5 Graphic Designers Relating to Graffiti & Street Art
Shepard Fairey
- American - 1970 to present
- Fairey is a contemporary graphic designer who emerged from the skateboarding scene, who bases his work on the street art style.
- "Fairey’s work, which combines elements of graffiti, pop art, business art, appropriation art, and Marxist theory, has long been divisive. His supporters point to the viral nature of his images, the DIY ethic behind his operation, and the brute cultural impact of his work. His critics have accused him of everything from being the proverbial sell out (Fairey produces a clothing line, Obey, as a commercial extension of the Obey Giant project, and has done work for Pepsi and others) to exploiting politically charged imagery (pieces have depicted Black Panthers and Zapatistas) to too closely appropriating the work of other artists and hastening the over-commercialization of street culture. But Fairey, now 40, remains ambivalent about both achieving art-world validation and retaining his street cred, aware that artists whose works hang in the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C.—as his own Obama portrait does—aren’t necessarily insiders, but they are no longer outsiders, either."
http://www.interviewmagazine.com/art/shepard-fairey/#_
-"The cult graphic artist Shepard Fairey has become one of the most visible practitioners of a guerrilla-style art that has grown out of the graffiti scene but has expanded beyond paint to include a wide variety of techniques and materials, producing works usually displayed illegally on buildings and signs. A star in the world of street art for nearly two decades (his stickers of the wrestler Andre the Giant earned him an A on an assignment at the Rhode Island School of Design), Mr. Fairey has parlayed his stark imagery into a successful design and marketing company, Obey Giant, with corporate clients like Pepsi. His ''Obey'' images and slogans appear on T-shirts sold at Urban Outfitters, and he has created logos for Kobe Bryant and other personalities as well as rock-music album covers."
http://topics.nytimes.com/topics/reference/timestopics/people/f/shepard_fairey/index.html
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/barackobama/9105364/Shepard-Fairey-creator-of-Barack-Obama-Hope-poster-admits-destroying-evidence.html
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/artist-behind-obama-hope-poster-pleads-guilty-to-criminal-contempt-in-nyc/
Banksy
England - identity unknown (Banksy is a pseudonym)
- Banksy's work was born out of the Bristol underground graffiti scene in the 1980s, and since then he had become known world wide for his work. He uses stencils and paints on public surfaces.
- http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1034538/Graffiti-artist-Banksy-unmasked---public-schoolboy-middle-class-suburbia.html
- http://www.banksyfilm.com/
- http://www.banksy.co.uk/
http://www.briansewell.com/artist/b-artist/banksy/banksy-biography.html
123 Klan
- French graffiti crew founded in 1992 by husband and wife Scien and Klor, and their other members are Dean, Sper, Skam, Meric, and Reso 1. Inspired by the work of Neville Brody, the crew have also been working in graphic design since 1994. They describe their art as ‘when street knowledge meets technology and graffiti melds with graphic design’..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/123Klan
- http://www.123klan.com/
http://www.123klan.com/
"It was roughly twenty years ago that the 123KLAN began producing graffiti. Under the inspirational tutelage of Neville Brody, Scien and Klor transitioned into the wide world of design. Since making the transition they have collaborated with and produced work for some of the world’s top brands. Throughout their lengthy career, their ability to merge graffiti inspired character and typographic design with a keen vision of the future has put them at the forefront of cultural creation."
http://becauseweliketo.com/123klan-interview/
Nunca
- Francisco Rodrigues da Silva - Brazillian - uses a graffiti tag name, and his work which is often described as a series of narratives confronts Brazil's modern urbanisation with its native past. His "tag" Nunca (meaning "Never" in Portuguese) is an confirmation of his determination not to be bound by cultural or psychological constraints, although his work has come under criticism for being displayed in galleries despite his international recognition.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francisco_Rodrigues_da_Silva
- "Nunca (Never) started writing graffiti and pichação (a uniquely Brazilian form of tagging) on the streets of São Paulo when he was twelve. Over the years, his work developed into a more pictorial form of communication whose use of colour and style strongly evokes the ancient traditions of the Brazilian people."
http://brazign.com/brazilian-graffiti-artist-nunca-journey-in-milan
http://brazign.com/amazing-street-art-by-graffiti-artist-nunca
http://brazign.com/amazing-street-art-by-graffiti-artist-nunca
- American - 1970 to present
- Known world wide for his street installations, where he considers "the street as a stage" where passers by are actors.
- "There is opposition, and risk, but I think that just shows that street art is the sort of frontier where the leading edge really does have to chew through the ice. And it's good for people to remember public space is a battleground, with the government, advertisers and artists all mixing and mashing, and even now the strange cross-pollination taking place as street artists sometimes become brands, and brands camouflaging as street art creating complex hybrids or impersonators. I think it's understanding the strangeness of the playing field where you'll realize that painting street artists, writers, as the bad guys is a shallow view. As for the old bronzes, I really don't see them as part of what's going on in the dialogue unless addressed by a new intervention."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Jenkins
- "Mark Jenkins' absurdist sculptures are always witty and mostly appealing. But, inevitably, they prompt uncomfortable and nauseating questions human beings would really rather not deal with. How can we be sensitive and playful yet so ruthlessly concerned with our own urges? Are tramps horrible, sad or funny? And indeed what the hell shall we do, as time goes on, with all our bullshit? Yet alone all those useless, old, and unattractive people who seem to grow in number by the day?
Mark Jenkins' sculptures might look cute, but they have issues. Of his “Storker” baby sculptures, placed around the landscape of his native Washington DC, Mark wrote “if by passing one you feel strange sensations in your nipples or fingertips, adopt the infant, breast feed, and give it plenty of TLC. It will gradually mature into a full size Tape Man or Woman to co-habitate with you and eventually take you to the Glazed Paradise � or possibly oust you from your home.”"
http://www.lazinc.com/artists/mark-jenkins
http://www.xmarkjenkinsx.com/outside.html
