Category: Art & Design

Seen above is Chuffy the mouse driving his guinea pig time machine.

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Jason Hernandez, Lifeline (2008)

“Even among art that aims to be free of traditional categories and definitions, there is an ever-present danger of calcification and rampant commercialization,” warns a recent dispatch from Atwater Village gallery Black Maria promoting its upcoming “No Brow” exhibit. “These dangers threaten to turn even the most unorthodox of movements into an exercise in mainstream banality. The very success of the Lowbrow movement may curb those features that once distinguished it from ‘Highbrow’ art, with its rules and value judgments.” I’ve actually been hearing this line of critique for a few years now — particularly since 2006 with the sudden departure of longtime Juxtapoz editor Jamie O’Shea and equally untimely demise of the Lowbrow journal of record’s publisher Fausto Vitello. Juxtapoz, which claims to be the most widely read art magazine in the world, and Lowbrow were completely synonymous for a time. But the once-hermetic underground comics/hot-rod/tattoo/graffiti scene has exploded more than anyone could have imagined, with a bigger tent that includes digital artists, sneaker designers, collector’s-doll manufacturers and several generations of commercial illustrators ±— and an increasing number of gifted young artists from the Highbrow art world.

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28 excellent, useful cheat sheets in various file formats for Photoshop, Dreamweaver, colors, typography, and other web-design related topics

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The project (a brainchild of art collaborative PROCESS) supplied each artist with a train car illustration, either as a vector file or a screenprint. They were then instructed to take complete creative control over the trains, resulting in a miniaturized versions of THE BEST train cars you’ll ever not see chugging along the tracks

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ARTSPROJEKT, a new online “interactive and culturally relevant online community for the arts, pop culture and action sports” has teamed up with print-on-demand company Zazzle to make high-tech, high-art skate decks. Some of the many artists and micro brands involved include: Lil Jon, Shepard Fairey / OBEY, Crooks & Castles, Blood Is The New Black, Angry Woebots, Alex Pardee, and Dalek.

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the Age of Great Invention. is the world that my paintings pertain to. people loved inventions in olde timey times. here they are!

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(met-l fer mon’strs) cause. 1. An effort by Blend Creations to raise money for UNICEF by collaborating with artists for a special line of limited-edition stainless steel pendants.

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If there was any doubt that in the 21st century toys = bonafide art, Christie’s recent pop culture auction — including $625 vinyl figures from Huck Gee and Joe Ledbetter –settled it. Now, Phillips de Pury & Company is following suit with an urban art auction to be held in London on September 6th and in New York on October 25th. The selection of original works includes paintings, prints, drawings, sculptures, mosaics, record covers and yes, toys, by urban street artists like Bansky, Blek le Rat, DFace, Faile, Shepard Fairey, KAWS, Dave Kinsey, Adam Neate, Barry Mcgee and Swoon.

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The last monster comes to life in the wee hours of the morning. Stefan Bucher squirts a dab of black ink onto paper. He hits it with a blast of compressed air. Twists the paper here and there. Soon, he sees it. A jawbone. He starts to draw. The splotch of ink grows wings, a ruffly tail. A beak like a toucan’s protrudes — yellow, gargantuan, perverse. Then a reptile eye. Within seconds, all the monster trademarks are in place.

For the past year, Bucher has videotaped himself drawing monsters. The videos, 199 of them, are archived on his Web site, dailymonster.com. This new toucan-beaked critter, Monster 200, is the last of the “daily” monsters for a while. They’ll be going on hiatus while Bucher develops their cousins into an animated TV segment for 2009’s rebooted Electric Company on PBS. His work is also collected in the book 100 Days of Monsters.

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