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Artist, Okuda San Miguel’s work can easily be described as eccentric, extraordinary, and something you’ve probably never seen anything like before. Typically Okuda’s canvases are over the top, building size pieces of art. More recently, the 39-year-old artist took on a new project in collaboration with the brand, 1800 Tequila where his work is shown on a much more tangible scale.
For his latest endeavor, the Spanish artist took his signature colorful, geometric style of art to bottles of tequila to collaborate with the brand. The iconic tequila brand is celebrating the 10th anniversary of its Essential 1800 Artists Series. For the series, each year world-renowned artists such as Keith Haring and Shantell Martin create work to be put on the brand’s tequila bottles.
This year, Okuda holds the honor of celebrating the series anniversary by being selected as the artist to have his work featured on the bottles.
Okuda said working with a brand such as 1800 Tequila was special to him because he loves Mexico and its culture, which often inspires his work. Okuda said it wasn’t an easy task to create art specifically designed for a glass bottle and it was a lengthy process, especially during these unprecedented times with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Although it was challenging, the Spanish artist said it was a special project for him as he loves to transform different objects into beautiful pieces of art.
“It’s very different working on a big canvas versus, say a glass bottle so I had to carefully select the art I wanted to go on the bottles,” Okuda explained. “We needed to find the best compositions and techniques for the bottles. It’s more difficult. We were working on this for about eight months. We had to test and test and test. When you paint typically on a wall or wherever, you just do it,” he said. Okuda explained that this project required a lot of sending ideas back and forth but all of the hard work was worth it in the end.
“It was a very motivating project for me,” Okuda said. “I love to do new things, new formats, new faces, and when I saw the result I was very happy, the final product reminded me of stained glass in church,” he said. The bottles are made up of some of Okuda’s favorite icons, one of them being the skull which to Okuda represents a symbol of life.
To further celebrate the series anniversary, fans get to interact with the bottles in an immersive augmented reality way through Snapchat. The app has a unique filter that allows fans to hold up their phones to the bottles and engage with the art through Okuda-themed lenses.
“I think it’s very important that my fans can interact with my art. I started to do these kinds of things a few years ago with Instagram which I think is super nice. It’s a new way of communication I think,” Okuda said.
Okuda said he was honored to work with 1800 Tequila especially amongst all of the artists before him who have been a part of this special series. “It’s very important because I love the artists who collaborated before me and I am very, very proud to be here,” he said.
The entire Essential 1800 Artists Series collection is available for purchase on ReserveBar.com.