dots AND lines

Andy Warhol (August 6, 1928 — February 22, 1987) was an American artist associated with the definition of Pop Art. He was a painter, an avant-garde filmmaker, a commercial illustrator, writer and celebrity. He founded the magazine Interview.

What is POP ART?

Pop art was a visual artistic movement that emerged in the early 1950s in Britain and in parallel in the late 1950s in the United States. Pop art is one of the major art movements of the Twentieth Century. Characterized by themes and techniques drawn from popular mass culture, such as advertising and comic books, pop art is widely interpreted as either a reaction to the then-dominant ideas of abstract expressionism or an expansion upon them. Pop art, like pop music, aimed to employ images of popular as opposed to elitist culture in art, emphasizing the banal or kitschy elements of any given culture. Pop art at times targeted a broad audience, and often claimed to do so. However, much of pop art is considered very academic, as the unconventional organizational practices used often make it difficult for some to comprehend. Pop art and Minimalism are considered to be the last Modern art movements and thus the precursors to Contemporary art or Postmodern art.

(See also: Pop art in America, Pop art in Spain, Pop art in Japan, and Notable Pop artists)

This person might not have anything to do with arts or design but… Maybe art is. This is Talent’s Text section anyway. Anyone ever heard of Nujabes? A guy with lotsa cool hip-hop music in his mind. He is also the person behind the soundtrack for anime Samurai Champloo. That is how I discovered his music anyway.

Here’s what they gotta say about him at Last.fm :
“Jun Seba is a Japanese hip-hop music producer who records under the name Nujabes. He is also an owner of “tribe,” a record store in Shibuya, Tokyo, and runs Hyde-Out Productions, an indie record label. He has released two CDs in Japan, Metaphorical Music in 2003 and Modal Soul in 2005.

He has also contributed music to the soundtrack of Samurai Champloo, an anime which blends a setting in feudal Japan with modern anachronisms, especially hip-hop music.

In addition to Japanese artists like Shing02 and Minmi, he has collaborated with underground American hip-hop acts Cyne, Apani B-Fly, Five Deez, Substantial, Fat Jon and with British rapper Funky DL.

His music is known for a strong cool jazz influence, frequently using samples from artists like Miles Davis and Yusef Lateef.

He is also a member of the production duo “Urbanforest”, an experimental collaboration with Nao Tokui (appearing on the Lady Brown 12″).”

For his Discography, check this link, Discogs.

P/S: Did you notice how he get his name Nujabes? His real name is Jun Seba. If you reverse each word individually and then join them, you will get Nujabes.

“Draws monochromatic female images that uses both clean, delicate lines and daring compositions. Carefully details hair styles and costumes which makes the drawings very fashionable.” - digmeout.net

For any types of monochromatic, black and white masterpiece, Ena (born in 1980) proves to excel in this category. Lines and fills beautifully laid, producing silent pictures of even more beautiful females with different moods.

Her work:
• Passed the FM802 art audition in 2004
• Involved in Shinsaibashi Sony Tower exhibition
• Did visuals for FM802 live event, “Song letters” at Osaka-jo hall
Infos on her work is taken from digmeout.net.

Another site about her. In Japanese though…

What happen if you take the style of Japanese Manga and mixed it with Pop Art? You’ll find yourself in the world of Ippei Gyoubu. A superb illustrator from Yokohama City, Japan.

As stated in Super Real, Ippei has “a bold clean style that oozed color and design like some kind of pop art anime gone wild.” Which I find is quite true in a sense.

Job title
Illustrator • Comic artist

Techniques used
The character graphics, comics work using the computer.

Inspirations
Old super heroes • The Beatles • My wife.

Interview and picture are taken from this site.

Here’s a link to his site, too much monkey business.

I was invited to go to an opening ceremony for a new gallery yesterday. There I met up with 2 Japanese artist who have been residing in France for quite sometimes. 1 male n 1 female. The guy, Shingo YOSHIDA, had been there for 8 years and has his own gallery while the female, Takako KABUKI, been there for 12 years. They are Master holders and been involved into art scene for quite a while. Cool fellas, they are!

During the dinner, they jot down their site, which is not really theirs… but here. For Takako, she gimme a French site titled, Le Fresnoy, which states in the site, "A post-graduate art school and audio-visual research and production centre, Le Fresnoy takes advanced students for a two-year course run by guest artist-professors who themselves produce new work." She asked me to check on the site for Panorama 5 and Panorama 6, where her name and stuff are mentioned.

As for Shingo, he talked about his blog, which he had forgotten the URL of, and asked me to do a Google search for his name. Haha…

Both links, hopefully, will appear at my blogroll.

Aya Kato is a freelance illustrator from Japan. Born in 1982, in Aichi-ken, Japan. Her art, as stated in Boing Boing: Aya Kato, as "amazing and claimed by Bibi (I dunno who is she though…) as the style is a dark fusion of Manga and Art Nouveau. Really stunning." (I loved her art myself!)

She learnt painting by on her own and graduated in graphic design at the Aichi University of Education in 2004. She became an illustrator in 2005. More here.

1 of her project is for Tori Amos's music video. I happened to found it here.

Anyway, she's cool! Her official site is here and is also listed (of course!) in my blogroll.

Michael Chuah (a.k.a C2V) graduated from Central Art of Academy major in Graphic Design (Diploma). Joined Art Square Group in 2001, as comic assistant. His first long comic series "Gengkey" is the first comic in Malaysia that came out with vinyl figure. Now promoted as the art director of graphic novel department at the same time a comic book artist.

His recent comic works are:

• Gengkey
• Absolute Gengkey
• Gengkey Xtants
• Lawak Gengkey

Recently, I had just bought his latest artbook or rather a Collection of his Characters titled Gengkey 100. Not too bad. More of a collectibles but I can find inspiration from there.

Recently too, he was interviewed by iSh, a design magazine from Singapore, where he reveals his latest projects.

As far as I'm concerned, he had also done some designs for/with Radioactive clothes line.

For more, check here:

• C2V @ GempakStarz.com
• Gilamon Project