The ZOSO is an enigma. He was born too late, in the vast Southern California suburban sprawl of Torrance. He attended a small college for a couple years and took mostly art classes, but never graduated. He currently resides in the sea of superficial materialism known as Los Angeles’ West Side, and shows his work regularly at several galleries around town.
He enjoys Bob Dylan, late-night walks with wheatpaste in hand and finding abandoned things on the street to paint on. He steals cheese from the grocery store and treats his paintbrushes poorly. As to his influences: he credits Egon Schiele, R. Crumb, coffee, Rick Griffin, graffiti, and urban isolation, among other things. In his work he explores furthering the aspects of his personal style, and what it means to be American in a time of such deep-rooted corruption, brainwashery, and misguided patriotism.
Nathan on ZOSO:
It seems that so often, the artists of La La Land have pushed themselves into a corner. Much of the art I see has become product/market-based, which is great on a case-by-case basis, but where do the wild artists roam? Many artists seem to be painting the same sad faces, landscapes, and teddy bears they’ve painted for the last five years. I hate seeing artists in a rut, painting the same ol’ images with lack of soul.
This brings me to Mr. Zoso, an artist who is not in a rut. Zoso paints and works in all mediums, and is known for painting on odd canvases, from cutting boards and wilted chunks of wood to found objects and steer-horn plaques. He is generally a character/figure-based artist. To me, Zoso’s art is about expression; a modern cartooned-out Schiele. His trademark is his mangled, distorted character work, with an immediate graffiti-like feel. His pieces often include floating figures with crinkled fingers and disgusted looking. Zoso’s work is rancidly riddled with political statements and mental debauchery.
Nathan Cartwright: Where do you see your work going over the next few years?
ZOSO: Well, my ultimate goal is to make a living solely on art, but not to corner myself into one particular thing. Right now, I’m really concentrating on elevating my paintings and my position in the whole gallery scene, but I also realize that I need to have other avenues open to me at the same time. I have started doing some concert posters, which I’m really exited about, and in the future I also plan on creating some clothing designs. I think that having a very distinctive style is important, but at the same time, you have to be able to allow for growth. My style is constantly evolving. A year ago, my style was completely different than it is now, and a year from now I’ll be on a completely different trip. I never think too far into the future stylistically, because I always feel that my latest stuff is my best. So, I want to allow myself room to go in any direction that feels right.
Nathan Cartwright: Low-brow art or high-brow art? Why?
ZOSO: I guess I’d have to think about the definition of “low-brow”. I think the whole underground scene started with the “low-brow” aesthetic, but the genre lines have become so blurred, that I don’t feel comfortable making that distinction. But it boils down to this urban-inspired, young, energetic art movement that we’re seeing now, versus the more traditional museum-esque conceptual-art-on-big-empty-white-walls style of gallery we’re all a little tired of. Right now is a very exciting time in art, especially in LA. There’s a real renaissance going on, and it’s not necessarily coming from the art schools or the traditional avenues. It’s coming from the streets and the regular folks. So, we’re seeing stuff inspired by things that aren’t traditional “fine art” subjects, like graffiti, Saturday morning cartoons, pop-culture, and hot rods. Eventually, the underground gains enough momentum and becomes the mainstream, and that’s what will be interesting to see. I’m wondering what artists will be in the art books in a couple generations, and how the art movement of this decade will go down in history.
Nathan Cartwright:Does Graffiti influence your work?
ZOSO: Yeah. When I moved up to LA from the South Bay, I lived in an area that had a ton of graffiti. Big murals everywhere by Retna: big colorful designs that I had no hope of reading. I loved the aesthetic, and I looked at street art as a medium of self-promotion. I’ve been exploring some graffiti lettering stuff and I really want to get good at doing murals. But to answer the question, certain things about graffiti have definitely crept in to my work, namely throwing a white outline around a character and things like that.
Nathan Cartwright: What’s your take on the whole urban vinyl toy scene going on right now?
ZOSO: Oh, I love it; my biggest fear is that it won’t last, that it’s a trend. I was little slow to jump on the munny bandwagon (munnys are these customizable vinyl toys by a company called Kidrobot, and they have become very popular for artists to customize as their own characters). They’re tons of fun. You’re seeing all these art toys being produced, and they’re quite collectible. It’s kind of opened up a whole new crowd to our art aesthetic. It’s a very Asian influenced thing, a lot of cute cartoony characters, but it’s branching out to a lot of cool things. The munny/dunny thing has become a phenomenon.
Nathan Cartwright: What do you think of the downtown LA art scene?
ZOSO: Well, I’ve got to say, it’s a blast. The only two spots that I show at regularly in DT are at the Hive and Hangar 1018, Cannibal Flower. The energy at those shows is unbelievable. Downtown is in such a transitional place right now. Everyone is talking about it, and everyone has an opinion on it. Skid Row is getting pushed out, and the old squat houses and derelict bank buildings are turning into lofts. It’s like a slice of Manhattan in LA, but we’ve got a way radder art scene.