KAWS Ups And Downs Portfolio

KAWS is set to drop his latest product in the very near future, I was lucky enough to get on the pre-sale list for the ten piece portfolio but had to pass as it was too rich for my blood. Still the pieces should please the die hards out there and if you got the cash and are a fan you can try your luck when a very limited amount of them are publicly made available through kawsone.com in the very near future (although if you have the cash for these you probably have already made arrangments.)

Details below…

The portfolio commemorates the opening of KAWS's exhibition UPS AND DOWNS, on view at the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, Overland Park, Kansas, through February 9, 2014. 

Portfolio specifics:

KAWS

UPS AND DOWNS

2013

Silk screen print on Saunders Waterford 410gm High White paper

Dimensions: Each image/sheet: 35 x 23 inches/88.9 x 58.4 cm.

A total of 10 prints, plus a cover sheet, in a lipped clamshell portfolio box, measuring 25.5 x 36.75 x 1.6875 inches, hinged on the 36.75" side, covered with Cialux 1581 (unframed)

Edition of 100 + 20APs

Signed and numbered "KAWS.. 13" on each of the ten prints

Retail price: $24,000, plus all applicable taxes and crating and shipping costs, to be estimated separately.

The portfolios are scheduled to ship in November. 

Video: Costacos Brother's "Poster Boys" Documentary

“Seattle, 1984 – It all began with Prince. Naturally. One morning in his grandparents' house that sat atop his home city, John Costacos – just 23 years old – awoke to hearing “Purple Rain” on the radio.

A University of Washington graduate whose football team had the best defense in the country at the time, Costacos came up with the idea of making a "Purple Reign" T-shirt to honor the team, featuring a lineman in a purple jersey falling from a cloud in the sky.”

The rest, as they say, is history…

You may recall We covered a retrospective of the Costacos Bros work, "For the Kids" back in 2011 that took place at Salon 94 NYC, it was easily one of my favorite shows of the year and instantly transported me back to my youth and the posters that covered my bed room wall. Amy K. Nelson of SB Nation apparently shared the love because she put together a great documentary about the brothers featuring some killer footage of the original shoots, discussions with friends, family, former employees and of course many of the giants that where the models for these captivating posters.

The sixteen-minute film features the likes of Jim Mcmahon, Shawn Kemp, Jon Bois, Sir Charles Barkley and the very personable brothers themselves to name but a few and is absolutely worth your time if you were a child of the 80’s and celebrated sports with the Super Bowl Shuffle, The Reign Man and all the other larger than life personalities you just couldn’t get enough of.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

"Dangerous Proposal’" by Nacho Diaz is a 6 Colour hand pulled silkscreen, 300 gsm Somerset velvet white, Edition 80. Size 59.6 X 46 cm. £95 available HERE. 

Go Buy These: Replaceface Portraits

Replaceface has released a series of prints of popular celebrities posing as dapper soldiers that are pretty darn fun.  The series takes George Dawe portrait’s and incorporates celebrities into the paintings using photoshop.  The designs come on matte white, 100% cotton rag, and have a 1" border for framing. Sizes range from Mini (8" x 9"; $24.95) to X-Large (28" x 32"; $55.95). The portraits are also available as stretched canvases, iPhone/iPod cases and skins, and throw pillows and include such people as Bill Murray, David Bowie, Bruce Lee, The Rock, Brad Pitt, Frank Zappa and many more. Purchase them HERE.

Go Buy These: Swoon Prints

The first lady of street art, Swoon, has launched a new website where she is selling a number of editioned prints. These aren’t your average prints by any means, they lie someplace in-between an editioned print and an original, many of them on unique canvas’ with hand done flourishes. Check em’ out HERE.

Go Buy These: "New Neck Face Prints"

Of course graffiti artist Neck Face opened his latest ghoul filled show on Friday the 13th of last week, the artist  always keeps it fun having previously had show openings on the very appropriate Halloween as well.  "Simply the Worst, Nasty Neck Face" was held at  New Image Art in West Hollywood and in conjunction with the opening  Poster Child Prints has  two limited edition prints available for purchase. Check out the details below and follow the links to purchase.

“Not One Fuck Will Be Givin”

16 x 20 Edition of 100

6-colorhand pulled silkscreen print on Coventry rag 100% cotton archival paper.

This 6 color hand-pulled silkscreen print , "Not One Fuck Will Be Givin" by artist Neck Face is embossed with the PCP seal, signed and numbered by the artist and exclusive to Poster Child Prints. Certificate of Authenticity included. This print was made to fit a standard frame size, so you won't have the expense of custom framing. *Shipping and tax calculated during checkout. Purchase HERE for $175.00

“Bad Luck, No Luck” 

16 x 20 Edition of 100 

5 color hand pulled silkscreen print on Coventry rag, 100% cotton archival paper.

This 5 color hand-pulled silkscreen print, "Bad Luck, No Luck" by artist Neck Face is embossed with the PCP seal, signed and numbered by the artist and exclusive to Poster Child Prints. Certificate of Authenticity included. This print was made to fit a standard frame size, so you won't have the expense of custom framing. *Shipping and tax calculated during checkout. Purchase HERE for $175.00

Go Buy This: WK Interact - "Struggle 1"

One of my all time favorite street artists, WK Interact, has released a new limited edition print with Jonathan Levine Gallery, details are as follows….

Struggle 1, 2012

2c screen print on 320 gsm acid free Stonehenge paper

Paper size: 21.5 x 37 inches

S/N Edition of 25

$175.00

Please note this print must be flat-packed for safe shipping; a handling fee will be included in the shipping cost.

Click HERE to purchase.

Video: Kevin Tong Discussing His Poster Work

Kevin Tong, an illustrator who has designed posters for artists including At The Drive-In, The Black Keys, Beck, and Bon Iver was interviewed by Fuse tv about his process and experiences in the gig art world. Kevin address’s some interesting points about his work and the inspiration behind it as I have often thought to myself that it has very little to do with the artists he represents in his prints. Don’t know if he has convinced me per say but he has some cool work and has steadily been rising in the scene since first making an entrance some years back.

Shepard Fairey & Glen E. Friedman MCA Tribute (Los Angeles)

Images via the artist

It’s been just under a month since the passing of legendary artist/musician Adam Yauch (MCA) of the Beastie Boys and the tributes have been popping up around the world. Recently Shepard Fairey put up several tribute pieces around the Los Angeles area that utilize iconic counterculture photographer Glen E. Friedman’s shot of the band with the words “Posse In Effect, R.I.P. MCA 1964-2012.” 

Shepard Fairey – “Ebony Magazine – Trayvon Martin”

Shepard created this artwork a few months ago for a commission by Ebony Magazine. Although he was  not able to show the artwork until the issue hit newsstands this week. “I have followed Trayvon’s case closely and I think any compassionate human being can relate to Trayvon as a brother or son and would want to see a thorough investigation into the killing of an unarmed person. In my portrait I wanted to emphasize Trayvon’s humanity as well as the public outcry for a just investigation into his death.

-Shepard”

Video: Shepard Fairey – “Harmony & Discord” At Pace Prints

Shepard Fairey is getting ready for his next show opening in New York on May 5th.  Held at Pace Prints, the new body of work entitled "Harmony & Discord" will mark the first time the artist is using both handmade paper, and metal relief plates. The show will also see the artist’s largest screen prints to date and some new embossing techniques which  take advantage of the superior printmaking facilities and equipment at Pace. While I don’t necessarily love this body of work, the techniques being shared with us in the video below are always both fascinating and educational to watch.

Onomatopoeia celebrates 1000 Posts with a Giveaway!

Onomatopoeia reached 1000 posts! I can hardly believe this little experiment has made it this far, and we did it just under our 1 year anniversary which hit’s in June.  Myself and the other collaborators would like to give thanks to our loyal readers so we set up a friendly competition. We have two signed and numbered metallic inked screen prints of Mr. Lif, the  Coup and Blue Scholars, at the Independent in San Francisco. These were designed by myself and Scraped Knee and could be yours. All you have to do is introduce us to something we might not know and will enjoy. Maybe it’s an artist or a band, maybe it’s a recipe for your secret peanut butter and bacon sandwich, maybe it’s a standup comedian that deserves our attention  or maybe it’s your own raw talent that we need to know about and you draw us something or record a tune. The choice is yours really. We ask you to leave your suggestions in the comments section of this post or email us at onomatopoeiaone@gmail.com, we will review them and our favorite two will each get one print. We will announce the winners on our one year anniversary June 3^rd. Thanks for all the support and we look forward to another year of sights, sounds, smells and laughs. 

Video: Portlandia poster process - DKNG

DKNG is back with another poster process video.  This time it is a print to promote the newest season of Portlandia (featuring Fred Armisen & Carrie Brownstein) on IFC.  The print is entitled "Mixology" referring to an episode in which Carrie is wowed by a drink made by mixologist/bartender (Andy Samberg) and she decides to make him a mixtape.

This is a part of a series of prints IFC has been commissioning as promotional pieces.  As they are promotional, they are not for sale currently but can be downloaded on the IFC site.  I look forward to seeing what else comes from this series.  If you haven't watched the show, ... check it out.

The Poster Art of Mike Joyce

This is some really cool stuff right here. Swissted is an ongoing project by graphic designer Mike Joyce, owner of stereotype design in new york city. Drawing from his love of punk rock and swiss modernism, two movements that have absolutely nothing to do with one another, mike has redesigned vintage punk, hardcore, and indie rock show flyers into international typographic style posters. Each poster is sized to the standard swiss kiosk dimensions of 35.5 inches wide by 50 inches high and set in berthold akzidenz grotesk medium, all lowercase. There are over a hundred in the collection currently covering all your favorite bands from high school including, Bad Religion, The Descendents, ALL, Nirvana, Sound Garden, Gorilla Biscuits, Helmet, PIL, The Dead Kennedys, Sick of It All, Naked Raygun, 88 Fingers Louie, Bikini Kill, Pennywise, Rich Kids On LSD, Slapshot, Pegboy and many many more.  Every single one of these shows actually happened.

Mike Joyce Posters - picture slideshow

Kaws - Black Sponge Bob Print Release

KAWS is set to open his latest museum show, FOCUS:KAWS, at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth this month and to coincide with the opening he will be dropping what I have to believe is the third and final print in his Sponge Bob series. As it was suspected by most the piece is rendered in a black color way, really tying in the three prints together nicely.   This is just the first stop for his upcoming schedule of museum exhibitions as he will move on to Atlanta’s High Museum of Art in February and then to the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia next summer. Wish I could make it out for the show as the firm I work for acted as structural engineers for the museum and it’s a real beauty.

Photo: David Woo, Courtesy MAMFW

 

Go Buy This: Black Sails Design/Heart Studio – “Jelly Skull Print”

My good buddy and former roommate Nicola Tinti has been moonlighting as a designer on the side of his regular gig, writing, recording and touring with the Gold Kids.  Apparently Nico felt he had too much time on his hands that could only be remedied by more projects but we are glad the man uses said time to develop things we all love. Check out his latest screen print for Black Sails Design / Heart Studios … The "Jelly Skull " prints are limited to 40 copies only, as screen prints they're all slightly different from each other  with every single sheet having  been hand  cut and numbered with gold ink and printed on wood paper 1.5 mm. Size is 40 x 60 cm.  A very limited amount of these are still available so make sure you purchase one while you still can.

Video: DKNG Explosions in the Sky print process

Below is a pretty sweet video of the design of the new Explosions in the Sky poster done by DKNG Studios in LA. A lot of these videos tend to be pretty boring but I found this interesting because as a guy who is somewhat knowledgeable in Photoshop, this makes me feel like a clueless imbecile yet. Lots of interesting techniques going on here.

Prints as well as art print versions of this are available here

David Resto - 'Super Hero Dinosaurs' Print Sets

These made me laugh...Here are some really random but fun prints of dinosaurs done up in super hero styles by artist David Resto. All the classics are here including Wolverine, Daredevil, Cyclops, The Hulk, Captain America and more! These are available in sets of 4 prints all 11 x 17 inch giclees on matte paper for $70 each set. Check it out HERE

Studio Visit with Spike Press

 

The folks at Coudal Partners created a nice little video visiting the studio of John Solimine, ... aka. Spike Press in Chicago. I have admired his work for a while and am happy to see a bit of his creative process and work space.

Click the image below to check out the short film on Coudal's site...

Black Keys Gig Poster

Been sitting on this one for a while now, couldn’t release the details until after the show. Onomatopoeia’s very own Scraped Knee has just released his poster for The Black Keys at the "Ottawa Bluesfest” - Ottawa, ON. The print details are  18' x 24'... 4-color screen, edition of 130. The print will go on sale tonight midnight and the store will close on Tues. July 12th... until... Aug 12th.  Any order placed after will be sent in late August.