To see someone paint a graffiti piece with no prior planning and no sketch and have it turn out really good at the end is impressive no matter how familiar you are with writing graffiti.  But to paint a large scale mural from a lift with no sketch, no plan, using both hands, and filming yourself while you do it… and have it turn out really good and proportionally accurate… that’s other worldly.  Sofles is a cyborg.  There’s no other way to explain it.  A well oiled machine that can paint anything in almost any style, with speed, confidence, and accuracy.  The plethora of videos on his YouTube page and all over the internet prove this to be true.  His short film titled “Limitless” from 2013 with director Selina Miles, with over 13 million views, is one of the most impressive displays of wall painting you will ever see.  From photorealistic portraiture, to vast seascapes, intricate design and pattern work, Inovative letter and hand styles, and of course just straight up grimy trackside graffiti for the heads, Sofles has concurred it all.  His prowess and talent are only matched by his thirst and curiosity for what comes next which thankfully keeps the engine running and the innovations coming. 

MVP back again after a hiatus.. basically when we cross paths with past guests, we sit them down and catch up with Vantagepoint Alumni on what they been doing since we last spoke to them. Recorded during the inaugural Vantagepoint Group exhibition at Denverwalls 2022,  this interview series is loose, irreverent and ever increasingly drunken. This episode features DULK and Squidlicker. Needless to say, this is the drunken part of the night.. its loud, unruly and general chaos..

The only thing more delightful and colorful than the work of George F. Baker III is the huge smile and good energy the man himself brings into every room he enters.  His artwork reflects his personality, bounding with intricate design and color and full of positivity and witty life affirmations. After a successful but unfulfilling career as a graphic designer in Atlanta, GFB3 abruptly shifted gears from digital client work to painting murals and personal studio work.  In his first year, with no real training in mural painting, he set out to paint as many murals as possible and honed in on his craft through sheer bruit force and dedication.  What emerged was a highly stylized and unique combination of character illustration and text with so much energy that it seems to pulsate on the wall.    

Dublin’s finest, ACHES is a man of many talents. As one of the leading graffiti artists in Ireland, ACHES has been pushing the art form in new and Inovative directions for years, incorporating his graphic design training and embracing technology to access new creative avenues conceptually in his work.  Around 2017 ACHES began incorporating a bit of realistic portraiture into his graffiti, painting a quick portrait of whatever painting mate joined him that day next to his otherwise traditional graffiti letter styles.  This act sparked a new direction for the artist and set him ablaze burning through the mural art scene with as much fuel and drive as one could imagine.  Borrowing techniques he had perfected in his graffiti years before, ACHES has become best known for his color separated portraits where the main figure is divided into a rainbow of color as if filtered through a prism.  His creativity and skill are as thick and satisfying as his Irish accent and there seems to be no limit to what we should expect from ACHES in the future.

With a name like Kimchi Juice you just can’t go wrong.  The young artists from Washington DC, much like the name she’s given herself, leaves you with more questions than answers the longer you speak with her… but in all the best ways.  From the age of 13, Kimchi Juice knew with full determination that she was an artist, so much so that she sidestepped high school in order to homeschool herself to free up more time to concentrate on making art on her own.  Her focus and confidence has not wained over the past decade and has paid off big time.  The 24 year old has shown her work in galleries and museums, painted murals from DC to Florida, to LA and as far as Seoul South Korea. She’s curated group shows in LA and Wasington DC and even has some of her art in the permanent collection with the Smithsonian.  Her contemporary portrayal of traditional Korean motifs with feminist undertones speak to the artist’s upbringing and personal beliefs and continues to expand and evolve as it moves from walls to canvas to 3D objects and beyond.   

Much like a human Swiss Army knife, Denver based artist Detour has a tool or a solution for any situation… and if he doesn’t, then he’s damn sure going to find one or even better, simply invent one himself. Growing up in a military family and bouncing around from city to city, country to country every few years, one learns from an early age how to adapt to new and unfamiliar situations.  Detour took this aspect of his childhood and turned it into his super power, using his interest in sports and then breakdancing and eventually art making as a means to find his place in every new community. As his focus concentrated in on fine art his thirst for experimentation and discovery only grew.  As a professional artists Detour glides effortlessly between painting murals, designing and building sculptural work, developing full immersion art installations, and even conceptualising and inventing new experimental art tools and methods.  Through his highly popular YouTube channel, and powerful social media presence, Detour continues to share his wealth of knowledge with other artists around the world, further utilising his skills and interests to grow his community.

In the days before the internet spread information and culture like it does today, Jeremy Fish first cemented his place in the art world through designing skateboard graphics in San Francisco back in the late 90s and early 2000s.  His unique aesthetic quickly gained the attention of publications such as Juxtapoz Magazine which sent his work around the globe.    Always maintaining a balance between fine art and consumer products such as vinyl toys, tee-shirts, and brand collaborations, Fish has been able to create an ever growing audience and maintain a freshness within his output.  Originally from upstate New York, Fish has been living in and making art about his adopted home town of San Francisco for nearly three decades.  His success in and influence on the Golden Gate city and the larger art world is undeniable despite the fact, or possibly because of the fact, that his approach to art making has virtually stayed the same all this time… to feverishly produce work that is thematically captivating and approachable to a wide audience.  Never one for the elitist art world, Fish takes great pride in his wide appeal and accessibility and with values such as these and a motor as revved up as his there’s no limit to where his career will go over the next 30 years.

Denver based artist ILL.DES creates abstract universes of geometry and dimension that unapologetically nod to his background as a computer engineer.  The soft, almost pastel color palette that unifies his work brings a playfulness to the otherwise quite rigid forms and complex designs.  From digital work, to canvas, animation, and large scale murals, the work is striking and clean and instantly identifiable. Recently, Ill.DES teamed up with artist and lead director A.L. Grime to launch the highly touted Denver Walls mural festival which is where we sat down with him to discuss art and life and what it’s like to be in the eye of a mural festival storm.

Producing and directing a large scale mural festival while simultaneously being one of the featured muralist in the festival is undoubtedly no easy feat, but artist A. L. Grime with her background in the music industry (running a record label, producing events, and managing artists) and more recently her thriving career as a mural painter and studio artist, is uniquely qualified for the job. As the lead director of the Denver Walls Mural Festival, Grime’s skill set and responsibilities are vast. As an artist she has quickly risen to be one of the most recognizable muralists in Denver. Her stark black and white graphics illuminate her love of the digital world and computers while her passions for issues such as feminism and equality fill her work with meaning and depth.  Grime’s thirst to embraces technology such as AI to push her work in new and Inovative directions enables her to evolve and stay current with contemporary trends.

A legend in the Australian graffiti scene for nearly three decades, Jimmy DVATE is a master with a spray can. From letter forms to photorealistic portraits of native flora and fauna, his skill set is applicable to nearly any subject. The once graffiti obsessed teenager grew into a graffiti obsessed adult with ambitions of a flourishing art career. Taking the skills he’d acquired from graffiti combined with his love of nature and native Australian wildlife, DVATE cemented his path into a commercial mural art career. Focusing heavily on endangered species and conservation issues, he uses his public art to educate and promote a healthy balance between man and nature, all the while subversively, and often not so subversively, integrating graffiti aesthetics and letter forms into his work in an effort to educate the older generations on the roots of the modern mural scene and its connection to graffiti.