IGNACIO BERNAL
Interview with Spanish film director

Posted on 04/09/2011 by gael

Ignacio Bernal aka Iñaki is my unofficial cousin.

My friend from Zaragoza has been a talented director and editor of commercials, music videos, documentary and fiction since 1995.
He worked for brands such as Ikea, Renault, Heineken, Iberdrola, Horcones, El Corte Ingles, and much much more.
He also likes to play darts and to eat “frutos secos” with my best friend Leto.
Yes he is Spanish.

Extract of a videoclip for the Spanish band No Truck Truckers

PLEASE INTRODUCE YOURSELF
I’m Ignacio Bernal, a spanish film director from Aragón.

HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR WORK?
Fiction, music videos, commercial, video art. Stories. Simplicity. Rhythm.

Canto A La Libertad, a Unesco video by Ignacio Bernal

PLEASE SHARE WITH US YOUR WORKING PROCESS
When I tell a story -either fiction, commercial or music video- I  first come with an idea. I edit it shot by shot,  setting the style and the rhythm, trying to make it clearer. I listen to a lot of music related to this story, because music brings me images and a necessary  mood that helps me to tell it from my own point of view. At this point the hard work is already done. Then you just have to film it.

HOW DOES YOUR ENVIRONMENT INFLUENCE YOUR ART?
I love to know the thoughts and feelings from the people around me. I observe how they behave in certain situations. They give me all I need to know to understand how everything works. Stories are seen and starred by people. We musn’t forget that.

Extract of the video for Tedx Zaragoza by Ignacio Bernal

WHO ARE YOUR INFLUENCES?
Caravaggio always, and also Kubrick, Buñuel, Picasso, Dalí, John Wayne, good  music, good wine, women and western.

Musical videoclip by Ignacio Bernal

ANY LAST WORD?
Nice to meet you.

PAUL DAVIES
Interview with the Australian painter

Posted on 03/09/2011 by gael

Paul Davies tells us more about his artworks in an exclusive interview.

I first met Paul Davies when I was living in Sydney (Australia), working as an art director for Acclaim magazine.
Paul has his studio located at China Heights, the gallery where I was doing the Sydney stop of my last touring exhibition.
A good opportunity to meet again and exchange a few words with this nice and talented artist.
More about the Australian painter Paul Davies.

Paul Davies in his studio in Sydney

PLEASE INTRODUCE YOURSELF
Paul Davies Australian Artist based in Sydney at China Heights studio.

Painting of a modern house, typical of Paul Davies’ work

HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR WORK?
The focus of my painting is predominantly based on the relationship between the built and natural environment.

Exhibition by Paul Davies

PLEASE SHARE WITH US YOUR WORKING PROCESS
My practice primarily involves photography, stenciling, and acrylic painting, with which my first experiments began in 2002. These works depicted Sydney street scenes mixed with researched popular culture images. The layering process of this technique created on the canvas a visual diary of my immediate surroundings. This method of free association i.e. assembling researched images, collected from my studio floor, onto the canvas, allowed me to experiment with different medium, which is something I still use now to explore various concepts in my work.

Painting on canvas by Paul Davies

HOW DOES YOUR ENVIRONMENT INFLUENCE YOUR ART
I often travel within Australia or overseas, on research trips, to find source material to photograph and sketch. I enjoy this part of the process because I don’t know what I’ll find. When I return to the studio I print these images and stick them up around the space, which gives me inspiration for the paintings. China Heights studio is located close to Sydney’s CBD and I find this urban location vital in creating my works which combine the built and natural environment.

Artwork by the Australian painter Paul Davies

WHO ARE YOUR INFLUENCES?

Peter Doig
Sergej Jensen
Harry Seidler
David Schnell
Neo Rauch
Rachel Whiteread
Stefan Kurten
Ansel Adams
Matthias Weischer

ANY LAST WORD?
Upcoming exhibition “Portraits” at Tim Olsen Gallery, Melbourne, opening 11th October and touring to the Gold Coast City Regional Gallery through November!

SEIZE
Interview with the French street artist

Posted on 02/09/2011 by gael

Seize tells me more about his art in an exclusive interview.

I’m jealous.
Seize obviously get better weed than I do.
I’m gonna make another joint.
See you in another cosmic universe.
More about the street artist Seize.

Portrait of Seize painting a street artwork

PLEASE INTRODUCE YOURSELF
A self-taught painter, I was born in Paris in 1971. I live in a geometric and colorful world.
My experience and my inspiration come from urban arts, where I began. I developed a very personal graphic code and I use the energy from the colors as a therapy.
I have been working for many years on reflections based on networks and connections.

Colorful street art piece by Seize

HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR WORK?
Easy: it is geometricolorismohappyflashy or, in other terms, relative atomic painting, i.e. E=mc16.
It is the result of different influences that go from graffiti to contemporary painting, with artists such as Phase 2, Futura 2000, Dark, Keith Haring, Paul Klee, Nikki de Saint-Phalle, Dubuffet, Mondrian, to cite only the most famous.

Graffiti wall by Seize

PLEASE SHARE WITH US YOUR WORKING PROCESS
I discovered that symbols form a language.
My symbolic language talks about nature and universe. I believe that geometric forms associated with the simplicity and the rigor of structures and composition can lead to a great purity.
Nevertheless, the same forms show an infinite possibility of combinations and can also express dynamism and a great vitality. Using the same elementary shapes — lines, circles, squares, triangles, polygons, and curves, most of the major characteristics of human beings can be described, such as purity, contemplation, spirituality, calm, joy, dynamism, consciousness, creativity, imagination…

Opening of an exhibition by Seize

HOW DOES YOUR ENVIRONMENT INFLUENCE YOUR ART?
The cosmos give me instructions to make peace on earth by telepathy or in my dream.

ANY LAST WORD?
Today, I’m working on these original designs that involves powerful creations using geometrical shapes full of colours. Now, we are heading from the same graphic support, towards a meditation and a reflexion to reach another sphere of conscience, guiding you to an indefinite world of networks twisting and crossing each other applied in certain spaces, which are strictly logical, at the same time subtle and obstinate to those who create their own direction. Peace on earth brothers and sisters.

Artwork on a wall by the French street artist

KELSEY BROOKES
Interview with the US artist

Posted on 29/08/2011 by gael

Interview with the amazing painter Kelsey Brookes.

Kelsey Ross Brookes is an artist of fluorescent contrasts.
Explosive prisms of raucous color, bold imagery and timeless motifs combined in an energetic, sexual and humorous way.
He is represented by Quint Gallery in La Jolla (CA), New Image Art in Los Angeles, and Lazarides Gallery in London.
He lives in San Diego, California.
The painter first worked as a biochemist, but soon abandoned biochemistry when he realized that he was becoming something he didn’t want to be.
His artworks mix abstract and figurative forms with text.
Brookes works have been featured in most of the coolest publications such as Juxtapoz, Beautiful Decay, Dazed and Confused, Re:Up, and much more.
He has also collaborated with brands like RVCA, Vans, or Insight 51.
His paintings have been exhibited in some of the most prestigious galleries around the world.
I exchanged a few words with the talented and mysterious artist.
More about Kelsey.

Unicorn

PLEASE INTRODUCE YOURSELF
Kelsey Brookes, painter.

SOS, artwork on canvas by the painter Kelsey Brookes

HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR WORK?
Visual hallucination mixed with a cartoon and a little bit of the fun visual effects brought on by a migraine headache.

Installation by Kelsey

PLEASE SHARE WITH US YOUR WORKING PROCESS
Paint, paint, paint, paint, interesting accident, figure out how to make the accident happen at will, paint, paint, paint.

HOW DOES YOUR ENVIRONMENT INFLUENCE YOUR ART
The warmer it is that easier it is to work up until a point then its just too cold to work.

Indolence, explosive painting by the US artist

WHO ARE YOUR INFLUENCES?
Hallucination, meditation, cartoons

Here Is The Great Thing, artwork by Kelsey Brookes

ANY LAST WORD?
You are as free as you want to be.

LETO
Interview with the Spanish artist

Posted on 27/08/2011 by gael

Interview with Leto, the Spanish painter from Zaragoza.

Leto is one of my two best friends.
I stay at his place for the week, so I have to say nice things if I don’t want to end up sleeping in the street, having anal sex with a mentally challenged spanish bum. Well, thinking about it, as long as the bum don’t ask me to eat a Telepizza…
More about the Spanish artist Leto.

Leto at Bienal de Pamplona XII edicion, 2010

PLEASE INTRODUCE YOURSELF
My name is Leto, I’m french artist (doing paintings, illustration and installation), currently living and working in Spain.

Painting typical of the artist-s style

HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR WORK?
My work is somewhere around figurative expressionism. I fill my canvas with characters like popular celebrities or everything you can find in the mass media. Manuel Ocampo wrote that my work “deconstructs the images rules”.

Don’t Let Them Kill Us

PLEASE SHARE WITH US YOUR WORKING PROCESS
Most of the time I start with an image that I reproduce on the canvas, and then something hard to explain happens in my head. I like to put my characters in an overloaded environment, while taking care not to lose the meaning of my work. I tend to keep a conceptual point of view more than a purely aesthetic approach.

Black and white drawing by the painter from Zaragoza

HOW DOES YOUR ENVIRONMENT INFLUENCE YOUR ART
I live in Spain, and the TV programs here are very similar to what we can find in Italy. I mean “TV Basura” (trash TV). This is a great inspiration that perfectly reflects the consumer mentality in which we all live. My paintings criticize a ready-to-think society.

Painting by the Spanish artist Leto

WHO ARE YOUR INFLUENCES?

Pieter Brueghel
Paul Mc Carthy
Cecily Brown
Andreas Hoffer
Neo Rauch
Manuel Ocampo

ANY LAST WORD?
Before I Die?

KEVIN TAYLOR
Interview with the US artist

Posted on 22/08/2011 by gael

Kevin Taylor gave me an exclusive interview where he talks about his inspirations and working process.

Kevin Taylor is a great oil painter from the USA.
Among other things, he explores time based art forms such as sound and video. He lives in San Francisco, and occasionally have ideas coming to him “rather vividly in dreams”. Kevin is currently preparing 2 shows:
Deviant Instinct – Opening September 6th 2011 at Circle Culture in Berlin, Germany.
Primal Union – Opening October 13th at Rebekah Jacob Gallery in Charleston, SC.
More about the US painter Kevin Taylor.

Surrealist artwork with animals by Kevin Taylor

PLEASE INTRODUCE YOURSELF
Hello, my name is Kevin. Originally from Charleston, South Carolina, I now live in San Francisco, California. In the small portion of time that I’m not making things into other things, I like to hang out, drink some beers with my friends and go on adventures.

US painter Kevin Taylor describes his artwork as somewhere “between human and nature”

HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR WORK?
My work explores the relationship and synthesized division between humans and nature.

Kevin Taylor love to paint scenes with animals fights

PLEASE SHARE WITH US YOUR WORKING PROCESS
I mostly paint with oil paint on wood panel. I start off with a bit of an idea, which occasionally come to me rather vividly in dreams, but mostly pop into my head when I’m in the middle of buying a sandwich, having a conversation, or just staring at the wall. Next, I gather appropriate reference materials and then refine the composition in a sketchbook or directly on the panel. Once the basic drawing is penciled onto the panel, I coat the drawing with a varnish like substance that preserves the lines and creates a smooth, non-porous surface and cancels out any texture of the wood. I then begin painting, first with a very crude and raw approach using the darker tones. From here, it’s a process of mostly removing paint with rags, Gamsol and other materials which I’ve learned to utilize. After I finish the initial underpainting, I let it dry, and then go back in with glazes and details. Sometimes in this stage of the painting, I add or subtract elements to push it over the edge into an unplanned direction. Finally, I cut and stain moulding, then slap it onto the sides to act as a frame. It’s a technique that I’ve developed over the last 15 years and relies a lot on the properties of oil paint and the vast array of mediums available.

Medicinal, oil painting on canvas by Kevin Taylor

HOW DOES YOUR ENVIRONMENT INFLUENCE YOUR ART
By generating the sparks in my head that grow into physical objects.

WHO ARE YOUR INFLUENCES?
My friends- I am lucky to be surrounded by an amazing bunch of artists, bookworms and party animals.

Oil painting by the US painter Kevin Taylor

ANY LAST WORD?
Skate tough or go home!

Beastman interview
STREET ART OF THE WEEK

Posted on 19/08/2011 by gael

Beastman tells us more about his influences and his working process in a cool interview.

Every week, I bring you a selection of some of the best actors of the Street Art movement.
This week, Australian artist Beastman.
More about the Australian street artist.

The Record Store, Sydney

PLEASE INTRODUCE YOURSELF
I have lived and worked in Sydney all my life. I make pictures that I like, both small and large, in the studio and on the street.

Numskull / Roach / Beastman / Camperdown, Sydney

HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR WORK?
My work is influenced by the beauty and symbolism behind nature’s repetitive, symmetric, geometric patterns and organic lines, my paintings depict an alternate world of hope and survival.

Mayz Lane, Sydney

PLEASE SHARE WITH US YOUR WORKING PROCESS
I wake up, eat breakfast, check my emails, make phone calls, then spend the rest of the day working on whatever im working on at the time. It could be a painting, a mural, an illustration, sketching ideas for future paintings, graphic design, curating an exhibition, blogging etc etc. That’s my working process everyday.

Element Collective, Gold Coast

HOW DOES YOUR ENVIRONMENT INFLUENCE YOUR ART
No not really, only a bit when painting a wall. If the wall is a certain size or shape or whatever… sometimes you change your work to fit into or work with the space.

Brisbane

WHO ARE YOUR INFLUENCES?
I am influenced by the other artists I work with in my studio:

Numskull
Phibs
Max Berry
Mark Alsweiler

Some other artists I love are:

Richard Colman
Mark Whalen
Trent Whitehead
Jim Houser
James Reka
Yok
Shida
Bruno 9Li
Mars1
Barry Mcgee
Escif

There are so many amazing artists out there!

5 Pointz, New York

ANY LAST WORD?
Lookout for my latest solo show of new style work in Sydney in December 2011.

4ZZZ radio, Brisbane

T-WORLD
Interview with magazine founder Eddy Zammit

Posted on 15/08/2011 by gael

T-world founder Eddy Zammit tells us more about his magazine.

T-world is an Australian magazine dealing with everything hot and new when it comes to… T-shirts
I met the editor-in-chief and founder Eddie Zammit (who also runs a tee label) in Melbourne during my exhibition there. We exchange a few words about the industry.
More about the magazine

Portrait of the magazine founder Eddy Zammit

WHAT IS T-WORLD? 
This publication is a hardcover magazine focusing solely on T-shirt culture. It is supposed to come out twice a year, but we’ve been a bit slow at releasing our latest 200-page New York edition. We blame our addiction to quality.

Collaboration with the Australian artist Anthony Lister

HOW DID YOU START THE MAGAZINE?
The magazine was created based on my two great graphic design loves: printed  T-shirts, and magazines. When I started, I poured my own energy and savings into producing the first issue, after my Dad’s untimely death. Life is short. Follow your true passions, I say. I try to get a lot of the print costs and production bills paid for by advertising. T-world is not one of these niche publications that doesn’t believe in advertising. To me, without paid advertising T-world would truly not exist. Content is king, and so long as there is a divide between both, then that’s the best possible scenario. 

HOW DO YOU MAKE YOUR SELECTION? 
T-world selects content based primarily on research. The key values we place on promoting artists, designers and labels are; the quality of their art; the originality of the idea and its execution; and finally, longevity. Saying that though, we also support emerging artists and designers.

Free Wesley

WHAT MAKES A GOOD T-SHIRT?
 Everyone has personal interpretations, which I respect. However, if it were my decision solely, I‘d say a black tee with a graphic print that has a simple colour palette with a pop culture twist.

Collaboration New York Asian Film Festival

Collaboration with the New York Asian Film Festival

WHAT MAKES A BAD T-SHIRT? 
Personally, a plain white V-neck T-shirt for guys. I also despise fake T-shirts that have blatantly ripped off other people’s ideas and/or designs.

Oversized Silk screens

WHAT FUTURE OR EVOLUTION DO YOU IMAGINE FOR THE INDUSTRY?
I imagine the T-shirt world full of MEGA tees. This idea would therefore create a new sizing category – S, M, L, XL and MEGA!! Seriously though, the future is very bright. I genuinely think the T-shirt category is an exciting canvas, and as we move into the future, technology will start to play a key focus with new T-shirt graphics. If we look at how far computers have come in the last 20 odd years, imagine what technology has in store for the humble tee.

SPOE
Interview with the French artist

Posted on 14/08/2011 by gael

Interview with Spoe, the French artist based in Biarritz, France.

Spoe is a French artist I know from Biarritz, a city located in the South of France where I was visiting my mother and brother (hi family!).
Among other things, Spoe is a photographer, graphic designer and new school surf shaper. You get it, the guy is cool.
More artworks by Spoe.

Spoe with one of his shaped surfboard

PLEASE INTRODUCE YOURSELF
My name is Paruite Tibo a.k.a SPOE, a freelance artist & graphic designer born in Paris and living in Biarritz (France). I come from the 90’s graffiti era, started working in the skateboard industry in 1999 before graduating from the art school L’ ESAHDAR in 2002.

Various screen-prints by Spoe

HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR WORK?
Mixed media: i’m working on pictures (in the large sense of the word). It covers painting, sculpture, photography, urban ambitions, typesetting, layout. The media are various with a folk influence. The work gives a speech tinged with folk influences. The mass is crystallized between crisis and lightness, tip the happiness over the edge (editor’s note: yes, sometimes Spoe talks like an artist).

Artworks by the Biarritz-based artist Spoe

PLEASE SHARE WITH US YOUR WORKING PROCESS
Usually everything start with a photo i take (my camera is like a post-it for me, it’s where i keep my notes & things i saw, or people’s face i like). Then I draw the picture i like and add distortion & mechanical elements (i ‘m into it since i started industrial drawing in school). I’m into real painting action on 100x80cm media, and i love accumulation of geometrics and colors. Each picture has an story (personal or not). i’m also shaping surfboards in a new school way. No fins or rocker… This is a really creative research, more like graphic design, with rules but you can play with the lines and volume.

NYC mixed-media artwork

HOW DOES YOUR ENVIRONMENT INFLUENCE YOUR ART
Every morning I open my eyes with hunger to know more (ok almost every morning). I love to read old technical books, looking for new lines or new process… I guess my biggest influence is my education, the way I learned to do things and to see the world. I’m fatherless and one of my grandad was a painter, the other was a technical manager (in mechanic and electricity). I’m kind of a mix of them both. Recently i was working with Photography of a B-boy kid[/caption]

WHO ARE YOUR INFLUENCES?

Family
Friends
Lichtenstein
Rosenquist
Jasper Johns
Gaugin
Micallef
P. Pasqua
C. Harrigton
M. Brockman
D.Carson
W. Klein

A. Rodchenko

and much more…

ANY LAST WORD?
To be continued… Search is on

TRISTAN KERR
Interview with the Australian artist

Posted on 13/08/2011 by gael

Interview with Tristan Kerr, a font artist based in Adelaide, Australia.

When I was in Adelaide for my Longing To Be Knotted Together tour, I met a cool, soft and educated artist named Tristan Kerr.
Cool, soft, and educated ? I swear I was in Australia. The talented and civilized artist is a font master, and I was happy to exchange some of my screen-prints with a couple of his beautiful artworks.
Living in Bali, I dream about an Australia with more Tristan Kerrs, and less shameless bogans (I mean stupid, pretentious, ignorant, and drunk bogans. I mean cricket & footy enthusiasts). Enjoy tasty treats.
Buy Tristan Kerr artworks

PLEASE INTRODUCE YOURSELF
My name is Tristan Kerr, I’m a graphic designer come screen-printer. I’m Australian made but Swiss trained.

Various screen-prints by the Australian artist Tristan Kerr

HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR WORK?
My work is often a mash of different vintage influences such as Hand Sign writing, nostalgic graphic icons, and 50’s advertising slogans.

Font experimentation printed on a wood deck by Tristan Kerr

PLEASE SHARE WITH US YOUR WORKING PROCESS
My Art is always hand-made from start to finish. From hand illustrating the design/typography, to hand screen-printing the finished piece. My traditional screen-print process allows me to work completely computer free.

Artwork by Tristan Kerr

HOW DOES YOUR ENVIRONMENT INFLUENCE YOUR ART
Traveling is a big part of my life, so changing environments continually inspire me. Living in new environments have helped spark new idea’s and approaches to my application of art, whether it’s a Hand Screen-printed poster or a Street Art piece.

Artifact, is a poster by Adelaide artist Tristan Kerr

WHO ARE YOUR INFLUENCES?

Steve Powers
Jeff Canham
Grotesk
Lowrider
Numskull

http://vimeo.com/23851193

Mega art

Artist Mega awesome artworks

Category Archives: Artists interviews

IGNACIO BERNAL
Interview with Spanish film director

Ignacio Bernal aka Iñaki is my unofficial cousin.

PAUL DAVIES
Interview with the Australian painter

Paul Davies tells us more about his artworks in an exclusive interview.

SEIZE
Interview with the French street artist

Seize tells me more about his art in an exclusive interview.

KELSEY BROOKES
Interview with the US artist

Interview with the amazing painter Kelsey Brookes.

LETO
Interview with the Spanish artist

Interview with Leto, the Spanish painter from Zaragoza.

KEVIN TAYLOR
Interview with the US artist

Kevin Taylor gave me an exclusive interview where he talks about his inspirations and working process.

Beastman interview
STREET ART OF THE WEEK

Beastman tells us more about his influences and his working process in a cool interview.

T-WORLD
Interview with magazine founder Eddy Zammit

T-world founder Eddy Zammit tells us more about his magazine.

SPOE
Interview with the French artist

Interview with Spoe, the French artist based in Biarritz, France.

TRISTAN KERR
Interview with the Australian artist

Interview with Tristan Kerr, a font artist based in Adelaide, Australia.