Artist Profile: Justin Tolentino
Posted February 3rd, 2006 by rancor
Justin Tolentino started writing graff sometime around middle school. In his own words, he says that he went from “just scrawling on the walls all the way to clean lines, pop art, faces, and other iconography.” Graffiti style is ever present in Justin’s work and its always there as an influence. Now as a curator for Lemp Art Stables, Justin is helping shape and define the local art scene in St. Louis, getting people to talk about graffiti in more positive and constructive ways. A good example, for the 2002 St. Louis Art Fair he helped work on a community art piece that captured peoples responses to and about 9/11. He asked people to write down their emotions, thoughts, and ideas, which he then translated into graphic images. The images and words were then layered to create a collective collage that communicated through the elements and style of graffiti. More recently, he was part of large exhibition that transformed an abandoned downtown mall into a vibrant art space. He contacted us a little while back and we took the opportunity to ask him some questions…
You recently worked collaboratively with Peat Wollaeger on an installation for an art exhibit sponsored by artdimensions. Can you tell us a bit about the site, the installation and working with Peat?
the site of the installation is the st. louis centre an old mall in downtown that has fallen to the waste side over the years of downtown st. louis losing and now regaining a positive vibe… artdimensions has a large formal gallery space for proper showing and during this event there were several other space artists revamped to their taste to sell and show off their work…working with peat is great… peat is my partner in crime in st. louis as far as street art and shows we take part in all over the world…
