DUBOSKI ART COLLAB CO-FOUNDER AND CONTRIBUTOR
Warhol, Haring, Basquiat.............McFly???
In less than a month, visual artist and musician, Sheefy McFly will make his Los Angeles debut in an exhibit plainly titled, “Sheefy: 3 weeks in LA.” When I pressed Sheefy to ask him if he would like to name it something a little catchier, he said, “Why not call it like it is?”
And indeed, Sheefy is right, his work speaks for itself. A Detroit native, Sheefy’s visual art no doubts pays homage to pop art gods such Warhol and Haring, and absolutely finds inspiration in the work of master surrealists such as Dali, and Picasso, but the result is something positively original and deeply relevant.
While Sheefy formally studied art in collage and post-graduate school, Sheefy is notably not part of the academy. He has larger-than-life personas and wears many hats including painter, muralist, fashion designer, rapper, producer, and DJ. Yet, miraculously, Sheefy is one of the lest-pretentious artists one will ever meet.
Sheefy’s love for creating mural art speaks to his deep desire to share his art with the city and people who helped shape his worldview. The tension in his work was poetically highlighted just this past summer, when Sheefy was arrested by Detroit police for painting a mural that was commissioned and paid for by that very same city. His experience influences his method and aesthetic. It is improvisational, bold, sensual, and works to give representation to the black body and form in unconventional ways. Sheefy was previously quoted as saying that, “I feel like I’m
drawing black people; thick noses, big lips — you feel me? It’s such a colorful twist that people aren’t thinking about [the race of the subjects] when they look at it.”
Who is Sheefy McFly? He is quite possibly the important new emerging artist and he’s coming to Los Angeles.
