Mexican-American Gustavo Zermeño Jr. has made a name for himself as an artist. Born and raised in Venice, Califronia, his work has become instantly recognizable. From Selena Quintanilla, Kobe Bryant, Nipsey Hustle and Mac Miller, his hyper-realistic murals, paintings, and cutouts depicting sports heroes and cultural icons have gained him a following, been featured on local and national news, and allowed him to make a living off his art.
© Stewart Cook / Tequila AviónWhile his murals made him a viral sensation, with opportuniities to work with Rams, Dodgers, & Lakers, his work has expanded with sculptures and stylized portraits on canvas and paper. His latest partnership with Tequila Avión allowed him to take inspiration from Chicano culture, and celebrate his southern Calfornia community.
The collaboration was a result of Gustavo’s trip to the Tequila Avión distillery in Mexico, where he witnessed the process of creating the Tequila Avión Reserva Range. The limited edition piece of art is hung proud at the BEYOND THE STREETS and CONTROL Gallery’s UNDER PRESSURE exhibit in Los Angeles until December 23.
© Stewart Cook / Tequila AviónOne of the first things you notice, is the low riders. “The reason I thought it worked perfect with Avión’s piece was because, I love like the low rider culture, like how it’s family, it’s tradition, and I feel like that’s very similar with Avión and just the tequila making process. It’s very traditional,” he told us. “It has roots and I thought it would be a perfect way to combine, my aesthetic or my style with Avión. Mexico and Los Angeles are very different places, but I was trying to find ways to combine the two.”
When it comes to Zermeño Jr. he had the support of his family when he became an artist. He said his mom “loved it” when he became an artist, and saved some of his first pieces.
“Ever since I was a baby, like I have drawings from before kindergarten that she saved. So she was just ecstatic”
For Zermeño Jr., art saved him in a way. “You know my life wasn’t going in the right direction for a very long time, and art honestly saved me. I stopped messing around and stopped hanging out with the wrong people and just focused on art, and it’s led me to, you know, not just this gallery, but I’ve traveled the world because of it. They took me out to Mexico to visit the distillery, and those are all things that stem from me,” the artist shared.
As a muralist, Zermeño Jr. says it all starts in his head. “I literally can see it in my head. If I close my eyes, I can physically see this stuff. So it starts off there, and then I actually go and scout the wall, take photos, measure it out and then from there, I start sketching it all out, and then I get a very rough sketch and from there is when I start adding in the details and really finalizing those things.”
He also loves including easter eggs in his work, like the painting he did for Avión, which included a shout out to his friends brand, and members of his close circle. “Those are things that I love because when I paint in different communities, I wanna include things that they would understand and they they can embrace. Random people might not notice those things but for the people that understand.”
© GettyImagesHe’s used this vision to create works of art dedicated to celebrities that have passed away, like his beloved murals dedicated to Kobe and Gianna Bryant. He said 99% of the people he’s painted inspire him, and Kobe had a big influence on his life. “Not only through basketball, but his interviews and talking about the mamba mentality,” he explained.
“My whole life people have been like, ‘you work too much,’ or ‘you do too much and you need a rest.’ I I felt like I related to Kobe because he was just like, ‘no, you have to put in the work if you want to get ahead.’”
When Kobe passed, he said he was “in shock.” “I didn’t know if it was real or not. My cousin called me and told me and I was literally just driving and I was shocked. I think the toughest part was I had to leave and it was my first time getting paid to fly out and some one was flying me out to go paint out of state,” Gustavo said.
While he wanted to cancel the trip, he reminded himself, “what would Kobe do?” “I was like no, Kobe himself would be like, ‘no, you gotta stay on track, get this work.’ I wanted so bad to just stay like cancel the trip and I just knew I had to like push forward. I think that really helped me to kind of separate my emotions from what I have to do in the moment.”
With every mural Gustavo paints, there is a risk that it get tagged, or removed. One of his biggest pieces, a 46 feet wide, 78 feet long Nipsey Hussle Memorial Basketball Court in South Los Angeles, was recently removed. “I don’t take it personally anymore or when they get removed. One of my favorite murals just got removed. I did a Nipsey basketball court and it was a community project. I was the lead artist on it and they just removed it like, I don’t know, a month ago and they didn’t even tell anybody. They told me, but they didn’t want to tell the public to get any backlash or anything.”
While he didn’t take it personally, he said it did sting. “That was probably one of my, I don’t wanna say greatest accomplishment but the amount of funding that the school got from that. They would go there and shoot music videos and TV shows and every week I would see the kids getting new PlayStations and they took them out to Greece, and there was so much that mural brought to that school - the funding and everything. So, it does sting a little bit when things on that scale do happen. But I’m able to separate my emotions from it now just because it is what it is.”
As for his favorite piece? Gustavo said the piece dedicated to Mac Miller in Etna, Pittsburg is one was one of his favorites, and he even went to the late singers house. “We drove out there, we did a road trip to go paint that and I’m a huge believer in the universe, like seeing the signs and everything like that. It was just so many like beautiful signs like you’re on the right path. Continue what you’re doing. Like that trip was magical. We painted it for his family and the friends. We got to hang out in Matt’s house and we went hiking with his mom. It was a really special trip to me and it’s hard to top that,” he shared.
