JOSE AURELIO BAEZ
JOSE
AURELIO
BAEZ
He remembers the first time he was exposed to art — a large print of Manet’s A Bar at the Folies-Bergère hanging above the family dining room table. From that image to comic books, graffiti, and Kung-Fu flicks, to Carnegie Mellon, to Standing Rock watercolors, to murals on the Lower East Side. The line runs straight through all of it.
He spent a lot of time in his own head as a kid, escaping the real world through comic books, graffiti, cartoons and Kung-Fu flicks. That interior world — the one built from images consumed alone — is the source material for everything that followed.
Watercolors
Using images from social media, Baez created portraits of protestors to raise money for the Sioux Tribe Legal Defense Fund. “It started out as a simple fundraiser but I ended up getting a very positive reaction. It helped me realize that art is meant to do exactly that, no matter how small the impact may seem at first.”
Jose Aurelio Baez is a mixed media painter, collage artist and muralist whose practice blends formal training at Carnegie Mellon University with a self-directed, process-driven approach refined over more than a decade. Deeply influenced by his identity as a New Yorker, he creates layered works using found and repurposed materials to build an evolving archive of the people, environments and cultural textures that surround him.
Drawing from graffiti inks, spray paint, adhesives, photography, and traditional drawing and painting mediums, Baez merges street-level immediacy with painterly rigor. At the core of his practice is an interest in intimacy, memory, and the fragility of life — inviting the viewer into a direct, human conversation with the subject.
Greatest inspirations or influences?
My work is very informed by my childhood inspirations. I spent a lot of time in my own head as a kid, escaping the real world through comic books, graffiti, cartoons and Kung-Fu flicks. Lately I am inspired by the current social environment and political circumstances.
In this age of hyper-communication, it’s easy to over-simplify situations with hashtags or tweets. I think it’s more important than ever for the public to question where we get our information and what we do with it.
Most interesting project to date?
I recently did a series of watercolor paintings to raise money for Standing Rock. I used images from social media to create portraits of protestors. It started out as a simple fundraiser but I ended up getting a very positive reaction. It helped me realize that art is meant to do exactly that, no matter how small the impact may seem at first.
I am still encouraging people to get in touch with me to donate money to the Sioux Tribe Legal Defense Fund.
“It helped me realize that art is meant to do exactly that — no matter how small the impact may seem at first.”
Jose Aurelio Baez · On the Standing Rock watercolor seriesWhat would be a dream project for you?
A collage mural on the side of a building. It would be site-specific and change over time as it is affected by the elements.
“This is in part what I think the arts should do — to bring us together. [Art] is there to raise consciousness and alter perspective, to challenge and defy. Art is the open hand that extends towards its receivers even when it’s met with clenched fists.”
Baez’s paintings emphasise materiality and surface, using collage as both structure and concept to foreground the physical presence of the work. Imagery is sourced from original photography by the artist and close collaborators, as well as carefully selected archival images that are digitally edited and collaged before being translated into paint.
“I spent a lot of time in my own head as a kid, escaping the real world through comic books, graffiti, cartoons and Kung-Fu flicks.”
His recent highlights include participation in the Group Seven exhibition at Woodward Gallery and a published feature in Post Road Magazine for his mural work in Manhattan’s Lower East Side.
In 2015 he was featured on NY1 for his work with the Sing for Hope Piano Project, and has done commissioned work for Samsung, Droga5, and New Castle Lager. Set artist for VH1’s Black Ink Crew. Mural installations with JMZ Walls.
Unveiling Maya at SPIN New York — a living dreamscape that cross-pollinates historical moments with pop-culture iconography and street life.
The man who invented 3D graffiti in 1993. David LaChapelle, Madonna, Elton John. EVLworld Studio, Miami.
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Photo Bryan Derballa
