Otis Frizzell
If there are any barriers to where Otis Frizzell’s diverse, irrepressible talent and colourful personality will take him, he has yet to be stopped by them.
He has maintained a high profile for nearly twenty years, bringing the same appealing combination of energy, humour and raw talent to all his work regardless of the medium.
Otis entered public life in his late teens as half of popular hip hop duo MC OJ and Rhythm Slave. He spent 7 years on the ground breaking ‘The Wednesday Special’ drive show on BFM, and the two went on to host The Breakfast Show on Base Fm in Auckland. The duo’s radio celebrity
transferred to television with the award winning “Mo’ Show.”
Otis has more than 30 years of public/graffiti art experience, and since 1990 has earned his position as one of New Zealand’s ‘O.G.’ graffiti artists.
In the last 20 years, Otis has been collaborating with Mike Weston under the art Brand ‘Weston Frizzell’. As well as a string of successful art exhibitions, the pair have created hugely successful campaigns with Countdown Supermarkets, Sustainable Coastlines and created subversive poster art strategies that made headlines in The Guardian (UK) and nearly landed the pair a $50,000 fine from the Electoral Commission.
His work can be found at the Parnell gallery, Artise Gallery the Saatchi and Saatchi offices, Robbie Williams’ London management office IE Music, on KFC packaging, Breast cancer T shirts, Grand Prix Racing Cars, Drag Strips, Playstation Ads, numerous walls and backdrops, TV2 promos, record sleeves of pop artists such as Che Fu and more recently Tiki Taane and Fat Freddys Drop.
As if he didn’t have enough to do, in the last decade, Otis and his wife, Sarah, have been owners/operators of the iconic ‘The Lucky Taco’ taco truck. Since opening, they have gone on to build an award winning Mexican food brand with products in New World, Countdown, Farro Fresh and Moore Wilsons, and their products have won numerous awards from New York to Louisiana to Aotearoa.
In July 2023, The Lucky Taco released a beautiful cookbook with Penguin random House. A man of many talents. An artistic innovator, style leader and artist. He has been a hip hop performer, a radio personality, tattooist, graphic designer and chauffeur to the stars. A success in every pursuit, he is one of the true stars of New Zealand’s alternative universe, and has ‘somehow’ managed to successfully negotiate his way through the corporate world.
“How?”, you say?
Well ask him in person at your next event…
