Malleus - Roadburn 2009 Posters

I don't think I can emphasize enough about how much I love the work of Italian screen printers extraordinaire Malleus. I narrowed down their portfolio just to focus on the posters they produced for the Roadburn festival back in 2009 and it is these works which first gained my attention of the art collective. 

In my eyes I can see Alphonse Mucha's overt influence in all aspects, the consistent feature of semi-naked women, the explosive colours and the poster medium Mucha too favoured. It's also in the grace and beauty of the women and the subtle combination of the colours, though Mucha preferred earthier tones Malleus go psychedelic and burst with powerful, flourishing colour which is marvellous. 

I totally recommend you to go check out more of their work at their cool website HERE

On top of their awesome art, some members of the Malleus collective are also in the drone/doom band Ufomammut, see a cool photo I took of them live here, they are psychedelic and heavy and worth your time. 

Check out Ufomammut HERE and below...

Kozyndan

Octopus!

Courting

 It has been an utter nightmare trying to decide which images to put up to accompany this post for Kozyndan. Every place I looked there was just more and more astounding work, at one point I genuinely had six images uploaded, but obviously that's a bit much so, here we are, the two images I like the most as of this minute. By the time I finsh writing I'll probably want three other images.

Kozyndan are a husband and wife dynamic duo, where Kouze would sketch the outline then Dan would follow up with their patented colour. It is this colour use that is quintessentially Japanese: big and flat. This kind of colouration that makes me think of a diving pool full of paint of one colour, it has that richness and deep strong hue that looks like you could swim in it and drink it.

Ach and the detail too! I can almost feel the water spraying my face when I look at the bottom image!

I sincerely love everything Kozyndan have done, I even have had their work as my background on my laptop for months on end.

Check out their great and comprehensive website, it has EVERYTHING, AND IT'S GREAT: HERE

Hey, buy prints HERE

Mike Wohlberg

So, from igneous giant that is Anish Kapoor to the rocky boulder that is Mike Wohlberg (I really don't mean to sound condescending, honestly). Wohlberg is actually a very new to me by name, I discovered his being through this exciting announcement by metal news website Metal Sucks about their South by South West showcase for this year, and it appears Wohlberg did the poster for them. And boy it looks swell, swell enough for me to check him out and indeed good enough to write this blithering post about him.

I like his dirty graffiti design style and after some digging around it seems he's been designing merch and posters for some hefty hitters in the metal scene for a while, I spy Today Is The Day, Burnt By The Sun and Pelican among others.

I enjoy speculating about the imagery that is ingrained within music scenes, and it's importance in our new digital instantaneous living. Is the art accompanying the music as important as it once was? There are many arguments to say record art is losing its place, especially considering growing digital downloads and the tiny image file attached of the artwork. However, that is to exclude the other avenues within the music industry for artwork, the artwork that actually receives notice like the posters and merchandise, merchandise actually being the biggest emergent as integral for a musicians revenue.

And so the merchandise has to look good with good artwork otherwise it won't sell, and this is where artists like Mike Wohlberg come in. #tangentover

Anyway, every time I've typed Mike Wohlberg I've battled with myself to not type Mark Wahlberg.

Really all over the place today.

But really, Mike Wohlberg is super great and you should check out his website: HERE

Anish Kapoor

Orbit

Cloud Gate

Leviathan

I will confess now and say I still get a little bit giddy when I think of Anish Kapoor... and his art! (He is dreamy, though, right??)

His work, in some cases especially, is astronomical, it explores possibly not outer space but atmospheric space, it enhances the space, it shows that it's not a vacancy of air but a thing of itself. This is most apparent with his Leviathan piece which astounds me in its scope and sheer size.

The Turner Prize-winning artist isn't, actually shouldn't, really new to anyone, he's been one of the most prolific and enchanting artists in our modern era, but sometimes it is nice to take a step back and really appreciate what he's achieved. For me, Cloud Gate is stunning. It's like a piece of heaven molded in to this smooth, conclave, edible shape.

Here in Britain we're in the process of the building of our Olympic Tower, known as Orbit to Kapoor, and I for one am entirely in love with its architecture, it swoons, it dives and it surges high with skeletal refinement. I can not wait to see it finished and gleaming in the backdrop of panoramas the BBC will most certainly utilise during the Olympic coverage this summer.

To remind yourself of more of Kapoor's work hit up HERE

Truly impressive.

Stacey Rozich and Earth pt. II

Yep, I've already spoken about Stacey Rozich before and her fascinating line drawings of her mythical creatures with oriental flair, and I love it, obviously. Yet, I'm here again just to post about the new artwork she's done for Earth's second Angels of Darkness, Demons of Light records, and I think it's pretty cool.

As you could before, check out her work HERE

And here's some new Earth, enjoy...

                                                 

Josh Graham

Josh Graham is the visual artist for the band Neurosis which is how I found out about him, but he also does artwork for records and whatnot for bands like A Storm of light and Red Sparrows all of whom are very cool.

The landscapes Graham digitally produces are phenomenal, huge expanses of rich detail and awesome colour, colour that you can dive into on the physical format. His work explores ecological themes and man-made product's interaction with nature when they're disposed of, and animals inhabiting places of the most strange nature.

His work is eery, unrestrained and textured. I haven't seen Neurosis live but I imagine it's a whole encompassing audio and visual experience that drowns you in senses.

Check out more of Josh Graham HERE

And I would recommend to check out Neurosis too if you haven't HERE

Francis Picabia

I feel I don't appreciate Francis Picabia in the right way. I suppose not in the critical frame of mind where Picabia is seen as a major figure of the DaDaism movement in France and the US in the early 20th century.

For me Picabia has always been the name next to Otaiti , that image at the top, in the Tate Modern Gallery. I've seen the painting many times with each of my visits ad with every time I am struck by its despair and tragic darkness of the image. It's probably most affecting as it's a begging and pleading naked woman on her knees with a huge disembodied hand preying nearby. The autumnal leaves and the dank muddy colours evokes the sense of transition from peak to decline.

The multi-layered imagery is superb and at times can feel like the image is moving and shifting between one scene to the next.

This the Francis Picabia I enjoy, the one with startling imagery and with stories to tell. His DaDaist works may have been influential but for me I think I prefer his images with an element of coherency.

I've found there to be a lacking of decent websites to link to unfortunately so here's a bundle to make up for it: HERE, HERE and HERE.

Keith Haring

So, looking through images to try and find a nice background for the spiffy new About page and I remembered I had taken this picture in Pisa last summer of this gem of a Keith Haring work, titled 'Tuttomondo'. It was tucked away in an alley beside a cafe and easily missable, thankfully my Pa hunted it down and it was worth the trek.

My favourite guy is that wolf-looking one in the middle-ish area. He's cool.

I'll probably lie and say I'll do a future post on Keith Haring, even though I should cause he's great, but all I'm going to do is point you in the right direction.

Check out the Keith Haring site: HERE

AND THERE'S A KIDS WEBSITE THAT IS AWESOME, JUST FOUND IT, IT IS COOL!: HEREHEREHERE

HUSH

I find Blogger so restricting at times, it's frustrating that the images are so small because you lose so much lush detail in HUSH's work.

Anyway, HUSH's work is a real show of fine art technicality blended with a whirlpool of graffiti that makes for fascinating street art. The bold, ravelling colours that flourish beneath the cold greys of the detailed portraitures set a perfect balance that juxtaposes but is still great to look at.

Honestly, HUSH is doing something really exciting with this work, and I'm sure to keep a close eye on what he gets up to project-wise.

For more information, check out his website: HERE

Seldon Hunt

Seldon Hunt has a healthy obsession of skulls. An obsession I share. Hunt's work is vibrant, hectic, packed with colour and well, quite skully. The bottom image is of Master Musicians of Bukkake's record Totem One and it's one of my favourite record artworks.


Hit up Seldon's website for more cool prints and illustrations: here.

Quayola

THIS IS SO AWESUM.

Quayola is a visual artist who experiments with video, photography, design and live performance mediums and I find some of his works to be stunning. An emphasis on some mind. A good example is his project 'Partitura', a video of which you can see above.

Partitura is a custom software to generate realtime graphics aimed at visualising sound. The term “Partitura” (score) implies a connection with music, and this metaphor is the main focus of the project. Partitura aims to create a new system for translating sound into visual forms.

I do find this to be incredible, and something I want immediately. We have all experienced the crappy visualisers of audio on our media players and I for one can see no correlation of what is projected visually in relation to whatever I play. It doesn't actually transform the audio, there is no visual actualisation. What is cool is Quayola has seemed to have created something that does generate the audio into something visual.

I always imagine a film that is imbued by music, I always feel music has a story to tell. Sometimes the film isn't always a narrative, sometimes it is just shapes and colour and abstract form, a good example of this is Electric Wizard's 2010 record 'Black Masses' which in my head is a giant black ball of sludge.

I like this a lot, I would buy the 'Partitura' software if I could. I've already watched that video three times.

Hit up Quayola's website to read up on his works, they are very interesting: here

Louise Bourgeois

I feel bad for being so negligent towards (((Hyperpower))) over the past week so I've decided to come up with a good'un for this here post.

Louise Bourgeois has been acclaimed as a key contributor to contemporary art, and nothing is more revealing of her contribution than her awesome 'Maman' (1999) sculpture, which to me is horrifying to say the least. Spiders are goddamn horrible.

The sculpture, resembles a spider, duh, is over 30ft high, with a sac containing marble eggs. The title is French for Mother. Which is interesting considering it's a huge spider taking on the unexpected motherly role.

It is with sadness to report that it is nearly a year since Louise Bourgeois' death at 98, I hope you guys find something interesting about her astounding body of work.

Find some surprisingly good info: here.

And as there isn't a good online archive of her works, Google is your friend: here.

Urs Fischer

Urs Fischer is an installation artist and sculptor with big ideas.

Today I'm focusing on his big and scary installation artwork. In my mind's eye his work is quite cinematic, the concave beaten wall looks like a monster is about to burst through whilst the hole looks like a trench or a IED has exploded in the middle of a gallery. Instead of being inward looking and creating a thing, Fischer looks outward to his environment.

Fischer gained my attention when his sculpture of a giant teddy bear is expected to fetch $10 million at auction next month, it is quite a sight to behold, story and image: here.

Unfortunately Urs doesn't have an official site but.....

More images of Urs Fischer's work can be found: here.

Aaaand some more: here.

Paul Romano

(click to embiggen)

Paul Romano would probably be most recognised for his commercial work, working with bands like Mastodon and The Red Chord, the artist is easily affiliated with those bands and then his other works are forgotten. However, Romano's fine art is truly a spectacle. The exquisite detail he etches is remarkable, so much so that the horrible blurred image above evidently does not do it justice, so I suggest to click and embiggen.

Works like these always hurt my head, during the process the little, minute squiggles and whatnot don't make up much, but the finished article is always very impressive. Hmmmm....

Head over to his official website to see better and more detailed images of his work: here.

Go and check out Paul's blog it's quite interesting, albeit a little overdue on the post front: here.

Stacey Rozich

(Click on each image to enlarge)

Record art, I find, is often a handy gateway to find decent more obscure artists, and Earth's 2011 record 'Angels of Darkness, Demons of Light' artwork is no exception. Stacey Rozich's fantastic folk art is so damn eye-catching, the stripes, the waves, the blocks of vibrant colour. It's alluring art to say the least.

In the past few years I've grown to be a fan of Japanese art, to say it hasn't had a huge influence on modern art, especially western, is an understatement, check out Japonism. Stacey Rozich shows great appreciation of the characteristics that made up Japanese art: "the lack of perspective and shadow, the flat areas of strong color, the compositional freedom in placing the subject off-centre".

I do urge you to check out Stacey Rozich's portfolio it's more of the same, and it's excellent: here.

If your interest is piqued, Earth sound like a Spaghetti Western, check them: here.

André Ethier

I am aware that Cherub The Great isn't a huge fan of some contemporary art, however I hope she can appreciate Ethier's use of vibrant, almost edible colour which is inherent in all of his oil paintings.

I initially found Ethier through this image above, it was used for the record art of Quest For Fire's 2010 record Lights From Paradise, which provides an exquisite journey, a review can be read here, and it was Ethier's painting that indeed captured my attention.

Childlike, noxious, grotesque, vibrant, rough-around-the-edges, excellent.

You can view a whole load of his paintings: here.

To hear a track off of 'Lights From Paradise' hit the jump.