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Phish has returned to the road in 2010 stronger than ever, and the artwork they had chosen for their tour has been beautiful. With print work done by their long-time friend Jim Pollock and other famed poster artists like Nate Duval and Dan Grzeca, these are a must-have amongst the fans and are always one of the first things to hit Twitter or PT the night of the show. Here are all the posters that have been printed so far… READ MORE
Booths upon booths; a previous Flatstock in Austin. Photo by nevbrown
While over 1,000 bands and countless more fans and industry insiders have descended upon Austin for this year’s South By Southwest, more than 75 of the country’s best screenprinters and gig poster artists are also gathering there for the largest poster convention in the country, Flatstock.
Organized by the nascent American Poster Institute in 2002, Flatstock has grown to a tri-annual event in recent years and by now, on the eve of Flatstock 16, has clearly established itself as the gold standard in the exhibition of contemporary gig poster art. Yet it remains a mysterious piece of the SXSW puzzle to many. My neighbor on the flight down inquired about the two poster tubes jutting out of my backpack. Although he’s been to Austin going on four years, he had no idea anything like Flatstock existed. The sheer number of beautiful gig posters and art prints that will be on display at the Austin Convention Center this week are likely to change all that.
Read on for more on Flatstock and the complete artists exhibitor list, but first the details:
Flatstock 16
Austin Convention Center
March 13-15
Thursday: 1PM-6PM
Friday-Saturday: 11AM-6PM
Free for Everyone
My full Flatstock 16 preview will be coming shortly, but to whet your appetites I wanted to first post an interview with screen printing extraordinaire Andy MacDougall.
Starting in 2006, Andy MacDougall of www.squeegeeville.com, and www.tmiscreenprinting.com began setting up printing demos at Flatstock. Andy resides on Vancouver Island, but works with printers all over North America and contributes written material to a variety of trade magazines. In 2007, he was elected to the Academy of Screen Printing Technology for his work promoting screen printing, only the 2nd Canadian to join the international group. A lifelong interest in music and posters drew him to the gig poster movement in 2003, where he discovered there were hundreds, if not thousands of others like him all over the world. Some of his earliest posters date from the early 70′s mostly for bands he was in. “We may have sucked, but we had the best poster!” After spending a few decades printing commercial work, he has returned to what he loves: making art and posters, teaching people how to screen print, and fooling around with equipment design. He is also the author of Screenprinting… The Basics, a modern tome of screen printing info and how-to’s. There’s no one better to talk about the demos at Flatstock, so I caught up with Andy over email and asked him a few questions about the printing this year.
Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock for the past year, you know that an election is coming up. You’re probably familiar with the players involved; they’ve been hoofing it across the country for months, stumping for votes, parrying debate questions and fending off (or courting) reporters. As we creep ever so slowly toward the nominating conventions, things are taking shape. While Senator John McCain has all but sewn up the Republican nomination, Senators Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are still fighting it out in Ohio and Texas, although Obama seems to be pulling away.
Both Democratic candidates have relied on strong and distinct bases. Clinton is still winning the majority of registered democrat’s votes, while Obama’s appeal is strong among moderate independents. The race and gender factors have been widely discussed. Both candidates have raised millions of dollars. But in the last few months, Drymount! has observed a new source of vocal, and visual, support for Obama—artists appear to be throwing their support behind his candidacy, especially in the form of a few highly visible art campaigns.
Perhaps this is because no artist wants to take on Hillary’s over-familiar cheekbones and chipmunk smile. Kidding aside, though, Obama’s message of change has really resonated within the artist community, and I’ll take a look at a few of the more compelling works that have come out in his support.
I had the chance to visit the University of Maryland last week for the opening of Sweet: The Graphic Beauty of the Contemporary Rock Poster, and let me tell you, if there is anyway you can make it out to the show, I highly recommend it (at least check out last week’s interview with the show’s curator John Shipman). As I slowly paced the gallery gazing at poster after glorious poster, The Debate kept popping up in my mind. What debate you might ask? It’s that age-old debate within the gig poster community (that is if the gp community is old enough for age-old debates):
What Makes a Good Gig Poster?
It is a nearly impossible question to truly answer, but faced with so many prime examples of the medium I decided to do my best to set out my own blueprint for excellence in poster making.
Follow the jump for my poster criteria.
The biggest rock poster show to hit the East Coast in a long while kicks off next Wednesday, February 6th. Sweet: The Graphic Beauty of the Contemporary Rock Poster opens at the University of Maryland Art Gallery with a number of cool opportunities.
First and foremost is the official opening of a show featuring such poster luminaries as Rob Jones, Burlesque of North America, Jay Ryan, Todd Slater, Strawberryluna and a host of other amazing talents. Not only does the show feature beautiful posters, but there is also a site-specific installation by Jesse LeDoux, “display[ing] the versatility of the screen printing technique.” As well as unique signage designed by Philadelphia artist Tim Gough.
But perhaps more exciting for the collectors among us is Sweet Booth, an all day poster fair, with contributing artists selling their wares. Artists appearing at Sweet Booth include Mike King, Patent Pending, Guy Burwell, Strawberryluna, Hero Design and Tim Gough.
Follow the jump for an interview with show curator John Shipman and a complete listing of the artists involved.
One of the things I want to cover on Drymount! are big poster releases, so all the loyal LMB readers are well informed. That coverage is going to begin today with a huge release by Drowning Creek Studio.
Owned and operated by the formidable team of Jeff Wood and Judy Gex, Drowning Creek has been designing amazing posters for a wide variety of bands for over 10 years. Their specialty, however, is jambands, and over the years they’ve done posters for everyone from Phish to Widespread Panic to Umphrey’s McGee. Today’s release is heavy on the jamband material as well. Jeff’s prints are stunning in person and need to be seen to be believed.
Straight from DCS:
Umphrey’s McGee NYE ’07 – We hear this one was a hit at the show…. wish we could have been there to hear the music! A limited number available and limited to 1 per person order. These copies are also remarked with Jeff’s Flying Eyeball sig. Rest of the edition Sold Out at the show.
Today I’ll be heading to the opening of American Handscape, a new show featuring the art prints and posters of Judge and Gina Kelly. I couldn’t be more excited.
It’s not every day that a poster gallery show opens in Brooklyn, and this one features two extremely talented artists. I’ve been keeping an eye on Judge’s work for a couple years. She’s done a ton of fantastic posters for Neko Case, among many other great bands, and she contributed an amazing poster to the Screens ‘N’ Spokes show last year. I’m just now becoming familiar with Gina’s work, and having seen her poster for American Handscape in person, I’m really looking forward to seeing more. I caught up with Gina and Judge and asked them about the show, “covering” each others work, and their poster process.
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