Johnny Rocket Ibanez

July 2024’s Featured Artist

Artist Bio:

Johnny Rocket Ibanez is a contemporary artist who currently focuses on abstract figurative painting with a thematic focus on the intersection of poetry and painting. Other hats that have been worn and are occasionally put back on for short periods of time include commercial graphic designer, digital artist, published poet, children’s book illustrator and watercolorist, and web designer and developer. A new hat that has been under construction in the last year is muralist. Ibanez’s work has been shown in Puerto Rico, Florida and North Carolina, and is in personal collections across the United States. 

Ibanez was raised in Gainesville, Florida to a large, boisterous Puerto Rican family and currently lives in Charlotte, North Carolina with a wife, two kids, and exceedingly old dog. When not painting, writing, digitizing, drinking coffee, or speaking in third person, Ibanez can usually be found traveling, talking way too much, and incessantly listening to music. 

If interested in working with Ibanez by way of commission, collaboration, or contract, contact either through the contact form or email at jrocketibanez@gmail.com.

Artist Statement:

Before I was a visual artist I was a poet, writing and performing in the Gainesville poetry scene. I approach painting in the same way I approach writing poetry, mentally and emotionally. You could say that, for me, they are one in the same, differing only in their medium. Through painting I seek to uncover the emotional, deeper levels of a given scene, and aim to allow the painting to subvert any expectations or assumptions thrown its way.