We recently connected with Evo Love and have shared our conversation below.
Evo, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?
I had just moved to Miami Beach and before I left my mother had given me a glue gun. I thought to myself “What in the Hell am I going to do with this?” My mother was an artist in her own right but mainly did craft art and I wasn’t a craft artist or an artist by any means, so I thought the glue gun was a joke, I would most likely never use it but I politely took it and went on my way. After months of trying to pursue a bartender position at one of the many Miami Beach nightclubs and having no luck, I pulled out this glue gun and started gluing objects to this old oak school chair. I was a collector of vintage knick knacks and some furniture, fabrics, memorabilia etc. so I had plenty of items to expierment with. People would come over and visit me at my apartment and they loved the chair and they would say “Evo, this is art!” Some people I knew at the time would say “You should keep making these.” By the time I got to my third piece, It was an old Table lamp. I had covered it with all sorts of flyers from the clubs I was going to and designed the lamp shade with beads and Betty Page memorabilia and I was really excited about it and how it was turning out. One night at a nightclub I met this older man and he asked me what I do for a living and I was like “Well, I am trying to find a job as a bartender but I’ve been working on this table lamp.” After hearing me speak about this lamp and I guess hearing how excited I was he said “I’d like to buy it.” I was in shock because he hadn’t even seen the piece. He was insistent on a price but I had no idea what I would sell it for. I didn’t know anything about art, prices, what I was doing and I told him “I don’t know how much I would sell it for?” He said “How about I give you $700 bucks. I’ll give you 4 now and the rest when I come pick it up.’ I was in shock. I was also broke. I couldn’t believe it. We exchanged numbers, a week later I gave him a call and when he came to pick it up he was super excited. He then began telling me about Pop Art, Outsider art, Dadaism, Tramp art. Told me I needed to start looking this up. He also told me he use to own a gallery in New Orleans and had a really successful gallery. He also said I needed to keep making this work and began to tell me that we- WE- needed to find a way to seal the pieces and he was going to do some research and teach me how. The rest was history.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
Yvonne Grams, known as Evo Love, born in New York, is an interdisciplinary artist. In the early 1990s, she started her career creating assemblages with materials she found and collected. Then, translating her sculptural practice into a 2D one, Love began working on collages. Her work functions within a nostalgic realm that transports both artist and viewer on a journey back to childhood. Her work has sold on five continents and is exhibited internationally. Through the use of appropriated print media Love developed a complex and highly personal symbolic language that allowed her to investigate subjects, which range from her Latin and Indigenous heritage, her interests in magic, games, love, sex, culture, and history. The use of these images creates an archetype that transcends the boundaries of the human condition, language, race, class, and culture. As with her sculptural work, her approach is methodical and specific as to foreshadow a narrative while giving the viewer the space to complete the story.
The series Body Shop is dedicated and inspired by my stepfather Joseph Caban Jr, a renowned auto body expert. Body Shop celebrates the elbow grease and dedication of heavy collision mechanics, builders, and car culture. Having spent a large part of my childhood in auto body shops, I wanted to revisit my memories of watching my stepfather Joe working on many of the classic cars used in these collages.
Each piece tells a story through cars, advertising, and American pop culture. The backgrounds of these pieces may go unnoticed by the laymen. But to the auto mechanics, car manufactures, builders, and collectors, it will be clear the intricate way Chilton Automotive Digest manuals are used to frame the work. Color combinations are a nod to the renovation masters that knew the importance of nuances such as the proper cranberry red color on a Chevelle, to the shades of brown, bronze and golds on Cadillac’s and Monte Carlo’s.
Staying true to my aesthetic and the playful use of text that I have become known for, I construct meticulous collages of Americana Icons and car culture. I also create works that embrace America’s love of consumerism. In a world that is increasingly moving towards a “paperless” culture, my use of print media functions as an archival endeavor just as much as an aesthetic engagement.
My intent is to leave the story to the viewer to decipher. Every visual representation has nuance and subtext as well as a deliberate measure to be inclusive. Themes that incorporate feminism, homosexuality, conservatism, race, gender, and culture are woven throughout to illustrate the prevailing love I have for Americana. Each fabrication is a love letter crafted from my childhood heart, and watching them grow has renewed my zest for the creative process. After completion of each piece, I dedicate a quote and a song relating to the work.
Have you ever had to pivot?
I was heavy into three dimensional assemblage for most of my career. I was also frustrated at the art world. I was a self taught artist and not an academic. Navigating through the art world and the business of art was sometimes very discouraging as a woman and artist of color. I had this 6 year sabbatical where instead of making art I decided to just collect art work from emerging artists and support their shows. During that period I had lost my best friend, my step father. It was coming into the 6 year anniversary of his death. I was in Atlanta, Georgia sitting on a porch, looking through 1950’s Life Magazines, and I started noticing the three things that were prevalent was the advertising for Cars, Alcohol, and Cigarettes. All of my fathers favorite things. At that moment I thought to myself I was going to make a piece honoring my father and make a collage. Well that piece lit this fire in me. It made me fall back in love with art, the process of making it, not the business of it. I guess you can say at that moment I became a prolific collage artist. 120 pieces and 2 years later I am still doing it.
Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?
I would say as an artist/creative we are inspired by everything. Music, Movies, Plays, Documentaries etc. We are sponges. My work is heavily inspired by all of these things. Especially Movies and Documentaries. For Example, I just watched the documentary on Sidney Poitier and after watching it I was so inspired to do a collage piece on him. I had this Life Magazine with Sidney, Harry Belafonte, and Sammy Davis Jr on the cover of the magazine. That in itself was huge to have 3 black men all on the cover of life magazine in 1966. Also when I do an Icon piece, I study and research them. So I will sit on YouTube and watch interviews, I’ll revisit movies they did, I’ll listen to their music while making the piece. I really become immersed with the subject. But not all pieces I create are with Icons. Sometimes the car or the color of the car will motivate a piece.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://evolovemiami.bigcartel.com
- Instagram: @evolovemiami
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/evo-love-5672b58/