Ahead of the incredibly exciting release of four brand new colourways of Charlie Evaristo-Boyce's iconic design, 'Amazing', we sat down with the Art Republic favourite to get the inside scoop on the inspiration behind it, as well as his love of typography, travel, and motivations.
'Amazing' Sage by Charlie Evaristo-Boyce
Did you always know you wanted to be an artist?
I have always loved making art! When I was a kid I really wanted to be a scientist, I loved understanding how things work, how things were made and the mysticism of the invisible inner workings of the world. In art class I used to draw Simpsons and Futurama characters, I had a cool art teacher who was a mod and played reggae in the classroom, he had a passion for printmaking and pushed me in that direction and passed on the passion.
How do your earlier works compare to what you are currently working on?
My work is constantly changing, evolving, and developing. Screenprinting has been at the core of my practice ever since university, I made post-pop art inspired by the great pop artists. Everywhere I went I collected found images and bought them into my practice. I then started to refine my illustrations working with pencil for the initial sketch and then applying my digital processes and creating complex and colourful screen prints from the drawings. Some of my more recent work has explored afro futuristic themes and portraiture. I like changing styles because it keeps things interesting and each week can be different.
'Amazing' Sea by Charlie Evaristo-Boyce
What are your biggest influences? You have travelled a lot and have said that these experiences have inspired your designs – what is your favourite destination?
Travel is an important part of my practice, every time I visit a new place I am flooded with visual stimulations, the camera comes out more, the sketchbook gets filled and my pockets get filled with random ephemera that I bring back to my studio and scan. Travel is the best source of inspiration, seeing, tasting, and hearing new things fills my head with ideas. Having time away from the studio is important too, the artworks and ideas that are there incubate and when you come back you have the energy to finish them. India was one of the best places for inspiration there is so much going on. Everyone is trying to carve out a living by any means necessary, hustling, selling, making, the level of entrepreneurship is inspiring and makes me want to work harder.
What do you want viewers to take away from your artworks?
I have always wanted to fill viewers with joy, colour, positivity and images that feel familiar but are new at the same time. The new editions for Art Republic do this, they are bright and easy to live with, the amazing print has been so successful I feel lots of people have seen it before but not even realised it. There is another side to my practice that looks at the world with a different lens. A lens that highlights some of the geopolitical issues and surreal aspects of life by breaking down ab exploring the images that make up the world around us.
'Amazing' Shell by Charlie Evaristo-Boyce
What do you want viewers to take away from your artworks?
I have always wanted to fill viewers with joy, colour, positivity and images that feel familiar but are new at the same time. The new editions for Art Republic do this, they are bright and easy to live with, the amazing print has been so successful I feel lots of people have seen it before but not even realised it. There is another side to my practice that looks at the world with a different lens. A lens that highlights some of the geopolitical issues and surreal aspects of life by breaking down and exploring the images that make up the world around us.
We are so excited about the release of your new colourways for your hugely popular print ‘Amazing.’ What first influenced this print?
I’ve been making my amazing print since 2017, the original image came from a vintage motorcycle magazine I found in a junk shop in Margate. First I copied it directly ' Amazing Value' and I printed it on an old coffee table top I found in the street, nothing much happened. But a year later I was invited to do a community art project in London. It involved hand printing 1500 cardboard boxes and creating a mini city. I dropped the 'value' and repeated AMAZING over and over again. It had a powerful, contagiously positive effect on people. They walked into the installation and kept saying 'Wow this is Amazing!' After the box installation I made a sell-out screenprint with 4 amazings, an installation at Dreamland Margate that was made from 700 handprinted amazings, and also developed different artworks and products that also included the amazing. To this date, it has been my most successful design and I could swear that since I made it I have seen amazing pop up everywhere in advertisements all around the country.
'Amazing' Sunshine by Charlie Evaristo-Boyce
Can you tell us about your interest in typography?
Typography has a powerful effect on people, words are powerful and can communicate a concept fast and direct. As well as collecting found images I also collect nice fonts and fragments of graphics. My handwriting is really bad so using found font solves this. I think being from the seaside and being surrounded by the arcades and the history of theme parks and tourism has influenced this, I used to run my gallery in a fairground reclamation yard, I was surrounded by showman’s art, neon signs, handwritten signs, and reclaimed shop fittings. These fed into my practice and informed my work in the years to come.
Amazing Red (Poster) by Charlie Evaristo-Boyce
You even created a wallpaper from the print in collaboration with award-winning designer Tracy Kendall – how was this process? How has it been to see it up on people’s walls?
I worked with Tracy to create an amazing wallpaper design, originally it was for a hotel in Margate, the whole apartment was decked out with my art, walls covered in a repeat of amazings, framed prints on top to complement them. I learned a lot about the process, there is a lot of discipline and accuracy needed to join handprinted images together seamlessly on a 10M roll of paper. It’s been great seeing my designs popping up in different interiors, it’s almost like the art transcends the picture frame and spreads onto the walls around it like a fever of colour.
Charlie signing prints in the studio
AR: What can we expect from you in the future?
I have been a full-time artist for 10 years now, each year is always completely different to the one before. It starts one way and finishes another, a lot of the time I don't know what I am doing week to week I bend in the breeze and take on the work that interests me the most. My main focus is my practice and making new works. Right now I am working on a new body of work, some new editions, and some originals and paintings. This is the time as an artist I enjoy the most being able to be free and make without necessarily having an end objective for the works. I am also trying to write more and reflect on the world around me I found that writing is a great framework for making as it condenses lots of separate ideas into one narrative.
Head to Charlie's collection to get your hands on these gorgeous pastel prints, and to keep up to date with all his releases.
