FREE BEER FOR THE FIRST 40 PEOPLE!

Come hang out at this classy free art show on the water front in Emeryville.

About OPTIMIST

Optimist grew up in Oakland California and started doing graffiti at an early age.
Inspired by the dozens of graffiti legends painting in Oakland in the 90’s, he couldn’t help but become addicted to Graffiti. After visiting the SF MOMA during a Gerhard Richter exhibit in 2002 he decided to try his hand at painting with a  brush instead of a spray paint can in an attempt to mimic the skills of Richter.  This led to another addiction to painting.
Optimist went to University of California Berkley  and received a degree in Conceptual Information Arts and painting in 2005.  After Graduation he rented out a small studio in San Francisco and began painting, blending photo realism and collage and techniques learned from graffiti into his own unique style.  He spent most of the day  painting in the studio working on new ideas and visual metaphors for his fine art and at night painting freight trains or the city streets in an attempt to keep a balance between the two.

In 2007 he moved to Taipei Taiwan.
The move to Taipei was a self experiment in an attempt to see what kind of effects moving to a completely new and strange environment would have on his Art and self expression.  This new body of work is the result of that experiment,  and intense collage of images and statements describing the ever changing landscape of Taipei as well as the social and economic metamorphosis that is taking place.  Optimist’s paintings depict the shift that is occurring  in Taipei because of  the influence of capitolism and materialism of the western world.

In 2009 he moved back to Oakland and continues to make art daily and graffiti nightly.