Artist Tony Whlgn makes being a hooligan fashionable — and fun

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Uncle Tae Whlgn/ Courtesy photo

Tony Whlgn's Neiman Marcus mural "All I See Is You & I."

Tony Whlgn is leading with love. He also, apparently, doesn’t like vowels. Whlgn is pronounced “hooligan,” a title the Detroit-bred artist wears like a badge of honor. 

“I do what I love and love what I do… it’s as simple as that,” he tells us. 

Earlier this month, Whlgn completed a mural, "All I See Is You & I," inside Neiman Marcus at Troy’s Somerset Collection. His exuberant and playful characters permanently fill the walls above an escalator with the message “leading with love.” Along with the mural, Whlgn has several paintings that are on display as part of Neiman Marcus’ private art collection.

The three-sided mural tells the story of two couples falling in love in and around the mall, with imagery that represents Detroit, including cars and a beaver for Big Beaver Road where the mall is located.

“I pulled from not only my past but the past of just Detroiters or Black people, in general, growing up in the mall,” he says. “You know, when you’re young you may have a crush and you may be going to the mall just because of a crush or interest and because of that you take the opportunity to meet in this space and find love.” 

The artist describes his work as afro-futuristic “street contemporary.” The adolescent cartoon-like images of a grinning Black girl with an afro and hoop earrings and his silly animal characters make our inner child smile.

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Uncle Tae Whlgn/ Courtesy photo

Tony Whlgn.

“When I grew up, a lot of my cousins and friends noticed that I watched cartoons a lot and I like to pull it through my artwork because I got this mantra about life that you got to have a sense of humor about it,” he says.  “As difficult as things may get, or as challenging as things may always seem, I've always been grateful. I've always looked to have some sense of, don't be so serious.”

Early on in his art career, Whlgn wasn’t taken seriously, anyway. He has been drawing and taking art classes since he was a child but dropped out of the College for Creative Studies after his first year because he couldn’t afford it. During his short time there, he says, several teachers told him his work wasn’t “real art,” whatever that means.  

“I will say the College of Creative Studies allowed me to know what I was capable of, but still choose to do things my own way, like a hooligan for real, and you could kind of say that's where the name came from,” he says. “I take my own approach to art... I don’t see how you can tell me that this isn’t a form of expressing myself, and that’s when I guess I kind of took it to the streets.”

Whlgn started off designing mixtape covers for Detroit musicians and went on to be a graphic designer for Marc Ecko in New York. He’s done work for artists like Joey Badass, Dej Loaf, Big K.R.I.T., and fashion brand Kith N.Y.C.  He’s since moved back to Detroit and has participated in Murals in the Market and done murals in partnership with 1xRun, Rocket Mortgage, and the Detroit Pistons. 

He leaves us with, “I'm just being myself, for real.”