Justine Gilzine is a Bronx, NY native and self-taught artist.  His artist career began after leaving Monroe College where he was a culinary arts major to focus on his true passion in painting. February 2012 is when he started to fully embrace and embark on his art journey and taking art seriously. Justin always had passion in working with the youth since 2009 where he assisted and coached basketball for Riverbank State Park Basketball AAU team, Ball for Your Life Organization. He still run basketball programs at the Chinatown YMCA. Justin wants to be more involved with the youth through sharing more of his love and passion for the arts. In October, 2012 he became a Preschool teacher for the Harlem Children’s Zone. From that moment his passion in art grew as he would conduct art activities to better engage his students into learning. His love in being a teacher and creating art with his students allowed him to grow even more as an artist. Justin grew his concept in creating art to attract to both adults, young children and teens. In 2013 Justin decided to incorporate known and popular cartoon characters paired up with a known and popular pop culture figure that have the same similarities and characteristics. In May of 2013 Justin Showcased at his first art show at the RAW:Natural Born Artist group show where he sold his piece which was a 30×40 painting of Biggie Smalls for $600. Following that he showcased at Gallery 69. In 2014, he continued his concept to bring more interaction and deeper meaning between the two. Justin now pairs a cartoon character with a pop culture figure to bring out a powerful message to help shed light and awareness within the flaws and injustice in our country, and also within ourselves.In 2014 he had his first solo exhibition at Cotton Hustle, created a special commission piece of artwork for NBA player Andre Drummond from the Detroit Pistons, also for rapper Drake. Now in his 3rd year of painting he’s beginning to blossom into a outstanding Pop Artist, and he’s putting real deep meaning into Pop Art. Justin also showcased for a group show at the George Billis Gallery. Justin Is represented by the gallery, The Sol Studio in Harlem,NY. In 2015 Justin had his 2nd Solo exhibition at the Sol Studio.
Justin also did a live painting of Eddie Murphy and Richard Pryor of the movie Harlem Knights for the Harlem Hospital and has it permanently display in their gallery.