Artist Profile: Jhnchristopher.
Jhnchristopher., the Chicago-based visual artist and enigmatic rapper, has been chasing a feeling of spontaneous creation since he was a child, utilizing his innate talent for drawing and painting and his keen interest in music’s capabilities of expression in order to convey his deepest vulnerabilities as well as his greatest triumphs.
As a child, he would sit in church, arms crossed and his head down, and tune out the pastor entirely, instead waiting to listen to the choir and the way in which their voices would echo off of the chapel’s wide spatial arrangement. When prompted to pick his head up by the adults around him, he would instead focus in on the stained glass and paintings that populated the walls of the church.
As he grew older, he began competing in art competitions across the country, through which he found not only validation but also opportunity, growing in his artistic confidence and technical skill.
In high school, he took what he considered to be the logical next step in his artistic explorations: making his own music. Influenced by the vulnerability and raw openness of artists like Tyler, the Creator, he set out to design soundscapes that emulated the purity and depth of his paintings, in the process strengthening his own understanding of the emotional wanderings present in his art.
He learned to approach music the same way he did painting, with a strong degree of improvisation, centered around a deep belief in creative attunement with the universe around him.
“As much as things can be calculated and strategic or you’re trying to perfect something, within all of that it's still all improv in a way; even just the first thought that you have [is often the most important]. I believe in improvisation and a cycled ascension in a way; [I believe that] it’s all been written beforehand.”
Out of his three projects from 2021, mr. toby, Feb5*, and FROM TODAY, it is the latter of those, in the crushing depths of its soundscape and the artistic heights of its lyricism, that most accurately represents Jhnchristopher.’s capacity for intense rap that adeptly captures the reality of his life and personal situations.
From the haunting arrangements of “Fuge#1” to the collapsing rhythms of songs like “Decompose”, FROM TODAY encapsulates the wide spectrum of Jhnchristopher.’s talent: the simultaneously bruising and open method through which he communicates with his audience.
Now, as he works toward his next project, one that he intends to capture the last four years of his life in as complete a form as possible, he continues to integrate the interplay between his music and his visual art to an even higher degree. As the album nears completion, he has begun work on a series of paintings that extrapolate upon the project’s theme of time and vulnerability that will culminate in an exhibition in conjunction with the release of the album.
As Jhnchristopher. continues to navigate these waters, his raw creative drive and energy imprint a special dynamic upon every creative act he pursues, and, as he continues to grow in the interplay between his two mediums, his work will be something special to watch.
“I'm growing currently, and I definitely always feel like there's fluctuations and distance [between the two mediums]... and then there’s closeness and just learning and unlearning and relearning the values of all of this art in my life.”
