For our sophomore issue, we cast a wide net to gather a cadre of artists to capture television’s best and brightest. From hyper-realist works on paper to ceramics and sculpture, we’ve assembled a veritable exhibition of artwork that offers a new way to experience the binge-worthiest stars of the small screen.
Curated by Michael Slenske
Andrew Scott by Edward Givis
“My drawings and paintings toe the line between drama and comedy, love letters and moments of unease,” says Edward Givis, who created a hyperrealistic portrait of Saint Laurent designer Anthony Vaccarello for the first issue of TheWrapBook. “I search for the moment that the viewer’s mental rolodex begins spinning with their own familiarity.” For this second issue, the New York-born, Southern California-based artist cropped in on the unease in Andrew Scott’s eyes in Ripley. “I wanted to celebrate the cinematic moment in the character’s history, and this lie he is engaging with,” says Givis, who will have work in upcoming exhibitions at Wilding Cran Gallery in Los Angeles and WOAW in Hong Kong.
Kate Winslet by Karyn Lyons
“After watching Kate Winslet’s wonderful performance in The Regime, I decided to portray her character at her dressing table,” says Karyn Lyons, who was drawn to the symbolism of the mirror and thought the idea of self-reflection, or, in this case, an obfuscated sense of identity, was particularly poignant for an autocrat. “My work reflects the interiority of young women, desire, longing and the complex emotional currents that we experience,” says Lyons, whose historically and sartorially-loaded pictures portraying youth culture have been the subject of solo exhibitions at Anat Ebgi (Los Angeles), Stems Gallery (Paris) and The Journal Gallery (New York), plus recent group exhibitions at Gladstone in New York and Carl Kostyál in Milan. “This portrait addresses the moment of solitude when things have the potential to become clear if we are wise enough to listen.”
Quinta Brunson by February James
In another life—and under another name—February James was a makeup artist working on music videos for Kelly Clarkson and Flo Rida, but today she’s an in-demand multimedia artist whose work has been shown at the Parrish Art Museum, the Rubell Museum, and the Getty Villa. For the second issue of TheWrapBook, the DC-born and based James made a pop-inflected collage portrait of Quinta Brunson from Abbott Elementary. “When I first thought to create a portrait of Quinta Brunson, I thought to myself: how do I bring forth a force as tenderly dynamic as that which Quinta so naturally embodies?” says James, who exhibited new paintings at Sargent’s Daughters this summer. “I decided to adorn what I found to be the essence of her.”
Kristen Wiig and Ricky Martin by Radamés “Juni” Figueroa
Puerto Rican painter Radamés “Juni” Figueroa, who has shown his multimedia work everywhere from the Whitney Biennial to SculptureCenter and SITE Santa Fe, loved the idea of painting Kristen Wiig and Ricky Martin from Palm Royale. “I grew up listening to [Ricky’s] music and in Puerto Rico we all love him, and I’m happy to see him develop as an actor,” says Figueroa. “I also really enjoyed drawing Kristen Wiig’s character, who is obsessed with belonging to the elite. It was fun.” Figueroa was the subject of a solo booth with Proyectos Ultravioleta Art Basel Miami Beach last year, and will be featured in a two-person presentation with San Juan’s Embajada Gallery at The Armory Show in September.
Jon Hamm by Meegan Barnes
“I had just finished watching this season of Fargo, so Jon Hamm and his ham hocks were fresh on my mind,” says Meegan Barnes, who rendered Hamm’s Sheriff Roy Tillman during a hilarious hot tub scene in the show’s fifth season. “I played around with the idea of including background and other characters in the scene but felt it packed more punch distilling it down to its essence—a sexy, nipple-ringed Jon Hamm, smoking a cigar in the hot tub. I mean, what more could you ask for?” Barnes, in fact, is quite familiar with asking (and delivering) more, more, more in her ceramics practice. The Los Angeles–based artist’s “ceramic-scapes” capture iconic LA haunts, from Guns N’ Roses in a booth at Canter’s Deli to a four-foot-high rendition of the Eastern Columbia Building in Downtown Los Angeles, in the form of painterly dioramas. After a hit outing at the Felix Art Fair last year with One Trick Pony, Barnes will have new work on view at NADA Paris this October with Galerie Lefebvre & Fils.
Jodie Foster by Kevin Christy
“My approach to this image was split in two,” says Los Angeles–based fine artist Kevin Christy about his portrait of Jodie Foster. “Having watched True Detective: Night Country and really enjoyed it, I wanted to convey in my work the same level of reverence that went into the story. On another level, Jodie Foster is simply a great artist. Having acted a number of times myself, I’m in awe of how she managed to create such a substantial body of great work.” Christy has cultivated a dual career as both a respected comedian and actor (Masters of Sex; Dude, Where’s my Car?; Race to Witch Mountain) and celebrated fine artist. His work, which blends meticulous craftsmanship with narrative exploration and surreal imagery, has been exhibited in multiple galleries, including the New Image Art Gallery (Los Angeles) and The Hole (New York). “Within the image, I’m trying to portray pieces of the story, as well as nods to Foster’s sheer ability. Great actors can truly change the climate of a room, so it made sense visually to show some kind of weather-based anomaly in the space her character occupies. She’s a cultural icon, and I felt lucky to add a tiny image to her history.”—Alicia Pestalozzi
Sofía Vergara Erick Medel
“I wanted to capture the grittiness of the character,” says Mexican-born, Los Angeles–based artist Erick Medel of his multimedia portrait of Sofía Vergara as the iconic drug dealer Griselda Blanco. “I enjoyed the process of finding the right image for the portrait. It was an opportunity to work on something outside of my usual subject matter.” Medel’s work primarily focuses on immigrant labor—balloon vendors, fruit sellers and mariachis—which he captures via brightly colored threads sewn with a machine over heavyweight denim canvases. With the bustle of LA’s Boyle Heights neighborhood outside his studio windows, Medel, who just had his first solo show with Charlie James Gallery, continues to take inspiration from local street festivals, sidewalk scenes and “quiet moments in works that tenderly celebrate the joys of a thriving immigrant community.”
David Oyelowo by Chaz Guest
“It was quite the challenge locking in the emotions, the spirit of this painting,” says New York–born painter Chaz Guest of the probing oil portrait he painted of his old friend, Lawman: Bass Reeves star David Oyelowo. “But David’s genius ability to morph into character served as my inspiration.” Guest is no stranger to capturing the nuances of gravitas. Over the past three decades, the self-taught Guest has made portraits (with sumi ink and oil) of Buffalo Soldiers, ballet icon Misty Copeland, and Supreme Court justice Thurgood Marshall, and his expressionistic paintings are in the collections of Oprah Winfrey, Ted Sarandos and Angelina Jolie, who just collaborated with Guest on the hand-painted Oscars dress Atelier Jolie created for Suleika Jaouad. With recent shows at Night Gallery and Vito Schnabel under his belt, Guest, who splits time between Los Angeles and Tokyo, is preparing for a 2025 solo exhibition with SLAG & RX in Chelsea.
Walton Goggins by Jeremy Shockley
“I was given some options for who I wanted to paint for this project, but Walton Goggins was my obvious first choice,” says Jeremy Shockley, who is known for his in-demand magical realist tableaux which have landed him recent solo shows at The Hole (New York) and Piermarq (Sydney) and a recent collaboration with Saint Laurent during Frieze LA. Though he hasn’t painted people in a while, Shockley says, “I’m a huge fan of Goggins in Fallout and his portrayal of ‘Baby’ Billy Freeman in The Righteous Gemstones, so I had a blast incorporating some of my motifs into portraiture.”
Jeremy Allen White, Ayo Edebiri and Ebon Moss-Bachrach by Ben Wolf Noam
In recent years, the Cambridge, Massachusetts-born, New York-based artist Ben Wolf Noam has been busy with two distinct, if complementary, bodies of work: portraits of people in their workplaces—60 of which will be the subject of a forthcoming book with Zolo Press—and a series of dinner party plates, which will be shown next year in Greece. “The Dinner Party Plates are all large-format, wall-hanging plates that have scenes from dinner parties painted from memory,” says Wolf Noam, who was tasked with making plates depicting the lead characters—Jeremy Allen White, Ayo Edebiri, and Ebon Moss-Bachrach—and their catchphrases from The Bear. “It’s about work and food and using the plates to tell a story.”
Donald Glover by Devin B. Johnson
In the five years since he earned his MFA at Pratt Institute, Devin B. Johnson has been included in the Forbes 30 Under 30 Art and Design list and his work is already in the collections of LACMA, the Hammer and MOCA Los Angeles. “I regard Donald Glover as a visionary creator, musician and surrealist. He has a unique ability to transport viewers into the expansive worlds he creates, offering us a glimpse into his surrealist vision through his work in TV and film such as Atlanta and Swarm to name a few of my personal favorites from the artist,” says Johnson, who will open his fifth solo with Nicodim Gallery in Los Angeles this September. “Donald Glover evokes uncanny feelings that linger just beneath the surface of everyday vignettes that occur on the periphery. I want to share stories that are not monolithic but perhaps vexed with the multiplicity of life’s layers.”