Justin Francavilla is a visual artist based in Santa Cruz, California, working primarily in black-and-white ink drawings, printmaking, and public art. A former New Yorker and graduate of The Cooper Union (BFA, 2001), his work explores impermanence and the beauty found within under-appreciated plants, animals and objects, often through recurring imagery of rats, trash and dead flowers. The basis of all of Francavilla’s work is drawing, using an old-fashioned crow quill pen and endlessly dipped in ink. Nibbed pens allow for extreme variations in line width and infuse his work with energy. His drawings move fluidly between gallery walls and the street, appearing as exhibitions, bronze public artworks, wheat paste interventions and printed ephemera meant to circulate widely. Francavilla has completed major public art projects throughout Santa Cruz County and has exhibited internationally, with illustration clients including The Village Voice, The Guardian, Harper’s Magazine and HBO. He silkscreens all of his own shirts by hand and is committed to producing affordable prints, stickers, and artist editions that treat accessibility as an artistic value rather than a compromise.
