ARTIST BIOGRAPHYOree Originol is a multimedia visual artist who creates artwork to communicate ideas about personal and social / political issues. He was born on September 11, 1984 in Glendale, California where his parents met after migrating from Mexico in the 1970s. He grew up in the same house in North East Los Angeles until his early 20s. His neighborhood was marked by gang activity and drug addiction which made him acquire a sense of empathy and awareness of social issues that impacted his community. He discovered a passion for art at a young age and developed his creative skills through self study. As a teenager, he got involved in graffiti adopting the alias "Oree", which derived from the Spanish word, "orejas", meaning "ears", a childhood joke about his big ears as a kid. His last name, "Originol" was inspired by a streetwear clothing brand, ‘Joker’, that promoted west coast urban culture and sometimes included the text, "Original", in its designs. His full alias is in reference to his background growing up in the streets of Los Angeles.
In 2009, he moved to the Bay Area to expand his creative and personal development in a new environment. He broadened his skillset to include digital art, which played a significant role in 2014 when he launched his groundbreaking open source art project, 'Justice For Our Lives', a digital portrait series of 100 black and white portraits honoring individuals who were killed by US law enforcement since the beginning of the 21st century. The project has been widely reproduced and displayed in museums, classrooms, and public demonstrations against police brutality providing the visual backdrop for "Black Lives Matter" protests in The Bay Area. In 2020, the project was showcased at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, DC for "¡Printing the Revolution! The Rise and Impact of Chicano Graphics, 1965 to Now", a traveling exhibition that included The Amon Carter Museum, The Hood Museum, and The First Museum. It also showcased at the Museum of Anthropology at the University of British Colombia, Vancouver, CAN for "XICANX Dreamers + Changemakers / Soñadores + creadores del cambio", also a traveling art show that included The Contemporary at Blue Star.
His primary body of artwork illustrates a unique vibrant world of figurative compositions. The central figures are usually human characters to effectively relate the human stories that are expressed in the work. His art style incorporates flat shapes as the building blocks of his visual content which is designed to translate similarly between multiple mediums like painting, digital art, stencils, and screen printing. The execution of his work strikes a balance between a measured and organic process that delivers a playful and cartoonish representation of his illustrations. Inspired by the legacy of social justice activism in The Bay Area, his work continues to engage community and bring awareness to a range of social issues through a racial lens that is informed by his experience as a "Chicano" artist from California.
ARTIST STATEMENTAt the crossroads of art and activism, I weaponize creativity to challenge the status quo through multi disciplinary art. My arsenal includes acrylic painting, digital illustrations, screen printing, stencils, and street wheat-pasting. My art process functions as both cultural intervention and community dialogue. At the core of my art practice lies a commitment to disrupting systemic violence and amplifying marginalized voices through visually striking protest art.
My landmark art project 'Justice For Our Lives' (2014-2020) memorializes 100 victims of fatal encounters with US law enforcement since the start of the 21st century through freely distributed digital portraits (oree.art/justiceforourlives). These black and white open-source images transform community members into co-conspirators of resistance against state sponsored terrorism, while my forthcoming book will deepen this act of radical remembrance through investigative storytelling.
Parallel to activism, my figurative paintings construct vibrant worlds where animated characters embody multidimensional narratives including struggles in confronting personal identity, racism, state violence, and displacement. Each piece begin as sketches on paper before evolving into public art whether displayed as gallery installations or street level paste ups. This intentional blurring of institutional and grassroots spaces ensures my work reaches both traditional art audiences and the communities it represents.