The distorted reality of Mr. Ookci

If you go on Instagram with some frequency you must have definitely come across one of the works of Mr. Ookci, real name Cristian Posella. His distorted faces with almost diabolical features quickly climbed the feeds around the world, bewitching not only the stars of our rap scene but also of the one overseas. One above all, of course, Travis Scott, who re-shared one of Ookci's works, starting a mysterious collaboration born under the sign of Sickamore, the creative director of Interscope Records and mind of Cactus Jack along with La Flame. 

A career that began through the need to express himself through art to restore one's vision of the world. "Art for me is to express yourself, to be real." Mr. Ookci told nss magazine. "I always wanted to give my vision of something. So I took the photos I liked the most and made them my way, the same for the canvases, clothing and whatever else. Of course, the photos were the most popular." A work that goes beyond art, reaching clothing in all too visible parallelism with one of the figures that inspired Cristian, Virgil Abloh: "The artists I appreciate most are Sickamore and Virgil precisely for their 360 vision. degrees. But the real inspirations come from outside: people like salxo, Muhammad Ali, rothschild or other figures from behind the scenes. That's the real goal."

George Condo seems to be among his inspirations as well, one of the names who in the last twenty years have left their mark on the ideal union between art and rap, first working on the iconic covers of My Beautiful Dark Twister Fantasy for Kanye West and recently in that of Franchise for Travis Scott: "I didn't know him, I discovered now that he also did the cover of Travis. The affinity I could have with the prices of the works surely." 

Given the present, it is impossible not to imagine an even greater future for Mr. Ookci. A future that will inevitably pass through the unexpected collaboration with Travis Scott, one of those things that would change anyone's life: "Actually Travis shouldn't have posted it, he ruined the project in a way. With Sickamore we were working on future projects by exchanging I also gave him some ideas for the artists of Cactus, but we were talking about a wider context and different times. At a certain point he tells me "I think Trav wanna post" and I "Ok" without giving it weight. 2 minutes after and my phone froze."