King Redd
1984–
Artist King Redd is a history buff who believes that older images and stories hold resonance and should be valued when trying to convey a modern message through art.
Redd’s childhood was spent between St. Croix, USVI, where he was born in 1984, and Miami, Florida, where his family moved in the late 80s and where he still lives today with his wife and children. He remarks that his own childhood was, “Pretty normal for the most part,” adding that he was gifted a solid upbringing by a single mother and alongside 5 siblings who were always around and very helpful to a young King Redd. He was very young when he first realized that he had a talent for art. It was around the 2nd grade when art first entered his life and he’d spend the rest of his young life using it to get away from and improve his environment. Redd says that his earliest drawings were comic characters, superheroes, and other things common to young boys in the 90s. Eventually, he became friends with graffiti artists in Miami and inevitably got into tattooing himself. The best was yet to come for King Redd and it was LEBO, the beloved Park West artist we lost in 2023, that altered the course of his life for the better.
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Redd is a self-taught artist who is continually developing his own unique artistic style through trial and error, trying new techniques, and a relentless drive to be a phenomenal and memorable figure in the modern art world. His process as far as creating a work of art is first to think of what he wants to convey and what would be the most attractive way to get that message across to the viewer. Then he scours through old cartoons, retro visual art, and ultimately begins the process of creating something new with a fragment from the past. Redd looks for context and references in older images and stories, believing that they hold more resonance when trying to convey a message that should be valued today. There’s a graffiti edge and vintage photography incorporated into his art too. He doesn’t quite yet know what to call it but he’s carving an exciting new path mixing the old with the new. The results are nothing short of astounding, a unique style of modern art that is akin to a colorful explosion of human emotion and vivid memories.
Thanks in part to the inspiration Redd received from LEBO, a Park West favorite who sadly passed away earlier in 2023, as well as learning from Basquiat that he can carve out his own path as an artist, King Redd’s art has flourished in recent years. Together with LEBO, he created a mural for Art Basel in Miami that was written up in Forbes Magazine, painted for HBO’s Pod Save America, and showed his work at Art/New York. Next, he’s set to create original art for the Florida Panthers of the NHL for the team’s Black History Night celebration.
Collectors are already hungry for more of Redd’s artwork. The future is undeniably as bright and bold as Redd’s art. When he isn’t hard at work, he can be found playing with his kids or out with his wife, strolling along the bay, and admiring the calming, twinkling lights of the city at night.
