Sebastian Curi is an artist based in downtown Los Angeles. He has been creating professional since 2008, and since then, he’s worked with major brands such as Apple, Spotify, The New York Times, The New Yorker, Uber, New Balance, and Zara. We sat down with Sebastian to discuss inspiration, his career thus far, and plans for the year ahead.
When did you first become interested in art?
Forever. When I was a teenager, I used to play guitar, and I had a punk rock band. Music was my thing for a lot of years. And then I started drawing for flyers and stuff like that. Then, I studied motion graphics and video. I’ve always felt attracted to visual arts. At some point, I had to make some money, so I studied graphic design. When we moved from Buenos Aires to LA in 2016, arts looked like a thing that I could do to make a living, so I started drawing more and doing illustration. It was just little by little. It was very organic.
How did you discover your unique style of art?
Kind of in the same way. Most of my work started as a commission. I needed to pay the bills, so I had a job, and I was doing a lot of animation and illustration. As I got older, I felt a bit disconnected. I was just doing massive projects where I wouldn’t feel happy.
I was like, “Okay, let’s do it.” So I started drawing for myself just for fun. At some point, I started finding myself. So I think I found the style because of that, because I was tired of working in commercial projects.The personal work kind of like took me by surprise. Then, I started having commissions for my personal stuff. That was amazing. It was like, “Okay, you want to do stuff, but for my weird drawings, so, cool, let’s do it.” And it grew so much that I got a studio, went freelance, and kept growing.
Did you create with this style since you first started in 2008?
The style is a thing that is always evolving. I wanted to draw people and little moments. I’m not a very serious guy, so it’s always kind of funny or comical or just stupid. That’s something that felt like me. At the beginning it was just people having little moments. Then I think I became interested in working with emotion. Then, sometimes you get curious. I started drawing a lot of gestures, like hand gestures. And that’s what I’m at right now.
Where do you find inspiration?
I have a problem with inspiration. I think there is a big thing with inspiration, like the genius artist and the muse. I come from a different universe. I just come to the studio. I have a practice. I really enjoy my work. I love what I do, but it’s not a thing that it hits me. I get that moment of like eureka or something and I draw hands like crazy. It’s way more slow, maybe were less magical. I just come to the studio, draw a lot every day. At some point, something looks good and I feel that something could be a print or a painting. But, I don’t feel inspiration. It’s really part of my process.
What do you see for the future of your brand?
The last year was crazy. I did this collection with Zara. I never did any fashion stuff outside of a graphic T-shirt. To do a whole collection with a worldwide brand was insane. Most of the work that I do starts with an email. I can’t predict that. It’s just like a person on the other end on some place in the world, that is like, “Hey, this gesture that you did with this hand, it could be perfect for my ___.” I think that’s really nice, and very unexpected. It’s a collaboration, but it’s really based on stuff that I’m doing and I really love. It’s really cool to see how the work that we do here just spreads. I love to come to the studio and do more work.