Studio Visits: Chuck Styles HYPEBEAST Studio Visits: Chuck Styles

By: Jack Stanley

studio visits

“One of my favorite quotes is from Nina Simone,” says artist Chuck Styles. “An artist’s duty, as far as I’m concerned, is to reflect the times.” Few have the ability to capture the essence of the moment like Styles. Born and raised in a small suburb outside of West Philadelphia, the multi-disciplinary talent’s work is grounded in portraying real representation and finding deeper cultural meanings through his distinctive knack for mixing digital and physical media. Although Styles was a natural born artist, being awarded multiple scholarship programs to Moore College of Art and other art institutions to expand his knowledge and grow his skills, he needed to make money to be able to keep going and help his family out. So, Styles cut his teeth as a barber for many years, using his creativity for shapes and patterns to sustain a decent income enough to pay for his Art Institute College Education and continue building his name through his art and his hair-cutting. It worked, and Styles continued to go deeper into the entertainment world as a barber, gaining celebrity clientele, television appearances and even winning multiple 1st place awards nationwide in competition. After dedicating 10 years to his barber profession, he realized it was time to pivot and begin his journey to pursue his true talent as a professional artist. Since then he’s established himself through his work that skillfully captures the impact of a moment while simultaneously pouring resources back into the community. He applied his talent to marking the release of Tom Clancy’s Without Remorse on Amazon Prime Video with a limited-edition print that encapsulates the action, emotion and Black representation of the film, starring Michael B. Jordan as John Clark. We sat down with the artist in his studio to discuss his upbringing in Philadelphia, affinity for actor Michael B. Jordan, how art can be impactful to our communities in the real world today and his exclusive Without Remorse print.

Chuck Styles' Art Is a Reflection of Modern Times

Exploring the otherworldly artworks of the Brooklyn-based painter and sculptor.

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania artofchuckstyles.com

What was the graffiti scene like in Connecticut? You don’t really hear too much about this subculture out there.

Yok & Sheryo

Graffiti was bleeding down the I-95 from Connecticut to New York. As a kid, I found myself underneath the train lines and that’s where I discovered burners — the creative energy by those pieces just magnetized me. When I was in high school, I really got into underground hip-hop and graffiti. I got into trouble so many times with graffiti to the point that I got arrested. So, I had to switch it up and that’s when I got into DJing.

Can you walk us through your artistic process? How do you get yourself going and where does the process usually begin? What’s the usual work flow to completion?

My process starts right in the moment. It could be in the middle of a conversation, a movie, while driving or shower. Literally anywhere! When an idea for a piece hits, my creativity fires up and it’s almost like I can see the image in my mind.

Erchen: It’s very important that each restaurant does different things. We’re inspired by many different eateries in Asia. So Soho is quite minimal, it’s very food focused. It’s in Soho so loads of people are coming in and out and they only want to spend maybe 30 minutes. With Borough we were inspired by the late night grill places and drinking places in Tokyo. We have a highball machine here. Everything revolves around the late night eating style. I think the inspiration comes from a different area but they’re all kinds of Asian eateries and it filters through different restaurants. Wai Ting: It’s just trying to bring different elements of Asian culture to London. At Borough we did the KTV room downstairs, and we’ve got the hatch there, almost back to our street food days.

I found this expression when I was living in LA back in 2011. In my apartment, I had papers up on the wall. I was writing out my future goals on them, creating bubble charts and sh*t just to get my mind moving. Eventually, I turned on an instrumental beat during one session and it just hit me. I just started freestyling on the paper. It gives me chills just thinking about that moment.

Growing up, what initially sparked your interest in art?

It’s funny because I always drew pictures as a kid but never wanted to be an artist growing up. It was just something I was good at in school as I would draw hundreds of barber shape ups in my notebooks. There weren’t any glorified Black artist role models that I could look up to and say, “Wow, I want to be like that!” No Michael Jordans of art. No Barry Sanders of sculpting. What I did have was supportive friends and family, grandmothers, aunts, sisters, coworkers, etc. that always placed the right words of encouragement to continue on, even if at the time I had no idea where it would take me. I don’t believe it was a spark I can recall but as a born creative, I have always been amazed that we have the ability to take something from our minds with little to no materials and manifest something that people love.

This piece in particular evolved as I worked on it. I didn’t have this idea solidified from the beginning, it presented itself along the way which sometimes happens and sometimes doesn't. It's just part of the process. And I let that process kind of take me where it needs to go because at some point if a painting is going to be speaking louder to you than you are to it, then that's when you know it's there. It’s a conversation.

Your freestyle calligraphy also merges music and art in a harmonious way. Can you tell us about how this approach came about?

Good advice is work a lot, experiment a lot, and see a lot of art. Find out who the artist is who you really admire and what do you like about their work, what can you bring into the work, but also how can you experiment with materials and make paint do something that's your own language. At least for me, that's always been really important to my practice.

“The images you surround yourself with help remind you of who you are and even better, who you can be.”

cj hendry

“There weren’t any glorified Black artist role models that I could look up to and say, ‘Wow, I want to be like that!’ No Michael Jordans of art. No Barry Sanders of sculpting.”

Sheryo: Not as much as we like to. Now, we’re very busy with studio work and traveling to different locations in Southeast Asia. Yok: Yeah, we’re busy finding places to do installations. It’s our new thing. We also travel often to learn niche handicrafts. We get stoked about going to places like Indonesia and spend months learning how to do Batik and making other local artisan works.

“There are elements of creativity in what I do but it's very process-focused work.”

Cj Hendry

Once I’ve hyped myself up and anybody that’s around me about it I usually gather as much resource material as possible to immerse myself into the content first. That could be music to help put my vibe in a right space, documentaries playing in the background to stay in the right mental headspace, or reading more information to help add to the nuances of the content I’m trying to create. From there I just let the vibes take over and I finally ask myself, “Does this artwork say what I want it to say visually?”

I was lucky enough to get an early screening of Without Remorse and I am a fan of Tom Clancy’s video games so my main goal that I wanted to accomplish was to create a piece that felt like revenge on a large scale.

With Tom Clancy’s Without Remorse in mind, what was your vision for the piece?

It is important to showcase representation simply because it is who we are. To me, it is important to highlight culture within your home or space in some way shape or form. The images you surround yourself with help remind you of who you are and even better, who you can be. Those images can instill confidence in the next generation and bring communities together. If my art can help someone accomplish that, I have done my job as an artist.

Why is it important for you to showcase representation throughout your art and create powerful messaging that uplifts the community?

With everything that has happened within the last year, my goal and purpose has only strengthened in its current direction. I am looking forward to expanding my artwork and network with larger pieces, getting back to physical art shows with good vibes, and inspiring as many people as possible highlighting our culture.

What do you hope to accomplish going forward, and did that answer change at all within the last year from what it used to be, with everything that’s happened?

Yok: We would look at our drawings and imagine how it would be great if they were worlds that you could go inside, touch and move around. That's where the installation inspiration came from, I guess. Sheryo: It was kind of natural, really, a progression from 2D to 3D. Yeah.

What about installations are you both most fascinated by?

Yok: We’re working on an immersive installation at the Paddle 8 auction house at the Lower East Side of New York City. We’re creating this nine-foot wooden sculpture of a middle finger with Donald Trump’s tombstone on top. Sheryo: It’s this pretty big basement spot. We are making sculptures as well as creating the upholstery and benches. It has a really dingy and dark vibe. It’s kind of a lounge room setting. It’s going to launch this coming fall season.

What are you both working on right now?

Archie: We aim to hire people that are extremely multidisciplinary. But at the same time they don't have to have done everything, because in this studio, Jeff and I have not done everything and the principle of this studio is that we won't. What most people don't have that Dillon, Phil and Ana all have is the rare layer on top of professionalism and the ability to design — the ability to not have ego, to want to learn, and to want to try things that aren’t comfortable. When you’re uncomfortable, good stuff happens because you’re able to fall back on and grow your basic skill set. Dillon didn't design shoes before he got here — he just wanted to. Now he's a shoe designer. To Phil's earlier point, that's why PLAYLAB is a school.

When you decided to grow your team, what qualities were you looking for in new members?

Dillon: Residency programs and other resources for artists — let’s make a school someday. Jeff: I want to make a penny press called “Penny, Pressed.” The image that goes on the penny press is a penny. I'm not even sure if that’s legal, but it's in the works. I also want to make more art. I think we need more of it and that everybody thrives off of it. Archie: I want to do it all. I want to see PLAYLAB continue to thrive and grow and morph and change, and I want to be surprised by it every year. I love the projects we work on, but I love the studio more than anything. The studio is the project because it's art.

What's next for PLAYLAB? Is there something that you've always wanted to design through PLAYLAB that you guys haven't touched yet?

What is the typical workflow of a studio that has “no particular focus” but also has many projects to focus on at once like? Jeff: We have so many things going at once, so there's no typical day. On any given morning everyone knows they can walk in and we'll be like, "What you thought you're going to do today is not going to be anywhere close to what's going to happen, so let's shift gears." It's changing all the time, which is how we like it. Dylan: Day to day is not a real thing in this studio. There's a rough energy level and thought level that we have to keep consistent, but in terms of projects we are always pivoting. When I come into the studio with a rough idea of what the timeline of my day looks like, it generally gets moved around because we're working on projects simultaneously that are all so different in nature and are always changing. Do you find that working on multiple projects simultaneously makes each separate process stronger? Phil: Yeah, sometimes your work for a project will have to be put on hold, but then you interweave it with some of the learnings you have from encountering another project in that time gap. Now you can bring some of those teachings back into that first project that you had to put on pause, and sometimes that can really work to the project's benefit, even if it's really subconscious. Anna: It's really helpful that we're not working on all branding projects or all experiential projects. I can get inspired by something that we reference for a branding project at 9 a.m. EST, and at 1:00 p.m. EST it's one of the main ideas for a separate experiential project.

“The real magic of the project wasn't the two weeks that it existed and was beautiful - it was the drudgery of the work to get there.”

You do a lot of work that involves impactful people and pieces with a lot of depth. How do you get yourself going with pieces that you know are so contextually critical to the space you’re in and culture as a whole?

One of my favorite quotes is by Nina Simone. “An artist’s duty, as far as I’m concerned, is to reflect the times.” Going back to my early years, having a gift but not having any role models or being properly educated on successful black artists, is why I do the work. Painting images so that my children, my wife, my family, my community can be inspired by, uplifted and motivated by. Going back to my creative process, I immerse myself in the subject even when the content and times are most difficult. I just know there is still a lot of work to be done so I do the work.

By: Nate Louis Photographer: Nayquan Shuler

IThere were a few pivotal scenes where MBJ really got in his bag: the car on fire scene and the prison scene. Those 2 scenes let me know that his character was really that bul when they spoke of how skilled he was as a SEAL. I wanted to highlight his facial expression to enlarge the moment when he knew the prison guards were there to take him out. That was the look of, “y’all wanna play dirty? I’m ready for anything you through at me!” The scene with the car on fire also showcased the extent of which he was willing to go to get answers and justice. My guy was going to either roast in the car or go to jail just to get some answers! Great scenes that I wanted to highlight in the artwork.

The man on fire portion is really striking and interesting, could you speak to the thought process there and your approach to detailing this MBJ piece?

Tom Clancy’s Without Remorse is streaming on Amazon Prime Video beginning on April 30.

How did you maintain your passion for music while you were studying art? Before I got into Pratt, I was interning for this independent label called Definitive Jux founded by El-P from Run the Jewels. I started doing solid freelance projects for them when I got out of Pratt. This culture merged music and art, it’d definitely been my guiding light up until now as an adult. Your freestyle calligraphy also merges music and art in a harmonious way. Can you tell us about how this approach came about? I found this expression when I was living in LA back in 2011. In my apartment, I had papers up on the wall. I was writing out my future goals on them, creating bubble charts and sh*t just to get my mind moving. Eventually, I turned on an instrumental beat during one session and it just hit me. I just started freestyling on the paper. It gives me chills just thinking about that moment. It moved you. Beyond, bro. My favorite sh*t is catching tags and the rush you get by doing it illegally. During that rush, you’ve got to have your own personal style. You can tell if someone’s nice or not in graffiti by just looking at their hand style. So in these expressions that I’ve been doing, I’m merging my passion for art and music because I’m also injecting freestyle thinking which takes me back to New York when I used to join ciphers and DJ. Tell us about your big break. So, my boy who I worked with at Definitive Jux moved to LA and we shared a studio in Venice. We decided to host an open studio where I would do a live painting on this big canvas I stretched. Someone ended up buying the piece I made and took it home. It was a crazy feeling. Someone not only loved the art I made, but decided to repay me for that energy I brought into the open studio session.