Art born from music. Made from what music left behind.
iRoL Studio is an independent mixed media art studio based in Charlotte, NC — the name simply the artist's name spelled backward. Sometimes the simplest solution is right in front of you.
The work emerging from iRoL Studio has spent the better part of two decades finding new life in discarded things — vinyl records, CDs, DVDs, VHS tape — the casualties of the techno age, the things we loved and left behind. The goal has always been the same: to return these materials to their original glory, transformed into portraits of the music icons and cultural figures who shaped our world.
The process began somewhat by chance, though in hindsight it was never unpredictable. A natural curiosity had already begun to percolate — experimenting with gunpowder as an artistic medium, combustion as a process, the idea of deconstructing material by changing its properties and the way it was originally intended to function. A welcomed challenge. Vinyl suited the artistic temperament of iRoL perfectly. As a lifelong music lover spanning many genres, and a devotee of analog sound, the question became: what can this so-called "archaic" medium become once it is no longer viable for its original intent?
The answer lives on these walls.
Following in the footsteps of Rauschenberg and the Pop Artists, iRoL Studio is deeply interested in the interplay between iconography and non-traditional artistic mediums. Each portrait is built — layered, deconstructed, and rebuilt — from the very records and discs that once carried the music of the people depicted. There is something right about that. Something complete.
Beyond the music icon series, the work extends into mixed media collage that confronts bigger questions — inequality, conflict, identity, the cost of silence. The viewer is invited to draw their own meaning from the iconography, to contemplate and construct their own narrative. As the studio has always believed: the most powerful art is the art that talks back.
iRoL Studio work has been exhibited across the United States — from solo shows in Charlotte to art fairs in Beverly Hills, Santa Monica, and Del Mar — including The Other Art Fair, Kaaboo Music and Art Festival, and the Beverly Hills Art Show. Works are held in private collections across the country and internationally.
Every print in this shop is made to order — produced fresh on premium archival paper, built to last a lifetime. Each one is a window into an original work that began in a Charlotte studio, with a stack of records, a clear vision, and a deep love of music and art.
Welcome to iRoL Studio. We're glad you're here.