Welcome to the visual world of Tony Concep!

Who is Tony Concep? (Give us some background information)
Tony Concep / Anthony C. Brown Jr. is A multidimensional artist and designer born in New Orleans, L.A. raised in Charleston S.C. Tony earned his BFA in film animation from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY in 2003. He began working in the apparel industry soon after as an Art Director for a number of years for selected clients including Nike, Adidas, Marithe Francois Girbaud, LRG Clothing, Marc Ecko Ent., and the MTV networks. He is a trained Illustrator, Creative Director and a Visual artist, producing works that center around iconic pop portraits using mixed media. Concep’s language derived from creating street art in and around New York and Los Angeles, focused on graphic images and his love for typography. Currently residing in the Greater San Diego area, Tony has developed his own unique voice. He merges social political ideas with textures, lines, patterns, and type, blending logos and iconography from his childhood and life experiences. In 2014 Concep lead The Former First Lady Michelle Obama on a guided tour of works in The New Museum New York for her Initiative For a Healthier America campaign while showing work a select group of street artist including Sheppard Fiery, Kenny Scharf, Mya Hayuk, Lichiban, Haze, Swoon, and Shantell Martin.

Where did your passion for art come from?
My passion for art derived early as a child, I would watch my granny paint portraits of the newscasters when they came on tv. My mother (Sonji Murry) saw early that my love for drawing and painting could keep me busy for long periods of time and made sure she equipped me with tools to further my creativity. As an only child I spent a lot of time creating and attempting to find new hobbies to get lost in. Art was always the foundation to the world I created in my mind. Once I realized the Most High was a grand artist for the creation of all that exists it became apparent that chasing the creator was my passion.

How would you describe yourself as an artist? What is your specialty?
As an artist I find it hard to describe at times. I have always had the notion to put on canvas what I valued as something that could belong on a wall or in the wild. I love to work typography, logos, and text into some of the work. More or less include “positive self talk” in the work or as of lately tie more context and meaning into the themes of my pieces outside of painting the role models (be it celebrity or other) as graphic portraits. Looking at shadows and silhouettes, seeing the shapes of things have been more of interest. In a nutshell I am a street artist working toward repurposing art from the outside world and finding ways to tell my story in the gallery (the inside world).

What does art mean to you?
Art is life, art is like water…Everybody needs it to survive. It is a gift from the Most High that I feel I have been blessed with. It’s not the ability to paint or draw, it’s the gift that creativity fuels me and I have something to live, eat, and breathe. I am determined to use my art for the betterment of those around me, and hopefully treat it as testimony. Art is the way I tell my story of the past, present, and future. My family is one of the most important pieces to my life and it is very important to me to raise my children with a deep understanding of art and self expression. When I wake up in the morning and see nature, I am reintroduced to the power of the creator and what a true artist, a master, is able to produce.

Art is sometimes subjective and other times objective, for Tony what does he think art is?
As said to answer your previous question, Art is Life. It is like kung fu, a religion, Feng Shui, and self mastery. It can be a part of any everyday activity. There is an art to business, there is an art to eating, dressing, dancing etc. So to me rather than being subjective or objective, art is more of a way of being or seeing from a perspective not attached to a mainstream way of thinking. Art is the birth of a child, or the sound or rain. It’s an overall understanding that there are many things out of range of our own basic comprehension. It is most definitely the unknown, yet knowing.

Who are some artists or individuals who inspire you and your art?
There are many inspirations that I include in my work consciously and subconsciously, Rene Magritte was the first artist I had an emotional attachment to artwork with. My eyes watered up uncontrollably when I saw “The False Mirror” in person for the first time with my High School art teacher Bonnie Stabler on a trip to New York from Charleston SC in the late 90’s. Jean Michelle, Warhol, Lee, Fade, Bob Ross, Chuck Close, Dapper Dan, Todd McFarlane…many artists from my past, growing up and watching them and giving them all the same status as Michael Jordan. I have to say one of my biggest inspirations is an artist patna of mine, Rob Jones. We went to school together at Pratt for a year and he had some mental health issues that led to him being killed in his home by the police. He and I had talked about doing many things in the world of art and I always feel indebted to him as a fellow artist to accomplish some of the lofty goals we once set together. My father (Anthony Brown Sr.) inspired my worth ethic and I believe it was many of my elders that carved a path for me as a creative, in which I am truly blessed and grateful for.