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Born in West London, JGoldcrown is a self-taught artist based in Los Angeles. In 2007 James moved to New York, He began incorporating mixed media into his photography influenced by his previous days as a street artist in the early 90’s. His many projects led to his first show at Miami Basel, where his work sold out in 2 hours. Now internationally renowned for his Bleeding Hearts/Lovewall murals, he has collaborated with brands and companies such as, Toms, L’Oreal, Rag & Bone, Sephora, Island Records, Universal, MTV, Vogue, Bandier, Rimowa Luggage, Henri Bendel, Armarni and more.
How did you get into the arts? I was always very creative as a kid, it was the one thing, I just liked to draw. I was always very creative. I remember being as early as 4 being in primary school and my art excelled much more that other people in my class. I made a very conscious decision to do something where I’m not being bossed around, there was no other way for me. I started working when I was 16 in a darkroom and that kind of introduced me to the art world. I was working for Rankin at Dazed and Confused as one of his assistants. I went to Central St Martins before I left school, but didn’t stay as I hated it. I couldn’t relate to the students there. My mum was furious because I had a scholarship, I remember her saying to me ‘what are you going to do when you’re 30’ – I was 16 at the time. If I wasn’t at school then I was made to get a job, and move out, she was very strict with me, which I think was a good thing.
Tell me about your career progression to from school to work…Working for Rankin when I was 23 was such a huge insight into the fashion industry, I was around 23 then, it was fashion shows and fashion pre-social media with Kate Moss and Naomi Campbell, really raw and real and it was when there was five selected supermodels. I just fell in love with the kind of lifestyle that I was seeing and being presented and I just wanted to be a part of this creative energy where people just did what they wanted and there’s no routine, it just really appealed to me.
And then you moved to New York? It was easier than I thought, I mean, I was traveling back and forth, I never really knew or imagined that I’d ever want to live here so when I came here at first it was more just like, I was here for a 3 months thing and I just partied hard, I was 27. I didn’t realize how powerful our voice was in this country, and I was definitely using it to my advantage. Then I went back to London at the beginning of February in 2008. I didn’t feel anything being back in London, and then I was like I’m going to go back to New York and see how it is. I just remember, clearest memories, the second the plane touched down at JFK I just felt this release of calm, and I was like this is where I need to be and then I kind of made it work. I got employed for being a photographer for a studio, it didn’t really work out well. This kind of trust-fund kid was trying to run a business but didn’t really have any concept of what he was doing. I stopped working there and then a friend of mine from London, had this truck and we decided to turn it into a bouji mobile art gallery. Trying to start a business, and didn’t have any concept of what I was doing. Then I stopped working, and a friend of mine, also from London started a mobile art gallery. We’d drive to the Upper West Side and then basically just set a shop-up outside restaurants on Columbus Avenue. and it was ridiculous busy and it was Sundays and family days and there was no one doing what we were doing, it was even before food-truck kind of became big, we weren’t even breaking any laws, because there was no permits for it, so police didn’t even know what to do with us! They were just like “what are you doing?” and we’re like we’re going to sell art we had like tax IDs because I used to sell arts on the streets. I used to help Andrew (from the photo job) do that and then we just kind of got away with it. We were both English so they were like “alright, leave these two alone.”. We had these generators and we’d be there until night time so had generator lights going on and we painted on the thing as well so was like, New York loves that kind of image so that’s what I’ve really learned to take my photography with my art. I mixed them both together and started to do mix media, and then I kind of transitioned more.
Tell me about the story of the Bleeding Hearts…I use spray paint a lot, and I was using this door to test the pressure of the spray can. I’ve always used hearts and just shape more and more and more and then one day some guy came in and said he wanted to buy the door. Then I kept making them on canvasses and they would go instantly. It was before even doing murals, people would come into my studio, that’s just down the street and they would like want one the bleeding hearts on canvas and then Lasso which is on the corner here, they have a very famous wall with a mirror, I did their gates. They offered me the mural they were like if you want to do a mural “We’re fully booked till February – and this is like November, you’ve got time!”. I had no idea what to do, I’d never done a mural in my life. I’d never done anything in the streets apart from as a kid. I’d never done anything legally or being asked to do it and paid for it! One of my friends said “why don’t you just do the hearts?” I thought it was too obvious – again, I don’t like being told what to do. I was like “NO” and as it came I thought shit yeah, I should really do the hearts, it’s valentines there’s a lot of logic behind it. Then I did it, without any kind of understanding where I was and the power. People just genuinely come here to photograph street art and then I think four days later I was in a paper and it was just like people just using it as a backdrop and it just went viral. Eva Chen, the first person with that kind of many followers (on Instagram) to post it, and then from her it just went exploding.
Art Basel you sold out within two hours? That was the first Art Basel I’d done with the bleeding heart, I wasn’t even still doing the bleeding hearts as a full time thing then, so I had like three bleeding hearts pieces – they were the three paintings that sold. From that I got commissioned five pieces, from that but I had like other pieces of arts I did which mix media, everything sold in two hours, it’s crazy. That was like for me, the first transition of making real money. It was a really great feeling, I was in New York as a struggling artist, you’re always thinking how the fuck you’re going pay your rent? Or, how you going tell your landlord you don’t have the money for your rent? …And suddenly I could afford rent! It’s kind of crazy. So that was a new year.
Tell me about the first brand that approached you?
I was meant to do something, to work with a club in Montauk, that really famous bar and then that didn’t happen but I was in Shore Club and this girl sitting next to me asked what I did. I told her I’m an artist and I do the heart murals, and the she stopped and grabbed my arm and she was like “are you J Goldcrown?…OMFG I work with Toms we are planning to get in touch with you, we want to collaborate with you” Sure enough when I was back in New York after Basel, she emailed me. I sat down with like all the CEO’s and everyone and it was like a little bit intimidating but kind of cool at the same time because I was like wow! They’re here for me, and that was kind of cool. That was the first big big collaboration I did, which is like a global brand that everyone knows, you can tell your mum, and she knows it.
Great! I’m sure it made your mum proud…Yeah it did haha.
And the Rag and Bone collaboration…Yeah! That was through Neiman Marcus, so the head of Neiman Marcus phoned me up, initially I was meant to do a magazine with them, I was meant to do this whole shoot, we were talking about integrating art into a magazine. It was meant to be like a feature about myself and then the kind of thing turned around because they were doing this Rag and Bone thing and then they asked me how I feel if I wanted to work with Rag and Bone, and I was like “of course”. Then I was in New York and met with the owner, Marcus Wainwright, we were in his office, and he’s English as well so I think we were just talking for like an hour, not even about what we were meant to do and then we just looked into each other and go “what are we doing again?” it was really actually kind of a funny moment. Then I was with his team and we worked together on a t-shirt, and it had to be very low tone. I wanted it to be something a bit more controversial like the mural, I wanted that to be the t-shirt. But because it was Neiman Marcus so they had to stay very conservative. So it just stayed like a heart but it’s still very cool experience and you know, to see your name with Rag and Bone is extremely amazing.
Working with brands, is there often ‘red tape’ rules? Not really, because everyone’s like very, it’s just a very easy process if they know what they’re doing! In all honesty I just design something design and I give them my design and they do the artwork get the print done, it’s never really been stressful at all to be honest! It was a very successful campaign. I’ve never got anxiety from working with brands. I think they probably get anxiety from me cause of my response time sometimes!
Are there any brands who you haven’t yet worked with who you want to work with? Yeah! I really want to I want to stay on the level of the people I’m working with, brands like Rag and Bone and Toms, it’s very important. I’ve turned down a lot of work aswell because I feel it’s not the right fit for me.
Which brands did you turn down? I ended a contract with Rimowa because it was just not right, when you limit yourself to a specific type of brand in your contract, it really denies you from working with other people, so I can’t work with other companies, and then you kind of become the face of Rimowa, and you see, because you’ve already done it, it’s like bad thing for them. I also turned down Apple. They wanted to feature me on the iPhone 7 as a theme, but I turned it down because they didn’t want to include who I was so they would have basically own my rights and I would have lost the idea, the IP and the intellectual property to it. I would have been just a backdrop and people would have been known it from Apple and they’d be like “oh, you do that stuff with — Apple!”. It was a very big decision that I had to make and everyone was like “do it do it!”. I really had to think, one of my friends works in advertising and advised me not to do it for those reasons. I listened to him, and I realized that you know it’s true. I don’t know if it that would have happened but I feel like it would have happened and I don’t regret it at all cause a lot of stuff comes from it.
It’s important to keep your integrity…Exactly, and I just think when you work with brands that big, you lose your identity and I have learnt from that as well. It’s really important do work for brands, and that my name has to be included, it’s because that’s the brand identity, and it’s like important. It’s like if you have a t-shirt and it doesn’t have a label that says where it’s from, it’s like they lose their identity and no one knows where to get it.
At what point did you realize that you’d created your own brand? Sometimes I don’t really realize it’s happened still. Because it’s just like, happening. I feel like it’s so young still, but I think I realized like, it’s really when I’m in the meetings you know I’m like, I’m very fortunate this thing happened to me when I was younger I feel, because I’ve still got my head on my shoulders and my mum has always kept me very grounded but I feel like, it’s when you’re at meetings and there’s owners of companies and they’re like nervous to meet you.
What advice can you share with future artists? Accept what no means but you have to keep going, understand your voice, find something and stick with it, and be known for what you do. Never get emotional when you have to separate from your work.
Have you always been business minded? I think I always have. I think I’ve had that, always surrounded my life which is why I left school when I was younger because it just wasn’t for me, started working because I just knew it, the only way I could really learn is from the reality of the situation, and that’s the best schooling, it’s like the real world. I learnt how to sell art, from doing it in the streets of New York, outside the Apple Store. This is the irony, I was selling my artwork outside the apple store, being asked to move across the street and then I finally get to turn them down!! You know what I mean, like years later. We were really – like the real deal, we would like make art, go to the street, sell it to tourists, to people and just keep on going! We make good money you know, because they come over and I think it was a little before Wall Street, people would come and it was really cheap, the dollar was like a pound, euros, and we were like “bang!” and then I learnt that I just love the business!
Look what we’ve made big world! It was a nice feeling you know, but the reality was people wanted it! We weren’t forcing it, we put it there! This is before social media so it’s like, the same kind of principle, you put it there and then people except what you do and that’s the same social media now. You paint a mirror it’s not up to me if it’s successful, it’s the people that want to put it out there. So I’m very aware as well and I think lots of artists, they’re very self-indulgent, and I know that I can be sometimes. I can be selfish, I think you just have to be very self-monitoring, you have to be aware of what’s going on. You have to also just respect other people for helping create your career.
Do you ever find it daunting, painting in public spaces, with people watching? Not really because I didn’t really understand it was more, people stopping and look at me that was really a new experience to me because you can’t tell people to walk, keep moving! But I become way more used to that.. I didn’t understand what I was about to get into. I didn’t realise, before I was like, in my studio and I’d done this mural. I didn’t realize that this was going to change my life. I wasn’t excited about it.
Do you copyright your work? Yeah, I’ve got, lawyers who deal with that now. It was over Christmas time, it got to a point, where it was just like, this is the funniest thing, so, I got tagged in a photograph in South Korea and they made a love wall and they actually put my name on it. So someone made a love wall in a restaurant and it says hashtag #lovewall #JGoldcrown. I’ve never been to South Korea in my life!
Wow! Does that happen often? That was a while ago. That was before I had a legal team. I don’t care about it, I mean, that’s not going to affect anything. People like, Brainwash have kind of copied a bit of stuff I did, and he posted something in Instagram, then there was a fan war going on between me and him like, creating this energy and it’s really good publicity, so I thank him for it. But it was insane, I was like people really know who I am. That was insane.
Tell me about your favorite place which you’ve travelled to? I would say California was a great thing, because I ended up moving over there. California was one of my favorite places because I ended up moving out there and I felt like a very different energy. Europe and Japan which I’m doing this year, I’m actually very excited to travel to Japan, and then I’m going to Sao Paulo. I’m working with L’Oreal right now, for their company Maybelline we’re doing Babylips. I’m just very excited to go home and do it there and do a mural in my hometown.
