jimmy black.
painter.

+ all images copyright 2007, Jimmy Black

Jimmy Black, a native of Birmingham, Ala., first gained notoriety as a fashion designer while living in Atlanta, Ga. There he designed clothing for many notable artists, such as Peabo Bryson, Arsenio Hall, and Steven Tyler of Aerosmith, who wore his designs on the 2 nd annual MTV Music Awards. After a successful run as a designer he switched his focus to the Atlanta nightlife scene.

After several years of producing successful events for Club Velvet in Atlanta, propelling the venue to the #3 spot in Details and People Magazine annual hottest night club ranking, Jimmy turn his attention back to painting full time. Acrylic on canvas became his medium of choice with an emphasis on pop contemporary culture as inspiration. In 1998 Jimmy moved to New York to seek new challenges and to incorporate some of his life lesson into his art.

Jimmy’s artistic focus is the pop/commercial aesthetic expounded by Pearlstein, Lichtenstein and Peter Max. His use of pop/contemporary theory combined with psychedelic themes, highlighted by a vivid color palette allows him to create imagery based on fantasies derived from his childhood. Jimmy states” my passion for the urban Landscape inspires surreal images of faces, people and cultural settings as symbols of humanity’s quest for a common bond. As people we are all he same, what makes us special is our inherent difference, and our ability to bridge those boundaries to form a common thread.”

"Me as an artist is a story in it self. My family is full of Art types. Regional cats who either, preached the gossip of the Lord, “sanged the rapture,” or painted to support their family."

"I got lucky. My Mom is an incredible artist who toiled all her life as a dress maker to make ends meet. We where told, growing up in Birmingham, Ala, poor as anyone without foundation could be, that we could achieve if we believed, and that what we aspired for, could be grasped."