How Lil Yachty and Slawn Created an Art Gallery in Just 2…

Swarms of well-dressed teens crowding storefronts isn’t an uncommon occurrence during New York Fashion Week. Even so, this crowd felt especially deep. The reason for the hubbub was just a few feet away inside The Hole, a contemporary art gallery on Bowery Street in New York. Lil Yachty and Slawn were seated at a plastic folding table painting original sketches and phrases like Concrete Boys’ signature “It’s Us” on fresh pairs of white-on-white Air Force 1s. They were a special prize for the first 100 guests at their pop-up art gallery, “24 HRS in Atlanta.”

The name of the pop-up wasn’t an exaggeration. The gallery’s white walls featured an array of 13 colorful paintings that were done by Yachty and Slawn in one day at Yachty’s mansion in Atlanta earlier this year. There was no strict theme to the works on display. Instead, they just painted whatever popped into their heads. Most of the time, that meant iconic children’s characters from Sesame Street or Patrick Star from SpongeBob.

“It was all super spontaneous. It’s almost like a glimpse in time,” Yachty told Complex. “It’s just the moment of what we were feeling. It is just something cool to show the kids, the Black kids, that want to do anything. It’s for the Black kids out there that dress a certain way, but are creative and want to see fine art.”

The two-day gallery was organized by EXIT, a new venture from Kevin “Coach K” Lee and artist Ami Sueki that will aim to provide a space for Atlanta’s vast creative scene to showcase their works. While the raucous crowd prevented the space from fully opening to the public on Friday evening, a select number of fans were still blessed with some Air Force 1s. Others guests like Fakemink, Bol Bol, Nettspend, and James Franco pulled up to show some love.

We got a chance to sit down with Yachty and Slawn to discuss how their friendship, collaborations, and the “24 HRS in Atlanta” gallery came to be.

How did you two first connect?
Lil Yachty: I reached out to him two years ago. I just thought what he was doing was great. On the outside looking in, I fuck with Black people doing cool shit. I saw him from a distance just being cool. I got nothing but respect for all creatives, but especially Black creatives, being unique. So I reached out and was like, “I’d love to have some of your art in my collection.” And we just became friends. Now, we’re like brothers.

We do whatever we want to do. Life is pretty short. So, we try to take whatever time we get to do whatever it is that we want to do.

How has it been to see Slawn take over the world for the past year?
LY: Oh, I think it’s awesome. To tell you the truth, even two years ago when I reached out, I saw it. That’s not the reason why I reached out, but I could see the potential. It’s beautiful to see things happen for people who deserve them. So it’s great.

What made you want to create together?
LY: I like to create with my friends. We got bills and we got to feed our family, so sometimes we do things that may not fully feed our soul, but the majority of the things I do in life are with friends. You want to do things with your friends, especially if they inspire you.

Slawn: Cause he’s Lil Yachty [Laughs.]. That’s the most honest answer. I’ve been listening to him since forever. When he reached out, I remember the day. I was in my living room and I was screaming, bro. I sent the screenshot to my group chat. Everyone’s like, “No fucking way.” And then with all of this, it is kind of crazy. He is kind of on the same time I’m on. I was like, “I’m in New York.” He’s like, “Bro, come to Atlanta right now. Let’s paint.”

LY: [Laughs.] He just got on the plane

S: I got on the plane, landed in his house, and he just was like, “Yeah, let’s paint here.” I was like, “Bro, your whole house is going to stink of spray paint.” It was literally 24 hours in Atlanta. I asked him, “What are we going to do with these?” And he’s like, “Well, let’s just show it in New York for 24 hours.” So that’s kind of what we’ve done.

LY: We did something and now we’re showing it. I think it is all super spontaneous. It’s almost like a glimpse in time. It’s just the moment of what we were feeling. It is just something cool to show the kids, the Black kids, that want to do anything. It’s for the Black kids out there that dress a certain way, but are creative and want to see fine art from young n****s.

What’s your reaction to seeing everything you created that day being displayed in a gallery like this?
LY: Who gives a fuck? I’m grateful. But it’s like, man, it is all the same. Whether it was five people or 5,000 people, I treat it all the same. It’s all the same shit, whether it’s in a pop-up or just someone’s backyard. It’s all for the love and fun of it.

I know I can speak for both of us when I say we truly appreciate every single kid, person, man, woman, they/them that pulled up just to chop it up, see us, or see the art. Neither one of us live [in New York], but it’s a thousand-plus kids out there. That support means everything.

S: One thing I’ll say is he’s the only person I’ve met that is more, “Fuck it. Let’s do it,” than me. I’m usually the guy that’s like, “Yeah, fuck it. Let’s do it.” But I feel like that’s what drives him a lot. And I’m inspired by it. I had a problem with people telling me “no” growing up. And I’m always like, “Why?” Why can’t I put paintings in a gallery space that I did in 24 hours? Why can’t I do this or that? So I feel like, especially for young Black kids, we’re not saying you got to just do some paintings and put ’em in a gallery. It’s not really about the art. It’s the fact that it’s possible to do it. Whatever thoughts and dreams that you have, you can do them. Don’t even overthink it. Just do it. Shoot for the moon, do it.

What’s your favorite work in the gallery?
LY: I think the one with Bert and Ernie. I think it turned out the best.This one and Patrick Star. All of ’em were done back to back, so it’s not like any crazy story for them. We just literally banged it all out, pause, in the same sitting.

A good amount of them I painted on. So, it was me producing every idea, saying like, “Hey, let’s do this.” [Slawn] laid the base infrastructure and I colored around it. It was fun. We were just literally having fun.

S: You know what the best part was? We’d run out of paint and then we’d have to think of how to color in certain places. We’d have to be like, “Okay, so we don’t have black anymore.” And then he would be like, “Why don’t you just try doing it with brown.” I would never usually do that I’d try that and I’m like, “Oh fuck, that actually looks good.” So, I enjoyed painting with him because he was very free form. Usually if I paint him with someone, they’re like, “Oh, that’s fucked up.” He was just like, “Hey bro, let’s just cover it again.”