Jagger66

Bio

Jagger66’s work lives in the tension between chaos and clarity. His practice is grounded in street ephemera — torn posters, discarded magazines, and weathered scraps salvaged from the walls and alleys of Soho, London. What might appear abandoned or overlooked becomes, in his hands, something magnetic: a layered collision of texture, image, and instinct.

A self-taught artist with a background outside the traditional art world, Johnson’s path into collecting and creating was anything but conventional. He began selling his work through nonprofit-run community stores — not as a statement, but as a way to get it into people’s hands. Today, he continues to work from a small, high-energy studio alive with sound, scraps, and a steady rotation of ‘70s and ‘80s vinyl. His pieces pulse with rhythm, memory, and the kind of unfiltered honesty that’s hard to fake. The result is work that feels as immediate as it is reflective — not polished, but undeniably alive.

Statement

I’ve never been interested in perfection. For me, making art is about the process — the love of creating something out of nothing. Sometimes it’s calming, sometimes it does my head in, but that’s part of it. Getting the image right is what matters most. It’s never been about making the perfect piece. I don’t think perfect really exists.

Most of what I use I find out in the world — mainly in Soho. I’ll tear down old posters, grab scraps from alley walls, anything that looks like it’s got a bit of history in it. Sometimes I’m running from places I probably shouldn’t have been. I like the roughness, the grit. I’ll layer those textures up with bold imagery, mix in old magazine fragments, then mess with the surface until it feels right. Half the time I don’t know what I’m chasing until it starts to show up in the work.

I get inspired by a mix of things — research, artists I find online, bits from my own head that don’t always make sense until I start painting. My studio is tiny and chaotic, usually with paint everywhere and music blasting on an old record player. Bowie, Blondie, Talking Heads — that era’s got a rhythm that helps me lock in. I work a full-time job, so painting is a kind of escape. It’s where I get to just be, without overthinking it. No rules, no pressure — just pure expression.

Artworks by Jagger66

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