Check out this awesome image from Lisbon’s Bohemian Quarter. According to the New York Times, it features:
numerous past and recent “works” by graffiti artists from Portugal and elsewhere are numbered and on display on the walls of old buildings. The project, called the Ephemeral Museum, offers a website, map and audioguide.
Very cool stuff, indeed!
Thanks to Steven G. for passing this along.
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Here’s a cool video of Michael C. Place (who you might remember from Helvetica) creating art with a little paint, paper, and correction tape. It’s basically a commercial, but still–inventive illustration.
Illustration Alum Brian Wood (’97) was recently interviewed for an article in the Village Voice. He talked about why San Francisco just isn’t as good as New York (to him), how his artwork has developed, and the critical and social reaction to his art. Here’s an excerpt:
Comic-book fame is a funny thing: Even as Hollywood pushes the medium further into the mainstream, a sense of geek solidarity remains. Writers and artists feel compelled to stay in touch with their fans; the fans, in turn, continue to treat creators like best friends. “I’m hesitant to compare him to an emo band, but I feel like Brian has that sort of connection to the audience,” says James Lucas Jones, an editor at Oni Press who worked with Wood on Local. “People feel emotionally invested in him.”
Wood’s own fame was cemented in the late ’90s, after the publication of the William Gibson–esque Channel Zero. He now calls it something of “an art student’s rant”—a ” ‘zine where everybody talks about what pisses them off.” But Zero led to a writing stint at Marvel’s Generation X and paved the way for the series Couriers, Couscous Express, and Pounded, about a rock band in New York. Eventually, Wood transitioned from occasionally drawing into writing full-time, mostly because he “had so many ideas, and not enough time to put them to paper.”
Make sure you read the rest of the article here. Brian also has a list of other articles about his work here on his official website. You can pick up a copy of his latest book, The New York Four here.
Congrats on your continuing success, Brian!
Friend of the Illustration Department and Parsons Alum–Illustrator Ingo Fast–spent almost a year traveling around the world, illustrating the whole time. When he got home, he relaxed a little while. And then set out once again, this time for thirteen months! Recently, How Magazine featured an article about his journeys and work; you can read the whole article here (just use the small arrows at the bottom to advance pages). You can also see images from his travel here and here.
Fascinating stuff!
Adjunct Faculty Dan Weise recently taught a Street Art workshop in the Dominican Republic at Parsons’ affiliate Altos de Chavon. He kept a blog detailing his experiences with the students as they explored graffiti, animation, and murals. It’s chock full of amazing photos of the art created during the workshop, as well as links to student blogs.
Good work to Dan and all the amazing artists/students involved!
Dark Horse Deluxe joins with Tara McPherson to design the Somewhere Under the Rainbow Coloring Kit! This fantastic “kit” comes in an easy-carry heavy-gauge clear vinyl bag with zipper enclosure, and includes: 96-page coloring book featuring 48 pieces of outstanding black and white art by Tara McPherson. This book has concealed spiral binding and stiff covers and includes unique box of 24 crayons in modern colors. But that’s not all! Four color-them-yourself postcards, and a deluxe sticker sheet are included in the spiral bound book.
This is available at cool stores everywhere on August 27, 2008, but you can pre-order your kit here.
Wonderful news from Parsons Illustration faculty and alum Trey Hoyumpa:
I went into labor Monday and had a baby girl Tuesday afternoon at 12:34pm. Her name is Madison Grace Hoyumpa and she weighed in at 7lb 4 oz (Parker was 7lb 6oz). She looks a lot like Parker when he was born except she has a dimple on her right check which, of course, is super cute. We were released from the hospital yesterday – both Madison and I are doing great. We are all totally sleep deprived, but are enjoying the time together. It’s a kick seeing Parker with Madison. He’s going to be an awesome big brother.
Congratulations, Trey! She’s gorgeous.
Check out ths great tote bag with art by Adrian Tomine! Grab yours at the Strand Bookstore.
[Thanks to Frank Olinsky for the tip!]
In the Land of Retinal Delights: The Juxtapoz Factor
On view through October 5th, 2008
Laguna Art Museum
In the Land of Retinal Delights: The Juxtapoz Factor is an exhibition that presents the work of 150 artists and posits that there has been a huge, but unacknowledged art movement taking place in this country for the last 40 years. Since 1994, this ground swelling of lowbrow, surrealistic, pop, figurative, narrative work has coalesced and found a voice in the pages of Juxtapoz magazine published in San Francisco. This rag has become the most widely read art magazine in the US. It is an influencing force on the aspiring artists of Generation Y and the Millennials, who are now enrolling in art schools in numbers never seen before.
Juxtapoz magazine was founded by Los Angeles-artist Robert Williams. The “Juxtapoz aesthetic or lowbrow art” is almost always figurative, and is inspired by movies, TV, advertising, black-velvet painting, psychedelic posters, pulp porn, sci-fi and horror, carnival art, comics books and all things lower- and middle-class. The Magazine has and does provide a voice and validation for a brand of artist, like Williams, who has not been accepted traditionally by the typical art-world infrastructure of collector, curator, and critic. However, since its founding, it has been the clear focal point for having been the inspiration for the creation of its own infrastructure that supports Juxtapozian art with galleries in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, and New York, collectors, followed by critical attention, followed by museum exhibitions at adventurous institutions. With it’s growing success Juxtapoz has been a major contributor to the reemergence of painting again as a valid practice for artists since the mid-1990s, running counter to forty-years of art-school canon that focused on the Conceptual practice of context, collectivization, and dematerialization of the art object.
For the last decade the art establishment (collector, curator, and critic) has argued that the idea, or construct, of an art movement is outmoded. This exhibition explores the idea of a “Juxtapoz Factor.” Is it an organized movement operating under a singular manifesto? Or is it a wave of talented overlooked artists who decided to reach out to the public and create their own canon?
Check out the full description here, along with a listing of all the fantastic artists involved. You might notice Illustration Alum Isabel Samaras in that list. Congrats to her! You can also read more about the show in this write-up by Richard Chang in the OC Register, who proclaims that this show “could very well be the art show of the year.” High praise.
Laguna Art Museum
307 Cliff Drive
Laguna Beach, CA 92651
[ images by Robert Williams (top) and Isabel Samaras (bottom) ]
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Straight from the Illustration Inbox…
This is Ru Kuwahata (graduated in 2005) and I just finished co-directing a music video for the band They Might Be Giants, and it will be released on Playhouse Disney channel within the next few weeks. The production was done in house with a company that I started with my husband in 2007.
Check out a behind-the-scenes blog post about the creation of the video here–it has tons of fascinating pictures of how this unique artwork was put together.
Congrats to Ru and Tiny Inventions (and TMBG) on the great work!