[Kokeith Perry II ](https://www.cohart.com/kokeithperry/profile) is an artist, architect, and storyteller from Chicago, now based in Brooklyn. Though self-taught as an artist, he’s formally trained in architecture, a perspective that deeply shapes his creative approach. His work explores the meaning found in everyday objects and moments—how they gain weight through memory, ritual, and culture. Using pencil and charcoal, he layers lines and textures to let forms emerge gradually, blending abstraction with the familiar. Whether through still lifes, city scenes, or portraits, he reflects on how the ordinary connects us to each other, to history, and to place.

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#### Tell us about yourself and your artistic journey


I’m Kokeith - a Chicago-born, Brooklyn-based artist with a background in architecture and a love for all things design. I’d call myself a bit of a multi-hyphenate: artist, architect, designer, furniture maker, tinkerer. My artistic path really started taking shape when I applied to architecture school and had to create a portfolio - up until then, I’d been drawing for fun but hadn’t taken formal art classes or shown any work. That process pushed me to think critically about what aesthetics I liked and experiment with different mediums. In design school, I learned to balance quick, observational sketching with highly detailed, technical drafting—skills that still shape how I work today. My journey as a practicing artist really began about two years ago, when I moved from Oakland to Brooklyn, looking for fresh inspiration and a chance to dive into my art more intentionally.

#### What first drew you to make art?

Growing up in Chicago, art was a form of escapism for me—a way to bring the worlds in my head to life. When I was younger, I was inspired by growing up around amazing architecture and an obsession with Miyazaki films, which sparked my love for conceptual landscape imagery and, eventually, architecture to some degree. When I moved to New York two years ago and started drawing seriously and posting my work, my art practice became a way to step outside the precision of my daily architectural drawing. In a way, it felt like returning to the imaginative sketching of my childhood—only now with new tools and a more layered, more critical perspective of the world around me and my place in it.


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#### What inspires your work, and where do you find your ideas?
My work is deeply influenced by my background in architecture—the precision, the techniques, the way we use drawings to communicate ideas and instructions. But I find inspiration mostly through everyday life in New York. I’m an extrovert and a curious observer, always looking up at buildings or catching interesting storefronts out of the corner of my eye. I love meeting new people, I try and never go to the same restaurant twice, and I’m always sketching scenes from bars or passersby from a cafe window. Even the shift in seasons can change the fabric of how the city and its people feel—and all of that inspires me and finds its way into my work.




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#### What makes your artistic approach unique?

My approach is all about iteration and technique. In design, you can try 10 different versions of the same space to find the right layout, try 10 kinds of white paint to find the right shade, try 10 different wood grains to find the right texture - I try to do the same in my work. I work both traditionally and digitally to move fast and explore lots of variations of the same piece, kind of like tweaking a design until it feels just right. I create multiple studies, shift elements around, layer, and play with transparency until I find the perfect balance. I’m probably a bit obsessed with hatching techniques, probably stemming from studying in Italy and gawking over etchings in museums, and using lines to build depth and texture in my work.



#### What does a typical day in your studio look like?

My studio days are split between exploring New York with a small sketchbook and focused time at the easel. Out in the wild, there’s headphones in and long walks, chatting with a barista and sketching in a banquette, wandering into an art gallery, exchanging stories with a couple at the bar while drawing the scene in the distance. I’m finding parts of a future piece in between the pages of a book I'm pretending to read, at the bottom of a cluttered tote bag, on my friend's napkin she’s stained with her martini. At the easel, I'm incredibly precise. It’s early in the morning, there’s fresh coffee and a low hum of music on the speakers. When I'm at the easel in my studio, I’ve finalized the idea for a piece. It feels like I’m in a trance, and it’s all execution, fully locked into bringing an idea to life.

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####  How has your artistic voice evolved since you started creating?

I think in the past two years, I’ve really focused on building my practice around collections and bigger themes. It’s the most recent addition to my process, and that shift has helped me better express my ideas, aesthetic, and gives my work a clear direction. I love writing and storytelling, probably stemming from my work as a designer and storyteller working with brands, and working in collections lets me bring that narrative into my art. My first full collection just dropped—it’s inspired by a melancholic New York winter and explores that feeling through wilting flowers and has an accompanying poem that ties all the pieces together.


#### What role does experimentation play in your practice?

Experimentation is a key component in my process. I usually work in a limited palette, mostly avoiding color for both comfort and aesthetic reasons, but I’m always pushing composition through layering, transparency, and line work. Sometimes I cut up smaller drawings or scan and rearrange them digitally before settling on a final piece’s composition. Lately, I’ve been experimenting with charcoal—sometimes it’s frustrating, but even the failures teach me how to better express what I’m looking for and add a layer of depth to the work.






#### How does your cultural background or life experiences influence your work?


My work is shaped by being Black, being a Chicagoan, being a designer, being a student in Italy, and now being a New Yorker. The precision I strive for comes from my architecture background, while my interest in place and people comes from all the places I’ve called home and people I’ve met there. I always filter my work through my Black experience—sometimes it’s obvious, other times it’s more subtle, but it’s always there. Ultimately, I create art that aesthetically reflects how I see and live in the world, connecting to the people, places, and culture that matter most to me.



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#### What's the most challenging part of being an artist?

As a newer self-taught artist in a new city, the toughest part isn’t creating, it's all the things outside of creating—it’s navigating business and learning about galleries and collectors. Learning how to connect, promote, and position yourself in a world that’s often unspoken and complex can be overwhelming. It often feels like a whole different skill set that takes time to understand and master alongside the art itself, and I look to my community to help me learn and navigate those challenges on a daily basis.


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####  What do you hope people feel or think when they see your work?

I hope my work and its stories connect with people’s unique lifestyles and evoke memories, much like the feelings I have when creating. Each collection draws heavily from where I live, my experiences, and the people around me—so it’s personal and intentional. But I also want viewers to find their own stories in it. There’s also a large emphasis on layering and obscurity in the work, I often find that people see my work in unique ways or fixate on different forms.


#### What advice would you give to someone just starting their artistic journey?


Something that really stuck with me that I heard recently is about the voice in your head—that voice in your head isn’t really yours, but an impressionable spectator. Left to its own devices, it just repeats what it’s heard from the other voices around it, and can lead you off track. But if you take the time to teach it your goals and beliefs, it’ll become your biggest fan. So remember to check in with that voice often, and it’ll cheer you on from the sidelines.


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#### What excites you most about where your art is headed?
I’m really excited about the response to my first collection—it feels like a sign I’m on the right track. I want to keep building connections with viewers, collectors, and fellow artists who relate to my journey and process. Hopefully, by the time my next collection drops this fall, people who have been along for the ride and following the journey will feel even more connected to the next story, the next place, and the next set of work.





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Meet Kokeith Perry II, a self-taught artist blending architecture and everyday objects to create layered, meaning-rich works

Spotlight: Kokeith Perry II on art: rooted in connection, culture, and place.

Spotlight: Kokeith Perry II on art: rooted in connection, culture, and place.

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