JACK WALLS

Jack Walls is a remarkable artist, poet and writer, not limited by adherence to any medium. He is known throughout the art world as many things. A poet. A creator of images. A romantic. A former gang member. The long-term romantic partner of the late iconic photographer Robert Mapplethorpe. A perennial outsider artist rebel. An icon. Although he considers himself mostly a writer, his drawings and sketches are done with equal aplomb, not to mention his collaged works which are done with a dexterity that boggles the mind particularly when contrasted with some of his drawing series which almost seem to have the energy of automatic drawings. He is a multi-disciplinarian, who’s small and compressed works are composed to scale, depending on the size of his work area, or how small his drawing board.

“I studied the way Robert (Mapplethorpe) drew, a lot of people don’t know that Robert drew and sketched a lot, a whole lot. I use to watch him draw, my style was different back then, I was in my early twenties, I was still learning - Patti Smith, Robert Mapplethorpe, and Sam Wagstaff, continue to be strong spiritual sources of inspiration to me."
- Jack Walls