We were lucky to catch up with Julian Guyton recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Julian, thanks for joining us today. Can you tell us about a time that your work has been misunderstood? Why do you think it happened and did any interesting insights emerge from the experience?

Often times, I feel that the work I do is misunderstood or mischaracterized and I used to sit and ask myself, “Why does my art make people feel this way?”. I feel that with my style, it’s so fresh and new that to give one story just couldn’t do it justice, so I’d say this; most times, people see my work and think that it’s a form of graffiti or “street art” but really I think it’s more than that, and in a sense, discredits the art that I produce. In some galleries that I worked with, rather it was during the Open Reception or just inquiries from viewers, for some reason people always lean towards my art being in that art style. I never truly understand because, with work being in a gallery is it not contemporary work? With the ideas and concepts in my pieces, is it not worthy of the same observant eye as a landscape piece for example..? Another thing I notice is that with me being a young black artist, I don’t exactly “look the part” or look as if I do the work that I do. People expect someone older, or someone not black and I’ve experienced a lot of turn downs early in my career from various people, for what I believe was the reason. I notice that a lot of the higher end galleries/artist in the higher end art world aren’t people that look like me and I really want to somehow be the one to change that somehow…
Again, I deal with a lot mentally with art and the art world but that is what I feel people misunderstand that the most; black art is not “simple art” but something far more complex than to just be labeled as such.

Julian, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I feel that every artist starts their story the same way or have some sort of early art influence in their lives, so I can’t say that I’m much different on that aspect of things. I was born and raised in Chicago, so a lot of my influence in my art comes from home. Various mindsets, the vibe of the city, etc. Also, my dad is an artist as well, and I’d remember at an early age I’d always look at his sketch books of his pieces and just be so awed by the colors and ideas. An early lesson he taught me (and probably one of the biggest) was that “the materials don’t make the artist, the artist makes the materials”. Essentially, you don’t need the highest in the game to make the best work, but if your structure/fundamentals aren’t there, it doesn’t matter how good your materials, it’ll show… My first real introduction to art came at that point; my dad had these DragonBall Z mangas and he’d color them in with Crayola color pencils to make them full color. I credit a lot of my color theory to that I’d say. I would just copy what I seen my dad doing and eventually kids at school would have the same mangas as I did but mine would be fully colored by me. I’d also draw a lot of cartoon characters or things I saw on TV but I never persay took an art class or even thought an art career would be possible.
In about 8th grade I got into graffiti then took it a lot more seriously by the time I turned 16 and pretty much focused on that until about 2017. In 2017, I had dropped out of college after my 3rd semester and was really just stuck in thought as to what I wanted to do in life/with my life. At that time I created my collective “[MNGO.S]” with the slogan being “whatever you want it to be”. My thoughts with this collective was that [MNGO.S] would be more of a lifestyle brand promoting the arts and creatives to make the most out of your life and make your dreams a reality. At first with this, I focused on clothes for about 2 1/2 years then during the pandemic there was somewhat of a shift…
The art I create now came about by an accident in 2018 while doing a custom pair of Nike AF1s for a client. From that mistake came what I called the first iteration of my style, “The Faces”; these masked characters with raw emotion just staring forward into really nothing. At this same time, the pandemic would start shortly after and I began to shift my focus from clothes to painting. I found a love for painting and began to paint a lot of the things from my mind, putting a visual to something that was none physical; emotion. I would paint in somewhat of a trance like state, letting my hand guide me and seeing the finished result with the same shock and awe as my friends/ viewers.
For a while I was just painting because art has always been my hobby but in 2022 a lot began to change. I traveled to LA to participate in a live speed painting competition, “Art Battle”, in which 2 rounds of 6 artist compete live in front of a crowd and create a painting in 20 minutes. I won that competition twice in LA and went to nationals. I also competed in many other states across the US. Not only this, but I began showcasing my work in various galleries across Chicago, as well as having my work featured in the WNDR Museum.
In June of 2024, I had my first solo show “PRINCIPLES” in West Hollywood, CA and since then have been working out of LA producing what I feel is some of the best work I’ve created thus far.
Overall, I never thought art could actually be a career and although it has its ups and downs, this is by far one of the best things I feel that I could be doing. Everything with life comes with problems, but how we manage and push through them is what really makes the difference. Life is truly whatever you want it to be. Life is [MNGO.S]….

We’d love to hear your thoughts on NFTs. (Note: this is for education/entertainment purposes only, readers should not construe this as advice)

I truly don’t understand NFTs. I’m still very new to the art world so with this new art form being introduced while I’m still learning… it’s so many curve balls thrown in this game you just have to know how to adapt. In my opinion, I personally think NFTs promote “lazy art”. There’s no real thought behind the NFTs and they promote this false sense of reward that I truthfully have yet to see one project do what it was intended. Also, the NFTs 90% of the time are generated after an initial template is made. I actually made an NFT project during the pandemic, but I never went through with it due to lack of knowledge/ not knowing what to do with what I made.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

The common stigmatism with having an art career is that you’ll be a “starving artist” but I highly disbelieve that. I feel that it’s just a mindset thing and you have to be able to think outside of the box to avoid this. You can make it with art and you can make money with art but that takes for you to really think and learn to be business minded and marketable. My main goal is to show that to other artist and really open up doors and opportunities for artist who I feel definitely deserve more attention on the work they do. Maybe then, if more people see a success from an art career some of the greatest creatives would come forward and share more of their work with the world. It’s all about who sees your stuff.

Contact Info:

• Website: mngos.bigcartel.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/mngos_juju
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100068314875306&mibextid=LQQJ4d&mibextid=LQQJ4d
• Twitter: www.x.com/mngos_juju
• SoundCloud: https://on.soundcloud.com/FCe5xo26WJvj7qZ66
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@mngos_juju?_t=8rh0YCSdV4o&_r=1

Image Credits
Greg Bean