Freddy Diaz, Malt, Bearlobos & Rick Brown
Tead One Artist in Residence
August 13 - September 11, 2021
Reception: 8/13, 6 - 9 PM
M Contemporary Art is pleased to announce the TEAD One Artist In Residence, a group exhibition of hand painted works by Freddy Diaz, MALT, BEARLOBOS, and Rick Brown, opening August 13, 2021. The title of the exhibition acknowledges the TEAD One Artist in Residence program organized by the family of Jordan Vaughn, also known as TEAD One, in partnership with the Dearborn Community Fund, and hosted by Fishnet Artist Studios in Dearborn, Michigan.
Works showing in this exhibition were created by the artist while attending the residency. The exhibition is curated by gallery owner Melannie Chard.
The TEAD One Memorial Fund is a non-profit 501(c)(3) founded in January 2021 by the family of Jordan Vaughn, aka TEAD One, to honor his memory and continue his artistic legacy.
“The residence program was founded to promote and strengthen a diverse culture of art in the community by fostering a creative, supporting environment for adult emerging artists to develop new work and creatively explore new ideas. Resources include a dedicated studio space to concentrate on creative work, a stipend to help with art supplies and a platform to exhibit and/or demonstrate work at the conclusion of a three month residency.”
The Artists
FREDDY DIAZ was born in Detroit Michigan. From a first generation familywith parents who immigrated to Detroit, a big motivation for Freddy has been his aspiration to succeed. With the pressure of parents who spent most of his childhood working multiple jobs to make ends meet, Freddy was compelled to choose a career after graduating high school. Detroit public schools are a tough environment to really envision a future as an artist but when he began to do small projects for local businesses in Southwest Detroit it began to become more real. "Every business owner was different, ran things differently and the beauty of my job was that I would get a page out of each and every owners book to apply to my own book. It was like going to business school for free." says Diaz. With the help of the community Freddy has been able to branch out to work with companies such as General Motors, Ernst & young, Lear Corp, Adidas, and travel to paint in countries such as Italy, France, Portugal, Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Cuba, Colombia, and Mexico. Although he is known for his graffiti background he is always open to applying himself to new mediums and changing his process. "Every project is different so I try to learn from each one and take as much as I can give to each." No matter the medium his work tends to share a story and he hopes to inspire the next generation of creatives in Southwest Detroit and all around the world.
RICK BROWN is a self-taught oil painter based in Detroit, Michigan. His work attempts to illuminate everyday life, the people he loves, and places within the city. With a history of writing graffiti in his youth, he has followed a path to finding new appreciation of things forgotten, abandoned or ordinary. He found himself experimenting by drawing/painting with uncommon materials and attempting to capture temporary moments with a camera, the philosophies of which brought him to confront the challenge of oil paint. For the last six years some of his best moments in life have come from the very present state of painting observationally. This is a meditation, a process of pushing paint and translating color relationships until the forms represent the images that most move him as the artist.
MALT is a self-taught artist, working and living in Metro-Detroit. Working in both aerosol and acrylic painting techniques, Malt explores themes of nature across a broad body of work. From large scale murals and installations to intimate studio work, Malt focuses on the juxtapositions posed by nature — life/death, growth/decay, strength/weakness. Growing up in the Detroit area, Malt began his career as an artist through his passion for skateboarding, graffiti and music. Influenced by the bold lines of graffiti and skateboard graphics, Malt re-imagines natural landscapes and the characters that inhabit them, building from vivid backdrops to create other-worldly scenes.
With each process I always work from a basic concept or idea but I truly enjoy the path of the unknown, working without restrictions. I start with the idea and a basic sketch, then I lay down a background. From there I go on the adventure the brush or the can of spray paint takes me. — MALT
ROBERTO VILLALOBOS known as BEARLOBOS, was born in SW Detroit in the late seventies and spent his early years accessing art by virtue of his environment, learning graffiti from mentors like Fel 3000 Ft and immersing himself in the music and dance of not only his Mexican roots but also the newly emerging hip hop culture. As he developed, his studies led him to Wayne State University and eventually Columbia College Chicago, an independent college specializing in art and media disciplines, where he cultivated an expertise in graphic design. In 2001, Roberto was hand-picked to join the Rocawear clothing design team in New York City, where he had the fortuitous opportunity to merge his love for the unique culture of his inner city upbringing with the skills he honed training in art and design. His career over the next 15+ years included design work for Aeropostale, Puma, Gap kids, and most recently a feature for the Artist Series at Brooklyn Industries, all the while maintaining the passion for the street art and illustration he cultivated as a young man in Southwest. He always kept close ties with his hometown, and when the opportunity arose to return in 2017 he relocated and has begun making his mark in Detroit again. From developing gallery shows with his vast network of fellow artists and musicians, to creating & selling his illustrations, participating in local street/art fairs, and not to mention his prolific photography of the surrounding urban landscape, Roberto is diving back in to his hometown happenings with the singular passion of a prodigal son who is ready to put his worldly experience to work.