The show opens this Friday at the Bakehouse Art Complex and features Krave, Hugo Patao, Luis Diaz, Jean Paul Mallozzi, and Mike Rivamonte. It's a sort of illustrative Wu Tang Clan bringing their varying styles together in an aesthetic show of force. We talked to Krave about the show, his work, and the future of Miami. Here's what he had to say.
New Times: What type of work do you have in "Illustrated"?
Krave: I'm coming out with a whole new body of work that's graffiti influenced illustration. I'm looking at the paintings now and it's some of my favorite stuff to date. The theme of the show is the process. We're using all the sketches and the final product and putting it all together so you can see the evolution.
What type of characters can we expect?
Like a playground themed urban environment with modern graffiti style characters as children playing with some surreal illustrative stuff and then crazy collages and stuff. Graphic is a good term to describe some of the work.
How does the show serve to strengthen the movement you all have going over there?
Having a range of styles and five professional illustrators working together gives a more complete view of what illustration is and what it's all about. We all work in the same complex, and we work under a similar genre that's cartoon influenced. I don't wanna use the term lowbrow but for lack of a better word, maybe urban contemporary. You got 3D models, cartoon stuff, surreal, fantasy stuff, digital media, graphite drawings, murals on the walls...and then me, I do a mix.
You gonna be in Miami for the next five years or so?
Yeah I'll probably be around here for a while I'm deeply rooted here. Why?
Where do you see your work going in that time?
Where I see it going is I think its gonna cross mediums. Animation, graff, audio visual, doing my art but utilizing other media, making it more easy to deliver to the masses. For instance, every mural I do I have someone do stop motion grafix on it. I just see it all getting better and more intermingled. Animations are gonna be a big part of that.
Like my monkey character, his story is constantly building. I have control over it so it's not such a mass commercial thing, but it can get to all type of people all type of different ways. He's my mythical creature that I can do whatever I want with.
"Illustrated" opens Friday from 7 - 10 p.m at the Bakehouse Art Complex (561 NW 32nd St., Miami) and features an open bar and music by DJ Bugaloo.
