Hip-hop and fine art have always gone hand in hand. Over their careers, legendary acts like Kanye West, Kid Cudi, Travis Scott, and Clipse have become synonymous with the visual language of contemporary artists like Takashi Murakami, KAWS, and George Condo by using their work as cover art. However, the relationship between hip-hop and fine art has never been limited to just the industry elites. As many young musical artists break onto the national stage every year, they allow their young fine art counterparts the opportunity to rise with them. One leader of this new generation is Peter Cepeda, an LA-based painter who’s been tapped by Sk8star, diamond*, skaiwater, Yung Bans, and many other prominent figures in the emerging underground hip-hop scene. I got the chance to sit down with Peter at his art exhibition at New York Fashion Week to get a glimpse into the world he’s building for himself.
Colton Fairbairn: For those not familiar with you or your work, what is the essential information as to who Peter Cepeda is as an artist and as a person?
Peter Cepeda: He’s a fine artist, an acrylic painter. His work talks about himself, things about himself and what he experiences, his beliefs, and his opinions based on that.
CF: Having your own art gallery at NYFW is a goal many artists aspire to. How does it feel to be able to make that goal a reality?
PC: Pretty insane. I did not think it was going to happen, and it feels right; it feels like I should be doing something like this.
CF: Why is physical media important to you?
PC: Wow, because I can grab it. Because I can touch it, it actually engages with my senses. It’s real life, it’s reality, you know, it's the atoms you can feel in your hand. But also more so the process of its creation; when you create something, it’s here; that’s why we have the reality that we have.
CF: How do you push the boundaries between traditional art and fashion?
PC: With traditional art, I would say I’m pushing it just with the fact of who I am. I’m a young kid born in today’s time, experiencing today’s things, and those contemporary things are what go into my work and push that boundary. I feel like young kids are always the ones really pushing that boundary, pushing new shit, new envelopes, and new agendas in the world, pushing everything further, and standing on the shoulders of giants, of course, but they’re always going to be pushing forward. I just think I’m just one of those kids, so with where my art is, it’s just going to happen naturally.
CF: Who are your biggest art and fashion inspirations?
PC: I try not to consume a lot; I can’t say certain ones off the top of my head. I feel like I get influenced by humans doing human things of the greatest of natures, not necessarily just artists. But when I was younger, one thing I would always say when people asked me what I wanted to be when I was older: I didn’t know how to explain the things I wanted to do, so I used a combination of people that best fit what I wanted to do- Virgil Abloh being one of those, Takashi Murakami, Andy Warhol, and Caravaggio. Literally, I just explained certain things; I want to be all over.
CF: Virgil’s definitely a big one for me as well; what he was able to do as an artist with galleries, as well as how big of a fashion figure he was, was special. He’s been the blueprint for me with what I’m trying to do with my career; he had an architecture degree, and I’m in architecture school right now, with what he was able to do with that degree and pushing it so much further beyond just architecture.
PC: He made people take art seriously again. Hell yeah, bro.
CF: With Snatched Magazine being an Oregon-based publication, our upcoming issue is the first since we’ve branched out to LA, San Francisco, and New York. What are some quintessential people, places, and things we need to cover in those cities?
PC: I’m gonna keep it a bean; there’s a lot. There’s a lot; those are the hotspots. That's where things are happening. Those are the meccas of our world, where people travel to go pursue the best of the best of their talents. So definitely LA, definitely New York. I know San Francisco has a scene, but I’m not as familiar. I think it’s also important to go to those other places like Oregon; a lot of those talented creatives are from there. I have a talented friend; he’s a crazy painter who lives in Oregon and comes to LA all the time. That’s how I’ve gotten to know him and work with him. For some prominent people that need to be looked at, from LA, I would say, off the top of my head, Jebediah Ryder. He runs Ryder Studios; he is kind of the pinnacle of an LA artist, and he’s doing streetwear; he’s doing high-end fashion, which is the heart of a lot of celebrity culture in Hollywood in Los Angeles, but in such a fine art-heavy way, and I love to see it; you can see the city bleed right through him. Another artist that I could think of from New York, Angel Lovecraft. Angel Lovecraft makes these amazing paintings; they’re just absurd. Just go look at them for yourself. He’s from New York; he paints in Brooklyn, and he’s actually unreal. I did this show because these people have blown me out of the water—the talent is not just there in LA and New York: another artist, Georgia, Serialsweetheart, an amazing painter from Texas, Fort Worth, I believe, and oh my god, these people, I can never really come up with the words to talk about their work, how impactful they really are, and how impactful they will be.
CF: Beautiful. A good chunk of those artists are on display at the show we’re at right now; that’s the Peter Cepeda connection. Thank you very much for taking the time; we appreciate you.
PC: Thanks for having me; I appreciate it, bro. I can’t wait to see it.
