Art Interview: Alec Monopoly Talks Evading Arrest, Aloe Blacc, and the Mr. Brainwash Hoax

Image via Complex Original

If you’ve been to Los Angeles or New York in the past year, you may have noticed Uncle Pennybags/Mr. Monopoly man wheatpastes out and about amongst the urban landscape. The work is courtesy of Alec Monopoly, a 23-year-old street artist who’s been tagging billboards and the sides of buildings with the Parker Brothers' poster child. In between branding brick walls with America's favorite landlord, rehearsing for his big-screen debut (the details of which he’s keeping close for now), and dodging the NYPD Vandals Task Force, Monopoly spoke with writer Courtney Willis down in Miami following an Art Basel Miami Beach event in which he took part. Click on and check out what Alec Monopoly had to say and images of his work.

Complex: You're from New York City, but you moved out to Los Angeles in 2006 for your girl. You're L.A.-based now?

Alec Monopoly: I am. When I moved out to Los Angeles, I noticed there were all these huge billboards. L.A. is such an early city—it’s dead at like 3 A.M., so it makes it so easy for street artists to work. And these billboards are everywhere. Even in the neighborhoods, where there are all these houses and nothing else, you have these huge billboards. I got out there and was like, "What? What are these things doing here?" We're constantly being bombarded with marketing and it’s illegal, but these corporations have all these lawyers and everything gets tied up in paperwork and in court. That’s why you see all those abandoned billboards in Brooklyn, because they’re finally coming down.

Complex: Tell us about your recent brush with the NYPD Vandal Squad. We heard you jumped through a garbage chute to avoid them while you were setting up for a gallery show.

Alec Monopoly: It didn’t hurt, but going down [the garbage chute] was kind of nasty, being in all of that garbage. I was so paranoid, I thought they were tapping my phones. I actually still think they were tapping my phones. When we were setting up the gallery show, there were like four cop cars outside the building, and if the gallery hadn’t been connected to a hotel, I wouldn’t have gotten out of there. I got out and into a cab and laid down in the back seat. That’s the good thing about New York, once you’re in a cab you can be invisible.

Complex: The Monopoly man is your iconic character. It's a similar idea with which The Made U Look Crew gained notoriety when they bombed eight cars of a New York R train in late 2006. How does your work tie with that?

Alec Monopoly: I’ve heard of The Made U Look Crew, but I’m not really influenced by them. I’m looking at the Monopoly man in a different way. Bernie Madoff was actually my first symbol. When the recession first started, he was the icon of the economy tanking. I did a piece of him with Monopoly money in the background, and I thought, why not do the Monopoly Man?

Complex: Mr. Brainwash—nicknamed by some as the art world’s Borat—is one of your mentors. Some say he’s fake, while others don’t respect him for biting off the style of artists before him.

Alec Monopoly: Yeah, I think he gets criticism because he’s not a trained artist, but people don’t realize that he’s had a lot of history with street art. He’s been so involved in it as a filmmaker. I mean, his work can be kind of kitschy, but he’s helped me a lot. He’s given me really great advice. You know, he tells me to stay true to myself, and that I really need to forge my own lane in this industry.

Complex: You just got done with your show down here at the Mondrian in Miami, featuring Aloe Blacc and Svedka. How did it go?

Alec Monopoly: I’ve been coming to Miami for Art Basel for the last four years, and I’ve never really done anything. Aloe’s people reached out to me, and I really respect people with raw talent, so I was psyched to do it. Aloe doesn’t need machines or anything and I’m the same way. I can paint the Monopoly Man freehand, I could sketch your face right now. Plus, his song goes, "I need a dolla, dolla, dolla, that’s what I need." The Monopoly Man is throwing up money, so I think it was a perfect fit.