Hellovon

Today we go back to illustration and graphic design field. His name is Von and we could say he represents the great creative movement of the present London youth scene. Combining traditional drawing with digital techniques he has developed his own style and signature. An accurate and impeccable work which has been published worlwide and commissioned by some bigwigs as Nike and the popular Esquire magazine. Here you have his words&work:


What does art mean to you?

As I work both as a commercial/graphic artist alongside producing work exclusively to be exhibited in galleries I would consider the latter fell into that parameter. Having said that inevitably it is a symbiotic relationship as to varying degrees one informs the other. I also sometimes put personal work into my commercial folio and can end up being commissioned off the back of the personal work as much as previous commercial jobs. Personal work is incredibly important as it will more often than not give you the breathing space to develop whereas the commercial market will quite often ask for a variation of something you've already done. It would be so easy to become stale without it.

Recently the overall balance of my working practice is also changing as I am beginning to shift focus more onto creating one off original drawings and paintings for both exhibitions and private sale through ShopVon (http://www.shopvon.com/). Over the next few months I will be working towards a London solo toward the end of the year so a lot of my spare time in between jobs is spent working on new canvases. I couldn't purely work on only commercial jobs, I need the time spent on personal pieces to keep me sane.

Where do you find inspiration?

It's impossible to say, somewhere between my music collection, a cup of tea and getting out of London.

We've seen you in several occasions drawing huge walls, we just wonder how do you feel before and after the illustration is done...

I think you're referring to my Migration exhibition where a flock of abstracted birds was first installed on a billboard at the Truman Brewery, London (http://vimeo.com/1644177) in late August followed by a billboard on the side of the Espeis Gallery in Williamsburg a month later (http://vimeo.com/1798516) - the project inheriting the migrational nature of it's content. Those weren't drawn directly onto the billboards but a replication of the original drawings pasted up. Logistically getting that done was a challenge, and one I couldn't have done without the help of a close friend, but worth it in the end. It was surprising how well my work translated to such a large scale, having only worked much smaller previously.

Which has been the most challenging commission so far?

Commercially it would be the 17 window installation for Selfridges I recently completed as part of the World Cup celebrations for Nike Stadium at Selfridges. Gallery wise I think perhaps my last show "Semblance" in LA last year - but it wouldn;t seem right if your latest work didn't challenge you the most.

Which are your favourite artists?

James Jean, Tapies, Ron Mueck, Willy Verginer, Edward Hopper, Chloe Early, Sam Weber, Kirsty Whiten, Pieke Bergmans, Kate MccGwire, Emily Forgot.

Future plans, future exhibitions?

There's a few big personal projects I'm working on. Gallery wise I am working on more originals in the Semblance series, which was first exhibited in LA last year at Subliminal Projects and Cerasoli Galleries respectively, building towards my first London solo show proper of all originals. I'm also fine tuning the details of releasing a lot of never before seen original and prints from the Animal series (http://www.flickr.com/photos/hellovon/sets/72157617707076215/). For now details are under wraps but I am very excited about both!

You can find more info about Hellovon at his website.