7

Thursday, May 25, 2017

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com ARTS

StudioWOS: A boundary-less artist aims to #RemixTheWorld

By SAL DIGIOIA

Daily Arts Writer 

Being a visual artist has never 

been tougher than it is today, with 
the internet and social media offering 
audiences constant distractions. Yet, 
for Nicholas Osella, a recent graduate 
from the University of Texas at Aus-
tin, the field’s new challenges repre-
sent opportunities for reinvention. 
Working under the alias StudioWOS, 
Osella creates unique collages that 
remix the world according to his own 
imagining, sometimes even using ele-
ments of popular culture.

“Nowadays, it’s incredibly hard 

to even get one person’s attention,” 
said WOS. “I constantly take that as 
a challenge to be the loudest voice in 
the room.”

Through email exchanges and a 

phone conversation, the Michigan 
Daily spoke with StudioWOS about 
his creative process, artistic evolution 
and most recent magazine, MAGNO-
LiA. Excerpts of the conversations 
can be seen below.

***
When did you first start thinking of 

yourself as an artist?

“I’ve always filled sketchbooks 

and pursued a lifestyle of an artist. It 
kind of just came naturally. In high 
school I often thought about what I 
would do in college — would I pursue 
a degree in art or study some other 
field that could provide me with com-
fort? Long story short, I went with 
the latter and fell into graphic design. 
The experience I gained has abso-
lutely influenced my style. Especially 
in my recent work, I’ve taken a more 
‘designerly’ way of thinking.”

You seem willing to express yourself 

through infinite types of mediums. Did 

you always view art as such a border-
less process?

“It was last year, around the sum-

mer, that I realized I can’t make 
everything perfect. I started painting 
on chairs with some of my friends — 
that eventually led to me finding TVs, 
clothes, mannequins and buying stuff 
specifically to paint on. I’d spend five 
minutes painting on something with 
the goal of not spending multiple 
hours on making a line perfect. I just 
wanted to have fun again. It’s still 
probably the most fun I’ve ever had 
as an artist.

I think allowing myself to actu-

ally express myself honestly and be 
organic in my process has tapped into 
some weird subconscious process 
that is really interesting to see come 
through after such a long time of forc-
ing myself onto these 3x4’ canvases.”

Your older work is more cartoon-

ish than the more recent stuff. Is ani-
mation a style of storytelling that you 
were particularly focused on? I noticed 
the The Assassination of Animation 
Zine (published in 2013) while scrolling 
through your Instagram.

“In my freshman year of high 

school, one of my best friends had 
just died, and I was really struggling 
to find myself. The characters I drew 
around that time helped me cope 
with the changing of scenery. They 
let me talk about things I wouldn’t 
have been able to without them — 
death, happiness, love — all things I 
was really passionate about, but too 
timid to show.

I don’t really rely on them any-

more, since I’ve been getting more in 
front of my work and trying to put my 
face first. (But) even though I don’t 
use them, I haven’t lost my ability 
to tell stories or create narratives — 
that’s still really present in my work.”

Your recent work feels more modern 

than illustrations alone could. How is it 
different approaching a photograph of 
a celebrity as opposed to working with 
a truly blank page?

“I usually warm up by drawing on 

blank pieces of paper. I’ll cut them out 
of my sketchbook and just numb my 
brain to some music and see where 
that takes me. After, I’ll start work-
ing up to remixing photographs and 
sewing, but it just takes a different 
muscle to do all of that work. I love 
working on each of them and I take 
great pride in my sketches. Most of 
the time, though, it’s much easier to 
show a picture of Kendrick Lamar 
and have people immediately asso-
ciate with that. That’s just common 
human behavior.”

What was it like to work on a project 

as grand as MAGNOLiA? It seems like 
you both created a magazine and re-
approached it afterward.

“What’s weird is that MAGNOLiA 

was never really supposed to happen; 
De (the photographer/stylist) and I 
met to just take pictures of me work-
ing in my room. I thought the pictures 
would be cool, but then it turned 
into this huge thing. I asked if he’d 
be interested in doing a zine and he 
agreed. I spent another month work-
ing and re-working, and came out 
with a zine that has 40 pages. It was 
a really organic process — I worked 
on the pictures at night, failed a few 
tests. I really took my time on each 
spread. If something was forced, or 
wasn’t working, I moved on to the 
next.

After I finished the book, I didn’t 

really know what to do with it. I 
showed it to De and a few other peo-
ple, but part of me thinks that I made 
it for myself. I’d love to do something 
similar for someone else — a musician 
or photographer. If I had all the time 
in the world, and a full arsenal of sup-
plies, I could probably take over the 
world. Remix the world!”

You told Study Breaks: “Now (art-

ists) have to make something that elic-
its a specific response, something that 
engages a little more directly. Some-
thing that makes someone say, ‘I would 
destroy a TV to cover it in that thing. 
I’d wear it to a concert. I’d wear it to a 
fashion show.’”

A lot of artists probably view that 

as a negative, but you seem like an out-
lier to that mentality, a creative who 
is inspired by the challenge of people’s 
shorter attention spans.

“As an artist, it’s my job to chal-

lenge the viewer’s sense of reality. 
If you think about what was going 
around in the 1950’s and ‘60s, art-
ists constantly re-invented how art 
could be perceived. Pop Art, Abstract 

Expressionism — I mean all of that 
shit was their way of taking the world 
around them and putting it in a way 
you could kind of understand. I love 
that.

I think we need to realize that 

technology is going to be changing 
not just interpersonal connections, 
but like, the landscape of human 
behavior. And with that, art will 
one hundred percent change. We’re 
already not going to galleries. If we 
are, it’s so people can see us going to 
galleries.

It’s disheartening, but if we’re not 

taking these as challenges to work 
other angles, then would you really 
consider yourself with the likes of 
Warhol or Jackson Pollack? Meet 
the problem with an answer— or 
die. “Create, or Die” is something my 
friends and I say a lot.”

Some of your most recent pieces 

have involved remixing photographs 
of famous hip-hop personalities, while 
some of your favorite artists have 
strong connections to streetwear. Do 
you think that artists are empowered 
through these less conventional col-
laborations, since the final products 
can sometimes gain attention from a 
larger, more diverse audience?

“I’d agree with you, but that was 

never how I looked at beginning this 
series. Earlier this year, around Feb-
ruary, I started remixing big books 
and magazines to just see what that 
was like. I used an Hermes catalog as 
a sketchbook for about half a year. I’d 
paint inside of it, chain stitch inside, 
tape pieces of paper to existing pieces. 
I tore that book apart and by the end it 
didn’t even look like an Hermes cata-
log. That’s where I started.

Around the time GunnerStahl 

started getting more recognized, I 
started printing out his photos and 
using them. The first one I did was a 
picture of A$AP Rocky, and I’ve done 
a lot of Gunner’s pictures since. His 
style is incredible. When I first start-
ed to post them on Twitter, people 

actually started fucking with them. 
Turns out, when you put music and 
art together, people actually like it a 
lot. Just another problem I met with 
an answer.

What artists like the GONZ do for 

brands like Supreme is to have them 
associate with the culture around art. 
Take the skateboard brand Illegal 
Civilization — all of the graphics are 
made by one guy, Ryder McLaugh-
lin. He has a crazy style that people 
recognize. I don’t know if that’s what 
makes them successful, but it works 
for their brand.”

You also told Study Breaks that 

you’re “focused on turning Studio-
WOS into a brand.” Do you mean that 
you literally want to push StudioWOS 
clothing in the future, or are you just 
speaking on the brand-i-fication of art 
that has occurred in the digital age, 
and the new ways that artists are being 
forced to market themselves?

“Let me start by saying, Lil Yachty 

is one of the most interesting people 
on the planet. I’ve heard him inter-
view a few times on the process of 
turning himself into a brand — the 
stories about him dyeing his hair red, 
or (deciding) to only wear Nautica 
clothing. Now we immediately asso-
ciate these things with him. What-
ever game we’re all playing, he won.

I saw this going on and I thought, 

fuck, that’s amazing, I can do that too. 
I started thinking about how I could 
make myself and StudioWOS into 
a brand that people could identify 
with. I started painting on my clothes 
and creating more and more new art. 
What I’ve been pushing a lot is kind of 
just the name. Call it brand recogni-
tion, call it whatever you want, that’s 
the most important thing right now.

But you’re right, artists are now 

having to market themselves to get 
noticed. I wish that wasn’t the case 
— we lose such creativity when we 
have to force people into boxes. I 
guess whatever is easier for people, 
y’know?”

 ARTIST PROFILE

COURTESY OF NICHOLAS OSELLA

Mac DeMarco outlined by sunshine.

COURTESY OF NICHOLAS OSELLA

A collage of Kendrick Lamar.

