Who Is JIMI LOVE?

Jimi Love (furthest outskirts of London and now dividing his time between the Uk and Malta) is our latest addition to our portfolio of artists and although you can get an idea who he is through his bio, we decided to dig in a little further.

1. When did you discover your creative self? 

I first became interested in art after taking up skateboarding as a kid. The decks, wheels and apparel coming from brands like Santa Cruz and Powell Peralta were always front and center in the magazines, like R.A.D / Sidewalk Surfer and Thrasher. Psychedelic explosions of colour typically with a subversive, rebellious punk vibe. I was hooked from day one.

  2.  Who is your biggest inspiration generally? 

The screaming blue hand designed by Jim Phillips for Santa Cruz has a lot to answer for. I also have a great deal of admiration for London’s multimedia street artist D*Face. D has achieved incredible things in the art world since starting out making stickers during lunch breaks at his old job. I was very lucky to get to hang out with him a few times early on in his new career, just as he was setting up The Outside Institute and then Stolen Space Gallery at the Truman Brewery, Brick Lane. I’ve never met anyone with such a ferocious work ethic either. Hugely inspirational to witness. There was no road map for what he was doing. A true pioneer.

 3. Who is your biggest artistic inspiration (musical/ visual/ theatrical)? 

I’m going to have to split this answer in two. Malta’s very own Miloman (Claude Camilleri) and the late, great and beyond comparable Mark Mallia.
In 2024, I was very lucky to be welcomed into a shared studio/gallery space in Valletta by Miloman, where I also met Mark Mallia. Both artists with completely different art styles and personalities, both instantly becoming my friends and huge inspirations. I can’t properly describe the creative energy during that brief but essential time. Electric. That’s as close as I can get. It was something else. I’ll always be immensely grateful. Miloman and I are currently working on a series of collabs, and we always bring up Mark’s name. “He would love this. He would say that”. Never forgotten.

       4. Which artwork would you wish to have on your walls/ in your house and why? 

I do not have a conventional home of my own right now. Rather, it’s a strange existence, drifting between family members like a very lucky human pass-the-parcel. So I guess first I would need to get myself a wall and a house. Then, it would most likely be a Jean-Michel Basquiat and Andy Warhol collaborative piece (such as the ‘Zenith’ or ‘Ideal’ untitled works). Creating art is typically such a solitary and introverted thing. I find it refreshing to know it can be different. Those pieces are pure colourful and compositional blasts of mischief. Total mash-up ! What’s not to like ?

      5. Your favourite medium, favourite theme in your own work?  Why is this? 

Poscas for the smaller stuff and Montana and Loop sprays for the bigger stuff. Themes: I have a thing for the textures I see out and about. Tatty old walls with posters peeling off. Metal electrical junction boxes covered in safety stickers. That sort of stuff. Since implementing them into my work as backgrounds, everything really feels right. I also like to draw characters that are hollow with stuff pouring in or out of them. We are empty vessels after all. Life is what we fill up with or what we decide to release. My little commentary on life and the human condition.

       6. What is one thing noone knows about you and you can share with us?

I have played fuzz bass in a band at Reading and Leeds Festivals and at Brixton Academy, London. Just your typical, friendly Rock n Roll, street artist guy next door 🙂

       7.  Do you play music whilst you paint? What is it? 

Sometimes. Anything from hyper-happy Jackson 5 through to dark, filthy synth stuff from Reykjavík. If I’m honest, I prefer an audiobook. Cosmic Horror keeps me intensely focused. Ideal when cutting out huge stencils.

     8.  Favourite country you have visited/ lived at? And why?

There’s no place like home. It’s often an infuriating place, with all its rules and the institutional apathy for creativity, but I still find it incredible the amount of different regions crammed into such a small place as the UK. You could drive a few hours from Norfolk in the East to Liverpool in the West and the difference in accents could give you whiplash ! You could drive for days in America and you still wouldn’t find a difference in regional accent. New York was pretty cool though, to be fair. I’m loving Malta at the minute too.