Stormie Mills Interview (whitehot)

Chris Osburn Interviews Stormie Mills
by Chris Osburn
whitehot Magazine of Contemporary Art
July 2008














Tenacity, humility and belief in the creative process. Think about what you do and make it your own. Following a small component of what you do with the materials you have available may well become a significant component of your work rather than just a nuance. Work hard. It's got to be an obsession, a driving passion. A friend Reg Bolton told me, when I was having a major crisis of direction and confidence, "love what you do, do what you love, the money will follow" for me that's been good advice.

Click here for complete interview.

Chet Zar Interview (whitehot)

Chet Zar's Ugly American @ Strychnin Gallery

by Chris Osburn

whitehot Magazine of Contemporary Art

July 2008

There is no question about it - creating your own artwork for your own exhibition is the best. Nobody is standing over your shoulder and telling you what to create and the success or failure of a show rests entirely on your own ability. Fine art is all about freedom for me and being a cog in the machine on the films of other people is a lot less fulfilling and does not offer much freedom. Once in a while you get to work with a director who actually respects your art (Guillermo Del Toro or Adam Jones on the Tool videos, for example) and lets you really be part of the creative process.

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Chris Osburn Interviews David Choe (whitehot)

Chris Osburn Interviews David Choe
by Chris Osburn
whitehot Magazine of Contemporary Art
April 2008

Anger comes from having giant boils filled with creamy yellow puss on your face that won't go away when you're in high school, so a girl would never even consider touching any part or anywhere near your penis, when that is all you want and desire - for someone to touch, or accidentally bump into your stiff pubescent cock, and so you look like a MUTANT and why you relate to the X-MEN, and then you start to draw the X-Men, and then you get really good at it, and the girls still won't look at you, but at least they'll look at your art, which of course has a million lines and details, because everything you lack in composition and anatomy and perspective you make up with obsessive details, which is fine, because the longer they stare at the art, the longer you can look down their blouse and catch whiffs of their beautiful hair. God still gives me spots once in a while to keep me humble.

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Interview with Chris Von Steiner's Snow King (whitehot)

Chris Von Steiner's Snow King
by Chris Osburn
whitehot Magazine of Contemporary Art
April 2008










My influences are all very different. It depends on the show that I am working on. For The Snow King, I drew from Disney for the snow. I really like the winter scene in Bambi. I also went to museums and studied the Old Masters, such as Rubens. One artist who especially inspired me was John Singer Sargent because he painted a lot of portraits. He wasn't classified with the impressionists, but his kind of painting is kind of between impressionism and realism. With this show, I tried to translate vector illustration with what he did with oil.

Click here for complete interview.

Strychnin Gallery's Fusion 5 Festival in Cannes (whitehot)

Fusion 5 Festival
by Chris Osburn
whitehot Magazine of Contemporary Art
March 2008










Despite the dark overtones ever present in much of their collective work, the group of artists represented by Strychnin Gallery are a merry bunch. And who can blame them for their glee, especially when the gallery ships 'em off for a dirty weekend in Cannes for the first (but probably not the last) Fusion 5 Festival? For those not fortunate enough to attend, Fusion 5 – hosted by Strychnin Gallery – was an amazing event, featuring twenty artists and fifteen musicians/DJs from five continents, all converging upon the design fabulous 3.14 Hotel located along the world famous Croisette.

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Sickboy Interview for Whitehot Magazine of Contemporary Art

Sickboy Interview
Words and photography by Chris Osburn
whitehot magazine of contemporary art
February 2008










Being a frustrated teenager, I needed an outlet other than drug experimentation, and graffiti was a very enticing world. Manchester at the time had a strong scene with Hulme and a lot of tagging going on. It just seemed a little edgier than art class.

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Strychnin Gallery Interview for Whitehot Magazine

Interview with Yasha Young of Strychnin Gallery
Chris Osburn
whitehot magazine of contemporary art
December 2007

















... once dreams come true they do not always turn out the way we hoped to - and how difficult it all can be and will be and the idea of what happens when parents leave the room and we are left alone with the monsters under out beds and the ghosts on the ceilings and the whispers in the closet?

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Invisible Art Club Interview for Whitehot Magazine

Chris Osburn Interviews the Invisible Art Club

Chris Osburn
whitehot magazine of contemporary art
December 2007













The Invisible Art Club is a group of individuals with a shared love of art. Our common link is a connection to graffiti and street art. From graf writers who started 20 years ago and are still going strong, to artists who have hung up their spray cans and moved on to other mediums to artists from a more traditional background who simply happen to hang out with a lot of street artists. With our wide range of influences and experience, we bring fresh styles and perspectives to the print world.

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Tek33 Interview for Whitehot Magazine

Chris Osburn Interviews Tek33
Chris Osburn

whitehot magazine of contemporary art
October 2007













I spend all day making art indoors on canvas to go on show in galleries around the world, so that's all good and positive but on the way home from drinking or for a fun adventure when I'm sober my passion is to paint graffiti in traditional New York subway based styles. It's not for sale, just pure passion.

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D*Face Interview for whitehot

Chris Osburn interviews D*Face
by Chris Osburn
whitehot magazine of contemporary art
July 2007









A spot had been spied, and the only way to hit it was around the outside of a stairwell that had steel bars, in a cage-like structure covering it. To get to the spot, you had to shimmy along the outer railings which overhung the frozen canal, then up a few flights of stairs. Fine on the way up, but coming back down with paste-covered frozen hands was another story. Climbing around and along the railings, each shimmy made my hands slip further and further downwards to the point I was hunched up in a near ball-like posture and had to take a leap of faith for the canal wall.

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Cyclops Interview for whitehot

Chris Osburn interviews Cyclops
by Chris Osburn (with photography by Marta Abalau)
whitehot magazine of contemporary art
May 2007










I like painting on the street because there's more democracy. You can just do your thing; you don't have to pay for gallery space or be curated or any of that. You just do your thing, where you like, how you like, and then it's out there. You haven't been paid and anyone can fuck it up or be inspired on the way to work by what you've made. And, once it's up, that's it: It doesn't belong to you any more.

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SWEET TOOF interview for Whitehot Magazine

Chris Osburn interviews SWEET TOOF
by Chris Osburn
whitehot magazine of contemporary art
April 2007















I got into it after watching a film called “Style Wars” by Henry Chalfant, also “Beat Street” and the book Subway Art are to blame. When I started I was into letter forms and characters. Years ago it would be skinny cap tags; today, it’s fat cap. When I started, the paint was thinner and today the paint can cover most surfaces. I still do the odd letter form piece, but now I’m more interested in what I can get my teeth into … also working with cut outs and paste-ups.

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Nature’s CCTV Cameras (or Chris Osburn interviews Dscreet)

I recently got a gig writing for whitehot magazine of contemporary art, a monthy online magazine. Here's a link to an article I wrote for them about London-based artist, Dscreet.

Nature’s CCTV Cameras (or Chris Osburn interviews Dscreet)
by Chris Osburn
whitehot magazine of contemporary art
March 2007










When painting owls in public spaces, Dscreet aims to have passers-by feel as if they are being watched by the very paintings they notice. According to Dscreet, “Owls are like nature’s CCTV cameras … a projection of my own paranoia.” Interestingly, Dscreet’s projection of paranoia is at once cheery and stern. His owls are large and colorful. Their unflinching (and unblinking) gaze creates an eerie presence that demands attention. To see them evokes the suspicion that a magic realm of wonder exists – even amid otherwise urban landscape.

Click here for complete article.