Adrian Gazcon’s art is just as much about where he came from as where he is headed.
A potential taste of his future came in September, when his work hung on the wall of a pop-up art gallery during New York Fashion Week. The pop-up was curated by New York City-based street artist Hidji World and hosted by Ksubi, an Australian fashion label.
“I submitted and I didn’t even know I got chosen,” said Gazcon, who didn’t see the initial email alerting him he was a top-40 finalist. “(When) I saw the top 10 (email), I’m like, ‘What? This isn’t for real.’”
“I told my friends I’m going to New York. I don’t care, this doesn’t happen. This isn’t common around here. It was something I could never imagine.”
The event, held from Sept. 7 to 11, was to announce a new collection from Hidji and Ksubi titled “Family and Friends,” which focused on experiences in the schoolyard and childhood innocence, according to an article in Modern Notoriety. The clothing would feature Ksubi’s shapes and design paired with the vibrant work of Hidji.
Gazcon, 22, was one of 10 artists from around the world selected for the gallery. His piece, titled “Paranoia,” also drew from childhood nostalgia and experiences and depicts Courage from the cartoon “Courage the Cowardly Dog” in a distorted manner.
“The cartoons that I’ve been painting are kind of like a representation of my childhood, anxiety and things that I dealt with,” he said. “The ‘Paranoia’ one was based off anxiety (because), obviously, Courage is a very anxious character. I kind of related to that as a little kid. I’m just going back to my childhood and re-imagining things.”
Growing up, Gazcon typified himself as a bit of an outcast.
“Coming up as an artist here in Logansport, especially in a school, I felt like I never really fit in,” he said. “I was always an artistic kid. I didn’t really have people to relate to me as an artist. I’m talking about art and it’s not really a common thing around here.”
His first painting was of Clifford the Big Red Dog when he was 5 years old. He said his mom laminated it and kept it. When he came across it recently, he realized how the work then was less about perfect techniques and more about capturing the feelings of his current self.
“There’s no right or wrong answer. It’s just whatever I feel, it goes on to the painting,” he said.
That thinking has led him to his current artistic style, which he describes as a mix of cubism, neo-expressionism and freestyling. His favorite artists include Jean-Michel Basquiat, George Kondo, Frida Kahlo, Picasso and Aztec art.
“I’m the student, and they’re all my teachers teaching me,” he said. “I just gather all the influence and reimagine how I would want to see it onto a canvas.”
As a senior studying New Media, Art, and Technology (NMAT) at Indiana University Kokomo, he said he usually doesn’t plan out a piece before creating it. His focus is on being present in the moment and letting his hands travel where they want on a canvas, while keeping close attention to the elements of his piece.
“I just go onto a blank canvas and freestyle,” he said. “Whatever comes to my mind, I’m just like ‘OK, this goes here.’ It’s like my mind automatically knows what to do, and I’m just going with the flow. That was like my thesis for my senior gallery exhibition. Just based off of tapping into the subconscious.
“I focus on just the basic elements: color, lines, shape, texture. When you put it all together, it becomes larger than it is.”
His path to becoming an artist wasn’t an easy choice. As the first person in his family to go to college, he felt pressured when deciding what to do and what to commit to.
“When I got into college, I didn’t really know what to do,” Gazcon said. “I was kind of lost. I’m the first one to go to college, so everything was new to me. Everybody’s going into regular stuff like (becoming a) lawyer (or) doctor, the common route that most people go.”
“I want to be an artist, but I’m from Indiana. No one’s going to care. Like, I don’t have connections. I don’t know how I’m going to do it.”
He began as an NMAT major before switching to general studies. While in general studies, he realized his passion still resided in being an artist and he switched back, even though he was still concerned about making the jump to being a full-time artist.
Gazcon began researching art history and philosophy.
“Those are the things that I’ve always loved since a little kid, philosophy especially, and learning how to make my art conceptual and have a purpose,” he said. “I told myself if this is going to be my life, I’m going to have to make sacrifices, just be in my studio all day.”
That work paid off when he was chosen for the pop-up gallery.
He was heavily influenced by artist collectives, such as New York-based rap group A$AP Mob and AWGE — the latter of which was started by A$AP Rocky and includes Hidji.
“I never had any examples of other artists or little communities of artists (here), so when you go to New York and you see huge murals, a bunch of artists, (I thought) ‘this is amazing,’” he said.
Gazcon implored anyone with a passion to pursue it.
“It doesn’t even have to be art,” he said. “Whatever your passion is … pursue it. Yeah, it’s going to be hard, but it’ll always pay off if you do something that you love.
“I would have never found that out if I never had taken that risk and really dedicated myself to it. So if anybody wants to be an artist, you can do it. You can do anything you want. Really I kind of proved that to myself.”
