The Gallery

[.Rai]

Welcome to The Gallery, the collaborative hybrid blog and podcast, dedicated to all things art and design. On a semi-regular schedule, I say hopefully, I'll be hosting articles regarding any and all aspects of the artistic world, hopefully with guests as well. This extends straight out into film, architecture, pretty much everything. Most posts will be good old articles, but I will try to host some podcasts, perhaps stream them via Twitch and upload them to Youtube, and have a chat with various members on the site.

This is still a fledgling blog, but I'll be looking for potential guests soon. I'm aware of plenty of people who I'd like to invite, and who've mentioned a vague interest!
 
Archive
Entry #1: The Album Covers of 2014, Part I
Entry #2: The Album Covers of 2014, Part II
Entry #3: On The Lookout
Entry #4: The Album Covers of 2015, Part I

[.Rai]

I'm a huge fan of music, and of the arts in general. The music industry and art industry have always been a match made in heaven, exemplified in the power that branding and packaging hold in the music industry. The effort put into album covers each year is astounding, despite the proclaimed death of the album. 2014 has been a particularly good year for album artwork, with some of the boldest design in several years for music. Here is a selection of some of the most important, interesting or plain beautiful album covers of this year.

I've grouped these two artworks together because of their similarity in vision. Here lies the proof in that bold design works. Both artists have interesting parallels: much of both artists' image lies in anonymity. For FKA twigs, she came onto the scene largely in an air of mystery, without backstory, without a real name to put to the face, a sense of mysticism and the ethereal pervading both her manner and her music even with such spotlight placed onto her this year. For SBTRKT, his image is defined by anonymity. In the same vein of other electronic musicians like Daft Punk, he remains faceless in public, African tribal masks being his disguise of choice. Of course, anonymity usually turns out to be the strongest branding of all.
The cover to FKA twigs' LP1 is a striking one. Jesse Kanda's vision sees Tahliah Barnett rendered on a background of pure saturated cyan as a doll-like figure, frozen mid-glance, cast with a blazing palette of red, purple and pink across her entire face: a bruise perhaps, a birthmark, maybe. The artwork associated with LP1 had an exhibition in NYC to great success, and marks itself to be one of the most powerful images of this year in music.
SBTRKT's Wonder Where We Land shares the same penchant for bold colours, with much of this artwork's appeal based around that unadulterated red that overwhelms the cover: a similar trick Solange used for True back in 2012, and of course to a lesser extent, the theme to Taylor Swift's Red the same year. More interestingly is what adorns the red background. In an iridescent hand perches a strange animal, a fantastical jackal sort of creature, bearing SBTRKT's iconic mask design on its face. It's an artwork inspired by Pedro Linares, a Mexican artist, and his alebrijes: paper-mache figures of strange hybrid beasts thought up in his unconscious dreams from a bout of illness in the 1930s. The music's pretty good too!

I think this artwork sums up a lot about Taylor Swift this year. She represents one of the most successful artists and entrepreneurs in the music industry, and 1989 the only album by a pop artist (or indeed any individual) to have gone platinum this year. It's not a particularly notable album cover by itself, but holds a lot of information about Swift. Firstly, it perfectly encapsulates the Instagram generation, and our fascination for the past. The polaroid album cover complete with indie bird-print sweater just shows this off, and is further seen in her fervent Tumblr fan interactions. Secondly, is there any better way to prove that Taylor Swift is as omnipresent this year as a pop album cover with hardly half the artist's face on it, and just her initials on it? It's almost unthinkable in the popular market for such surprisingly subtle branding, and especially one that taps into nostalgia as heavily, both branding-wise and musically, as an album like 1989.

Coldplay have a great eye for great artwork. You only have to look to their previous two albums for that: from Viva la Vida…'s splattered paint logo on Delacroix's allegorical rendering of the French Revolution, to the influence of New York graffiti and dystopian futures in Mylo Xyloto, the sense of artistic vision has always been a part of Coldplay. This year, the band offered Ghost Stories, a sleepy minimalist album brought about by lead singer Chris Martin's 'conscious uncoupling' from wife of ten years, Gwyneth Paltrow. The artwork is a gorgeous masterpiece from Mila Fürstová, a Czech born artist specialising in delicate, intricate etchings. The art direction is hugely to do with the band as well: the wings were taken from a piece of Mila's depicting an angel, with Chris Martin asking whether the wings would work by themselves: arranged together, they resemble a broken heart. With the music as inspiration, intricate illustrations were then inlaid into the wings, from forlorn figures to birds in flight to floating fish. Only a high-resolution version of the artwork does this cover justice, it's gorgeous.

[Goose]

I'm looking forward to this blog.  I hope that posting here to sub isn't wrong?

[.Rai]

The following entry contains one instance of artistic nudity.

Part I of this post can be found in post #2.

St. Vincent's eponymous fourth album this year gathered tons of critical acclaim, and deservedly so. Annie Clark marks herself as one of the most interesting musicians and artists at the moment: her blend of indie rock and art pop is hook-laden and complex, and her image is huge. She claims Einstein as one of her style icons, and performs with a manner totally unlike other rock musicians: where many other rock artists have a habit of wildly thrashing about with their guitars, St. Vincent wears a clinically cold smile, while playing out a riff at lightning speed, carrying out a carefully and choreographed not-quite-a-dance that amounts to feminine yet frantic shuffles across the stage. This is how she ended a season of SNL, by the way, with a ludicrous performance of first single, Birth in Reverse. It's worth searching up. The album's artwork has a sense of how overbearing her presence is: Clark doesn't shy away from her cold image, instead playing up to it to almost ironic levels, perched perfectly centred on a pastel throne with that Einstein hairdo of hers. It's almost biblical in nature - the distant gaze, the deeply stylised typography, the Holy Mountain-style visual cues - a strong image for a strong artist.
 

Aphex Twin still remains one of the most interesting musicians in the industry. After taking a break for, well, ages, Syro was released with a curious advertising campaign: a huge chartreuse blimp with the Aphex Twin logo on it flying around London, then various bits of graffiti in New York of the logo. How was the album then announced? On hardly accessible deep web browser, Tor. A curious move indeed. Richard D. James, under the Aphex Twin pseudonym, has always been quite a curious figure. His face is plastered across his album covers complete with creepy smile, even taking this a level further and hiding it in spectrogram data of one of his tracks. The album cover is one of the finest examples of anti-design in recent years: it amounts to a minimal list of the production and marketing costs of the album, while still executed in a supremely stylish way. The whole concept is interesting in itself. Aphex Twin has always been subversive, and there are consumerist thoughts to be tackled here.
 

Glass Animals has been my new musical discovery this month. A relatively new British indie pop band, with equal cues from pre-00s R&B and funk as from indie rock and their Alt-J, The xx, The 1975 contemporaries. This and Ghost Stories make up my two predominantly illustrated covers in the list (well, and Xen below). Where Ghost Stories' glorious artwork revels in carefully contained detail in the guise of minimalism, Zaba is not shy in its artwork. Micah Lidberg's jungle illustration (who curiously also did the mythical, Greek-epic illustrations in Coldplay's Atlas lyrics video) under the creative direction of Boat Studio, responsible for The Temper Trap's eponymous album's equally lovely cover. The purple-washed artwork fits perfectly to their music, which is tinged with exotic timbres, instruments and melodies. The intricate lettering over the top completes the image, which is actually gilded in the physical release, which is pretty gorgeous.
 

FKA twigs associate, Jesse Kanda's, second entry in my list is with Venezuelan producer, Alejandro Ghersi, otherwise known as Arca, now based in London. Arca is also one of the masterminds who works with FKA twigs, helping to produce her first EP, and also for various tracks on Kanye's Yeezus. He's a tough nut to crack artistically: his music is at once difficult musically - his tracks ambiguous, unconventional electronic collages drawing from hip-hop and R&B - and equally as emotionally bare - his personality and his music is defined by his background, not wanting to accept that he was gay in his boyhood, and living in a privately educated, fortunate bubble in the otherwise tumultuous Venezuela. When he was a teenager, he would sign his diary as Xen, which he explains in various interviews as a a genderless being. 'It's about resisting labels and integrating different sides of ourselves. The complicating of one and the other is very fertile, emotionally and creatively,' he says in an interview for The Guardian. The video for the title single, Xen, animates this figure, twerking away to Arca's dark and intense blend of music. Jesse Kanda's artwork does Arca justice, especially as he utilises that same liquid, bruise-like texture once again so well as with FKA twigs' LP1. It's an intimate and graceful cover, yet unmistakably dark and enigmatic.

[.Rai]

Artists these days are not a rarity. In a time where art is now popular culture, design an exponentially larger industry, and images instantly transferrable by the likes of Instagram and Tumblr, artistic talent is overflowing. Tumblr proved itself this year once again as a prime platform for up-and-coming artists, as well as DeviantArt's radical redesign, abandoning their old logo and feel for an updated freshness that translates to the rejuvenation of the community there. As we look to the rest of 2015, I thought I'd highlight some of the great design and artists that I came across last year, and what to look forward to this year.
 

365-DaysOfDoodles
Links: DeviantArt | Instagram | Facebook
This ludicrously ambitious project came from the mind of Brazil-based Gabriel Picolo: to upload an ink doodle a day for the entirety of 2014. The scope of the project is palpable. The doodles range from simple to gloriously complex, and has equal sprinklings of fan art from all franchises imaginable, and just as much beautiful original art. Each doodle contains a now signature black cartoon cat, whether featured or as a 'Where's Wally'-style cameo. Joining DeviantArt inspired by a captivating ecologically affecting piece by famed artist, Yuumei, who herself rose to lofty success via the website, Picolo has stayed loyal and firm to the full 365 days. The success translates elsewhere, as it's huge encouragement for other artists to pick up a pad, or fire up Photoshop, and just regularly sketch something! He hosted a 7 Days Drawing Challenge, and offers helpful advice on his dA journal regarding the logistics behind the doodle challenge, and also towards tackling procrastination. If you are to take one thing from this, it's that anyone can do it. Even on a smaller scale, it's both hugely satisfying and vital towards becoming a better artist.

Yuumei
Links: DeviantArt | Tumblr | Twitter | Facebook
Yuumei is an artist who has already made a name for herself all across the internet. Her art is as widely distributed as it gets, and quite rightly so. It's incredibly good, after all. She's had hugely successful projects completed such as the comic, Knite, an emotional journey touching on China's social situation and industrialisation, wrapped in the story of kites and big dreamers. Throughout 2013 and 2014, her new project has been Fisheye Placebo, another comic that finds itself as relevant to present-day issues as Knite was: cyberactivism, terrorism, social upheaval, Anonymous, the internet, freedom of speech. The penetration of these themes in modern life, in a post-Arab Spring world, make these sort of projects all the more affecting. The comic is still ongoing, although perhaps on slight hiatus, although this is due to Yuumei's other big project of 2014 taking up her time: the realisation and manufacture of her own design of headphones, complete with cat ears.

Sam Spratt
Links: Website | Tumblr | Facebook | Twitter
Sam Spratt is a New York-based illustrator and painter who has a fierce following (myself included) and, more importantly, a fiercely prestigious roll of clients: National Geographic, Rolling Stone, Janelle Monáe, Donald Glover, and the list goes on. He's perhaps best known for his depictions of various celebrities, and has since become one of the most popular portrait artists for the modern audience. He's an active speaker, and his blog is littered with sketches, behind-the-scenes stories, and answering the many questions people ask him: with some extra deep nuggets of wisdom about being an illustrator living in New York. He's also a handsome little bugger.

Battle Dog
Links: Comic
Battle Dog is a currently ongoing comic series that I won't spend too long talking about, but is snappy, the art is unadulteratedly fresh and adorable, and mixes witty humour with RPG tropes to great effect. Unicorns, time travel, skeletons, evil pugs: worth a read, or just ogling at the cuteness.

Noah Bradley
Links: Website | DeviantArt | Youtube | Reddit | Twitter | Facebook
Noah Bradley is a concept artist and illustrator, predominantly known his work for Wizards, now a well-established artist for Magic: The Gathering. His style is immediately recognisable for dramatic, gorgeous shadows, and a general painterly vividness. If not for that then, probably for his prolific online presence. He recently got the spotlight for talking about the pitfalls of art college, and is now working on his own personal conceptual project.

Level Up!
Links: Website | Youtube | Facebook
Level Up! is a Youtube-based webcast and community with interviews/Q&As/art sessions/chats with various well-known artists every Sunday. Aspiring artists, or those just looking for another arty thing to watch, here's one for you! There's a good amount of tip-sharing, and the huge variety of artists means that there's usually something for everyone.

50th Wildlife Photographer of the Year
Links: Gallery | 51st Competition Entry
The Natural History Museum in London marks the 50th anniversary of the Wildlife Photographer of the Year, and is celebrating it with one of its largest competitions yet. Launched in style by David Attenborough and Kate Middleton, the competition once again honours the diversity of natural life through the stunning photography that people have took, with artistic flourish. The exhibition is open until the end of August 2015, so if you happen to be in London, I thoroughly recommend having a look in person.

[Toffee.]

I went and looked at Battle Dog-
It looks like the result of Egoraptor trying to draw Adventure Time, but putting more emphasis on the chibi factor.
So... Nice find, and thanks for showing it =D
*Is now reading it all*

[.Rai]

It’s now 2016, which gives us a chance to reflect on everything that happened last year. For me, this means extensively delving into all the goings on within the world of the arts. As with every year, some astounding album covers get brought into the world, usually with great music to accompany it. Here’s just some of the best album covers of the past year.
 

Brooklyn-based Ellis Ludwig-Leone’s baroque pop outfit, San Fermin, returned this year with new record, Jackrabbit. The band is characterised by an ensemble nature, somewhat classically inspired, with two vocalists to hand: Allen Tate providing male vocals, and newcomer Charlene Kaye providing female ones. The band is named after the festival of San Fermín, famous for the running of the bulls. Indeed, the theme of hunted animals runs in their new album, Jackrabbit, whose cover modernises the Victorian-esque animal pencil study with golden sinewy mass. The result is vulnerable, and stark design, but unwaveringly elegant.
 

Josh Tillman’s new album under the name Father John Misty is a deeply personal album: largely focused on his own married life, although that doesn’t stop it from being wickedly dark and funny. For such a personal album, the album cover takes a totally different direction. The cover, rendered in gorgeous watercolours, has its pastel pink backdrop adorned with a mess of religious imageries. In the centre, Father John Misty as the Baby Jesus being cradled by the Virgin Mary, but elsewhere is a snake, a multi-eyed owl, demons, a figure in an makeshift hood. The connotations of it all is somewhat ambiguous, but it’s certainly interesting enough to look at and perhaps ruminate on it all. Equal parts whimsical and threateningly dark, and it stands out this year as one of the most of both of those qualities.
 

The story of Passion Pit has always been a troubled one. Lead singer Michael Angelakos’ lyrics were always subversively dark and heart-baring amidst his distinctly chirpy brand of synthpop. His album covers follow a natural progression in this vein. Manners was a murky green nightscape, and Gossamer was a delicate thing. You’d think the cover just dissipate if you’d had looked at it. Yet, 2015’s Kindred does something totally different. A family scene at the very edge of dusk, and a boy looking straight outwards at the viewer: the artwork emirates warmth (although there’s somewhat of a sad undertone to it, perhaps in the boy’s intimate bittersweet expression). It’s more direct than any of his previous artworks and also any of his previous music. It’s natural that the new album sees his music take a far more positive direction to reflect this, with lyrics about childhood and his wife replacing those of his mental troubles. Yet with the news that Angelakos has come out as gay, and divorced with his wife, in the later half of last year, the album has took on a new meaning entirely.
 

FKA twigs’ spontaneous EP, after last year’s phenomenally good LP1, has her channel her alter-ego, Melissa, who is something of an unrelenting representation of female strength. As always, FKA twigs prides herself on strong visual image and aesthetics, and M3LL15X’s surreal flesh-melting portrait fits this lineage perfectly. It furthers the obsession with intimacy and body that she often explores, and the innate sense of the self. The themes of independence: whether it be sexual, or emotional, or indeed just musical independence run through the EP. The cover gives off those vibes, if for some far-off, unsaid reason. It certainly states its impact in grey-and-gold brilliance in cementing FKA twigs as one of the most creative minds of the current music industry.
 

2015’s most important album is presented with equally monumental artwork. This is the sort of cover that spawns a hundred thinkpieces, each figure given extensive time to be analysed, their expressions picked apart. Yet, you don’t really have to. The sentiment is obvious. To Pimp a Butterfly is what you’d call a black album through and through. It prides itself on its blackness, the stories of the black communities in America, and particularly Compton, and Kendrick’s relationship to it all run through the album. It’s not hard to pick out, as it’s staring you right in the face. It’s apt, then, that the cover is a bold monochrome portrait of Kendrick full-centre surrounded by his friends and family. The backdrop is The White House. Kendrick is full aware of the supposed aggression of the album cover that it shows at first glance, steeped in deep political sentiment, especially with the white judge on the ground, eyes crossed out. Aggression, really, there is none, instead just celebration.