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

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...

                                                 

Alice Duke

Alice Duke has been one of those where I knew her work before I knew her. Her illustration work is fascinating, it deals in folklore and nature and human curiosity using engrossing detail and warm earthy colour. I enjoy her work, I love the mythical creatures and the transformation of the known to the unknown, especially with Exploding Shed at the bottom there, yet overall I can't help but find her work terrifying.

It truly is scary. How many heads does that scaly, hairy, feathered, winged, tangle of serpents need? And how much is the print because I want one!

You can go and check out her coooool website HERE

And you can hit the jump to check out her work with the great unsigned band Cormorant.

Roger Dean

I couldn't believe it going through our, admittedly rather brief, archive and finding that I have yet to mention the, frankly, brilliant Roger Dean. He's mostly known for his intergalactic and astoundingly beautiful and surreal landscapes, floating islands, dense jungles, monolithic rock formations, hive-like constructions and the odd pyramid or two.

However, above I've put two images of my favourite works by Mr Dean and they mainly focus on his creatures, that dragon up top is incredible in it's majesty and colour, and breathes a whole new way of thinking of what a dragon could be. And the octopus is there because I think the octopus is the boss. Obsessed with octopi(?) at the moment. Way cool.

His works are well-known for being used as record covers for bands like Yes and Rush and other prog rock royalty, and on his influencing many in the younger generations, the one that comes to mind the most is Arik Roper who is also a genius.

Check out his well made website HERE

Joan Miro

As you probably guessed it, I went to the Miro exhibition at the Tate Modern today and I went not really expecting much as my father had been before and he didn't get along with it, but I should have guessed he wouldn't go along with a surrealist because that's probably the area of art he is most confused by, but I went in sceptical, but I left a lover. Catalonia's Joan Miro is the man.

I loved how complexly simple his Constellations were, and the vastness of his triptychs, Miro admittedly inspired by the American Abstract Expressionism, my boy Rothko! and bros., the minutely detailed his early works were with form and placing thrown to the wind. Fantastic.

There's only twelve days left of the exhibition, so if you're on the neighbourhood it is definitely worth it.

MORE MIRO

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.

The Adventures of Tintin

I fucking LOVED Tintin when I was younger, I had all of the books and read them constantly when on holiday. I loved the fantastic yet rooted in reality storylines, Snowy the little fox terrier dog who had thoughts of his own, the vibrant colourscapes like that huge blue sky above.

Georges Prosper Remi, probably more known by his pen name Hergé, is most likely the best known Belgian having written and illustrated the most excellent adventures of Tintin. It is quite fascinating to read up on Tintin's author, who lived through the occupation of Belgium by the Nazis, and at one point of being falsely accused of being a Nazi sympathiser, that the man has an asteroid named after him is pretty neat and is now one of my life's goals. What's more there apparently is an unfinished Tintin comic floating around somewhere entitled 'Tintin and Alph-Art' which would be interesting to see the light of day.

Anyway, I'd thought it'd be cool to honour Hergé by means of a dedicated post, he was a dearly talented illustrator and a genuine auteur. You can engross yourself with Hergé: here.

Hit up the official Tintin website and you can find out about a tour through Brussels where you can follow Tintin, I am excite!: here. It also fun facts too.

Did you guys read Tintin?

(Or Asterix actually, but I mean to have a future post on his greatness too...)

Hapshash and the Coloured Coat

If you haven't already guessed, I'm a bit of a psychedeliphiliac (making up words is fun!) when it comes to posters. That and mythology wins me over every time.

Hapshash and the Coloured Coat are an artistic partnership between Englishmen Michael English and Nigel Waymouth from way back in the 1960s, having produced in that decade two psychedelic and proto-prog records and a hamper full gorgeous posters. You can read a review of one of their 'freaky' records at this endearing little site: here. Apparently it's "It’s wayward, repetitive, freaky, and VERY 1967." Interesting.

If one is paying attention you can definitely see the influence of Alphonse Mucha on Hapshash and the Coloured Coat, the vibrant and playful colours are telling an excellent, spacey in this case, tale. Other artists I'm feeling in Hapshash...'s works are Hieronymus Bosch and Max Ernst, mainly because I just lifted those names directly from their Wiki page.....

Anyway, I am really digging Hapshash and the Coloured Coat, it's the intricate detail and the excessive vivid colouring makes me want to sit and absorb it for hours. You can see more of 60s twosome in the odd place of The Who Museum website. Which is very odd thinking about it. Hit it up: here

If you also want to pretend you know everything hit their wiki page for info: here

Virgil Finlay

I know very little about Virgil Finlay. According to the insightful Wiki page he was an American pulp fantasy, science fiction and horror illustrator, and from these images the horror aspect is definitely shining through. These images are goddamn sinister. He liked to work with pen ink and paper, which is quite a time consuming art, so it makes it absolutely remarkable that he produced over 2600 images in his 35 year career. Astounding.

If your interest is picqued don't bother trying to find an official website or fan website, they're useless. Hit up that Wiki page for info, for more quality images hit: here.

That top image is suitable for the time of night I'm writing this (00:07). I half expect to see it rise up and gaze through my window. Creepy.

Good ol' Google.

Florian Bertmer

I love poster art. I have actually blogged a few times elsewhere, thematically with High on Fire here and again focusing on the great Frank Kozik here, and yet I keep on finding more and more cool artists. The latest one being Florian Bertmer.

I unfortunately know very little about him apart from the fact that he does some very cool art. And that I am tired and that I can not be bothered to look. However,n what I do know is that the bottom image is beyond way cool, the intricacies and vibrant colour, the beautiful tattooed woman holding a spear(!) juxtaposed to a symmetrical shrieking squirrel lurking behind her is not something you see every day. I love it.

I do sincerely urge you to check out his other works at his blog: here

More images can be found: here

Alphonse Mucha

Alphonse Mucha illustrations are remarkable, his beautiful lithographs feel way ahead of it's late 19th century time. The excruciatingly detailed women detailed in his paintings have influenced countless of pretenders, one of the most obvious contemporary artists off the top of my head is John Dyer Baizely, whose work I am a big admirer of, albeit Baizely has more of a fascination with flowers and dismemberment. It is the warm, perky, natural colours which enamour me to Mucha's work, and it complements the gorgeous subject matter. Amazingly, it is Alphonse Mucha, a name which I indeed love saying, no one's called Alphonse anymore, who was the pre-curser for the French art movement Art Nouveau, which you can read about on good ol'wiki: here.

Moreover, you can read up more on Alphonse Mucha: here. He is indeed an interesting fellow as it seemed he had an internal struggle between his fine art aspirations and his commercial successes.

Alphonse Mucha is a popular guy so you can:

Hit up his official site to read up on the man: here
See a comprehensive list of his works: here
If you feel really good about yourself you can buy his posters: here

After the jump a photograph of the man himself.