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The
best concert posters have always captured the essence of the music that they
promote, the spirit of the time in which they were produced and the creative
qualities of the artists who produced them. This is as true today as it was in
San Francisco
during the heyday of concerts promoted by Bill Graham at the Fillmore.
Listening to music live,
whether in a club or concert hall, is an experience that can only truly be
shared by the participants - namely the band and audience.
A gig poster, which can
serve to both advertise and commemorate an event, is a talisman of the
experience and represents a tangible connection to the two or three hours of
shared cultural experience. For those lucky enough to be at a concert in person,
a gig poster serves to validate the experience. For those who could not be in the audience, a gig poster provides a
visual connection to the music and by extension, the creative mind of the artist
who produced the poster design.
Click
here to buy posters in the shop!
This exhibition features
some 70 or so artists from around the globe. Most of them are independent, small
business men and women who have found a way to combine their love for music with
their skills as artists into a fascinating art form. Live music is creative, organic and made by
hand, I think show posters should be too, says Jake Early from Tempe, Arizona.
Posters are a traditional form of
public communication that I don t want to see disappear - and they provide a
perfect canvas for visual artists.
The bands represented
are some of the most popular and well recognized of the day and most of the
posters have been produced in the 21st century. Louisville s own My
Morning Jacket is heavily represented in the exhibition and served as the
foundation for my research. As musical artists MMJ wholeheartedly embrace,
encourage and commission gig poster from visual artists across the country. The
passion that is shown by their devoted fan base is represented in the popularity
of gig posters that feature the band which are among some of the most highly
collected.
Careful reading of the
posters will reveal bands and music venues that most will not be familiar with.
Flanger Garden is from Mexico.
Heligoland is from Australia. 2 Up is from
Japan. Kenneth Ishak is from
Norway. Certainly none are household
names but all were the inspiration for powerful and creative gig posters. Some
iconic venues appear such The Fillmore in San
Francisco and Radio
City Music
Hall in New
York, but I specifically sought out music venues in a
range of cities across the globe as they provided an introduction to local
poster artists and bands. I discovered fabulous venues of all shapes and sized
including The Last Train, The Villa and Hell s Kitchen in Oslo, Salla Rossa in Montreal, The Rathausbunker in Kiel, Germany and The Broken City in Calgary, Alberta.
The media of choice for
the gig poster artist is the serigraph or silkscreen. This time consuming
process, which can utilize anywhere from 2 to 8 different colors of ink applied
to each image, has a wonderfully rich and tactile feel. Graphic screenprinting is often preferred over other processes such as
dye sublimation or inkjet printing because of its relative low cost and the
ability to print on many types of media. Many artists do their own printing
while others create the designs and leave the actual printing to printing
studios such as Diesel Fuel Prints in Portland Oregon who publish posters for a wide range of
artists and musical groups.
Most screenprinted work is produced in relatively small runs. In this
show you will find editions as small as 10 and as many as 500. When hand printed
and pulled the editions are usually signed and numbered and limited to a
specific edition total. Once they are gone, they are gone and some of the
posters in this show, including Blondie from Hero Design Studio and
My Morning Jacket from Ron Jasin, have
reached the end of their print runs and are no longer available for purchase. It
in not uncommon for the retail price of a poster from a limited print run to
increase as the artist comes near the end of a print run supply and demand are
at work and savvy collectors know to buy early and save. There are a few artists
proofs on display. They represent a short print run in addition to the editioned
prints and are usually produced while the artist is fine tuning the printing
process.
Posters can be commissioned by a particular promoter, a venue, a band or
simply created as an artistic exercise by the artist. Some are produced for mass
circulation and these are usually printed using offset lithography printing. A
number of posters in the show were sent to me from afar as digital files and
have been printed locally. More and more, one sees the influence of computer
design programs in the design of gig posters and printing techniques in their
production.
What I hope each visitor will take away from this exhibition is a greater
appreciation for the richness and diversity of creative expression that
comprises this fascinating and diverse artistic community. If you really fall
for a particular poster, we encourage your to buy it, take it home and share it
with others. And perhaps you will spend some time searching out and listening to
music by any of the wide range of artists are represented on these walls. If you
do any or all of those things, I will have done my job.
Gig Posters
Participating Artists:
Jorge
Alderete
AESTHETIC APPARATUS
Mark
Arminski
Nicholas Belayew aka TCHIKTCHAK
R.
Black
bMethe
Travis Bone FUR TURTLES SHOW
PRINTS
Bongout
David
Brooks
THE
BUBBLE PROCESS
Guy
Burwell
Marcos Cabrera la Tragedia
Peter Cardoso
CRICKET PRESS Brian & Sarah Turner
Nick
Crnko
Brian
Cummings
Israel Davis
Tyler Deeb
Richard Del Rancho
Jake
Early
Jason
Early
El
Jefe Design
EMEK
Benjamin Estrada
FARM
BARN ART CO.
Michael Flückiger
Randy
Fung
Jeff
Gaither
Sindre W. Goksoyr
GRAVITY INK J. Irvine / T. Schroeder
Bill
Green
Dan
Grzeca
Gaspard le Guiniou Arrache Toí unoeil
Pat
Hamou
Justin Helton
Hero
Design Studio
Sean
Higgins
Julie
Hill
GARY
HOUSTON DESIGN
Luke
Howard
Ron
Jasin - MADPIXEL
Amy
Jo
Patrick Jones
Justin Kamere ANGRYBLUE
Are
Kleivan
KRAKEN
Lars
P. Krause
Jens
Jørgen Krogsveen
Dana
Krusche
Mig
Kokinda
John
P. Lackey
Edmund Lam
Chris
Leskovsek - Nadameansnothing
Ron
Liberti
Loli
Rocco Luna
Julie
Mc Lauglin
Robert Marx
METHANE STUDIOS, INC.
Tara
McPherson
MISS
PINNY
Steve
Mockensturm
Jason
Munn THE SMALL STAKES
Anna
Martine Nilsen
Ben
Nunery
Sveinbjorn Palsson
Christian Peters SUN ART
POWERHOUSE FACTORIES
Jay
Ryan
SERIPOP
Trygve Sørli
Mark
Spusta
STEUSO
Diana
Sudyka
Tetsunori Tawaraya
Kristen Thiele POSTERGIRL PRESS
TINY
LITTLE HORSE
Pascal Tremblay
Miles
Tsang
Junichi Tsuneoka
Alana
Twelmeyer
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