In 2023, we will celebrate our 10-year anniversary.Ĭongratulations! I’m looking forward to that! It will cover the last two EXPOs, the showings at the 2020 Outsider Art Fair and Tribeca Art Night in NYC, the execution of the collage portrait and the phenomenon of sticker shows around the world. It evolved into the ideal field guide that can easily connect anyone to the sticker art community. Each of these stickers was then photographed by fellow sticker artist Cheer Up, who also did the layout and design for the book. I took one sticker from each pack that I had received for the 2020 Expo. How did you select which stickers to include? Your second book, Unsmashed, features over 1200 colored photographs of stand-alone stickers from artists across the globe. Among the challenges was receiving and opening packages of stickers while we were all concerned with becoming infected with COVID-19…Just storing the boxes until we opened them was problematic!

Did that present any distinct challenges? Your most recent Street Sticker EXPO took place during the pandemic. And social media, mainly Instagram and my website, are essential to getting the word out. We were a pretty tight group, Skam, RWK, V0xx Romana…and more. How did you initially get the word out? Over a thousand artists have participated in your Sticker Expos.Īt first it was largely word-of-mouth. Also, the streets in DC had become less hospitable to stickers. It was a way to share the art form that I love with so many others and to introduce these artists to a wider audience. I, myself, already had amassed a huge collection, and I knew many active sticker artists out there. What motivated you to launch such a huge project? You had been pasting, collecting and trading stickers for several years before you conceived of curating your first Street Sticker EXPO at The Fridge DC. And I wasn’t happy with the way my neighborhood was evolving in the name of renovation and development.

I could not support the direction DC was taking, particularly in terms of its gentrification. I didn’t like what was happening around me. It was a statement of defiance and opposition. I love that they are a quick and easy way to get a message - or simply your name - out there.Ĭan you tell us something about your name - “iwillnot?” When did you acquire it? And why did you choose it? What is it about stickers that appeal to you? Since you first introduced me to the DC street art sticker scene about 14 years ago, your contributions to the culture have been enormous - expos, books, giveaways and more. On my recent visit to DC, I had the opportunity to pose a few questions to him and catch up a bit: Wildly passionate and distinctly knowledgeable about about sticker art, DC-based iwillnot has published two celebrated books and has curated five extraordinarily impressive expos on the theme.

Graffiti artist