ARTIST SHOWCASE: CHRISTIAN JEFFERY

Football shirts for many, are not only an expression of their club or country's history, but an identity that highlights 'the tribe' for which they elect to be a part of.

Combine this with an artist's vision for taking a shirt and using that as their canvas, and extending that emotional connection and you have something really rather special.

One such artist is Christian Jeffery. A former designer with adidas football, now an, artist whose residency at London's Oof Gallery, has caught many an eye, both from gallery attendees to swiping instagram enthusiasts.  

We caught up with Christian to talk about the origins of his creative endeavours as well as is his love of football and of course football shirts.

Cult Kits: As always, Christian – first things first... Who do you support?

Christian Jeffery: I was born in Australia, raised in England, my dads from Bristol and my mums from Sydney, so naturally I’m a Manchester United supporter. I think you can tell from my work though that I’m a huge fan of a lot of clubs. My work would be pretty boring if I just did one team and I love learning about different clubs, jerseys and stories. 

CK: What's your earliest football memory?

CJ: My favourite early football memory was watching the 1999 champions league final with my dad and his mates. Everyone was jumping around yelling and someone spilt their drink on the floor. Not sure my mum was that happy but was a great game. Beckham was also wearing my favourite boot of all time.

CK: Explain your work(s) and how you arrived at hand painted/ made jerseys

CJ: When I left Adidas I was still coming up with ideas and I wanted to create some. I started exploring around London for interesting fabrics, specifically non performance ones. I didn’t have a development team or a factory to print/make them so I started hand painting the logo’s myself. After I did the first one I loved the process and so just kept going.

CK: What is inspiring your work at the moment?

CJ: Absolutely anything; something I’ve seen in a museum or fabric shop, an old kit that’s meaningful to me, a conversation or my sons drawing from nursery.

CK: Do you have a favourite piece from your work(s)

CJ: I always say my favourite piece is the one I’m currently working on. At the moment I’m painting about 2/3 that I’m very excited about. One is taking a particularly long time, but I’m sure it will be worth it. 

CK: How has your work been received by the art/fashion and football community?

CJ: I think relatively well, a lot of people have said some really encouraging things. I really appreciate it, each one is pretty hard to complete and I give a lot of myself into them. There’s a really interesting community of art, fashion and football people which is quite diverse. When they all end up in the same conversation it’s really great. That’s the beauty of football; it can connect two completely different people from different walks of life. I guess my harshest recent criticism was from a young boy who walked into Oof gallery, pointed at my England shirt and said to his dad “I don’t like that one”. I happened to be walking past at that exact moment, so good.