FriendsWithYou is the fine art collaborative of Samuel Borkson and Arturo Sandovall III, working collectively since 2002 with the sole purpose of spreading the positive message of Magic, Luck and Friendship. As artists working in a variety of mediums, including paintings, sculpture, large-scale experiential installations, public playgrounds, published works and live performances, FriendsWithYou’s mission is to affect world culture by cultivating special moments of spiritual awareness and powerful, joyous interaction.
FriendsWithYou’s work has been exhibited at the High Line, NYC, Art Basel Miami Beach,Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin, the Indianapolis Museum of Art, Haus der Kulturen der Welt Museum, Berlin, Santa Barbara Contemporary Arts Forum, Dallas Contemporary, The Albright-Knox, just to name a few, and FriendsWithYou artworks are in the permanent collections of the Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami, the Goldman Family Collection, Montblanc Collection amongst others.
Tell us a little bit about yourself and what you do. We are two artists that collaborate together creating works that vary from sculpture to cultural engineering. Our practice revolves around the concept of building communal experiences and infusing the ideas of animism and empowerment into each of our works.
How long have you lived in Los Angeles and what brought you there? Been in L.A. for 3 years, we came from Miami; it was time for new adventure.
How has living in Los Angeles affected your work? L.A. has something of a “choose your own adventure” thing going on. There is lots of space here to create and also peace out.
What kinds of things are influencing your work right now? Connectivity, not knowing, and technology.
What are some recent, upcoming or current projects you are working on? Our most recent sculpture is a light piece that has programmed LEDs and cycles through colors in a gradual and healing manner. We are developing experiences for virtual realities that you can interact with as well as developing an animated series for Netflix.
Favorite pizza topping? I like sausage jalepeno.
How did your interest in your work begin? I made art to cope with life and heal myself.
What are you really excited about right now? Everything…mostly how fast we are evolving ourselves and all the technology and information around us. Life is changing so quickly.
What do you collect? Life moments
What was the last lie you told? I guess my mind is always lying to myself, telling me I’m not happy but it usually goes away when I don’t believe it.
Can you share one of the best or worst reactions you have gotten as a result of your work? My all time favorite moment from our work was my mom getting stuck in the corner of one of our bounce houses and laughing so hard she couldn’t escape! She sounded like a little girl and it reflected the idea of what our work hopefully does, which is remind us that we all have a childlike spirit inside of us.
