Rich Jacobs visits Madrid

October 13th, 2006

For Rich Jacobs things can, actually, be pretty easy. It’s just a question of if things move him or not. I mean that was how everything started, with “Move”, the first show that put together a series of unknown names at the time, more than famous names at this point. We are talking about 1997, when people like Barry McGee, Phil Frost, Thomas Campbell or soon to be myths like Margaret Kilgallen were nothing but strangers to the art galleries universe. “Move was based on not seeing enough of friends work that I liked and wanted to see shown together. It was fun and kinda loose. Just the things that moved me” says Jacobs.

So who is Rich Jacobs? A person that is able to move freely and do what he likes without a lot of interruption and hassle, or in some instances much notice. Someone who likes sloppy punk and at the same time releases a folk album
with long time friend Tim Kerr. An artist who never stops creating and curating: “I started curating about ten years ago out of necessity, in a way to see things I liked in the place where I lived and wasn’t seeing there. I never stopped creating though, I feel it’s important to always try to do both if posible.”

Talking about his characteristic style and where he finds his strange characters Jacobs says: “My style was a natural progresion of constant drawing, looking, and experimenting. The characters came in my childhood so early it’s difficult to remember, they are pieces of everyone I see around me. The environment can have an impact but it is usually kinda subtle in my work as an influence, maybe more in colours and that kind of things…”

But why are we talking about Rich Jacobs? Because we found the perfect excuse to finally meet the artist in person. Jacobs is touring with the brand Eastpack to release a new limited series of bagpacks, designed by the artist himself, and this time Madrid was one of the chosen cities. So we just decided to invite him out for lunch and see if we could find some record stores to buy some good old punk records.

Jacobs turned out to be as we expected, an example of politness and creativeness, always finding time to draw one of his characters on a sheet of paper or even in a passport as a way of saying thank you, and patiently answering to all our questions and doubts while going up and down the streets of Madrid. He felt us feel at ease with him and showed us that the nameless, the invisible, or even talentless just everyday people are the best influence he can find to create art, and using his own words: “…well, aren’t we all just people?”

Thank you Rich!

By: Ana Neto (ana@subaquatica.com)

Entry Filed under: Miscellaneous