Wasted Rita & Mr. Gordo

Pancake Ass, Brazilian Wax & Fake Air Max is a collaborative, experimental exhibition between two like-minded illustrators Wasted Rita and Mr. Gordo separated by the Bay of Biscay, in Portugal and London respectively.

Wasted Rita – a typographical artist known for her corrosive, badass and sarcastic word paintings – and Mr. Gordo – a Shrigley-esque doodler with traditional tattoo art inspirations – connected through the internet and are creating all the works for their debut joint exhibition, launching at LXFactory in Lisbon on February 20, over email.

According to Rita, visitors can expect, “Super rude drawings, sexy things, sarcasm, pancakes, wine and a live drawing battle.” We caught up with one half of the eclectic duo, Mr. Gordo, to find out more.

How did the show come about?
We’ve been following each other’s work for quite some time. I noticed that Rita was doing more and more travelling with her illustrations and doing a number of exhibitions in Europe and even China. I was keen to try and collaborate so initially I wanted to get her to London to do a joint exhibition at the end of last year, but due to busy schedules it never happened. But then she was offered a show in Lisbon where she lives now and decided to invite me to join her. Couldn’t say no!

What’s the story of the exhibition?
We have only ever chatted via Facebook messenger. And a lot of the time I am sure I was pretty drunk. I’m not really sure how we came up with the name for the exhibition but Rita wanted something that kinda rhymed. She saw a photo of my ass (I’d just had a massive crocodile tattooed from the bottom of my back over one cheek down my leg) and said, “Where’s your ass??” So I googled it and apparently if you don’t have an ass it’s called a ‘pancake ass’. She then came up with the other bits. So it has a little bit of both of us in it. I guess the name was the first collaboration.

Can you describe some of your favourite pieces from the show?
Now the poster is done, Rita is getting snaps from the gallery and we are going to start bouncing ideas about what work to create. The launch night will have a live battle on one or more of the walls and the other pieces will be developed over the next few weeks. It’s an exciting process, and I don’t know what exactly will come from it. But so far it’s working.

What were the challenges collaborating with another artist?
The main thing is both being busy at different times. The poster took longer to get done than I thought but then I fucking love it so much, it’s been worth the wait. The nature of both our styles of working is that we can produce a lot of stuff in a short space of time. I think the slightly scary but also exciting bit is not really knowing Rita but booking flights to go do the exhibition and staying with her and hanging out for six days.

What drew you to this gallery space?
Rita lives in Lisbon and the gallery actually approached her. I’m not sure if she’s done stuff there before, but I saw pictures and am super excited.

What do you hope viewers took away from the exhibition?
Fuck, not really thought about the viewer much! Oops! Maybe they’ll have a laugh, and be a little shocked.

Do you plan to take the show on the road?
Baby steps. Let’s see how this one goes, but wouldn’t say no.

Pancake Ass, Brazilian Wax & Fake Air Max launches at LXFactory in Lisbon on February 20. You can follow Wasted Rita or Mr. Gordo to find out more.