Trevor Wheatley | Artist
FM Founder

You may not know it, but you're most likely already familiar with the satirical work of Trevor Wheatley. This graffiti writer turned multimedia artist has been commissioned by some of the biggest brands out there including WayHome, Stussy, Microsoft and even LinkedIn. What started as more of a curiosity and a desire to use dumpster materials on the set of Guillermo del Toro films has since burgeoned into a full-time career that brings his graffiti background to life in tangibly evocative ways

Interestingly enough, Wheatley tells Format, “A lot of graffiti writers who now make studio work don’t acknowledge their past. They think that narrative is something that will bring them down." Yet that couldn't be farther from the reality he has created for himself. By commenting on our Urban Dictionary era, in which slang begins to define generations in an almost comical way, he takes these phrases and symbols out of their usual context in order for his audience to digest them differently.

Born and based in Toronto, where graffiti has a fairly rich history, his contextual creativity lies in nature, which for him is a "neutralizing factor." He observes, “Cities have a lot of visual noise—my work in visually competitive spaces wouldn’t create the same interruption that it does in nature.” And so his work is a rebellious reflection of pop culture that encourages playful thoughtfulness in a time where attention spans are sorely limited and beliefs are malleable.