One artist’s wild ride from illustrator to internet legend.

Join AIGA NY for the chaotic and entertaining story of how Mr Bingo went from commercial illustrator to building a global fan base to becoming the fully independent artist he is today.

Mr Bingo spills on social media, building an audience, working with a fanbase/audience, coming up with ideas, crowdfunding, getting attention, going viral, originality, learning how to rap, testing ideas out, meeting strangers, making art, doing your own thing, pushing boundaries, being a lone wolf, social outrage, selling weird things, art as therapy, stalkers, working during a global pandemic, and connecting with people.

About the artist

Mr Bingo was a commercial illustrator for 15 years, working regularly for clients such as The New Yorker, The Guardian, TIME, CH4, The Mighty Boosh, and The New York Times. An archive of the thousands of illustrations from this period doesn’t exist online because he got bored once in a motorhome and deleted his entire portfolio website. In 2015, he launched a Kickstarter to fund a book about his Hate Mail project. The campaign featured a rap video and a diverse selection of rewards including being trolled, having your washing up done, going on a date in Wetherspoons, being told to fuck off on Christmas Day, and getting shitfaced on a train. He decided around this period to never work for clients ever again and focus on being some sort of artist, which he’s done ever since. In 2023, Mr Bingo decided to take an entire year off as an experiment and left London with a rucksack and no plan at 8:40 pm on Dec 31, 2022. He was spotted in Sri Lanka, Japan and Cornwall. You can currently find him in his studio/shop at 46 Amwell Street in London. The shop is open on Fridays from 10 am – 6:30 pm.