The best part of a decade ago I was doing my best to crack the rock poster scene, knocking out dozens of images that were very much inspired by the dominant Kozik / Coop aesthetic of that time. I got some exposure through Metal Hammer and Club International (my parents would be so proud) and [...]
Agonist: the art of Vania Zouravliov
…creativity is the only relative freedom we have in this world.
Vania Zouravliov
I’ve yet to find anyone who doesn’t think this artist’s work is anything less than brilliant. It’s not just the attention to detail, the intricacy of line, the obsessive need to cram embellishment into every atom of each drawing, or the subtle grace of [...]
Beautiful Happiness
If album covers could still be as mind-blowing as this one by Brian Bolland, we would never have seen the advent of CD, let alone mp3. This rare-as-rocking-horse-shit compilation from the late 1980’s featured a sticky fistful of under-the-radar freak rockers like Elvis Hitler, Shadowy Men On A Shadowy Planet, and Art Phag, delivering exactly [...]
Goo Goo Muck: the art of John Waters
To me, bad taste is what entertainment is all about.
John Waters
Here’s something you often hear me say: “I wish I’d been able to see this gallery show.” Most of the time, the installation brigade have me pondering exactly why flame-throwers were invented, but the essential difference here is that the warped mind behind these works [...]
Memorial: the art of Aaron Horkey
“Don’t crap out” – Aaron Horkey
Aaron Horkey is ten years my junior, and waaaay ahead of me in terms of his artistic career. Not for the first time, and undoubtedly not for the last, do I feel that I have squandered whatever opportunities I might have had come my way over the years. Aaron Horkey hasn’t, [...]
Spider Snipe
Being able to draw a connection between the most foetid imaginings of Odilon Redon and the insane racket made by Melt Banana is how my mind operates on a daily basis.
Melt Banana – Spider Snipe
Wild At Heart: the photography of Roswell Angier
Born in 1940, and exhibiting since the mid-70’s from when most of the images featured here were taken, Roswell Angier is another vital documenter of a rapidly-vanishing America. He captures the world romanticised by the likes of Tom Waits, Barry Gifford and David Lynch, be it the downtown dreamsumps of all-nite bars, strip clubs and [...]
How To Blow Yourself Up
This show is happening right now at the Subliminal Projects Gallery in LA. 5000 miles is a bit too far for me to be bothered, but if someone is going to blow themselves up for ‘art’ – which was my initial assumption when I read about it – then it’s would be sure to make [...]
Icky Thump: the art of Barnaby Ward
Everyone, it seems, likes this bloke’s work and it’s not hard to see why. Instantly appealing to the eye, his drawings of saucy waif’s and strange chimera suggest too many viewings of Yellow Submarine at too young an age, subsequently fed through a kaleidoscope of manga, anime and obscure Eurocomics. He lives and works on [...]
Be Yourself
White Hills – Be Yourself (Hawkwind cover)
