Meet Sebastian Curi | Artist.

We had the good fortune of connecting with Sebastian Curi and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Sebastian, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
When I jumped from being an animator working in production companies to a freelance illustrator and later on to set up my own studio the key driven factor was freedom. Freedom to explore work outside the usual standards, to bring more of my voice to the work, to create a cycle between personal work and commissioned work; where the personal work drives the commissions.

Having your own business ideally should create a space of confort where you can try new things, establish a voice, connect with people around your work and push always for a better work-life balance whatever that means to you.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
My work nowadays jumps between commissioned illustrations, big hand paintings on acrylics, silkscreen prints and short animations all wrapped up in a pop feeling. Throughout the years, I’ve been exploring color, movement, everyday scenes of life and lately I’ve been fixated on hand gestures. Like a lot.

I got where I am by always working on what I have in front of me but also trying to push for the next thing. I’m a professional animator first who worked in several production companies in different parts of the world and later with that experience I jumped to commercial illustration almost in a naive way. The mix of knowledge and excitement helped me to approach to projects with new eyes and the right intention.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.

I would take it for a walk in Chinatown, a coffee in Endorffeine, a visit to my studio that is close by and maybe later we would go to walk around Downtown. I love how Broadway street has this amazing art deco buildings and old theaters. Los Angeles is rich in culture and history so almost every place you go can be seen as interesting.

Other places that I really like are the silver lake reservoir, Griffith park and the bike path in LA river.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
So many people helped me along the way!For more than a decade I worked in animation studios and I can assure you the people surrounding me where amazingly talented and way more skilled than me. Thanks to sharing a space and working with them I became the person I am today. I would like to shoutout to one of my first bosses back in Buenos Aires called Pablo Alfieri ( https://helloplayful.com ). He was key on my career because at that moment of my life I didn’t have any skills really, it was all promise let’s say. I was an enthusiastic young student and I’m not sure what he saw at that moment but he took a chance on me, and because of that, I got the opportunity to work with him and with his team of animators and designers in a studio called Plenty ( https://plenty.tv/ ) . Just by being there and working with them for four or five years that completely changed the way I work, design, and think about the industry as a whole.

If I can shoutout a couple persons more that helped me to become a better profesional I would like to mention to Ezequiel Pini (Six n. five), Steve Day (Buck), Guido Lambertini (Nice Shit Studio), Rafael Araujo (Buck), Macarena Luzi ( my partner both in life and studio), and Xoana Herrera.

Website: https://sebastiancuri.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sebacuri/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/sebacuri