ThankYouX

Ryan Wilson , stage name ThankYouX , is an American painter who has become known for his blending of the abstract with the control of geometric form elements.

life and career

Ryan Wilson grew up in Orange County (California, USA). Originally he started his artistic activities with graffiti street art , which quickly bored him because, in his opinion, it would only revolve around the image.

He started working in street art in 2002, posting posters depicting abstract photographs of his friends throughout Orange County.

After that there was no further activity on his part in street art for a few years.

He only began to actively engage with street art again when he moved to Los Angeles in 2009.

He was most inspired by Andy Warhol , who was a pioneer of Pop Art . In his honor, Ryan Wilson created a rather unknown photo of Warhol on a poster, which he first installed on a wall in Los Angeles and wrote “Thank You” underneath to express his thanks for Warhol. He signed it with an anonymous “X”, since this work was not about gaining prominence.

Contrary to his expectations, the poster quickly gained increasing attention. Since nobody knew Ryan Wilson at the time, he was simply called "ThankYouX".

In addition to his career as an artist "ThankYouX", Ryan Wilson also works as a DJ and producer with electronic rap and is known in this scene under the name "Cali's ThankYouX".

However, he is not as successful with music as he is with art.

Works

His works are characterized by bright colors, to which Ryan Wilson was inspired by the New York art scene. These are processed in an abstract way, but he tries to control the wildness of this abstract nature through geometric figures.

In this design, for example, the denim jackets were created, which he initially designed for the Chainsmokers , but which he then gave to other famous people, which gave his art further attention.

Most of his works follow a similar pattern and often differ only in the choice of color and the size of the geometric figures.

This pattern distinguishes him and can be found in almost all of his orders. It can be found on many walls in Los Angeles, headphones, motorcycles and many other objects. 

But he proved that he can also create other types of abstract works with the commission he received from Snapchat founder Evan Spiegel .

Similar to 2002, when he depicted his friends in an abstract way on posters, he was commissioned to display pictures of people in such a way that it looks as if they were taking a picture of themselves through the internal camera of their mobile phones, using the user interface of the Snapchat app. The people involved included celebrities such as Daft Punk , Nelson Mandela and Andy Warhol . In these works, however, Ryan Wilson did not choose colors that were too strong and tried not to move the people into the background. Nevertheless, he stayed true to his abstract approaches and designed the background in a very exciting way by overlapping symmetrical patterns and letters as well as the Snapchat logo.

assignments

Inspired by Andy Warhol and Pop Art , the bright colors of the New York art scene and geometric figures, Ryan Wilson has now published several works. In addition to paintings and posters, Ryan Wilson works with companies and develops designs based on the patterns of his paintings, which he projects onto the products. He also brings his designs to clothing. For example, he designed denim jeans jackets for the chainsmokers as well as other DJs and some social influencers. His most important assignment was from Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel . Ryan Wilson was supposed to paint portraits of famous personalities such as Daft Punk , Nelson Mandela and Andy Warhol for him and portray them as if they were taking a self-portrait of themselves using the cell phone camera. There were a total of 13 works, one of which was Steve Jobs , which was for Evan Spiegel personally.

Ryan Wilson himself says that he has grown with the Snapchat contract . His pictures and figures have already been exhibited at exhibitions in London, New York, Los Angeles, Miami and Hong Kong.

Social networks

In addition to his production of Andy Warhol , Ryan Wilson has also become known via Instagram , Twitter and YouTube , where he has more than 100,000 subscribers. Famous public figures who received works from him or otherwise became aware of his art shared them on their pages, which made more and more people aware of Ryan Wilson's work. He mainly posts pictures of his work on his Instagram page or informs his subscribers about upcoming projects and planned fundraising campaigns. Appearances in YouTube videos, such as those of Mark Dohner, gave interested parties the opportunity to get to know him and his work better. Performances of this kind gave him the opportunity to explain his intentions and his approach and to bring them closer to people in an exciting way. But also through the orders for Snapchat he got attention in social networks, as Snapchat put a report about Ryan Wilson in its app and made his motifs available as a filter for photos, so that everyone who owned the app at the time would be aware of him have been done. In contrast to many other street artists, whose creations are often illegally created in public spaces, Ryan Wilson is very interested in drawing attention to himself through appearances on the Internet. You can often see him with well-known YouTubers, whose viewers overlap well with the target group of Ryan Wilson's art.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Street Artist X Tells You Why: 10 Questions with X . In: .According 2 G . June 15, 2011 ( according2g.com [accessed December 2, 2017]).
2. ↑ ThankYouX on His' Collage Dropout "Exhibit . In: Daily Front Row . September 19, 2016 ( fashionweekdaily.com [accessed December 2, 2017]).
3. ↑ Street Artist X Tells You Why: 10 Questions with X . In: .According 2 G . June 15, 2011 ( according2g.com [accessed December 2, 2017]).
4. ↑ Street Artist X Tells You Why: 10 Questions with X . In: .According 2 G . June 15, 2011 ( according2g.com [accessed December 2, 2017]).
5. ^ John Wellington Ennis: LA Street Artist Thank You X Reaches New Heights. In: Huffington Post. July 13, 2011, Retrieved December 2, 2017 (American English). 
6. ↑ Premiere: ThankYouX & Jam3s K3nn3dy “Gonna Lose My Mind” Ft. Jurassic 5's Chali2na . In: Vibe . August 7, 2013 ( vibe.com [accessed December 2, 2017]).
7. ↑ About - ThankYouX. Retrieved December 2, 2017 . 
8. ↑ THANKYOUX DENIM JACKET. Retrieved December 2, 2017 (American English). 
9. ↑ Artist Series: ThankYouX For Arctis 7 | SteelSeries. Retrieved December 2, 2017 . 
10. ↑ Meet the street artist whose 'selfie portraits' line the walls of Snapchat HQ . In: Business Insider . ( businessinsider.com [accessed December 2, 2017]).
11. ↑ THANKYOUX DENIM JACKET. Retrieved December 2, 2017 (American English). 
12. ↑ Meet the street artist whose 'selfie portraits' line the walls of Snapchat HQ . In: Business Insider . ( businessinsider.com [accessed December 2, 2017]).
13. ↑ About - ThankYouX. Retrieved December 2, 2017 . 
14. ↑ Mark Dohner: I'M GETTING KICKED OUT OF MY APARTMENT FOR THIS !! May 10, 2017. Retrieved December 2, 2017 .