An interdisciplinary artist currently based in London, Usamah Kises work combines illustration, mixed media, fashion, photography, and many other aspects influenced by an early love of graffiti. We sat down with Kise to hear more about the inspirations, processes, and development of his career that is spiraling into one of success and notoriety. Throughout the conversation, it became clear that the main goals and motivations behind his work are not led selfishly, rather, with the intention of bringing light to the barriers societal expectations and prejudices create between people. Kises work is an exemplary example of showing how the artists role in society can be beneficial for challenging discriminatory narratives through visual formats.
Where did you grow up and how has this environment impacted your art style?
I was born and raised in Nottingham, and I moved to London about eight or nine years ago. Nottingham is quite a small place in comparison to London, so Id see a lot of graffiti street art on my route to school and on the way home over the weekend. Because its such a small place a lot of it felt quite condensed because theres quite a lot of it and wasnt spread out. I was constantly being exposed to it which I think subconsciously impacted and influenced me without even realising it. A lot of people dont seem to notice it when they walk past and just see it as a picture, but I dont know, Ive always been drawn to it and the story behind it. Like, how did the person get there, when did they do it, how did they plan it? Ive always felt there was more to it.
What would you say are the main factors such as music, artists etc. that have been most influential to your practice?
For me Im a huge lover of hip-hop and all the different elements that come within hip-hop whether thats DJing, break-dancing, or graffiti. It was how I fell in love with graffiti and art and listening to 80s and 90s hip-hop. Its been such a massive influence on me and still continues to be in my work even now.
I dont really look at artists, I try to kind of stay away from looking at them too much because I dont want to be influenced. I like to have everything I do be one hundred percent from me and from my development as an artist. I am aware of what is happening; what galleries are showing what, where people are painting in terms of graffiti. So, Im always tapped into the scene, but Im in more of the background. I kind of just like to do my own thing, which I think thats stemmed from my graffiti days. Its important to show that you are an individual and are original because street art has become so popular recently in the last five or six years. We see more and more people embracing this style, but they are doing it based off what they see online and lack their own journey to it.
Ive noticed that much of your early work is wildstyle graffiti based in various urbanised environments, how did you become interested in this style and what were your intentions, if any?
At the time I just loved painting graffiti. About five or six years ago it was something I would do every weekend; it wasnt something I did for a career or with any hopes to have a job from it. I did it purely because it was something I loved. It gave me the chance to travel across the UK and Europe, meet all types of people and paint in all these different places. So, I felt like even though I had the option to paint in these places, I also got an understanding of different cultures, types of people, and backgrounds. Regardless, I always did it with the intention of doing it for the love of it, not for anything else. Everything that has come from it has been a blessing, but the fact that Ive been able to paint just for the love of it is enough for me, I dont really need much more than that. Looking back on a piece that Ive done is always a nice feeling because I can say, yeah, I did that
When did you realise you were passionate about multidisciplinary arts and wanted to take this passion further into a career?
To be honest, Ive always been pretty creative since I was young. Ive always been drawing I remember when I was about six years old copying The Simpsons, you know, cartoons and stuff. Ive always been involved in some kind of creative activity, and as Ive grown up and gotten older, Ive had the opportunity to explore different areas of that, whether thats graphic design, photography, fine art or graffiti. Ive been really fortunate with my upbringing and where I come from, as Ive had the opportunity to immerse myself in all these different elements and incorporate them into my work. As a result of this, I feel like my work is so distinct; its because Ive incorporated a lot of different disciplines into it.
What has been the most difficult thing about pursuing a creative career?
Just believing in yourself. Youll always have people telling you that your work is great and that youre going to go far, but it doesnt matter unless you believe in yourself and that you know youre good enough. Its so easy to get imposter syndrome and feel like youre not up there with these other artists in galleries. Just because your work isnt in a high-end gallery doesnt mean that your work isnt good enough to be in one. The thing with the art world is that a lot of it is about your name so you could have a lot of great work, but if youre not known in the scene its a lot more difficult to get those opportunities. Just believing in yourself is probably the biggest thing for me. Ive always doubted my abilities, but Id say in the past maybe two years is when I came to the realisation that I am good enough to be up there with these big artists and be on the scene, so I just needed to embrace that. Since then, things have only been getting better, so I feel like that is the key to a lot of success; just having faith in yourself.
It is my understanding you moved to London to study MA Design for Communication has this move changed your creative interests? If so, to what?
I would say it influenced me in the sense that I learned a lot about the history of graphic design. It gave me the opportunity to learn a lot about typography, composition, image placement, which has been emerging in my work a lot more recently. Particularly typography. Coming from a graffiti background its always been something Ive been interested in, but never really had the chance to learn the more traditional side of things.
Typography, in the sense of graffiti, is how I started my career. Its what Im from, its all I know really. So, its why I decided to develop that knowledge because I know its an element of my work that I will never get rid of. Whether its graffiti, typography, or just letters in general, Ill always have it in my work. Studying was the option to gain more knowledge on the history and tradition side of things theres a lot of rules when it comes to typography and design in general; you shouldnt do this, you shouldnt do that. With my work I do the opposite, Im trying to show people you dont always have follow the rules of design to make good work.
Your work is full of energy and in a way feels like the portrait collages are blended with the warped and unique shapes associated with earlier graffiti murals. How has your work progressed from murals to collage illustrations?
Having all these areas of design that I worked and was interested in, I felt like I was spreading myself too thin. It got to a point where I just wanted to put it all into one piece and combine all these different elements. Some would argue these different elements shouldnt be together. For instance, graffiti and photography; they are very different and have such different qualities, but, why not? Why not put them together? This is really what Ive been focusing on and exploring now.
For the past few years, Ive been focusing a lot more on working with galleries and establishing a network with them. When painting graffiti I never had an opportunity to show my work in exhibitions and shows, so I wanted a chance to do something a bit different. My introduction into the gallery scene started by painting my wild styles on canvases, which slowly developed and saw the introduction of typography, photography, and building up these elements on canvases until it got to a point where I was happy with it.
What is it about portraiture and mixed media that you enjoy the most?
With mixed media, I love having all these different textures and elements within the piece. I love painting and using single mediums but, for me, I kind of get a bit bored doing that. I thrive from having more in there. In my pieces you will see photography, spray paint, oil paint, oil pastel, pencil; theres so many different elements that every time you look youll see something different and notice something new. You see pieces within a piece. What I said earlier about combining different disciplines of design which maybe shouldnt be together, the same goes for materials as well. Like, maybe oil pastels shouldnt be with spray paint, but, why not? If it looks good, why shouldnt we do it? There are no rules to art and design, and I think people are sometimes too strict with it and I want to go against that.
I like to work with faces and portraiture a lot because I like to try and work to improve what the state of representation looks like in our society. I feel like a lot of the time we are told or shown how to look whether thats influences on social media, magazines, whatever that may be so with my work I like to try and challenge that by showing people that maybe you dont have to look like that to be beautiful. Beauty is subjective, and thats what I try to do with the portraiture in my work.
I believe that the role of the artist is to tell society what it pretends it doesnt know. Im trying to show people and get them to open their eyes a bit more. Im sure we all feel inferior to people, and we fear and envy them, and it shouldnt be like that. I feel like my work critiques these parts of society and I want my work to basically call for a revolution against it, to liberate people from stereotypes and oppression. I know it sounds crazy, but this is why Im so passionate about my work, its because I believe in it and the message behind it. I feel like that is my motivation behind my work as well; to just keep challenging society, what we know and what we see, and to present people with something different, something they can relate to a bit more.
Having worked on projects such as #TiedTogether, and Pride, Pole & Prejudice which have ties to political and social issues, do you feel a sense of responsibility for using your art as a means of providing a platform for key movements?
The #TiedTogether campaign a couple of years ago, was put together by The Business of Fashion to call out the fashion industry because they were only using certain types of models within their catwalks and promotional marketing. They were excluding a lot of ethnic minorities, so they created this campaign called Tied Together where you would wear a white bandanna to show support. I worked with them to create a series of digital collages with these white bandannas and, of course, the models included in my work were minorities. Its very similar to the ideology behind my personal work, which is to challenge stereotypes and mass ideologies.
The same with Pride, Pole & Prejudice, pole dancing is often seen as a negative stereotype within society, everybody just associates it with certain things. People dont realise how hard it is and how much of a skill it takes. It was a great opportunity and was something different in terms of subject matter for me, but the mindset and narrative was still there for challenging what people think. I feel I have a strong platform and I should use that to give a voice to the voiceless. As a creative and an artist, its my job to almost disrupt society and be there for the minorities and smaller groups of people who dont always have their voices heard. So, when I work on certain projects and campaigns, I dont always say yes to every project if it doesnt fit my beliefs and ideologies, but I felt like those two projects were perfect for what I believed in.
Looking through your body of work, I notice you have completed few projects based in fashion - such as Africa Fashion Week 2017 and a swimwear collection for INTROE in 2020 is this something you have always wanted to do and what do you enjoy most about these collaborations?
I enjoy working with fashion a lot, theres a lot of scope for creativity. With the style of my work the elements of street art, graffiti, more roughness, and griminess its kind of what is being seen a lot in fashion today, like with Gucci and Louis Vuitton who work with street artists on their campaigns. I think naturally my work fits in there really well. A couple of my family members have a strong fashion background; my grandma was the first woman in Nottingham to open an Asian boutique in the sixties. So, Ive always had an interest in fashion, and Ive been fortunate that Ive been able to discover how I can combine my graffiti and my art with the fashion world. It wasnt an easy transition, because they are very different, but now that Ive worked on a couple of campaigns in fashion I can do some more hopefully. Its something I want to continue exploring, because I feel there is so much I could do with it.
Where do you hope to go next in your art career? Do you have any exciting projects lined up we should be on the lookout for?
I recently moved into my new studio in London, which is a lot bigger now, so it gives me an opportunity to be more consistent with my work and to try new things. Consistency is what youll be getting. Im hoping by the end of this year or in the first couple of months of 2023 that I have my first solo show. I also want to start exploring some more disciplines within art, bringing in animation and motion design into my collages. Also working with some 3D artists and combining my work that way. Its mainly just more experimentation and to continue pushing my narrative and challenging society.
