Art of Mo’ Wax: Gio Estevez
Part of the appeal of a Mo’ Wax release, other than the music, is their amazing artwork, and the label became famous for their visually appealing packaging. This series will take a a brief look at some of the artists who worked with Mo’ Wax between 1992–2003.
Giovanni Estevez, or Gio, is an American artist and skateboarder who has collaborated with Mo’ Wax and James Lavelle several times throughout his career.
His name is synonymous with Supreme, and rightfully so. Gio became the clothing brands first employer after founder James Jebia opened his New York store in April 1994, and was part of the original Supreme skate team. The team also included Peter Bici, Justin Pierce, Jones Keeffe, and Ryan Hickey, and in 1995 they starred together in Supreme’s first skate video together, A Love Supreme.
Director Thomas Campbell approached Gio with the idea at the Supreme store and, after they found some funding, Campbell spent several months filming the team in black and white with a 16mm camera.
1995 was also around when Gio first met James Lavelle. At the time Lavelle was running his record label Mo’ Wax in London which had been working with street artists such as Futura, 3D, and REQ, so a collaboration between Gio and Lavelle seemed inevitable.
Their first collaboration was in 1997, when Gio created the text for UNKLE’s Berry Meditation single, and that same year his work appeared alongside several other Mo’ Wax artists in their Urban Archeology exhibition. Gio’s work also featured in Dysfunctional, a book released in 1999 which originated as an art exhibition sponsored by Mo’ Wax in 1995. At Mo’ Wax, Gio also designed Christmas cards, and a toy was even proposed, but unfortunately never released.
In 1999 Gio founded ANX, his own clothing company, and in 2000 he partnered with Robbie Gangemi and Jamie Story to start Vehicle Skateboards. Along the way, Gio also worked with Converse, Tommy Guerrero’s Real Skateboards, and designed his signature Casio G-Shock watch.
Following the closure of Mo’ Wax, Gio and Lavelle worked together again in 2009 on Lavelle and Ean Chen’s Surrender brand, before teaming up once more in 2014. Lavelle had met with Fraser Cooke at Nike, having worked together previously in the early days of Mo’ Wax. They would create a line of Nike x Mo’Wax clothing featuring several slogans such as “build and destroy” written by Gio in his unique script.
James Lavelle has remained a strong supporter of Gio’s work, and considers him one of his best friends, as he told Gary Warnett in 2104:
He’s like my brother. I have of some of his work that he did for me on my arm. When you’re designing the thing I want a certain amount of connection to what we’re doing so it connects you in a way that’s subtle and justifies the work to me by giving it context.
In 2021 James Lavelle announced a new UNKLE website, featuring text and a logo designed by Gio Estevez. The logo was based on an untitled painting created in 1994 which had previously been part a Mo’Wax exhibition. Both the new logo and Gio’s text have appeared on recent UNKLE merchandise.
But apart from his recent work with Lavelle, Gio has kept a low profile. His website has been offline since last year, and he isn’t active on social media like many of his peers. Even his ANX website has only ever had a static page, with an illustrated logo and the words “more to come”.
External Links
Gio’s website (Archived)
