Rothko Yellow Center Louis by Yubi Nikola

Born in LA and moved to Fresno when I was 4 where I lived until I was about 17 in a 1400 Sq.ft. house with my parents, 3 siblings, and my grandma. Since my parents did not allow us kids to go out much because of the perils of our neighborhood, I would escape to the garage where my infatuation with art and design grew with every piece of furniture, light fixture, a sculpture I designed and created. Growing up, instead of being gifted video games for birthdays and occasions like my little brother would, I would get whatever building materials that would fit in the back of my mom’s Buick.

By the time I reached the end of HS, I knew that I wanted to pursue a career in art and design, to expand on my obsession with working with my hands to create and build. After working on a portfolio and a cover letter, I applied to SCI-ARC. I got my acceptance letter from SCI-ARC a couple of months after I applied and packed my bags to leave Fresno for good and start my new life in LA as an architecture student.

After graduating I started doing odd jobs as a 3D artist and renderer. Eventually, I had a client ask if I knew anyone that can build the table I had designed for him and I confidently told him that I would be able to do the job. To make this happen, I set up shop in my small studio apartment and built my first piece of furniture. After one job leading to another bigger job, I eventually got to the point where I am today. designing and building large-scale brand activations for entertainment companies and clothing brands like Nike, Youtube, Facebook, and more, but I’ve never lost my love for art and more specifically sculpture.

With my sculptures, I want to achieve a level of pigment saturation that even shadows read as color. Over the years, I’ve become captivated with shoes but more specifically the soles of shoes that separate us from the surfaces we walk on. I’ve always been intrigued with following someone’s path on a dirt trail or at one of my job sites and seeing all the different shadows and textures created by one simple thing that we all do WALKING. Combining my two obsessions of deep rich color and footsteps. I use my footsteps and shoe soles as my brushstrokes and pigment, clay, salt, and sand as my canvas to create sculpture.

I’m just a guy that can’t get enough of what I love and I enjoy manifesting thoughts that cross my mind into tangible objects that I can just stare at for hours which fortunately others can admire as well.

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