Malik Roberts
my friend Malik Roberts shared his experiences with the new phases of his life and work after moving from Ridgewood to a dynamic new setting. Malik delves into how his surroundings inspire him and impact his artwork. He spoke thoughtfully about the challenges and opportunities this change brings, especially in how he approaches his art. The following is aN EDIT from Hardcopy VOl.1.
Interview, photography & words JACQUES MOREL JR
Artwork MALIK ROBERTS
Jacques Morel Jr. : Malik, what’s good bro? It’s been a while since we’ve spoken on the record. How have you been?
Malik Roberts: I’ve been. I’ve been well. I’ve been great, man. I’ve been chillin.
JM: We are in a new space. We’re currently in 3 World Trade Center. You always wanted me to come visit your last place in Ridgewood, but now you’re in a whole new vibe, a whole new neighbourhood. Can you talk about, like, new beginnings and kind of like dealing with a different set of inspiration in your surroundings?
MR: I believe that this space has created an area of growth for me. I feel like throughout the last couple of years, even me striving to get to where I was getting to within my work and within my own personal space, I took on more responsibilities that I needed to. So, this kind of gave me a rebirth and an area to breathe and an area to actually just go back to being creative instead of just considering everything that’s going on around me.
JM: You are someone that loves smoking. It factors heavily in your work and you used to be able to smoke at the easel before. But now because of the circumstances, the building that we’re in, you can’t do that anymore.
MR: Yeah… it’s been a bit of a [learning] curve because that’s so much a part of my process and not really just the creation of the work, but just the in-between times and just observing the work and having conversations with the work… It has been a bit of a transition, trying to figure out how I can actually get a good groove within the new circumstances. But I’ve been finding that it’s been helping me actually focus on what I need to focus on and using the time where I have to step outside to smoke as an actual break instead of just still working while trying to take a break.
JM: We’re currently sitting in front of four pieces… well, I guess three because it feels like ‘Sheisty’ is one large piece and can you tell me about the three others?
MR: Well, they’re unnamed at the moment. But this one was kind of like my first piece that I did in here, and it’s like a kind of take on ‘The Scream’ and how I believe it’s going through some sort of psychosis. And people have a debate about what like the person is screaming about.
Was it hearing things? But the figures are kind of real in the background, all that type of shit. So, I felt like that was more just an interpretation of that feeling I felt when I first moved in here, exiting my old situation. And this one above me to the right is the red one is kind of just a person. Well, I guess to speak more it, these pieces, I was trying to come more with identity… I want to call [my upcoming show] ‘Black Mask,’ [the show] is more about identity, hiding your true self from other people. What does the mask that you wear when you’re outside really reveal about yourself? What are you hiding behind the mask that you have on? So that’s more of the conversation I’m trying to have with these pieces.
What are you hiding behind the mask that you have on?
JM: Something that you and I have had an ongoing conversation about outside of interviews or just generally is you were trying to stray away from perfection. The work that I see here doesn’t feature the ruler straight lines that a lot of your previous work does. Here it seems more freehand. Earlier you told me that you were working with different paints, so there were bumps on your canvases and you wouldn’t want to have that before. Talk to me about running away from perfection.
MR: Perfection can cause a disposition within oneself. Because you’re striving for something that you could never really obtain. So, if you get caught up in the idea and the thought of trying to make a painting perfect or having an idea or a subject matter come out a certain way, it’s like, it’s like you’re chasing the dragon.
You’ll never get that monkey off your back. So, I felt like with the last show that I did, ‘To Suffer a Lick,’ it was a lot of me trying to give you the best work I could within my circumstances. I believe that the show was beautiful, like technique wise, you know, story wise, subject matter wise. But I believe I was losing a bit of that painter’s hand and like that artist’s touch because the conversation, especially now in 2024, becomes more of just like a digital painting. [People asking me] ‘Did you do this on iPad?’ The fact that I’m an oil painter. I don’t really want those conversations. I’m more of a traditional oil painter. I really don’t want those conversations to get misconstrued with my work. So I feel like… adding the textures and using other things where you can actually see the brushstrokes. The brushstrokes, you can actually see like marks gives it more of the validity to know that I actually created this with my own two hands. I didn’t go and just do this shit on procreate something like that.
JM: People were really saying that to you?
MR: People repost my work and put #digitalpaintings under it… Or like #digialartwork #procreateart or some other type of things… Like nah… I actually sat here, that’s like a five foot painting that I sat here and made myself. It’s not like a Photoshop type of image. So that was like the fight I’m actually trying to go against.
MR: Showing that I can still do what I can do but just in different means.
Read the full article in HardCOPY Vol.1