EDWARD GRANGER
A rainbow murdered in a snow white room
is how I would describe Edward’s art studio space. Fresh paint speckled on his walls & floor while Ibiza house music plays off his laptop. I would
recognize Edward’s art wrapped all around Brooklyn. Later I would see him featured in a Ralph Lauren campaign with Ruby Rose. All of that
inspired me to reach out and collaborate with him on the BEAU. So I did.
Interview with Edward Granger:
Sky- What makes you melt?… (what’s your type):
Ed– Haha! hmm… makes me melt? Lebanese.
I don’t know why but it’s something about their energy.
It’s like,“GRRR”.
I hung out with Edward at his art studio for a few days in Williamsburg.
I photographed him while he put the finishing touches to his work for his upcoming show at Art Basel and again later when he was preparing his Saks Fifth avenue window installation.
Sky- With all the color you paint with I figured
you might have some in your wardrobe.
Ed – I used to wear much more color before
I moved to New York, but after a year of
living here it just became easy to wear black.
I let my art wear my colors for me.
S- What was one of your first jobs
(before painting)
E- I was a server at a soul food restaurant
back home in Louisiana.
S- Were you always creative growing up?
Did Little Ed paint all over the walls ?
E- Not really, I became more creative later. I was kinda
of a lil bully as a kid, but like a good bully not a bad one. I would bully the other bullies. But I would also
kinda terrorize my small town at the same time. Doing things I thought would be fun.
S- Like Dennis the menace?…
E- Kinda, I remember a group of my friends and I would take the local cats and put them
on a make shift raft and set them a drift in the lake just to see how far they could go but I would eventually
get them back to safety. I wasn’t evil just a little curious.
S-What brought you to NY ?… Art?
E- No, actually an architect design firm it’s what I went to school for. It was something I did but didn’t love.
Having to be creative for someone else under their restrictions can be suffocating. I needed to do my
own thing and design for myself. I basically started with no direct intent but people really liked it and
bought what I was creating. Which just motivated me to do more.
S- Your architect background is why your art lends its self to window set displays?
Is that a area that you saw yourself in or were you sought out ? (hermes window displays)
E- Yes, a little of both. Having my art actually experienced in real life is a little more satisfying.
You walk by it and feel it. Instead of art being exclusively hidden and dying in a gallery.
Art is so much more fluid and social now.
S- Anything you’re looking forward to
coming out of 2016 into 2017?
E- Yes! Excited that I’ve partnered up with Piaget the jewelry company to do their rodeo drive flagship store.
I designed and built a custom display for their storefront. In January I’ll be unveiling my
Saks Fifth avenue windows. Looking forward to more brand collaborations in 2017.
S- What music do you listen to when you’re painting?
E– It’s a mix of electro, house and pop, when I’m in the zone I forget I’m alone in the studio and I’m just
creating. Couldn’t narrow it down to a single artist its usually a DJ set or a mixed playlist.
S- How would you summarize your pieces?
Do you name them?
E- My art is based on association. The colored cubed mural was based off a rubix cube, the spectrums –
a rainbow. If it feels right I do it, and when it makes people feel good even better,
they are more likely to buy it, which just drives me to make even more, better and different pieces.
As for naming, I’ve sometimes named them after the RGB color code they represent.
S- How do you think you are perceived
from you IG versus real life?
E- I think my Instagram and my life are quite accurately synced. Ultimately, my structured works act as a vessel for me to find order in my life, otherwise it’s pure chaos and unorganized. I don’t take my work super serious, just as I don’t take my life super serious. There’s always that fragility of darkness in my life balanced by an innate optimism which you can find imbedded in my fanatical work.
S- If you could collaborate with any artist (dead or alive) who would it be?:
E- Dead: Josef Albers or Alive: Ugo Rondinone, Andrew Kuo or Larry Bell
S- Describe yourself in three hashtags:
E- #radical #progressive #hopeful
S- Finish this sentence: I am a ___ beau.
E- I am a nonconformist beau.