Colla + Leeman + YoungV Read The Epilogue

The Bay Area’s three most prolific vandals have begun to work together under a single banner. The upcoming series will be a challenge to their signature styles, thus causing each individual artist not to only to combine their vision, but also delve into media they were previously unaccustomed too. Here at 1xRUN we are are excited to showcase their debut print that has marked the beginning of their collaborative efforts. Read on as we talk with Eddie Colla, Hugh Leeman and David Young V. about their past influences, who motivates them now and their debut collaborations for their upcoming show Epilogue at The Hold Up Gallery in the latest 1xRUN Thru Interview below…

1xRUN Thru Interview
Epilogue by Eddie Colla / Hugh Leeman / David Young V

1xRun: Tell us a bit about how these pieces came about?
Colla/Leeman/Young: This is the first 3 way collaboration between Hugh Leeman, D young V, and Eddie Colla. This September all 3 artists are collaborating on an installation at Hold Up Art in Los Angeles entitled “Epilogue”. This print represents the beginning of that process. Each print is hand embellished by all three artists. The edition number is incorporated into the image of each print.  It actually began as an experiment with the scheduled LA show, we started playing around with ways to meld our different imagery.  It’s sort of the image that set the map and tone for the whole exhibit.

1xRun: When was the piece drawn and created?   How long did these pieces take?
Colla/Leeman/Young:  It was created in June of 2012. It took FUCKIN’ forever.

1xRun: What is unique about this piece?
Colla/Leeman/Young: It was really tough getting the female model to pose with the elephants, to capture that at the precise moment of the 747 landing in the background was a fairly dicey situation. D young V commands such authority on set that he really gets the best out of everyone.

1xRun: Why should people buy these pieces?
Colla/Leeman/Young: Because by the time this show is over there is little chance the 3 of us will ever work together again.

1xRun: Describe these piecesin one gut reaction word.
Colla/Leeman/Young:   Austere.

1xRun: When did you first start making art?
Leeman: I spent three years living out of a backpack traveling around the world, after all of that, I moved into a studio in San Francisco. Sleeping in the same room with strangers and “new friends” and then having my own private place really inspired me to start creating.

Colla: With my Dad, at the kitchen table when I was 4 or 5.

DyoungV: Before I could walk as a small baby. My mother told me that I used to paint on the wall with my feces‚ not much has changed.

1xRun: What was your first piece?
Colla: The first one I remember was a really badly drawn copy of the, “Jaws” movie poster. Followed by poorly drawn scenes from the movie.

Leeman: Mao Zedong portrait, I’d just come back to the states from China, and did a series called “Greatness and Suffering in the 20th Century.”

DyoungV: Telephone poles on a piece of paper.

1xRun: What artists inspired you early on?   What artists inspire you now?
Leeman: My brother in law does great impasto paintings that look and feel like David Park with some Diebenkorn, I was really inspired by him as a kid. Currently Olafur Eliasson, Ai Weiwei and Cai Guo Qiang.

Colla: Warhol would be the earliest also Mike and Doug Starn and Christian Boltanski. Currently Cai Guo Qiang, Chen Ma and Tankpetrol.

DYoungV: HR Giger, Wayne Douglas Barlow, Dr. Suess. Currently Akira Beard, Helen Baley, Peter Adamyan.

1xRun: Do you listen to music while you work? If so what? If not then what is your environment like when you work?
Leeman: Music always plays. The environment is a cluster fuck of a disaster, and I don’t clean, ever. My clothes are in a pile atop reclaimed bill posters.

Colla:Lately I’ve been listening to the “James Ingram” pandora station, which consists of a lot of James Ingram, Lionel Richie, Jeffrey Osbourne. You get the idea.

DYoungV: Not really, I watch a lot of Sci-fi movie trailers. Those really get me going.

1xRun: If you could collaborate with any living artist who would it be and why?

Leeman: My nephew is an emerging performance artist, he’s 14.

Colla: Woody Allen because I just watched a documentary on him last night. I suspect this impulse will fade.

DYoungV: Neil Bloomkamp‚ obviously.

1xRun: If you could collaborate with any deceased artists who would it be and why?
Leeman: Basquiat.

Colla: Photographer Larry Sultan, not because I think we’d do a great collaboration, it would just be nice to see him again.

DYoungV: Bob Ross, because I enjoy a good challenge. I also think I’d enjoy his personality. I’d choose Thomas Kincaid, but I hear he’s an asshole.

1xRun: What was the first piece of art that you bought? Do you still have it? What was the last piece of art that you bought?
Leeman:  Years ago my girlfriend, at the time, and I went to a live nude female modeling session and drew the same woman for 2 hours. Four years and five different addresses in three countries later we’d broken up, she’d come out of the closet, I was still straight and we’d lost touch. Anyways long story short I walk into a gallery in San Francisco and framed on the wall is a full length nude of the woman we’d drawn together years before. I bought the piece and took it home that day.

Colla: I remember buying a walnut shell that someone made look like a mouse using pieces of felt when I was about 4. I bought it for my grandmother for Christmas. I think my mom still has it.

DyoungV: A Brett Amory piece. Yes, I still have it. I’m going to retire on it someday.

1xRun: Where can people find more about the show and about each of you?

EpilogueLA: – Website – Hold Up Gallery

Leeman: –  Website – Facebook –

Colla: – Website – Facebook – Twitter & Instragram @eddiecolla 

Young: – Website –

1xRUN: Anything else you would like to add?

Group:  There will also be  a gallery edition of 10 (pictured below) which will be available for those attending the Hold Up Gallery opening night.

-1xRUN