Artist Interview: Hebru Brantley

Hebru thnking big on S Wabash in Chicago prior to opening "Memoirs Of The Minimum Wage"

Hebru Brantley's path in the art world started in his native Chicago tagging walls and marking up trains. He's since moved onto impressive murals all over the world while exhibiting work in New York, Los Angeles, London, Switzerland, etc. His youthful characters and pop infused contemporary art have struck a chord with high profile collectors such as Jay Z & Beyonce, George Lucas, LeBron James, Nicki Minaj, Swizz Beatz, and Lenny Kravitz. His road has lead back to Chicago as he opened "Memoirs Of The Minimum Wage" at Vertical Gallery (1016 N. Western Avenue in Ukrainian Village) last week. Our own @jreich got a chance to talk to Hebru about his new show, art in Chicago, and who he's got his eye on in the street art world.

@jreich: Tell us about your new show at Vertical Gallery “Memoirs of The Minimum Wage”. How is it different from previous gallery shows that you’ve done?

HB: This is the first time I’ve ever done a comprehensive works on paper show, where all the works are on paper. In doing that I had to scale down a lot of my works as I tend to think and work “big”. In composition I had to shrink that down a tremendous amount and still be able to tell the same narratives I would on a larger scale. 

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