TRAIL-BLAZER HAS ANNOUNCED TO HAVE EXHIBITION IN NEW MARKS-ART GALLERY

Pictured Above Up & Coming Star Jakob

Written By Phillip Neru

Marks Art Gallery – Jakob is a York based artist, who specialises in contemporary pop art. His passion for art was There since a young child but was only re-ignited once he left school and he could express himself fully through his work.

He uses a wide range of painterly styles and is continuously pushing his creative boundaries to create his desired results. After an encounter with Jesus in 2018, Jakobs work started to change greatly and he made the character “trill-kid” who he uses occasionally to portray messages to his audience fuelled by his encounter.

Whilst trying to portray a message with some works he also gets a lot of inspiration from the Chinese art culture and likes using his imagination to create unusual compositions implementing different cartoon characters and exploring different tools, mediums and inconsistent techniques.

During the 4 years of being a full time artist, jakob has had multiple exhibitions across London and worked for celebrities, influential figures and brands across the world and is continually gaining reputability in the art community.

I had the pleasure of meeting Jakob and we found out alot about this amazing creative artist.

So Jakob, what first inspired you to become an artist ?

Well I had a passion for art since I was a young boy, I was always creating something whether it be doing drawings for my parents, creating my own little paper cut-out men to play with, if you gave me a good box of coloured pens, some scissors and a stack of paper I would be set for hours of fun.

I persued art throughout school and really did excel when I was younger but then felt inhibited by the rigid curriculum in art at secondary school so I never really carried on and improved my skills then. I still had a natural artistic ability so when I finished school, after working in construction for a couple of years,I thought I would start tattooing and taking advantage of my natural flare and artistic ability.

This may not have been the wisest decision but around the age of 19 I decided to tattoo my hands so there was a very low chance of me getting a suit and tie job, I knew I was never cut out for that. I was supposed to be doing something where I could express my talents more, so after trying my hand at tattooing for a short time and not feeling like it was right I thought to myself what’s one thing I would do for the rest of my life if money was no object and painting came into mind. The first piece I did was on a cupboard door off a building site, I made an Instagram, put it up on there and within a couple of weeks I had made my first sale. Then I could buy the proper supplies I needed for the next piece and it went on and on from there.

And where do you get your inspiration from for your work ?

I have a pretty good gift in really being able to use my imagination and don’t find it too difficult to come up with new ideas for paintings. If I’m to portray a message through my painting I’ll try to make the message worth while and that usually comes as an overflow from my relationship with Jesus and I will try and give a message that I believe would please him.

Otherwise anything could spark an idea for a painting whether it’s drawing on a fogged up window and thinking this would be a cool concept for a painting or adding my own twist to nostalgic cartoon characters, whatever I think would be a cool concept, I would usually jot down in my notes and revisit the list when I’m coming to do a painting and see which idea stands out. I do take Inspiration from other artists as well, other people’s work really gives you different perspectives and ideas which you never would come up with being in your mind, so I can get ideas from other artists which I will then play on in my own mind and come up with something as original as possible without trying to steal their ideas. I do get a lot of inspiration from the Chinese art culture, I find it really unusual.

And has the process of finding your own style been difficult or do you feel that came to you naturally ?

That was difficult for me at the beginning, when I was starting off in my art career I got a lot of inspiration from Alec monopoly, and with his style being being distinctive it was difficult for me to find my own lane and my work not look like it was inspired by him. I think as I was getting into my art career I was trying out different cartoon characters, I know Alec had the monopoly man and Richie rich, so I thought I’ll try out different characters and see which ones work best for me.

I was using iconic cartoon characters from the 90s and Disney characters in pieces but it was very limiting and quite generic in the end. I came across another artist called Hebru Brantley and his character he used in most of the pieces called Fly boy, which made me think, A-lot of these artists have their own characters and their works are super unique, then I started to think about making my own character which I could use in paintings that no one else had, my trademark, and I came up with “Trill-Kid”. Once I started to use him in my paintings I really felt like my work began to take on a life of its own. I feel like making Trill-kid was my way into being more creative and expressive with my work and not just trying to produce pieces I know will be liked by everyone.

All in all it was a very interesting conversation with Jakob and we are hoping to see much more from him in the time to come with his newest partnership with Marks-Art where he is going to be showcasing his very sought after ‘SEVEN SINS’ exhibition.

A-lot of the art buying community have already started making bid to www.Marks-Art.uk for the pieces but they have made a statement saying this is not about profit and selling to the highest bidder this is all about exclusivity and keeping this is thin their own client base and letting the clients enjoy the work at retail rate instead of high prices made in auctions for at least a 2 year time line.

For any further information please head over to www.Marks-art.uk to be on the waiting list for any future opportunities to get a Jakob paint.