Gustavo Zermeño Jr. is a painter from Venice, Los Angeles. He’s known for large, outdoor murals depicting SoCal sports and music icons, as well as detailed airbrushed paintings rich with subcultural details, including lowriders, skaters, and graffiti.
Zermeño’s work spans the spectrum from underground to prime time. But most important, his paintings are offerings to the city that raised him, as well as to the people, places, and things that nourished his creativity. On the eve of his first solo gallery show, What Was, What Is, What Could Be, which opened at Beyond the Streets the day after this interview, Complex chopped it up with Zermeño to discuss his creative processes, Los Angeles, personal style, and why, despite his best efforts, everything he loves ends up with a “drop of paint on it.”
This interview was edited for concision and clarity.
You grew up in Venice, which is a neighborhood where multiple subcultures come together. Venice has lowriders, surfers, skaters, graffiti writers, and more. How do you integrate that rich history into your artwork?
I always talk about Venice as a melting pot. I literally grew up with people that were millionaires and people that were on assisted living, Section Eight and things like that. I always loved the idea that everything was blended together. I grew up with surfer homies, gang homies, graf homies, artists, musicians, you name it, man. I grew up with all that. And I think that had a huge influence on me being able to share my creative side, not being afraid to be creative and be artsy and be soulful.
Yeah man, it was always in my face. I worked down at the boardwalk for 16 years right out of high school, so I was surrounded by artists, performers, musicians, again, you name it. I was surrounded by all that on a daily basis. And I think that’s what really sparked my interest in art. And of course family. My parents were very supportive of it. So that really made me feel confident to be able to express myself through art.
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