Malik Radford: progressive artist revealed

VCU junior arts student Malik Radford’s is making waves in Richmond with his newest piece, an interpretation of Frank Ocean’s “Blond” Album Cover.

The piece, titled “Pink + White” on Radford’s website took 4-5 hours, Radford said. It has been a phenomenon on social media, particularly Twitter, where is has more than 11,000 retweets and counting. In addition to seeing his followers spike up, fans across the country have offered to buy the piece, Radford said.

Currently 6×6 prints of his work for $15 a pop through Radford’s website, and Radford said he hand delivers the prints to customers nearby him.

Despite the success of his “Blond” piece, Radford said he has experienced some negativity from all of the attention. With his increased following, he works a little harder to ward off people who don’t see him for him and want to mooch off of his success, he said.

“When people see me, I want them to see my work but I also want them to understand that I’m not just an artist,” Radford said. “I do a lot of other things and am interesting person outside of my hands.”

Radford said during high school he found popular artist Nuri Durr on Instagram. From that point, the two developed a solid relationship in which Radford would receive huge inspiration from him through advice and email messages, Radford said.

“I fell in love with his style. The vibrancy of his work. From then on, I knew I had to be like him in terms of my work,” Radford said.

Since then, Radford said he has grown mentally and conceptually, strengthening his ideas at VCU and creating his own following in the process.

Instead of simply drawing others, Radford now sees himself telling stories and narratives through his work.

Radford said he also doesn’t want to succumb to consuming himself with money. Instead, he said he would like to stay pure to the artist he’s always been no matter the success that may lie ahead. Art has always been something meaningful him, not something that can be simply bought, Radford said.

“It’s my stress reliever,” Radford said. “It brings me back to reality. It mellows me out.”

Radford said in the future he’d  like to work for Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim as a writer and creator. In addition to this, he would like to one day found his own studio in Atlanta, perhaps with his roommates, he said.

“I want to have a space for people to come together and create,” Radford said.

STAFF WRITER

Muktaru Jalloh
Muktaru is a graduate student working on a Master’s of Teaching after earning an undergraduate degree in English and Political Science. In addition to writing for the CT, he also co-founds his own music and arts site, STROKES N RHYMES. Topic areas Muktaru enjoys covering include music, sports and pop culture.
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jallohmm@commonwealthtimes.org