Kevin Munoz’s type-led Flying Lotus limited edition screenprint is a super nice piece of design. Printed using metalic ink on black paper, it is in the Cali native’s own words, “super nerdy and way blingy.” Coming in at a mere $20 it’s as kind on your wallet as it would be to your wall.
Munoz has worked for the likes of Paul Frank and Converse and counts joker Jack Black as a fan of his Juan t-shirt. Check his artwork which has that relaxed, idiosyncratic vibe that is peculiar to Californian visual culture. His blog and bio also raise a smile.
A quick round up of some of the great art stuff going on this month – which can also be used as a handy guide to tasteful last minute Christmas presents.
Last weekend saw the Christmas Bazaar featuring Pure Evil, Mr Jago and a whole host of others. The line-up and events sounded amazing and, judging by the above image, it looked the dogs bits as well. Also happening this December is Pictures On Walls annual art-ghet-t0-together headlined this year by Evol with a supporting cast full of familiar names (will Bansky appear, the catalogue says not but history suggests yes), whilst Print Club have their excellent 12 Prints show going on. Meanwhile up north, illustrator Matt Sewell has been working as fast as a Hummingbird’s wings producing some brilliant work around birds (the feathered not the female kind).
News has recently been broken of an EP-length collaboration between Madlib and Freddie Gibbs. Still untitled, it will consist of six tracks, Thuggin’ and Deep being two, and be released through Madlib’s Madlib Invazion label at the start of 2012. …Read More.
Love this new skit by the Modern Toss team for Channel 4′s Comedy Blaps series. A genetically enhanced, bastard child of Danger Mouse and Lord Alan Sugar that’s received a blood transfusion from Bob Hoskins (in The Long Good Friday mode) and Scarface, Business Mouse is not interested in type of cheese most mice get excited about and has business skills best described as lacking (m)nouse. “Show me the money!”
Ben Drury, legendary go-to man for anyone wanting street influenced graphic design that drips with innovation and freshness, has broken cover from his esoteric and sometime plain unfathomable The Silent Listener(or the Violent Whistler as it is now called) website and launched a more commercially minded space to showcase his far reaching and influential talents.
The new site show’s off everything from his record covers, promo direction and love of handcrafted typography. An inspiring insight into the work of a man best summed up as a ‘designers designer’.
What is it with rappers and acting? The tangible line of success between hip-hop and Hollywood has strengthened through the nineties and into the noughties, with countless examples of successful money-grabbing rappers trying to convert their lyrical talent into acting steel. What is it that prompts this change in field? The money? The ego? Probably both. The on stage persona that is seen as part and parcel in the hip hop industry appears to feed the musicians’ egos to the extent whereby they believe that they have the ability to cut the mustard in front of a camera.
More exhibition news, this time a bit closer to home. From the 04 – 27 November 2011, Borough and Lane a new exhibition featuring works on paper by American artist Evan Hecox, will be held at Stolenspace, London.
Bonafide issue 04 star D*Faceis holding his first solo exhibition in Australia during November. His new show takes places at the Metro Gallery, Melbourne, and will give our Antipodean cousins a chance to view work in the flesh by an artist who has made his name subverting popular culture and playing fast and loose with the trademark pop stylings of Litchenstein and Warhol.
The exhibition will launch on the 02 November and include his flutterdies and splutterflies work, original pieces, huge concrete spraycan sculptures (that will also be dotted around Melbourne city – try nabbing that Mr Street-Art reseller on eBay) and, according to the blurb, a new limited edition print.
Some big street-art exhibitions are penciled in before the end of 2011, including Triptease Revuefrom Paul Insect. Held at Post No Bills, California, graphic designer (he was one half of Insect with Luke Insect) turned street-artist, Paul Insect has been a piece of the furniture at POW for a long time. His Bullion show in 2007 made the headlines for boasting chomped on gold bars and for Damien Hirst – aping his friend Jay Jopling’s Super Market Sweep shopping technique – by buying the whole show.
I’ve been a big fan of Paul Insect since his Dead Rebels series and for prints like Who To Believe, his artwork for DJ Shadow and his street campaigns featuring science fiction-esque baby heads. However, compared to other luminaries in the scene, he’s been keeping a relatively low-profile, so hopefully Triptease Revue will prove more than a tantalising glimpse of one of the UK’s most technically adept and diverse contemporary artists.
