Sports pop culture is sometimes not a choice. It’s an osmotic inspiration, a unique pattern composed of wrestling, major American sports, and soccer stars, which settles under the skin and then gets expressed through creativity. With a background between Seattle and Florence, contemporary painter Julian Pace creates unique works, elevated by broad shoulders and altered bodies. They’re a reflection of his experiences, of larger-than-life athletes, as he calls them: they’re tributes to sportspeople who’ve become global icons.

“My relationship with art goes back a long way. Everywhere I went, I always had a pencil and paper with me. My grandmother and aunt always supported my artistic soul. My father lived in Florence, so I’d leave the States every summer and cross the ocean to visit him. I brought my skateboard and drawing stuff with me – that was it. I was always interested in different things, and my family used to tease me about that. In terms of sports, I was influenced by my older brothers and Italy, so football (soccer) has always played a big role in my life. I couldn’t go to Fiorentina matches because my father said they were too dangerous, but I was a fan. And I hated Juventus. I remember having a lot of jerseys and loving Baggio and the original Ronaldo. I’ve always been drawn to these figures who could transcend the boundaries of sport, becoming larger than life. And I try to show this concept in my art.”

The Italian of America. The American of Italy. Julian’s existential dualism is the gateway to a composite culture, both traditional and progressive. Calcio Fiorentino and Hulk Hogan. MLB fans and European ultras. Egon Schiele, Chuck Close, and contemporary Internet art. Everything is part of Julian’s atypical philosophy of ‘the two worlds’; anything can turn into a vision, Julian says, and anything can become an extemporaneous sketch dedicated to the vast sports circus and its global power.

“Many of my subjects are part of my instinct. They’re inside me: in the Mariners and Sonics games I used to go to, the WWE TV shows, the old football jersey’s sponsors, even in my parents’ college paths. If I look back, I can see where these sources of inspiration come from. I know I’m working with pop culture, but I don’t feel like a pop artist. I don’t like to define my art and myself. It’s true that pop and sports cultures have nourished me throughout my life, and my paintings are naturally connected to this universes. Nostalgia isn’t necessarily part of this process. It all started almost as a joke, including the broad shoulders that make my portraits so distinctive. One day, I was drawing Dennis Rodman and a friend pointed me out the skinny shoulders that I was drawning. So I made them bigger, way bigger. I thought it was an interesting idea, so I started using it on larger-scale works as well. Personal style is born out of mistakes, you know? Today, I like that the audience in my paintings can see collector’s cards look-a-like with ridiculous proportions. They are incredible, colossal figures still connected to the imagery of trading cards and memorabilia. The viewer loose himself in these figures and becomes a child again.”

Julian Pace’s artistic explosion was late in the making; he became a full-fledged artist only in 2021, giving up a career in bartending. His work is inspiring in arts, sports, and the fashion world too. This is clearly shown, for example, through his relationship with the Rowing Blazers brand and its founder, Jack Carlson. Julian’s rise continues to be meteoric, as evidenced by the recently ended ‘Beloved Artifacts’ exhibition at Sotheby’s in LA, but he’s conscious of a freedom he was long denied: the ability to live his life through his personal expression.

“I’m still trying to absorb as much as I can in art – techniques, materials, etc.,” says the American who, in the coming months, will come back to his second homeland in Italy. “Today, I’m lucky because I can focus only on art, and I’m surrounded by so many inspiring people who help my evolution. I’ve always believed I could focus on art, but only in the last few years everything changed. Now I feel this frantic energy inside myself; I want to learn and grow. I’m following with the flow, so I haven’t got any plans for the future. Right now, I’m motivated and ambitious. I feel something burning inside, and I hope to keep it that way.”