Nick Flatt: An Exclusive Interview with A.I.M.O.

Taking over the BSMT space after my other art crush, FANAKAPAN , must have been exciting! How did your show with Paul Punk come about? Did you choose the gallery or did the gallery choose you? Stand in line, my wife's biggest art crush is Fanakapan too! Hearing that Fan was doing a show with BSMT, then seeing the Doing Lines show with Captain Kris, The Real Dill, Tony Boy and Obit really put us over the top in wanting to do a show with the gallery. I had also met Greg on my first trip to London in 2014, and we became friends straight away. Then after I saw the madness that was the Doing Lines show I messaged Greg, "Bruh, we next." It was about as easy as that, and couldn't be happier with how the show turned out, and the direction this space seems to be taking.

What do you like painting most and why? I like painting women the most. Probably for the same reason that artists for hundreds of years like to paint women, but also because it allows me to riff on advertising. Sort of reverse engineer the seductive imagery to create my own "good" propaganda.

You have such strong imagery in all that you create. Do you want the public to look at your work as a social commentary in what is happening around them? Absolutely. We're trying to avoid just painting pretty pictures. The biggest debates Paul and I have are whether or not the images are political enough. We want to keep trying to push the envelope a little further with each mural.

If you could collaborate with any artist, alive or deceased, who would it be with? That's a really good question. Such a good question, that I would imagine the answers almost always comes up short. That being said, I would like to work with Sterling Ruby. Would be crazy to get a glimpse inside his massive studio and watch his army of assistants push out just the right amount of art commodities that his market can bare. What art hangs on your walls? I've actually started ripping off artists that I like, but could obviously never afford. I just print off a photo of one of their paintings, then paint it myself onto a big canvas. I have a Christopher Wool rip-off, a lovely Cheryl von Heyl rip-off hanging over the couch. A lil da Vinci jammy that I burned for one of my paintings, and a couple wheat pastes that the misses did.

What is next for you? Paul and I will be painting at UpFest in Bristol this year. Might try and swing by Paris to do a wall too. Then I have an artist residency in Switzerland for two months. Gonna start an entire series based on the Mona Lisa burning painting that I did for this show. A Damien Hirst spot painting is first under the flames.