Monday entry (for 4/5/10): Artist of Interest: Liz McGrath

Biography from McGrath's official website:

	Los Angeles-born artist Elizabeth McGrath has always had an eye for the strange beauty in the grotesqueries of life; this appreciation is nowhere more evident than in her work. Inspired by the relationship between the natural world and the detritus of consumer culture, she brings forth a new cavalcade of creatures from the darker corners of the streets, the city, the imagination. It is this melancholy interaction between man-made status symbols and suffering specimens of nature that make up her intricate body of work.

McGrath's official website.

Interview with McGrath conducted by Juxtapoz magazine.

The following images were found on McGrath's official website.

Schwein Haben, resin, foam, wood, 2008

Muerte & Little Loco, mixed media, tattoos by Morgan Slade, 2008

Mala & Rhea, wood, resin, cloth, tar, 1999

Lion, resin, foam, mixed media, 2008

Monday entry (for 3/29/10): Artist of Interest: Nick Walker

Biography from Walker's official website:

In 1992 I began to combine stencils with my freehand work which allowed me to juxtapose almost photographic imagery with the rawness which evolved from conventional graffiti styles.

Stencils introduce an impact element to my work. The appeal of stencils is that they allow me to take an image from anywhere - dissect any part of life - and recreate it on any surface.

I try to add an element of humor or irony to some paintings to add a little light relief to the walls. Painting is a form of escapism for me and if my work allows the spectator to do the same thing, then I've achieved more than I set out to do.

Walker's official website.

Interview with Walker conducted by Juxtapoz magazine.

Walker's last solo exhibition was held at the Black Rat Press Gallery in London, England in April 2008.

The following images were found on Juxtapoz.com. Titles and medium of artworks were not available.

Monday entry (for 3/22/10): Artist of interest: Eelus

Biography from Eelus' official website:

Hello, I’m Eelus. People like me because I’m polite and rarely late.

My career as a graphic artist began when I was 10 years old in the ruthless, Thunderdome like playground of a Wigan primary school. Being quite handy with the old pencil, I decided to tool myself up and began knocking out hand drawn posters of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to either A: sell for tuck shop money or B: give away to escape a good kicking due to the shortness of my trousers.

Life continued, my trousers thankfully became longer and the kicking’s subsided, before I knew it 10 years had passed and I was now living in London. Wigan isn’t known for its street art, so when I arrived in London I was excited and inspired by the already booming scene. I bought the countless books, read the expensive imported magazines and after a few years of sitting on the sidelines like the school rugby games 10 years previous, I picked up a scalpel and decided to get involved. Before I knew it I was making a mess on walls as well as knocking out pieces on canvas to A: sell for beer money or B: give away to escape a good kicking due to the longness of my trousers.

In October 2006 I quit my day job and became a graphic artist full time, putting myself on a long road of experimentation, progression, hangovers and worrying about the rent. My goal is to push my limits, learn the skills of my trade and to hopefully continue to make a living from my art. This site is here to document that journey and give you the chance to buy any work I create on the way.

Eelus' official website.

Interview with Eelus conducted by Juxtapoz magazine.

Eelus recently had his work shown in his first London debut at Blackall Studios in London, England on February 25, 2010.

The following images were found on Eelus' official website.

Not Everything is so Black and White, spray paint on reclaimed wood

Lung Mixture on Metal, spray paint on vintage metal

Keep Your Eyes on the Prize, spray paint on aluminium

I Said I'm Happy (What More Do You Want?), hand screen print on Arches Velin paper

Monday entry (for 3/8/10): Artist of interest: Ron English

Biography from English's official website:

Ron English is a well-known painter, whose work has been exhibited in galleries and museums worldwide, including the Museum of Contemporary Art in Paris and the Whitney Museum in New York. Ron is also widely considered to be one of the seminal figures in the ever-growing culture jamming movement. He has pirated over a thousand billboards over the last twenty years, replacing existing advertisements with his own hand-painted subvertisements.

Biography from Wikipedia.org:

Ron English is an American contemporary artist born in 1959 who explores popular brand imagery and advertising. His signature style employs a mash-up of high and low cultural touchstones, including comic superhero mythology and totems of art history, to create a visual language of evolution. He is also widely considered a seminal figure in the advancement of street art away from traditional wild-style lettering and into clever statement and masterful trompe l’oeil based art. He has created illegal murals and billboards that blend stunning visuals with biting political, consumerist and surrealist statements, hijacking public space worldwide for the sake of art since the 1980s.

Ron English's official website.

Interview with Ron English conducted by Juxtapoz magazine.

English's work will be on display May 15-August 22 at the Bristol City Museum in Bristol, England.

The following images were taken from English's official website.

Cowgirl Hat Red Brown, silkscreen on paper, 2006

Marlboro Boy, oil on canvas, 2006

Disco McDonalds, oil on canvas, 2006

Cowgirl Milkshake, oil on canvas, 2006

Monday entry (for 3/1/10): Artist of interest: Nick Georgiou

Nick Georgiou is an American sculpture who works with the medium of discarded books and newspapers and is inspired by "the death of the printed word/world." In an interview with Juxtapoz magazine, Georgiou explained when he began producing artwork out of paper and why:

During the beginning of this decade –like most people, I saw my entire music and film collection shrink into my computer. I started getting my news online and began interacting with paper in a very different way. Books and newspapers are becoming artifacts of the 21st century. Whatever we used to read off paper, we’re now reading off digital screens. Our way of interacting with text is changing. My work is not only about the decline of the printed word in today’s society but its rebirth as art. I just saw an ad for Amazon’s digital reader, the Kindle, which reminded me of the earlier ipod ads. Instead of "a 1000 songs in your pocket" its “books in 60 seconds.”

Georgiou typically acquires discarded books and newspaper by dumpster diving and is given donations from local bookstores who sponsor him in Tuscon, Arizona where he lives and works. Each sculpture can take anywhere between a few hours to several months to complete since he works on several different pieces at once.

When asked whether he prefers street or gallery exhibitions of his work, he explained,

I don't have a preference. Like with stories, setting - whether interior or exterior is important - and it plays a big factor in the conceptual design of the piece. There's a lot to consider: lighting, backdrop, form. It's all very cinematic. What I like most about street pieces is the element of surprise: you pretty much have no control, there are no clearly defined boundaries, and everyone has access. Gallery shows appeal to me as a sacred space. There's more order, and it's a different kind of cathartic experience because it's enclosed within the confines of space.

Georgiou just opened a new gallery/studio space in downtown Tuscon, Arizona, which has afforded him the opportunity to create artwork while also interacting with the public. He's in the midst of creating a documentary about the decline of the printed word and is working on a series of sculptures for a solo exhibition in Cyprus and Greece.

Georgiou doesn't have an official website but instead has a blog on Blogspot titled My Human Computer.

Interview with Georgiou conducted by Juxtapoz magazine.

Georgiou is represented by Andipa Gallery in London, England.

The following images were found on Artnet.com:

Platter, newspaper, 2008

Offering, newspaper, 2008

Kalkl, discarded books and newspapers, 2008

Atlas, newspaper, 2008

Monday entry (for 2/22/10): Artist of interest: Rockin' Jellybean

Rockin' Jellybean is a Japanese visual artist. His real name is unknown, as well as the year of his birth and no one even knows what he looks like because when he ventures out for exhibitions or is photographed, he's always seen wearing a Mexican wrestling mask. He's commented that he wears a Mexican wrestling mask to make his public appearances funnier because he doesn't ever want to take creating art and being an artist too seriously. What is known about Jellybean is that he was born in Hawaii and lived there during his childhood until moving to Kyoto, Japan. He goes by the name Rockin' Jellybean, which is an alias derived from the nickname Jellybean that his grandmother gave him early on because of the jellybean shaped birth marks he has on his shoulders.

After discovering Playboy magazine while he was in junior high school, he began drawing his own version of gorgeous buxom and often half nude female characters, whose anatomical details were highly exaggerated. Jellybean is considered a low brow artist whose work consist of scandalous gorgeous women frolicking with monsters. He associates himself and his artistic style with the custom car culture of Southern California and with other low brow artists such as Coop, Frank Kozik and Von Franco. He's credited Robert Williams as being a major influence for his artistic style of merging realism with cartoonish undertones. Jellybean doesn't sell any of his original artworks but rather creates screen-prints because he doesn't want strangers to own his original artworks. He's gone on to create Erosty Pop, where he sells retail market items with his artwork printed on them, such as towels, boxers, panties, toys, et cetera. In an interview with Juxtapoz magazine, he explained that he'd "prefer to have my drawings printed on many girls panties, rather than have my prints hanging on someone's house wall."

Rockin' Jellybean's official website.

Interview with Juxtapoz magazine.

The following images were taken from Juztapoz.com. Titles and years were not provided.

Monday entry (for 2/15/10): Artist of interest: Ben Frost

Ben Frost is an Australian visual artist who was born in Brisbane in 1975. He creates collages that depict the appropriated images of pop culture cartoon characters, such as Hello Kitty, Spongebob Squarepants, Mickey Mouse amongst others, as well as iconic images from advertisement, entertainment and politics. In an interview with Juxtapoz magazine, Frost explained the message behind his work:

It's like that feeling when you first find out that Santa Clause is really your dad dressed up in a costume, or when you see dove droppings drip out of the magician's sleeve as he performs at your 10th birthday party.

Cartoon characters are all happy and fun at first—promising you happy rainbows and pixie dust, but then when you switch off the television, life suddenly isn't like that anymore.

In fact the only way children can feed their rainbow and pixie dust addiction is to get their parents to purchase any number of items from the toy catalogue that the character represents.

New characters are specifically created based on their projected profit margins from merchandising sales, and Happy Meal tie-ins. Their cute happy faces are the public face of the corporations they represent. It is this often-misplaced motivation that casts a dark shadow across the entire idea of children's 'entertainment'.

So I try and imagine what these characters might be doing when they are not working, when they aren't performing for us on our screens. Ronald McDonald and the Hamburglar get together and smoke crack, Hello Kitty has a porn addiction, Goofy and Pluto like rough sex with each other, but they always manage to clean up and get it together when they have to come back to perform for the kiddies.

When asked about his usage of appropriated pop culture images and logos, he explained:

A lot of people - and especially a lot of artists, are so incredibly afraid of appropriation as a means of creative representation. There is this scenario in their heads that the 'Coca-Cola' police are going to break down their studio door, dressed from head to toe in red and white leather, tie their hands behind their backs with dynamic ribbon devices and then knee-cap them in the parking lot—all because they painted a Coca-Cola logo on one of their canvases!

Ben Frost's official website.

Frost's work has been exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney.

Interview with Juxtapoz magazine.
The following images were taken from Ben Frost's official website.

Zombie Warhol, acrylic and enamel on board, 2007

Sniff Death/Hang Love, acrylic and enamel on board, 2006

I Drowned Your Fucking Cat, acrylic and enamel on board, year unknown

Gentle Laxettes for all the Family, acrylic and enamel on board, year unknown

Faster Pusycat, Kill! Kill!, acrylic and enamel on board, 2006

Every Man Has His Price, acrylic and enamel on board, 2008

Fantastic Life (as seen on tv), acrylic and enamel on board,

year unknown

Monday entry (for 2/8/10): Artist of interest: Niagara

Niagara is a female American artist and musician who was born on August 23, 1956 in Detroit, Michigan. She simply goes by the name Niagara. While studying painting at the University of Michigan in the mid 70s, Niagara formed a punk rock band Destroy All Monsters with Mike Kelly. Niagara was the lead singer but she also created promotional posters and album cover art with the use of pen, ink and gouache. Themes in her art work include sexy femme fatales donned with weapons of various sorts. According to Niagara, “I paint real strong women; a Niagara girls [is] revengeful, but she gets her own way...There’s a lot of crime in my paintings.” Niagara's promoter and body guard has explained that Niagara purposely paints off register "to make it look like a bad silk screen but she does it with such precision, people still think they're done by machine. Warhol would love it."

Niagara's most recent exhibit was held in Sydney and Melbourne in 2008 titled The Good, The Bad and The Beautiful. Outre' Gallery created a set of limited edition Niagara silkscreen prints to coincide with the two sold out shows. In 2007 she created a full clothing line with avant garde couturier Hysteric Glamour to coincide with a show she opened in Tokyo in 2007. And in 2008 she collaborated with Vans footwear, in which she designed seven urban-hip inspired shoes that debuted in Paris.

Here is a snippet of Niagara's biography on her official website:

Whereas her pictorial style and subjects are indebted in part to the pop masters Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol, Niagara ascribes her most powerful influences to the Pre-Raphaelites and Art Nouveau artists Alfons Mucha and Aubrey Beardsley. Her linear technique and application of oriental graphic designs reveal the aesthetic impact of her nineteenth-century predecessors. On her fascination with their predilection for morbid eroticism, she comments “I like all that dark stuff.” Beardsley’s work was characterized by a journalist in 1894 as “the very essence of the decadent fin de siecle.” His images of desire, corruption and death made his conception of “pornotopia” famous among the cultural elite of his day. Now at the close of the millennium, Niagara emerges as the dark angel of decadence whose vision embodies the cynicism that marks the end of our own century.

Interview with Niagara conducted by Pussycat Magazine.

Outre' Gallery in Melbourne, Australia, which held her last exhibition. All of the following images were taken from Outre' Gallery's website.

It's Half-Past Get Out, silkscreen, year unknown

Shut Up or I'll Kill You, silkscreen, year unknown

Think Dirty, silkscreen, year unknown

Run, silkscreen, year unknown

Monday entry (for 2/1/10): Artist of interest: Robert Williams

Robert Williams is an American painter, underground cartoonist and creator and editor in chief of Juxtapoz magazine. He helped create what is now known as the low brow art scene, also known as pop surrealism, in the late 1970s. Williams was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico on March 2, 1943. He took classes at the Los Angeles City College school and moved on to a brief stint at The Chouinard Art Institute where he was referred to as an illustrator by his peers, which was meant as an insult. Williams landed his dream job in 1965 working for Ed "Big Daddy" Roth, a custom hot-rod builder and artist who created the hot-rod icon Rat Fink. Williams created advertisements and graphics for Roth while working on his own art on the side in the form of oil paintings. Themes in Williams' work consist of hot-rod and underground comic counter culture. After working for Roth, he joined the ZAP Comix collective of artists and helped create what is now known as the low brow/pop surrealist movement along with other artists such as Robert Crumb, S. Clay Wilson, Rick Griffin, Gilbert Shelton, Spain Rodriguez and Victor Moscoso. After spending the better part of the late 70s and 80s creating a name for himself via gallery showings and publishing books of his work, which were all celebrated in the underground art and punk rock scene, he created Juxtapoz magazine in 1994. Juxtapoz is now one of the highest circulated art magazines and has launched several artists careers, such as Mark Ryden and Shepard Fairey.

Robert Williams' official website.

Interview with Robert Williams conducted by Sunset Strip.com

Williams is represented by the Tony Shafrazi Gallery in New York.

Riding a Dead Horse in a Dream Within a Dream, oil on canvas,
year unknown, found on Robert Williams' official website.

The Girl with the Faberge Ass, oil on canvas, year unknown,
found on Robert Williams' official website

The Ball Peen Hammer Expressionist, oil on canvas, year unknown,
found on Robert Williams' official website

Backstage Johnny Expresses His Darker Urges
at the Sight of a Hot Squat, oil on canvas, year unknown,
found on Robert Williams' official website

Monday entry (for 1/25/10): Artist of Interest: Thomas Kinkade

Thomas Kinkade is an American painter who was born on January 19, 1958 and raised in Placerville, California. He attended the University of California in Berkley and after two years transferred to the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California. Kinkade is the epitome of kitsch art, with his sentimental subject matter depicting unspoiled and nostalgic landscapes, as well as Disney characters and scenes of American sport games. He is best known for mass producing his art work on a grand scale and reproducing his paintings as prints and creating replicas of his paintings on other licensed products, such as calendars, tea cups and even porcelain crucifixs. He is incredibly market and business savvy and the fact that between the period of 1997 and 2005 Kinkade made $53 million dollars is proof of this. He is known as the most collected living artist who has sold more paintings than Picasso, Rembrandt, Gaughin, Monet, Manet, Renoir and Van Gogh combined. Being a devout Christian, Kinkade's work reflects his good-natured upbringing as it is highly sentimental and optimistic. Most of his paintings depict his conservative views on "the small American town," but without the use of people. With the exception of a small collection of Disney themed paintings, most of his work consists merely of landscapes. While he has obvious technical skill as a painter, his work lacks depth in the way of concept. Because of this and the fact that his work is mass produced and sold in Thomas Kinkade franchise galleries across the country, as well as on his official website and even on the QVC home shopping channel, he is deemed as a kitsch artist. Some have referred to his work as "chocolate box art."

Thomas Kinkade's official website.

Interview with Kindade conducted by the CBS television program 60 Minutes.

A list of Thomas Kinkade galleries in the state of Virginia.

Hometown Pride, oil on canvas, year unknown, found on Thomas Kinkade official website

Memories of Christmas, oil on canvas, 2001, found on Thomas Kinkade official website

A New Day at the Cinderella Castle, oil on canvas, year unknown,
found on Thomas Kinkade official website

Heather's Hutch, oil on canvas, year unknown, found on Thomas Kinkade's official website

Monday entry (for 11/23/09): Artist of interest: David LaChapelle

David LaChapelle is an American fine art and commercial photographer, as well as a music video, commercial and film director. LaChapelle was born on March 11, 1963 in Fairfield, Connecticut. He attended the North Carolina School of the Arts as well as the School of the Visual Arts in New York City. LaChapelle is most well known for his outrageous and humorous tableaux portraits of celebrities in unique and sometimes surreal settings. Because his subject matter is weighted heavily in pop culture featuring pop culture icons and showcasing the exploitation of wealth and fame, his work has often times been considered borderline kitsch. According to LaChapelle's biography on his official website, "LaChapelle's work continues to be inspired by everything from art history to street culture, creating both a record and mirror of all facets of popular culture today. He is quite simply the only photographic artist currently working in the world today whose work has transcended the fashion or celebrity magazine context it was made for, and has been enshrined by the notoriously discerning and fickle contemporary art intelligentsia."

LaChapelle's official website.

Interview with LaChapelle by DesignBoom.com

LaChapelle's work was recently exhibited at the Sebastian Guinness Gallery in Dublin, Ireland.

Miracle Tan, 2004

Houston, We Have a Problem, 1999

Amanda as Warhol's Marilyn, 2002

Jesus Is My Homeboy, 2009

Monday entry (for 11/16/09): Artist of interest: Candice Breitz

Candice Breitz is a Berlin based South African artist. She was born in Johannesburg, South Africa in 1972. She holds several prestigious degrees, starting with her B.A. in Fine Arts from the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, which she received in 1993. Later in 1995 she received a M.A. in Art History at the University of Chicago. In 1997 she received a M.Phil. in Art History at Columbia University in New York. From 1998 to 2002 Breitz was a Doctoral Candidate in Art History at Columbia University. Breitz is best known for her video works and installations, though she also has created several photographic bodies of work that have varied greatly from one another in both subject matter and style.

One common theme throughout Breitz's work is focusing on the world of fandom in relation to pop-culture icons. In 2006 for her video installation Working Class Hero, Breitz invited a diverse community of John Lennon fans to pay tribute to the late musician by performing his first solo album, 'Plastic Ono Band,' from beginning to end on camera. In addition to offering intimate portraits of each participant, the resulting 25-channel video installation forms a survey of fan culture and reflects on the complex threads of identification that often characterize the relationship between celebrities and their public.



A year earlier in 2005, Breitz created King (A Portrait of Michael Jackson), a similar video installation of fans singing along to Michael Jackson songs while attempting his trademark dance moves.



In her 2007 photographic body of work Monuments, she continued her anthropological survey of the devotee. They are melancholic and funny portraits of how someone that a fan has never met can overwhelm their personality and become "an ever present soundtrack to their life.”

Britney Spears Monument, Berlin, September 2007

Iron Maiden Monument, Berlin, July 2007

Breitz's official website.

Interview with Breitz by Kopenhagen.com

Breitz's work was exhibited earlier this year at the Yvon Lambert Gallery in New York, NY.