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Have you heard of ODXT? Well if you like cats, bold art and cat pop art then you should take a look at his work.

Otherwise known as Dean Rosenzweig, ODXT is an artist from Philadelphia, PA who is now based in Berlin. I came across his work when I was running errands in downtown LA when and saw a black suit case with a painted cat on it that said “ODXT.” I had no idea what ODXT was but I loved the little cat that was staring at me on the street. I checked out his stuff and came across a plethora of cat pop art.

I reached out to ODXT and asked him a little bit about his art, background and cats. Here’s what he had to say.

Can you tell me a little it about your background and how you started in a rt?

I grew up in Philadelphia with 3 sisters and two brothers, we were all very close and my older had 2 friends in town that were painters. I was always interested in what they were doing.

My eye was caught on the pop art movement at a young age but it was not until around 1997 that I actually started painting. I had a big warehouse spot I was living in downtown Philadelphia and I watched the movie Basquiat by Julian Schnabel. In the movie the Basquiat character was painting in the is warehouse that looked a bit where I was living. The next day I went to the local art supply store and bought a bunch of canvas and supplies and just started painting. I had two cats that lived in this giant warehouse with me named Milk and Gabby. They were always around when I started painting so I started making references to them in the paintings.

A few years later my art started to catch on a bit and I was doing some cool galleries in the Philly scene and a friend introduced me to some people in Berlin, Germany that he pushed my art to. They offered me a small grant to go there and paint in 2005. I went there thinking I’d be there for 6 months but I’m still living here now and have not put down the brush since…

I know every piece is different but what do you want people to take away from your art pieces? I use a lot of text in my paintings, I hope it makes people think and inspire them. Most of it is positive thoughts I have while I’m painting. The words end up in the painting and sometimes that is a hard thing to swallow as an artist, wearing your heart on your sleeve so to speak.

Why do you think cats work well in your pieces? As I said, when I started painting I lived with these two cats. They were my side kicks when I started and I just kept on rolling with it. I have many others characters that I use in my stencil art but the kitties will always be my favorites.

Why do you choose to use them so often? Cats are my favorite animals. I completely connect to them. Maybe because I’ve always had them as pets growing up. I always had a strong connection to them.

Do you have a favorite piece that incorporates cats? Actually I do. Its one of the first pieces I did when I started this new process of multi layer painting. Where I white wash a layer with a see thru coat of white and paint on top of it. I always thought this painting was a start to something great to move my technique forward.