatures that operate in impossible physicalities.
SG: What kind of things do you do when you get blocked or find it hard to create something?
OK: After every time I show my work, I feel like I need to reinvent the wheel and do something different. It is like a burning feeling. When I don’t start a new mode of working I feel like a muffin maker or something, churning out the same thing year after year and then the Art would be without meaning…personally.
SG: Where are you currently finding your inspiration?
OK: I am interested in islamic calligraphy and its formal parallels to contemporary Graffiti. I see the same swooping lines and images from non-images. I study math and am drawn to the largely arbitrary modes of information conveyance and human meaning.
SG: Where has your work been seen?
OK: I had my first sold-out show of work at the Cricket Engine Gallery in Oakland two years ago with a show called "Spaceship: Paintings about Math" which kicked off what I call the Spaceship trilogy of Paintings. The second installment was called "Radio Wine: Paintings about Language" and that took place last spring at Issues Magazine Shop in Oakland as well. I had a prequel to the pending third installment at Zza’s Wine Bar down on Lake Merrit called "The Werewolf Simulacrum: Paintings about Transformation." I have shown in the Project Space at Swarm Gallery , Esteban Sabar Gallery and was include in "There! New Art from Oakland" at the Di Rosa Perserve last August.
SG: What are reading right now?
OK: I recently got a big copy of the Cremaster Cycle by Matthew Barney. His work fills me with that dreaming spirit I was talking about before.
SG: Ever do a self portrait? Where is it now?
OK: All my works are selfportraits somehow, right? I don’t like to render things realistically, it’s boring to me.
SG: Where is your favorite place to hang out?
OK: Zza’s downtown where I curate arts hows has become like an office to me. Art and wine, ya know? good reasons for living.
SG: Any final words of advice?
OK: For other artists? No, but if I did I would say something like "never give up," but if you do you probably weren’t an artist to begin with and that’s okay too.
Topics: Artist Interviews, San Francisco Art Scene |
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July 2nd, 2009 at 2:40 am
[...] Giant • Mahtab Habibian • Damien Hirst • Faye Jaime • Ian Johnson • Bryce Kanights • Obi Kaufman • Mike Kershnar • Billy Kroft • Tom Ledin • Amanda Lynn • Holly Lyons • Chris Main • [...]