By: Keith Estiler
studio visits
studio visits
Chicago-born artist Hebru Brantley is widely-recognized for his interdisciplinary artworks that shed light on underrepresented individuals and socioeconomic issues such as racism and urban poverty. Brantley’s main characters, ‘Flyboy’ and ‘Lil Mama,’ often appear in his vivid compositions, life-sized sculptures, and multimedia installations. By inserting these young Black superheroes in his progressive works, the artist aims to introduce a new take on comic book protagonists for all audiences.
While he’s participated in a number of international exhibition shows, Brantley’s years-long career as a visual artist culminated in the recent launch of his monumental “NEVERMORE PARK” exhibition in Chicago, Illinois. Taking place in his former studio, the immersive presentation offered an intimate look at his goggles-clad subjects and their origin stories through interactive installations including a life-sized version of ‘Flyboy’s’ rocketship decked out with pulsating lights and vibrating walls.
When he’s not creating works or coming up with designs for his in-house Hebru Brand clothing, Brantley is working on collaborations. His latest partnership is with American clothing manufacturer Champion for an exclusive collection of two Reverse Weave sweaters that will be available in six stores statewide. For the capsule, Hebru merged Champion’s ubiquitous iconography with his signature motifs while also starring a never-before-seen character named Gabe who adorns 3D glasses. “Gabe is a visual representation of the dichotomy in all humans. Everyone has a little bit of angel and devil in them,” he says.
We sat down with the artist at his LA studio to discuss his career, creative processes, and current projects. Check out our interview below and then find full details of the Hebru Brantley x Champion collection here.
Hebru Brantley on Bringing
Black Superheroes to Life
Exploring the otherworldly artworks of the Brooklyn-based painter and sculptor.
Los Angeles, CA
www.hebrubrantley.com
Let's talk about the characters that we're seeing in these designs. What's their origin story?
Yok & Sheryo
There's not really a definitive origin. Over the past couple of years I've been working really diligent at making the art world and the world at large familiar with my main characters, ‘FlyBoy’ and ‘Lil Mama,’ but they are not the end all be all. There's far more in my wheelhouse, and these subjects in the collaborative designs are an extension of that. It's just me wanting to explore some new aesthetics.
Did you have similar styles before you met?
Sheryo: My style is really wonky and really imperfect because I like imperfection. My lines were super wavy when I drew and his was kind of straighter. He would draw a straight line. Try to get really straight on the wall and spray can and I'll be like, "Yo. I'm just going to do it wonky." Because it's easier. It's done by hand.
Yok: I had a cleaner style. A bit more, I don't know, it was a bit more work and trouble to make the cleaner style and then I met Sheryo and she had this loose, wobbly, wonky style and I was envious of it and kind of adapted into that. It’s kind of like that new airbrush work that we've been doing. I kind of just embrace the looseness and the wonkiness of it in the conception.
With Champion engaging with me on a project like this, it shows that they understand the work that I had done in the past and trust me to bring my unique voice and vision to this project. They’re putting a lot of faith in what that will be, you know? The best collabs happen when the collaborators understand the strengths of one another. And I think we definitely got that.
So this studio we’re in now in LA is still pretty new. I've been here for about a year and a half now. And the goal was to broaden my practice overall. I felt like Chicago will always be my home. I travel back to Chicago enough to say that I’m faithful to my hometown. But there were other things in my career that I wanted to pursue and it became increasingly hard to do it all in Chicago or traveling back and forth. I was spending such a great deal of time out in LA already like pursuing other mediums and dabbling in television, film, et cetera. I love Chicago, I love my city, but as we all know, Chicago is not warm that often, and I think gray skies for six to seven months out of the year will have some sort of effect on anyone's creativity. And I felt like it started to really play a factor in my creative output.
HYPEBEAST: Can you tell us about how you came up with the designs for the hoodie and the crewneck sweater for Champion?
Hebru Brantley: My designs focused on what the brand has represented to me over the years and the label name itself played a major role. It's Champion, it's about conquering and exceeding certain goals or going past certain barriers in life. So I wanted to start there and give it a unique spin and an outlook with one of my signature characters Gabe that portrays a boy wearing 3D glasses. This subject represents going beyond and seeing beyond, and looking at things a bit differently. And I think that to me is the mindset of a true Champion.
What was the collaboration process like between you and Champion?
I was doing reverse painted acrylic polymer peel paintings for a long time, and those were hyper-detailed and all super hard-edged and super meticulous. It got to a point with that where I guess around like 2012, I wanted to start doing something more visceral and more painterly and less sort of slick.
What brought you to Los Angeles, and how long have you been in this studio?
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 best collabs happen when the collaborators understand the strengths of one another. And I think we definitely got that.”
cj hendry
“I always felt completely underrepresented.”
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
I think first it has to connect with who I am as an artist, as the creator. And so I don't want to do anything that's off-brand for me, because my heart won't be in it. So I think that's sort of the start, and that's the bridge to the conversation. And then with that it's just about understanding who I'm going to be engaging with, who I'm playing with basically. It's just the synergy, man. It's just finding that good balance and everybody playing their position well.
How do you select which brands you want to collaborate with?
Over the years it's just been a slow growth, and obviously me understanding and growing more as an artist and developing my voice has been a huge focus for me. But this has always been something that has been extremely aspirational for me, and a space that I've felt comfortable proclaiming that I want to enter into. And I'm a creative at heart, so I really couldn't be doing sh*t else.
When did your art career take off?
I think everything requires a certain level of attention at different moments. And I think that's where I find the balance, at least. With art, obviously, that comes in waves. Every artist works differently, but for me, it's going beyond the conceptual phase and heading straight to the actual creative space. It’s building layer upon layer of any particular thing. There's a lot of steps in all of these creative processes. So, it's just finding those moments where instead of you waiting for things to happen, you are sort of sidestepping and working on something else while you're waiting. It’s using time as an ally instead of it working against you.
How do you balance all of these projects that you've got going on?
I've got a few film projects, one in particular is called ‘Kankakee.’ It's a superhero thriller and it’ll be my feature directorial debut. And then I've got several other projects that are sort of being cooked right now, but this movie is what’s in my sights and we're getting closer to finalizing the schedule and getting it shot.
What are you currently working on now?
Are you both still doing that now?
Yup, it’s live action. It's going to be fun, man. It’s a different take on what is now the superhero genre. It's entertaining, it's fun, and it's shocking all at the same time. So hopefully people will engage with it in a positive way. Fingers crossed.
It's a live action film?
This is who I am, and these are the things that I'm comfortable speaking towards and I want to further explore. For me, it's kind of a natural thing where those themes are always baked into whatever these projects are and it's not forced in any sort of way. It just comes down to what I'm interested in, what I want to see. And I think that's always my starting point for any project.
It's also the world I know. I always felt completely underrepresented. I say this all the time, but I'm 6'8", Black, and I'm named Hebru, right? I'm supposed to be doing a variety of different things based on that little bit of information about me. But, my path has taken me completely left of those expectations.
Whether it's your paintings, film, or any medium, you always seem to shed light on underrepresented subjects. What sort of challenges do you face in spotlighting these characters?
From both a visual art and brand standpoint, it’s always been to get people familiar with what I'm doing. And now that they are, now is the time to really start showing audiences more of a full array of my creative prowess while speaking more direct to socioeconomic situations and using different mediums to do so. I'm just really looking forward to exploring more of my artistry in a way that I kind of had been holding back for the sake of not giving too much. But, I think now is the appropriate time to really start to open up a little bit more and give more creatively.
What are your next steps?
I've done regular exhibitions that feature my paintings with some sculptures around. But, I always wanted to do something far more engaging, and “NEVERMORE” was that opportunity Of course, opening an immersive exhibition like that was not without its challenges. Painting and sculpting are things that I can directly control. Whereas something on the scale of that show placed a lot of weight on partnerships. That's a lot more folks that I have to help guide and lead towards the bigger vision.
At the end of October, you launched your massive “NEVERMORE PARK” exhibition at your former studio in Chicago. How important was it for you to create this show?
“Every artist works differently, but for me, it's going beyond the conceptual phase and heading straight to the actual creative space.”
Were you hesitant to show your work to the public for the first time?
Honestly, I went out on a whim by showing these pieces and hopefully seeing if people would like it. I felt passionate about it and the show did really well. Right around the same time, I started working with Virgil Abloh. It was a very good wave and since then.
When did you make the transition to oil paints?
Back in 2014, a lot of my friends told me that I would do really well with oil paint and so I took a crash course. I said screw it, I'll start trying to do oil. Sure enough, it was very different from watercolor, but it was very fun. Obviously, you can have richer colors and the working time is a lot more flexible. There was a lot of YouTube-ing, a lot of asking friends tip, a lot of doing things on my own, and a lot of messing things up. Again as a craftsman, I'm always striving to elevate my work.
When did you start the Love Letter series?
It was in this huge gallery in Downtown Los Angeles, and it was the first time showing my oil paintings. It was a two-person show with Matt McCormick called “Not As It Seems, Nothing As It Seems” back in 2016. The space was owned by the creative agency Alldayeveryday at that point. It was a massive warehouse that was converted into this gallery. In addition to the Love Letter series, I also did three warped peace signs made of wood. That was the beginning of a lot of works that I'm still continuing on.
How did you balance your commissioned projects with your personal work?
I've been in and out of the commercial world doing projects here and there. I was just focusing on time in the studio, experimenting, and starting to get into more sculptural pieces that are not here in the studio right now. But again, I’m always crossing over my knowledge from this graphic design and art direction into my fine art practice which I find is a different mode of thinking and approach. I started doing this warped thing with a lot of my typography and also the pieces so that was actually computer-generated and I'm bringing it into this tangible space. Some of the sculptural work that I'm working on is actually very derivative of that and comes from that.
“I’m always crossing over my knowledge from this graphic design and art direction into my fine art practice which I find is a different mode of thinking and approach.”