Ian Ricardo

Is a talented artist and model, born and raised in Compton, CA. Since then, has moved and lived all over Los Angeles. He took his first ceramics class in High School. He fell in love with it right away but was not good at it. At this time he was really into fashion and style. That’s where most of his focus went. He even made his early ceramic work fashion related. He continued pursuing both simultaneously. In his early 20’s he got his first art fabrication job at a place with super talented people. Being in that environment inspired him to become a better artist and work on his craft. He just designed a lot of things for others and was very experimental. After a decade of working on the wheel and hand sculpting he finally feels like he’s developed his style. Where before many of his pieces were abstract and experimental, they are now more literal and with an actual message.

On creative process and what he loves about Monitaly clothing:

I pull from things I’m interested in. I’m open to different mediums and inspired by things around me. There’s a tamaleria by my parents’ house that throw aways old masa every night. That makes me want to create an art piece with the leftover masa. That’s something I like about Monitaly, they can find a random fabric and turn it into a pair of shorts and it comes out looking great. The main thing that draws me towards Monitaly is how their pieces feel pulled out of time. You can look at a piece and feelings come up. There’s also so much attention to detail and quality that you know there’s so much love and attention that goes into making them. Like the Ekusy Pants, that’s something I will wear for the rest of my life.

“People in the fashion world were the first to recognize and appreciate my art,” Ian says. A local Los Angeles brand, Virgil normal, invited me to do a show at their store. This led to me modeling for various other brands like Monitaly and also helped me to start getting noticed in the art world. Now they’re reaching out to me to do shows and residencies. Ian’s next show his on June 13th at Heavy Manners Library in Los Angeles, CA. He also has a 2 month residency in Mexico City coming up in August.