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Robert Williams: Juxtapoz

March 2, 2013 By Wendy Campbell

Born on March 2, 1943, in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Robert Williams is a well-known painter and founder of Juxtapoz Art and Culture Magazine. Williams studied painting at Los Angeles City College and at the Chouinard Art Institute in Los Angeles, California.

Early in his career, Williams designed containers for the Weyehaeuser Corporation and was a designer for Black Belt magazine. In 1965, he became art director for Ed “Big Daddy” Roth –  the artist and cartoonist who created the hot-rod icon Rat Fink and other characters. In the late 1960’s, Williams joined the Zap Comix collective of artists, a non-conformist, anti-establishment movement that included R. Crumb, S. Clay Wilson, Spain Rodriguez, Rick Griffin, Gilbert Shelton, and Victor Moscoso.

Williams published his first book, The Lowbrow Art of Robert Williams in 1979. The title of the book was meant as a statement on the current “Highbrow” tone of the art world and how Williams’ work did not fit in. Of the term “Lowbrow” Williams denies that it was ever meant to define the movement, but was merely used in the title of his first collection. He says “There was never any intention to make the title of my book the name of a fledgling art movement but, over time, that seems to be what has transpired.” In his 2008 lecture at the Oakland Museum of California, Williams stated: “The Art movement I go by is Conceptual Realism.”

In 1994 Williams founded Juxtapoz Art and Culture Magazine with a group of artists and collectors. The publication’s mission statement was to “present art that is provocative, technically adept and worthy of exposure”. “Today, Juxtapoz is widely credited with being the unifying force that drew together the various satellite art movements like street art and Pop Surrealism, into one coherent movement of “alternative art” that evolved during the late ’90s and early ’00s.”  The magazine currently has one of the highest circulations of any art magazine in the United States.

Williams’ work has been exhibited around the world including Helter Skelter: L.A., Art in the 1990s at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles in 1992,the 1993 exhibition Kustom Kulture at the Laguna Art Museum, as well at the 2010 Whitney Biennial. Aside from his first book, Williams has published “Malicious Resplendence”, “Zombie Mystery Painting”, “Visual Addiction”, “Views from a Tortured Libido”, “Through Prehensile Eyes”, and “Conceptual Realism: In the Service of the Hypothetical”.

Williams currently lives in the Chatsworth, California with wife, artist Suzanne Williams. For more information about Robert Williams, visit RobertWilliamsStudio.com.

Zap-Comics---Robert-Williams
Brute-Waste---9'-tall-fiberglass-resin-and-steel-Robert-Williams
Pavillion-of-the-Red-Clown-Robert-Williams

Appetite-for-Destruction - Guns N Roses Cover-Robert-Williams
The Girl With the Faberge Ass-Robert Williams
Enchiladas-de-Amore-Robert_Williams

Mr-Bitchin-Poster-Robert-Williams
The-Persuasion-of-Right-Angles-Robert-Williams
Robert-Williams-Juxtapoz-Cover

Greater-Concerns-than-Mere-Puppetry-Robert-Williams
Interview-with-a-Composite-Abomination--Robert-Williams
Dimaond in a Goat's Ass 9' tall fiberglass resin and steel-Robert Williams

Swap-Meet-Sally-Robert-Williams-2006
Art's Triumph Over Substance-Robert Williams
Bastardizing-the-Autonomy-of-Person-Place-and-Thing-Robert-Williams

Court-Em-All-Let-Cupid-Sort-Em-Out-Robert-Williams-2008

Sources: Bein Art, Wikipedia, Arrested Motion, Artnet, Lowbrow Art World

 

Filed Under: ART, Illustration, Painting Tagged With: American Art, Juxtapoz, Lowbrow Art, Mr Bitchin, Pop Surrealism, Robert Williams

Mark Ryden: Pop Surrealism

January 20, 2013 By Wendy Campbell

Happy birthday to Mark Ryden (featured) who was born on this day (Jan 20, 1963).

Blending themes of pop culture with techniques reminiscent of the old masters, Mark Ryden has created a singular style that blurs the traditional boundaries between high and low art. His work first garnered attention in the 1990s when he ushered in a new genre of painting, “Pop Surrealism”, dragging a host of followers in his wake. Ryden has trumped the initial surrealist strategies by choosing subject matter loaded with cultural connotation.

Ryden’s vocabulary ranges from cryptic to cute, treading a fine line between nostalgic cliché and disturbing archetype. Seduced by his infinitely detailed and meticulously glazed surfaces, the viewer is confronted with the juxtaposition of the childhood innocence and the mysterious recesses of the soul. A subtle disquiet inhabits his paintings; the work is achingly beautiful as it hints at darker psychic stuff beneath the surface of cultural kitsch. In Ryden’s world cherubic girls rub elbows with strange and mysterious figures. Ornately carved frames lend the paintings a baroque exuberance that adds gravity to their enigmatic themes.

Mark Ryden received a BFA in 1987 from Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. His paintings have been exhibited in museums and galleries worldwide, including a retrospective “Wondertoonel” at the Frye Museum of Art in Seattle and Pasadena Museum of California Art, and in the exhibition “The Artist’s Museum” at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles. He currently lives and works in Los Angeles. (bio from artist’s website)

Ryden will have an exhibition of new paintings entitled “The Gay 90’s: West” at the Michael Kohn Gallery. Dates to be announced soon.

Learn more at MarkRyden.com and why not hop on over to his Facebook page and wish him a happy birthday!


Filed Under: ART, Painting Tagged With: American Art, Mark Ryden, Pop Surrealism

Greg Simkins & Lola: Escape With Me @ Yves Laroche Gallery

June 10, 2011 By Wendy Campbell

California Pop Surrealist artists Greg “Craola” Simkins and Lola are exhibiting at Yves Laroche Gallery in Montreal, Canada.  Entitled Escape With Me,  the exhibition “leads us through a hidden door by which we escape reality and enter into a surreal dimension where world politics and destruction are left far behind. Their explicitly opulent world brings back the narrative at the center of the piece where bizarre blends equally with beauty.”

Escape With Me runs through July 8, 2011. To see more, visit Yves Laroche, Simkin’s website ImScared.com, and LolaFineArt.com.





Sources: Hi-Fructose

Filed Under: ART Tagged With: American Art, Greg Craola Simkins, Lola, Pop Surrealism

Naoto Hattori – The Magic Caravan @ Dorothy Circus Gallery

April 30, 2011 By Wendy Campbell

Japanese born pop surrealist painter Naoto Hattori has a new solo show – “The Magic Caravan” – at Dorothy Circus Gallery in Rome, Italy.

“Hattori, the artist of the bizarre, reminds in a pop Surrealist way of Bosh and Arcimboldo. Fantastic creatures, animals and a world observed by thousands of eyes unveils the secret of a reality that is impossibile to define, and subject to a constant and fluid metamorphosis in which the eye is both author and witness.”

The Magic Caravan runs through May 31, 2011. For more information, visit Dorothy Circus Gallery or visit Hattori’s website www.comcom.com.



Filed Under: ART Tagged With: Naoto Hattori, Pop Surrealism, Surrealism

Scott Musgrove: How is the Empire?

May 16, 2010 By Wendy Campbell

didyouthinkiwasimmortal-scott-musgrove

One of my faves, Scott Musgrove has a new show at the Jonathan Levine Gallery in New York.  In this new exhibition called “How is the Empire?”, Musgrove’s paintings and sculptures “illustrate his creative take on evolution, presenting an alternative theory of un-natural selection that would conceivably cause Charles Darwin to turn over in his grave.”

“While he often titled previous work using the formal “binominal nomenclature” system of latin-based scientific species classification, the artist chose to title some of the works in this show with famous last words of historical figures, instead. For example, How Is The Empire?—the title of one painting and of the show itself—happens to be the final words (inaccurately) attributed to King George V of England. Musgrove felt it fitting to use final words of illustrious characters as titles since much of his work is about extinction, believing that giving a voice to the deceased creatures themselves might dignify their passing, rather than simply naming the beasts as they silently await their inevitable demise.”

“How is the Empire?” runs May 15, 2010 – June12, 2010.

For more images from this exhibition, including more sculpture work, visit Jonathan Levine Gallery. To see more of Scott Musgrove’s work, check out ScottMusgrove.com.





Related Books:
How is the Empire: Scott Musgrove Postcards

The Late Fauna of Early North America: The Art of Scott Musgrove
The Upset: Young Contemporary Art

Filed Under: ART, Sculpture Tagged With: How is the Empire, Pop Surrealism, Scott Musgrove

Mark Ryden: The Gay ’90s: Olde Tyme Art Show

May 1, 2010 By Wendy Campbell

incarnation-mark-ryden

Mark Ryden‘s new exhibition “The Gay ’90s: Olde Tyme Art Show” opened on April 29, 2010 at the Paul Kasmin Gallery in New York.  “The central theme of The Gay 90s: Old Tyme Art Show references the idealism of the 1890s while addressing the role of kitsch and nostalgia in our current culture. “In the modern era, sentimentality and beauty have been disdained in the art world,” he explains. “This new work is explores the line between attraction and repulsion to kitsch, and between beauty and banality.”

Once again, meat is featured in Ryden’s new works.  In a recent interview with New York Times Style Magazine, Ryden explains the meat factor –  “There seems to be a complete disconnect between meat as food and the living, breathing creature it comes from. I suppose it is this contradiction that brings me to return to meat in my art. It surprises many people to learn that I am actually not a vegetarian. I don’t think it is morally wrong to eat meat. What I do personally is to try to remain aware of what I am eating and where it came from. I am not trying to preach a moral stance on anything in my art, but I find that juxtaposition of imagery can create a kind of distance and then an ensuing heightening of awareness.”

The Gay ’90s show runs through June 5.  To see more images from Ryden’s new show, visit Paul Kasmin Gallery.  For other works, visit MarkRyden.com.




Filed Under: ART Tagged With: Mark Ryden, Pop Surrealism, The Gay '90s: Olde Tyme Art Show

Dan May: Gentle Monsters

July 10, 2009 By Wendy Campbell

When fear Gave Way To Frolic © Dan May

Recently, I came across the work of Dan May and was instantly hooked! Born and raised in the suburbs of Rochester, New York, May has a BFA in illustration from Syracuse University.

Inspired by the world we live in, his personal experiences and thoughts, his wife Kendal, and feisty bird Jax, May’s dreamlike paintings are whimsical and haunting at the same time.   His characters seem melancholy or just pensive in their natural settings – perhaps a commentary on the complex relationship between humans and nature.

May’s artwork has been featured in numerous publications (Wired, LA CityBeat, OUT Magazine, to name a few), and has been shown in galleries across the US and abroad.  Dan currently lives and works in Jacksonville, Florida.

For more information, visit Dan-May.com.

Henry's Burden © Dan May Enigma of a Peanut © Dan May Mourning Harvest © Dan May

Filed Under: ART Tagged With: Dan May, Pop Surrealism

Beautifully Disturbing: Mark Ryden

May 20, 2009 By Wendy Campbell

Born January 20, 1963 in Medford, Oregon, Mark Ryden grew up in southern California.  Ryden studied illustration at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena and graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts. He is considered to be one of a few artists who helped to lead a return to traditional painting techniques and a key figure in the movement called Lowbrow Art.

Early influences for Ryden include Dali, Magritte, Bosch, Rosenquist and pop artists.  Later on, he developed a passion for more classic art including David, Ingres, Carpaccio, Balthus, and Bougerau.

Some parallel Ryden’s work to the art in vintage children’s books mixed with the whimsy of Lewis Carroll.  Ryden himself says that he often finds archetypes in old books which later end up in his work, and that he is “attracted to things that evoke memories from childhood.”

One need only look at a Ryden painting to see that his technically astounding and disturbing  images are many things at once – everyday objects and people, placed in unusual and surreal circumstances. Children, blood, raw meat, crosses, cuddly animals, toys, and other cultural symbols all come together to form a world where his characters “speak from a place of childlike honesty about the state of mankind and our relationships with ourselves, each other and our past.”

Ryden has designed album covers for the likes of Michael Jackson (Dangerous), and the Red Hot Chili Peppers (One Hot Minute), to name a few.  He has also published numerous books as well as having his art featured in video games and feature films.

Ryden’s work has been exhibited worldwide and his paintings are in public and private collections.  He currently lives and works in Los Angeles with his partner, artist Marion Peck. To see more of Mark Ryden’s beautifully disturbing work, visit his website at MarkRyden.com.

Little Boy Blue © Mark Ryden
A Dog Named Jesus © Mark Ryden
Jessica’s Hope © Mark Ryden

Sources: Mark Ryden.com, Wikipedia, Beinart, My Artspace

Filed Under: ART, Painting Tagged With: Mark Ryden, Pop Surrealism

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