Art Hound

After taking a long hiatus, Buy Some Damn Art is back! Today we have a new show by Najee Wilson, an artist, designer, model, musician and personal friend. We met years ago working in the same wallpaper studio and hit it off from day one. Najee is one of the nicest souls you will ever meet and somehow finds ways to be creative and contemplative in every aspect of his life. It is a real honor to be able to bring Najee’s mixed-media art out of his Brooklyn studio for the first time and in front of an (online) audience.  

The pieces I’m presenting find their inspirations in old world technique and craft such as marbling, fabric dying and kintsugi (the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with lacquer mixed with fine metals). Highly Viscous/Various Materials is a series of patch-worked objects and mixed-media fine art pieces that highlight decay and ephemerality. I wanted to show the beauty in imperfection and subtle variations in material and application. Each piece explores how beauty can be created by employing irregularity and free flowing chaos.

What do you hope comes across to online viewers?
That true beauty can exists in imperfection, the subtle otherness.

How did you end up working with such time-intensive, hands-on materials?
Growing up I loved working with my hands, really getting elbow deep into the creative process. These days I fill my spare time creating little tiny moments that I later string together in my art. I took to fabric manipulation, sewing, dying and distressing early on to add a unique look to the fabrics of my life. The patchwork leatherwork is inspired by the many quilts that my family matriarchs created. Those quilts featured found fabrics and were imperfectly pieced and sewn by hand with utilitarian mends in places. I loved that the years of use and mending became a part of their design aesthetic.  

Why is making art important to you?
It’s all about raw expression, for me the act of creation is like a meditation. I find tranquility in myself during my creative process.  

Your work flows in so many directions – music, modeling, design, art. how do you make time and space (and energy) for so many different things?

Every way in which I go about expressing myself brings me newfound strength and energy. Honestly, I just do what makes me happy. When I’m making art I am certainly not thinking about making art, my mind simply wanders. I feel that everything I do and have the pleasure of seeing inspires possible outcomes for my work. As a fine art muse, I’ve learned that the artist’s canvas is like the mirror that does not lie. Musing is a silent collaboration between artist and model where my presence, movement, proportion and gaze could inspire a masterpiece for said artist. This act, for me, is incredibly vulnerable and powerful, all in the same. To inspire, to be, to think, to do, to listen is what makes an artist. Every method of expression presents me with a new opportunity to learn something from myself all while sharing that perspective.

What’s next? or tell us about a fantasy project. 
I am currently in the process of writing and recording new music which I am excited about. I am preparing to release a new single add music video at the beginning of the New Year under the moniker Taupe Sounds. Sonically my music exists in a R&B space, but I am influenced by many genres.