NYLON Magazine just did a feature on Miami for their November issue. It highlights young creatives in Miami including Jacuzzi Boys, Alvaro Ilizarbe, FriendsWithYou, Sweat Records, and myself among others. Thanks to Natalie Shukur and Nicole Michalek for this awesome article! Click on images to enlarge:
MIAMI - By Natalie Shukur, Photographed by Nicole Michalek
THE HOME STUDIO of artists Jen Stark and her boyfriend Alvaro Ilizarbe, a.k.a. Freegums, in Little Havana is an explosion of markers, pots of paint, tubes of crazy glue, rafts of colored construction paper, tubs of Play doh, and kitsch souvenirs, (from a toy llama to a bronze bust of Tutankhamun). It’s the creative pied à terre of a pair who are the sartorial embodiment of their work. Stark is the color crusader, today resplendent in a tie-dye top and miniskirt adorned with multicolored ribbons. Her arresting, intricate, rainbow-hued paper sculptures have attracted international attention, making her one of the most promising young artists on the Miami scene. One of her early pieces, “How to become a Millionaire in 100 days,” involved cutting 10,000 scraps of paper a day for 100 days, resulting in a stunning sculptural mound of confetti. On the table in front of us sit half-finished psychedelic felt-tip drawings, which she will show at the SCOPE satellite fair during art Basel in December. Freegums’ graphic drawings are as detailed as Stark’s, but in contrast (like his black skinny jeans and black and white tank top), are devoid of color. T-shirts are his medium of choice, on which he prints satirical slogans, dizzying patterns, and “crazy creatures.” also in his portfolio: large-scale paintings on wood, album artwork for musician Mayer Hawthorne, T-shirts for local band Jacuzzi Boys, and an installation he created for the opening of Bar during last year’s Art Basel where he plastered the walls with his brain-bending prints. “We feed off each other’s energy,” he says of being in a creative couple. “Sometimes we’ll both be sitting here drawing and I’ll be in the zone, and I’ll look up and she’ll be in the zone, too.”
