Meet Vai “VaiBionic” Trask | Artist/Painter

We had the good fortune of connecting with Vai “VaiBionic” Trask and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Vai “VaiBionic”, we’d love to hear about how you approach risk and risk-taking
Risk taking is what I do. I’m risk’s biggest advocate. However, I’m also an advocate of forethought and brains. Blind risks are more inclined to turn themselves into life’s cruelest lessons. To take a risk is to trust that everything will truly work in your favor. It’s that knowing, that certainty. What I’m doing now hasn’t been done. This is the biggest risk. I have no roadmap, I have no blueprint, I don’t even really have an idea of what it is I’m doing. All I know is I’m doing it and I’m fulfilled. That’s all I care about.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
My art has evolved into my own social commentary. For anyone not familiar with my story, I’m a domestic violence survivor. What started as a personal confrontation with the issue, blossomed into a mission to unite painting and hip hop, both literally and culturally. I’m a visual artist, a painter. Tommy Will and I committed ourselves wholeheartedly to a creative unit by the name of “BionicWill”. What BionicWill is, is the absolute union of fine art and hip hop. With each art show/exposition I’m involved with, there’s an exclusive hip hop album that is written and curated by Tommy Will. A hip hop album inspired by my work for said show. Why hip hop? My love for hip hop is an ode to the written word. What I’d consider to be the most authentic form of self expression is painting and writing coming together as an amalgam of the human experience. The most organic and bare form of expression. The traditional experience of writing as an art form is now archaic. As with everything else, even the delivery of an abstract will evolve. Physicality of writing is dying. Book stores are disappearing, there’s no physicality to the written word. There are no books to hold, buy, smell, bookmark, etc.. Everything is digital. The audience has also waned. People do not read, they listen. Hip hop is the new platform for the writer. Hip hop gives writers a recourse in getting their words out and touching others with poetry, a narrative, or whatever else it is writers feel need to be conveyed. I’ve always had an issue with the patronizing first impression, and reputation, that fine art has taken on. Painting, being a “classic” painter, does not coincide with hip hop music. It just doesn’t. Matter of fact, admit that the it was never mutually inclusive with music, much less hip hop. Painters? I’ve always felt our audience has been misguided into thinking there’s a formal exclusivity accompanying our craft. That the “successful” painter is part of a club that only the “elite” can partake in. This is anything but who we are. Painting is our agency. However, it is not our only agency for self expression. My mission is to create a new lane of fine art that unites the formal art world with hip hop and the hip hop community, while also bringing hip hop to the fine art “scene”. A symbiotic relationship that feeds the soul by catering to more senses, thus providing a broader human experience. The truth is, we don’t know what we’re doing, but we’re definitely doing it. I don’t know what the right moves are to make this work, but the right moves are being made. I don’t know what to expect in this mission, but I know I’ve experienced the best days of my life since I came onto the scene in January of 2022. I’m learning every day. I’m always going. I’m always working. My clothes are always dirty. The studio is where I breathe. Although there’s been so much to learn in taking this on, right now I’m finding myself learning patience; truly learning to rest and wait. It’s the having to rest that I’m focused on right now. Fortunately for me, I can produce. I can throw down an entire expo of 20 paintings with a two-week’s notice. However, I do burn myself out. If I’m not rested and aligned, I can’t give the best of myself to my art. What I’d like the world to take from my work is that chaos is beautiful, that art is our retribution, discomfort is the first step in that retribution, and mistakes are necessary. It’s the beauty uprooted from that chaos which brings us peace. With BionicWill, understand that as the world evolves, the authenticity of who we are as human beings will forever be with us, as long as we understand that society cannot (and will not) dictate what beauty shall remain.

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.
There’s no question that we’d go to the city’s best galleries, food, sights, but don’t think it’ll be a quaint experience. All of it will be visceral… nothing less then visceral. I love taking others into the underbelly of the local scene, a firsthand look at that that particular location has to give. The culture. The underworld. We’d walk the streets, we’d wander under bridges, we’d find a studio session just to absorb that one creator’s creative process. That’s the substance. I wanna turn the rock over and let you see all the cool bugs living under that proverbial rock.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I’ve cultivated beautiful bonds with strong and talented artists who inspire me and teach me. They’re musicians, writers, poets, creators, innovators… I can honestly say I am better because of these men and women. I am a better person, artist, human, creator, because of Tommy Will.. We’re talking about a man who’s opened up his world to me for the sake of art, and continues to provide the knowledge, mentorship, support, and love necessary for me to grow as a creator. He trusted me and my contribution to a vision we both share. He let me in. That’s a risk.  That’s martyrdom type shit. This is bigger than us. What we’re doing is bigger than us. We created BionicWill. It took a lifetime, and beyond, for me to be here. Shoutout to my Yang. I have so much, yet nothing to say at the same time. Man baffles me, for real. Yeah… Shoutout Tommy Will. Ends there. I mean, shoutout Vai first and foremost… but I think you’d like to know who other than myself deserving of applause. Tommy Will, absolutely. This is my family. It’s this family that gives me the strength necessary for me to keep going.

Website: AndGallery.art

Instagram: @bionicvai

Image Credits
RaetedR Photography @raetedr URBXN LEGEND Photography @urbxnlegend