The work of artist MALCOLM STUART might seem familiar to you, especially if you’ve ever come across a Mexican ice cream truck in Los Angeles. Picture airbrushed cartoons––maybe slices of pizza or demented Mickey Mouses––with exaggerated expressions, like nineties Nickelodeon characters with Quaalude habits. Drawing on the weirdness of mall-kiosk customization, Malcolm recently joined forces with longtime friend GERLAN JEANS to create the amazing airbrushed graphics featured on her Spring/Summer 2014 collection.
On an recent unusually stormy Friday afternoon in LA, I met Malcolm in his studio. As an airbrushed seal on a hanging canvas gave me his “seal of approval” (with a thumbs up, of course!) we talked about pop art, the influence of Nirvana, and the symbolism of airbrush.
Shop Gerlan Jeans HERE
Nathaniel Santos: So the first time I met you and your wife BEC STUPAK was when I ended up showering at your house after working on a mutual friend's photoshoot, for which I was painted blue. And when I left it looked as if a Smurf had exploded all over your bathroom! Sorry about that. How's your shower looking these days?
Malcolm Stuart: I moved into the apartment next door. There maybe some blue left, but that's a mystery for the new tenants. LOL.
Here's something I’ve always wondered upon first meeting you and your wife, Bec. It seems as though you guys have been living this colorful, fun lifestyle long before it became a major fashion trend. How do you feel about your own personal style going mainstream?
Malcolm Stuart: It’s great, actually. I mean, I can’t pretend that I’m not excited that the mainstream is actually embracing things that I’ve already been interested in. I guess you could say I’m a populist artist. I’m someone for the people. I’m an artist that wants to be understood. It’s exciting to tread the line of being understandable and normal and on the other hand, being totally out there and weird. What’s really exciting is that the culture now is open-minded enough that it is ready to accept ideas and imagery that are nuanced and subtle and meta in a way that I think hasn’t been happening in the past. So there’s an opportunity for an artist or a designer to play with that.
It’s like a Warholian mentality for the present.
Right, and we can thank Andy for setting a baseline for artist and populist combinations and collaborations. The idea that you can make something interesting out of the most mundane or regular stuff. My day-to-day life is filled with these observations of things that are normal. I love advertising, especially when it’s cartoon-based, like cereal boxes. It’s really inspiring to me because, like, wow, this stuff is crazy looking and it’s been normalized, but there’s this psycho bunny on a box and you’re supposed to eat what’s inside of it!
Has your aesthetic always been this way?
No! I went to the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan. I got a BFA in art, but my training was in rendering, basically as a draftsman. I struggled a lot with what I was doing and why I was doing it. What I knew the most was that I could make things really pretty and I co
On an recent unusually stormy Friday afternoon in LA, I met Malcolm in his studio. As an airbrushed seal on a hanging canvas gave me his “seal of approval” (with a thumbs up, of course!) we talked about pop art, the influence of Nirvana, and the symbolism of airbrush.
Shop Gerlan Jeans HERE
Nathaniel Santos: So the first time I met you and your wife BEC STUPAK was when I ended up showering at your house after working on a mutual friend's photoshoot, for which I was painted blue. And when I left it looked as if a Smurf had exploded all over your bathroom! Sorry about that. How's your shower looking these days?
Malcolm Stuart: I moved into the apartment next door. There maybe some blue left, but that's a mystery for the new tenants. LOL.
Here's something I’ve always wondered upon first meeting you and your wife, Bec. It seems as though you guys have been living this colorful, fun lifestyle long before it became a major fashion trend. How do you feel about your own personal style going mainstream?
Malcolm Stuart: It’s great, actually. I mean, I can’t pretend that I’m not excited that the mainstream is actually embracing things that I’ve already been interested in. I guess you could say I’m a populist artist. I’m someone for the people. I’m an artist that wants to be understood. It’s exciting to tread the line of being understandable and normal and on the other hand, being totally out there and weird. What’s really exciting is that the culture now is open-minded enough that it is ready to accept ideas and imagery that are nuanced and subtle and meta in a way that I think hasn’t been happening in the past. So there’s an opportunity for an artist or a designer to play with that.
It’s like a Warholian mentality for the present.
Right, and we can thank Andy for setting a baseline for artist and populist combinations and collaborations. The idea that you can make something interesting out of the most mundane or regular stuff. My day-to-day life is filled with these observations of things that are normal. I love advertising, especially when it’s cartoon-based, like cereal boxes. It’s really inspiring to me because, like, wow, this stuff is crazy looking and it’s been normalized, but there’s this psycho bunny on a box and you’re supposed to eat what’s inside of it!
Has your aesthetic always been this way?
No! I went to the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan. I got a BFA in art, but my training was in rendering, basically as a draftsman. I struggled a lot with what I was doing and why I was doing it. What I knew the most was that I could make things really pretty and I co