Izayah Jeffrey's Gallery

Artist Bio

Izayah's work is shown in southern california art galleries and in private collections from Qatar, England and New York, to San Francisco, LA, San Diego and Palm Springs. Since the 1980's after attending Kansas City Art Institute he's continued painting large mod canvases of vivid color, and organic shapes remixing the styles of the 1950's, 60's and 70's, transforming them into accessible, original artwork for modern day lives.His paintings and photographs glean the best of the modern art movement,particularly pop art and op art, updating everything to a hip, funky, retro-current style he calls ModPop. It's all quintessentially postmodern, and completely california.The modern art movement, from which Izayah draws inspiration , encompasses most artistic production from the late 19th century through the 1970's. During this period the art world moved away from literal representational works created with limited and highly specific media, completely rethinking the nature, materials and functions of art. The latter stages of this movement produced the two styles on which Izayah relies: Pop art, emerging in the mid 1950's, characterized by themes and techniques drawn from popular culture such ad advertisements and comics; and Op art,emerging in the mid-1960's, relying on optical illusions to create the impression of movement, hidden, imagery, vibration or warping. "Art Direction and Photography are my LIFE" He began by photographing primarily people."I'm amazed by faces," he says. "I'm always amazed by the shapes of heads, the differences between them. What inspires me?. "NOIR, Old Hollywood, and my good friends MANDAD and ROBERT DUNAHAY as well as Warhol, Keith Haring and Lictenstein. As Izayah's work has progressed, his subject matter has expanded to practically everything."I feel that a blade of grass or a leaf, just one leaf, can be beautiful. The elemental structure of what's below that, beneath that, that's what's most appealing to me. Capturing that is my way of communication."