Mightyjoecastro.com

About

Joe Castro is a Philadelphia based artist, musician, designer and filmmaker. His paintings and collages have been shown in galleries throughout the United States.

Originally from Delaware, he was the guitar player in several bands including The Situation, Nero and Swingline. Formed in 2001, The Situation signed with Elephant Stone records in 2004, releasing The Reece Nasty EP, followed by their self titled full length in 2006, which garnered critical praise from Pitchfork, The Big Takeover,Skyscraper and Magnet. The band toured the states, opening for bands such as The Strokes, The Libertines, Nada Surf, BJM, The Make-Up and Arthur Lee & Love and their music has been featured on shows for both MTV and Fuel TV. The group disbanded in 2006.

Taking a keen interest in the visual representation of the band, he was responsible for most of the group’s flyers and album graphics and soon found he was receiving as much notice for his art and homemade t-shirt designs as for his guitar playing. In 2006, he began to seriously show his paintings in area galleries. In 2007, he was commissioned to paint a mural for grammy nominated producer Jim Salamone’s new recording studio, Cambridge Sound Studios in Newtown, PA. In 2008, the Appalachia Skate Kommission asked him to paint a custom skateboard to help raise money for a public skate park in VA. And in 2009, he was approached by Bob K. to be a founding member of the contemporary art, skateboarding and street culture website, clubmumble.com. He was also invited to become a member of Andy Howell’s artsprojekt collective.

When not working on new paintings and collages, he runs his own graphic design business, Red Attic Design Studio, and has won numerous awards for his work, which has been featured in Graphic Design USA. He is also a board member of the Wilmington Skate Project, a non-profit organization that is working with the city of Wilmington, De to provide a free, high quality skate plaza for local skateboarders. He has organized and curated two benefit art shows for the WSP, one of which was featured on Fuel TV’s What’s Happening with Chris Pastras show.