MUNK ONE

(US)

MUNK ONE is a contemporary American Illustrator, Poster Artist, Political Cartoonist, and Fine Artist from California. He is well known for creating Artwork for major label musical acts and world renowned brands, recognized for their creativity. His fine art has gained much attention through many galleries both at home and abroad. He was previously the official Juxtapoz Art Magazine editorial Illustrator. He is also owner and Creative Director of the Invisible Industries Brand.

His artistic style may seem serious and even dark at first glance, filled with undertones of mortality, religion, or politics but his work can also be full of movement with bright, and fun colors and ideas with a sense of humor. These elements seem to coexist and mix throughout much of his work both commercially and personally. Proficient in both traditional and computer media, he is comfortable using whatever methods his projects may call for.

Working within the apparel and merchandise industries since the mid 90s, much of his knowledge and technical expertise has been gained from hands on experience. In 2006 he decided to focus on creating his own style of art while using his website as the vehicle to share this creativity with the world. During the 2008 election He created a striking portrait of the then Presidential candidate Barack Obama that was to be used for prints, stickers, t-shirts and also ran at bus stops all over the state of Pennsylvania. In 2009 Munk One was featured in Juxtapoz Art Magazine issue #96. That year he also began to work on limited edition screen printed posters and has since worked on prints for Pearl Jam, Blink 182, 311, Soundgarden, City and Colour and More.

Watch this interview:

LUCIANO DURAN

(Kansas, US)

A graphic designer by trade, the well-traveled and always mysterious Duran was born in Kansas, raised in Mexico, and spent time living in Japan before landing at the California College of Arts in San Francisco in 1995, but if you ask him where he’s from, he won’t hesitate to tell you, “Planet Dyatron”. 

In 1983, he got his start spinning records for teenagers at his uncle’s club in Mexico, and has now been on the scene in California for over a decade blowing people’s minds with his massive, rare collection of electronic vinyl, and his equally extensive and arguably outrageous, eclectic cache of vintage eyewear.  He spins with Miami bass champions Soundchasers, has played with Tokyo’s AE35 and Dutch electro’s Legowelt & TLR, and this summer, he will be opening for minimal wave heroes Xeno & Oaklander in Los Angeles before heading back to perform in Japan later this year.

KOFIE ONE

(1973, Los Angeles, US)

Augustin Kofie, or KofieOne, grew up in and has made Los Angeles his lifetime home. He has been active in the LA Graffiti community since the mid-nineties. Many of his murals and productions are still on view. As he has developed over the year, his work reflects his wide range of interests: architectural templates, deconstructed lettering, vintage collage paper, contemporary music, and 1960's-70's iconography. 

Recently he became a member of the Agents of Change, a tight crew of progressive graffiti artists, which also includes Jaybo Monk and Derm from this exhibition as well. He also is a member of the Transcend Collective with Joker, Poesia and more.

With a deep interest in process and structure, Kofie creates works of intense detail centered on the order of balance. The precision of Kofie’s “drafted” art is strongly inspired by modern architecture as well as the form and shape of deconstructed typography.  In his quest for balance, Kofie harmonizes opposing and contradictory dynamics in his work by setting futuristic compositions against vintage earth-toned palettes and collaged graphics, creating organically complex formations through meticulously structured line-work and layering. His style has been dubbed Vintage Futurism.

Watch this video about Kofie One by All City Canvas:

FAB FIVE FREDDY

(1959, New York, US)

Fred Brathwaite, more popularly known as Fab 5 Freddy, is an American hip hop pioneer, visual artist and filmmaker. He emerged in New York's downtown underground creative scene in the late 1970s as a camera operator and a regular guest on Glenn O'Brien's public access cable show, TV Party. There he met Chris Stein and Debbie Harry. He was immortalized in 1981 when Harry rapped on the Blondie song "Rapture", "Fab 5 Freddy told me everybody's fly." In the late 1980s, Fab 5 Freddy became the first host of the groundbreaking and first internationally telecast hip-hop music video show, Yo! MTV Raps.

DUG-1

Doug Cunningham 'Dug-1' and Jason Noto form Morning Breath. In 1996, the two worked together as the in-house design department at Think Skateboards in San Francisco. There, they began a style of collaborating that would take them into the next decade.

In 2002, Cunningham and Noto formalized their partnership with the creation of Morning Breath, Inc, a boutique studio located in Brooklyn, NY. Since Then, their collaborations have grown beyond skateboard/snowboard graphics to include, music packaging, apparel, advertising, poster design and more. The two have also been part of many showings of their personal work.

Today, Doug and Jason split their creative energies and time between commercial and personal work. Over the last decade the two have been nominated for a grammy, showcased in numerous design books/publications, and have been invited to speak about, and show  their work around the globe.

Watch this Morning Breath video by offthewalltv:

DIE ANTWOORD

(Cape Town, South Africa)

Die Antwoord is a South African rap-rave group formed in Cape Town in 2008. The group's members are rappers Ninja and Yolandi Visser (often stylized as Vi$er) and DJ Hi-Tek. Their image involves a counterculture movement called zef and the influence of photographer Roger Ballen.

Watch this video of Ninja of Die Antwoord while he paints the walls at FIFTY24SF gallery by Walrus TV:

ANTHONY LISTER

(1979, Brisbane, Australia)

Lister is a painter and Installation artist whoes work presents us with a grimy fusion of high and lowbrow culture with influences from a number of areas and genres, including street art, expressionism, pop art, and contemporary youth culture, often drawing from television and the "misguided role models" that result. Revelling in the "spirituality", and the "heritage" of Western popular culture he takes this joint legacy and remoulds it into something equally alluring and grotesque, a perfect representation of the society he seeks to depict. 

Taking influence from the dirtier and rough techniques of "Bad" Painting and merging it with the spirit and practices of graffiti art Lister has embraced an explosive, scratchy, scrawling form of figurative art using a variety of mediums from painting, drawing and installation to film and music.

Lister uses comic book imagery for his own means, redirecting popular culture for personal expression. Heroes and villains are taken out of the panel and placed in a new space, devoid of the usual storyline, dialogue and scenery. His paintings are not controlled by cartoon contexts. Rather, the figures in these portraits are reinvented through the artist’s hand. His mixed media technique, involving layers of ink, spray and brushwork, allow his paintings to simultaneously have soft ethereality and a garish, raw energy.

Watch his interview by We Love Street-Art: