We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Joseph Renda Jr.. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Joseph below.

Joseph , appreciate you joining us today. Can you open up about a risk you’ve taken – what it was like taking that risk, why you took the risk and how it turned out?

Taking risks is one of the most important aspects of being a creative. From the direction of your work, submitting to a gallery, to being your own business, one of the biggest risks most of us take is pursuing art as a career. From an early age there is typically not much support, direction, or influence to treat art as anything more than a hobby. It’s the typical “starving artist” mentality. I started drawing late (around the age of 14) and was lucky to have had a few teachers as role models who saw something in me I had yet to discover. I was a horrible academic student but always had a determination for whatever I was passionate about. I won the congressional art show and was accepted to the American Academy of art my sophomore year. From that point on figuring out how to make art my career was my only focus. Once in college I treated everything as seriously as I could. I took extra free classes offered, went to gallery openings every weekend, and met as many people in the community as I could. I curated art shows with friends, assisted artists on murals, started showing in galleries, and started ArtBuilds LLC- my own artist service and custom framing company. Without all these risks, which at the time felt impossible, I wouldn’t be where I am today. It took good mentors, mindset, and the self-effort to do it knowing there is a possibility of failure. Through risk-trail-error-repeat I truly believe anyone can achieve their goals!

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.

My name is Joseph Renda Jr. and I am a Chicago based fine artist, muralist, and owner of ArtBuilds LLC, an artist service and custom framing company.

On the art side of things my work revolves around the surreal human connection to the natural world. I use nature motifs along with familiar objects or settings to evoke a visceral connection with my viewer. For the past two years I have focused on what I call my “Larger than Life” series. Started in 2022 for my solo exhibit with Vertical Gallery, the work depicts oversized everyday objects, flora, and fauna, along with minuscule figures living withing the same environment. This juxtaposition presents abstract ideas from philosophy about purpose, connection, and our place in the world. My concepts are open ended in hopes that the viewer can connect the image they perceive and feel my work on a deeper level.

One of my favorite things to do is take my gallery style of work and concepts to large scale murals! I have been assisting artists with murals for 8 years to learn and hone my craft. I have been painting murals of my own for 4 years and recently completed my largest solo mural to date in Manhattan Kansas. There is just something about being able to share your work in this setting on such a large public scale that matches no other feeling.

I graduated from the American Academy of Art in 2018 with a BFA in oil painting. I have been represented by Chicago’s Vertical Gallery since 2017 and have had two solo shows with them in 2020 and 2022 along with representation at SCOPE international art fair in 2022. I have also curated and shown locally, nationally, and internationally in group exhibits, and had my first out of Chicago solo show with Portland’s Antler Gallery in 2023. My work can be viewed at Jrenda-art.com or @j.renda_artist

I started ArtBuilds in 2018 to become a middle ground between cheapy store bought materials, and expensive frame shops. As an art student myself I knew how frustrating and costly it was to purchase canvas, panels, and frames just to get home and notice they are warped, dented, cracked, and unusable. I started building my own panels in 2017 and quickly realized there was a big need for an artist run artist focused company that could provide the highest quality and fully customizable painting surfaces at an affordable price. From there the company expanded to offering custom pedestals, shipping crates, mobile mural walls, custom framing, and even art installation. ArtBuilds is going on 6 years now and I am so proud of how many artists, galleries, collectors, and companies we have been able to serve and bring their creative visions to life!
You can view our portfolio and services at Artbuilds.stuido or @artbuilds

Looking back, are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

The one thing I learned is that the biggest and best resource for any artist is other artists! Yes, it feels scary to reach out to someone you may look up to, or see as “bigger” than you, but they will be your best teachers. 99% of the time artists are happy to help and share their knowledge. We are a community and Chicago is a small one at that. I have reached out about technique, materials, galleries, pricing, opportunities and so much more. I am always happy to share what I have experienced with someone who is truly interested and can benefit from it the most!

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

The most rewarding aspects about being a creative/self-employed is getting up every day knowing I am doing what I am truly passionate about. It’s funny because I was never good with structure or taking orders in school or jobs, but setting goals and doing it myself is what changed me. Even though being self-employed is 100 times more work, more stress, and more risk it is 1 million times more rewarding.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.jrenda-art.com/ & https://www.artbuilds.studio/
• Instagram: @j.renda_artist & @artbuilds

Image Credits
Artwork Images by: Wenc Photo @wencphoto