Meet the Artists; New York City's Up-and-Coming
Feature Writing | Austin Kong
New York City’s visual art scene is often unknown and hidden from our eyes as well as their artwork that they have labored intensely over from large-scale paintings to sculptures.
Artists are praised for their amazing talent and dedication they put into producing a different type of content other than the digital, yet most don’t get the recognition they deserve. This isn’t for artists that serve cheese and crackers and have a white-spaced gallery in Chelsea or the Upper East Side. They do their own thing, organizing art shows in clubs, exchanging wine glasses for Heineken bottles, and blasting electronic music that you would normally hear in house shows. These artists do everything to make themselves known from hosting shows and selling their merchandise to spreading their art either through word-of-mouth or social media.
One artist combines his own unique style with entrepreneurship by promoting his brand, Boxhead, from tie-dye shirts and pants to robot toy figurines and hand knit balaclavas all with his iconic boxed head logo. His motto, “Everyone is boxed in their head. By having another head that is a box, they can now leave the box in their head.” His name is Ogden Opheim and he’s an artist based in Brooklyn. His Instagram handles are @boxhead.world and @ogden.o.
What inspired you to create your brand boxhead?
Well, I created it two years ago in 2020. It started out with me wanting to do some clothing pieces with the embroidery machine that my dad had. Coming up with the imagery for the first logo or image that I came up with which I dubbed as the human head came to me through a dream. The other face was more like an iteration of that, that I created on the computer, called the robot. As a whole, the brand is kind of about exploring individuality and false dichotomies within the modern era. And exploring expression between the digital and physical world.
I see that you've created numerous products from T-shirts and keychains to toy figurines of your own design; big and small. What is one thing you think represents the whole brand?
I think it depends. I feel like as a form of expression, the figurines represent it the most, but as far as something is accessible to other people, the clothing probably represents it more. But I think it’s all cohesive, or at least I try to make it cohesive across all these different things, you know, so, I mean just the logo itself is supposed to represent the brand. Then in its simplest form, the logo would be the best representation of the brand.
Not only are you an artist, but you're also promoting your brand as well. What has the support been like?
I’d say it’s been pretty solid. From my last year of college, I took a very independent direction with my classes, one that was focused on developing the brand. And when I did that, I received quite a lot of support from the teachers who were involved. My senior thesis was also supportive and allowed me to go in my direction. The craziest thing that happened in the semester is she ended up setting up a critique for me with Shepard Fairey. It was cool because some of the things that inspired me such as KidRobot– he had personally known the creator of that, Paul Budnitz. He had given some positive feedback and that encouraged me to go forward.
What is the artistic process that goes behind making your Boxhead figurines?
Well, it starts out with the very first steps, like before I create any 3D forms, roughly sketching out what those forms might look like. After I decide the proportions and everything, I use this 3D modeling program on my computer, called Rhino. And then, you know, get the 3D forms on there. The more recent ones have been 3D printed. Afterwards, I will paint over them with acrylic paints.
As an artist and creator, what are some of the ways you use to promote yourself and your content?
I’d say it’s a combination of Instagram, and just making connections with people in person through venues and stuff. Also, word of mouth and friends that I already have coming through and being supportive and stuff like that.
What are some of the future projects that you're planning on?
I definitely want to develop everything and I’m going to continue to do more figurine stuff. I’d really like to figure out different kinds of spaces and expand where my work is being exposed. But I would also like to fix and develop what I’m creating, and I’m going to be making larger figurines that are almost more of a structural object. I’ve been doing these paintings so that’s more gallery oriented. I also plan to develop the clothing side of things and move into the technical side of clothing like silhouettes and menswear and develop it outside of screen-printing embroidery and streetwear. But have a more avant-garde style of clothing if that makes sense.
Ogden Opheim repping Boxhead branded clothing in Brooklyn, NY.
August Quinn or known by his Instagram handle @bozo_207 is another artist whose new Gen Z expressionism have transpired on his large-scale canvas, often with cute ghouls and Nintendo characters.
August Quinn or known by his Instagram handle @bozo_207 is another artist whose new Gen Z expressionism have transpired on his large-scale canvas, often with cute ghouls and Nintendo characters.
He paints what he feels and doesn’t skip a beat on his expression. His early days were graffiti tagging Bozo in the streets of New York and Vancouver; now he’s switched his energy towards his paintings stretching from wall-to-wall in his studio in the Bronx. He’s a prolific gamer and it shows in his art.
What do you think your style of art is?
For each painting that I do I kind of strive to go for a different style based on how I’m feeling. Sometimes, I’ll do a cute painting and sometimes I’ll do a darker painting with a darker tone. I guess I don’t really know how to categorize my work into a genre. I don’t know what it is. But I can tell you what influences my work. My work is inspired by cartoons, toys, video games, Japanese art, expressionism, and just daily life.
What drew you into painting that big piece of Tolstar and Bowser and what was the reasoning behind the large piece?
I wanted to make a piece that was inspired by my childhood. One of my earliest experiences as a human was playing Mario and Luigi Superstar Saga on my Gameboy Advance. I don’t know why. That’s one of my earliest memories. It just is. I think there’s something about the characters in that game that just stand out to me, among all the other Nintendo characters in the world. There’s something very unique about the style or character design in that game that, for some reason, stuck with me and I wanted to make a painting of it. In 2020, I was painting a series of skateboards and the bowser character was one of the characters I made on that skateboard. And I thought that guy deserved to be on a big canvas, not a skateboard.
It seems you draw a lot of your inspiration from Nintendo characters and video games, what is the intention behind that direction??
I think that a lot of people in Gen Z automatically recognize these characters. Painting those characters is a tool to kind of make something to represent what my generation grew up with. I also think it’s a way to recontextualize video game characters and bring them into the fine art world.
You also have a studio in New York City, what has that been like?
It’s been cool. This is the first time in my life I’m able to make large pieces which sort of impacted the way that I work. It feels like a very natural transition for me to be working on large-scale pieces. I don’t feel any resistance to it at all. It just feels good.
What art shows have you done and what has that been like?
I did one in 2019 that I organized, which was fun. It was in the nightclub. I’m organizing a similar thing this year, in a couple of weeks. So, it should be fun. And having artwork not be in a gallery setting but, in a club, somehow makes it more accessible.
What is your thinking behind that? Making them more accessible through showcasing in different settings other than a gallery?
I think so. Going to an art show opening in like a white cube style gallery and everyone’s sitting around talking with their wine cup. It’s still cool to see the work. But obviously, I’m not the first person to showcase artwork in a nightclub, it’s been going on for decades. It’s just a different vibe where there’s some music going on, and people are dancing.
How has being a part of the graff community inspired your style?
I don’t really feel like I’m a part of the graff community honestly. I went through a brief period of two and a half years where I was painting on the streets pretty regularly and that developed my style. It introduced me to using house paint as a medium and taught me how to make work quickly in a short time. Because you do have a limited amount of time to not get caught. I was painting large pieces of graffiti for a while. I’m thinking about getting back into it, but I don’t feel like now is the right time for me.
