By Marcus Franklin
Artist Justin Bua grew up with hip hop in New York in the 1970s and ’80s.
Outside his family’s apartment on Manhattan’s pre-gentrified Upper West Side, graffiti blanketed the landscape, DJs lorded over turntables, MCs moved crowds, and b-boys dazzled spectators with their power moves. ”The b-boys were the biggest influence in so many ways,” Bua said. “Their rhythm was very strong and confident, territorial, clean, hard, stylistic, and graphic. They’re movements paint a picture. I kinda translated those movements into brush strokes.”
And he’s translated those brush strokes into a career in which he’s straddled the fine and commercial art worlds for years: galleries in New York and Los Angeles, among other cities, have exhibited his paintings while retailers such as Burlington Coat Factory and Pier 1 Imports have sold prints and posters of that work. Target has carried posters since 2009
“I think it’s great,” Bua, now 43 and living in Los Angeles, said of his work being sold by retail chains. “If Target can reach people I can’t reach and if it brings people joy by hanging it on the wall, that’s fantastic. I’m all for it. I don’t really feel like there’s too much compromise.”
The images in Bua’s paintings and posters and, earlier in his career, on skateboards and CD covers combine neo-mannerism with what Bua calls distorted urban realism, depicting both the “revered and the marginalized, the heroes and the underdogs” who populated the streets of his childhood neighborhood.
The distortions in scale, elongation of human body limbs, snaking lines, exaggerated postures, rich colors and high stylization at times call to mind the work of the late Ernie Barnes Jr., the African-American figurative painter who is considered the father of neo-mannerism. Barnes probably is best known for his work that appeared in the TV series Good Times and on the cover of Marvin Gayes 1976 album I Want You.
I was very influenced by him early in my career, said Bua, who is Puerto Rican and Jewish, and who watched Good Times a lot while growing up. But it is hip hop culture that continues to dominate the subject of Bua’s work as he expands into other mediums. His second book, “The Legends of Hip Hop,” is a collection of 50 portraits of pioneers such as DJ Kool Herc, Afrika Bambaataa, MC Sha-Roc, Lady Pink, Run-DMC, and Queen Latifah. The book will be released in November by Harper Design.
Also, in July, Bua made his directorial debut with “DMC: Walk This Way,” a documentary about the life of Darryl “DMC” McDaniels of Run-DMC and his battles with alcohol and losing his voice. ”Bua is Hip Hop before Hip Hop became commercial,” DMC said in a statement released through his publicist, Tracey Miller. “His passion and love of the culture shows in his presentation.”
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