“Something I’ll never forget is the nostalgia feeling when I listen to these albums today and the times these albums were released. I hope that’s something that stays with me and continues to inspire me.”
Rebecca Maria
Fusing nostalgia with jaw-dropping craftmanship, the works of multi-faceted artist Rebecca Maria are affectionate tributes to hip-hop culture and its cultural movement. Studded with nineties and noughties rappers from Outkast to Dipset and MF DOOM, her work constantly underlines said heroes’ undeniable icon status:
Even though the self-taught artists entirely omits faces throughout her work, with no realistic details apparent either, Maria’s references are still surprisingly recognizable through her signature blurred style. An homage to the days when MTV still played music videos and burned outfits and album covers into the collective memory of a ‘Smack’ DVD watching generation, the artist showcases rappers and their signature looks as cultural juggernauts and, respectively, cultural artefacts.
Rebecca Maria’s ode to a cultural heritage, instilled at the earliest point by the hip-hop heavy soundtrack of car rides with her father, doesn’t stop at hand-crafted sculptures – Juelz Santana in his Star-Spangled Banner ensemble, for example – or paintings. Her newest creations showcase another hip-hop staple’s ‘larger than life’ status the literal way: It’s hyper-realistic, yet cartoonishly enlarged replicas of chain pendants by the likes of Rocafella Records or ‘MDBTF’ era Kanye – with an unbelievable eye for detail.
For more art by Rebecca Maria, you can check her Instagram and her website featuring more of her work and footage from previous exhibitions around the world.
