Interview with Sampy Sicada
Sampy Sicada is a Manchester-based artist and designer from Hong Kong. Currently residing in Savannah, Georgia. He mainly practises art in a traditional medium such as graphite, colour pencils and oil paints. He runs a Youtube channel critiquing film and television and has had his works exhibited in over 20 galleries internationally.
How would you describe yourself and your artwork?
Surreal realism. Basically meaning otherworldly and toying with reality whilst maintaining a sense of believability. The work is very cerebral and I'd say straight to the point, I like to think it reflects me as a person too.
How do you go about beginning a new piece? Do you have an idea already in mind, or do you start working with materials or sketches to find the departure point?
I look for images and objects that make the most impact on myself, be it emotionally or sometimes purely visually. Then I repurpose it into something visually interesting. I always work with an idea in mind because my work is results-driven and thus I don't like to waste time. Every failed piece still stings and sticks with me.
When do you think your most prolific time of day or week is?
Usually the wednesday to friday period, before I get off for the weekends and after I'd gotten into a groove. The mornings before I've expended energy to the gym/cardio are usually when I'm making my best work.
What is a barrier you as an artist overcame? Is there anything that enabled you to develop your work as an artist in your life?
I think theres a massive stigma against the kind of art I make and artist I am in a lot of places in the contemporary arts sphere, with the prevalence of postmodernism and the pretense that attempts at realism are somehow archaic and morally backwards. The attempts at being gaslit by the likes of college professors, who I see as failed artists, sometimes get to me, but I will never change for them regardless. I believe that representational art and standards of beauty need to be brought back to these spaces, not to replace all the more abstract stuff, but at the very least bring a balance back. Once I realized this as a mission statement for my artistic practice it gave me a clear goal and abundance of motivation to devote my life to it. I never shy away from trying hard to appease the general art audience's inherent desire to see cool drawings of melting heads and stuff like that. The public who've been shafted and sneered at by the elitist types are the ones who I care for.
Did you have an idea of what you wanted to create right from the beginning?
Yes, sometimes I get it close enough to how I pictured it, other days it goes in the bin. Thats not to say meaning doesn't become enhanced or enriched with time, sometimes during the making of a piece.
What is the meaning or creative inspiration for your work? We’re curious what the narrative or story is to what you are producing?
I enjoy exploring the meaning of symbols in congruence with the human form, I've met people from many different cultures due to my strangely inconsistent upbringing and living situations. Thus I've heard many different aspercions on what my work means, signals are so subjective across different cultures and I feel its best not to overexplain. Some of the pieces are more specific than others though, for sure.
Besides your artworks, are there any other things in life that your voice as an artist may consider vital or valuable? What makes you joyful and creative, in other words?
I run a youtube channel critiquing and analyzing film and media as an angry tortured artist character. I enjoy that a lot because I love film and making people laugh. A lot of the critiques and talking points are played up for laughs but have some semblence of truth to them, its a helpful thought excercise to watch and dissect things, having to put my opinions out there and expose them to the world forces me to be an active viewer and learner which ultimately improves my art making.
Are there any exhibitions or places where people can see these beautiful creations in person soon? Anything on the horizon?
There are a few events knocking about, I only just moved to the US from the Uk so I'm still putting ideas and plans together. I expect a few exhibitions to be happening in around 2 months once I've found my feet more. Stay up to date on my Instagram!
