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KORTEZ (AEROSOL BLUES, AMP)
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 Kortez Interview
(6.25.2001)
Kortez is an art director and co-founder of Aerosol Blues, the NJ-based art collective. We recently hooked up with him for an intimate conversation.
How it began:
It began in the crib (laughs). My father still has my first drawings and clay sculptures from three years old. My parents exposed the art to me and I just took it.
What the scene was like when he got started:
It was the late 70s/early 80s. The imagery I was taking in was what was coming out of Andy Warhol’s camp, the 60s Pop Art movement, 70s graffiti, and 80s music videos and photography. That’s how the collage came into play.
His collaboration with Jerry Gant:
I hooked up with Jerry when I was in art school and I was selling mix tapes in Newark. I had one of my paintings up where I sell my mix tapes and we started to talk about art. A couple of months later I was at this crib talking about art and music. Several years later we had a show and that’s how Aerosol Blues came into play. It was a network of artists who were doing their thing. When you’re in a group you’re a lot more powerful than an individual.
The faces he paints:
Sometimes my faces are actual people that I run into. I love eyes. The one major feature that you’ll notice [in my art] is eyes and lips. I just exaggerate them, I like them.
His influences:
Prince, Tony Humphries, Naim Johnson, DJ Tony Bomb, Paradise Gar...
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