MIX 2011 Poster

I’m really excited about the Minneapolis Indie eXpo this year. Last year turned out great and this year promises to be even better. There are some amazing guest coming to town for that weekend. Make your plans to attend the show now!

This year I was asked to do the poster for the show. My poster idea was to turn MIX into some a of World’s Fair. Here was an early idea which seemed not grand enough. It got turned into a banner for the site:

MIX Art by Tom Kaczynski

This is the final poster art:

mix poster art by tom kaczynski

It’s a bit of a mash-up of traditional architectural forms and the kind of work I’ve been doing for my Structures project.

 

Pics from Sweat Stains, Beer, And Cigarettes

by bill hauser

I was digging around in iPhoto for something and I found a few pics from the closing party to the Sweat Stains, Beer, And Cigarettes show from a few weeks back. I promptly uploaded them to Flickr. My big discovery of the show was the art of Bill Hauser. He works primarily as an illustrator and creates a ton of cover art for a variety of bands. I really like his old school, cartoony take on horror… and he has the chops to pull it off very well. I also really like his hand-made typography. Again, it’s cartoony, but the type is always tight, well arranged, with interesting letter forms.  More Pics here.

Sweat Stains, Beer, And Cigarettes

Sweat Stains, Beer and Cigarettes

Some of my sketches from concerts are on display at the SSCA Gallery over the next few weeks. I’m in good company, surrounded by a stellar group of artists including Dan Wieken and Mr. Mike.

Check out the work and come to the closing party April 16th:

CLOSING NIGHT RECEPTION and PARTY on SATURDAY APRIL 16 (from 7-11 pm), featuring free live music by THE BLIND SHAKE, THE KNOTWELLS, and DJ’d by [kramerica industries].

More info here.

Guttural Visions

Booke of Logos by Dan Wieken

Uncivilized Books presents a new pamphlet by Dan Wieken: Booke of Logos. The new book is a 24 page collection of new logos created for some of today’s best known celebrities (from Oprah to Maury Povich) and politicians (lets face it politicians are celebrities too). Think of it as a kind of psychic re-branding… the results are sometimes ridiculous, sometimes incomprehensible, but always spot on. The book will debut tonight at the Black Dog in St. Paul during the opening event for Guttural Visions: Extreme Metal, A Visual Interpretation. it will be available on the Uncivilized Books site a couple of days later. More info here.

Comic-Book Altermodernism

Frank Santoro recently posted a note about ‘fusion cartoonists.’ He sees the work of Paul Pope and Scott McCloud’s Zot as progenitors of a new stylistic movement (a loose term – perhaps a better word is sensibility?). Other, younger cartoonists mentioned in the same breath are Brandon Graham, Brian Lee O’Malley, and Dash Shaw. Their work (according to Frank – and I concur) is a new kind of fusion of contemporary and international influences. Their works draw on art from all the major comic-book producing regions: America, Japan, and Europe. This international miscegenation is key.

Frank likes Jazz metaphors and I think ‘fusion’ generally fits… though it’s perhaps a little broad. I’ve been thinking recently along similar lines, but aligning these artists with a recent art-world concept of Altermodernism. The term & concept was coined by Nicolas Bourriaud in 2005. Bourriaud asserts that post-modernism has exhausted itself and it must be replaced by a new concept. His candiate is Altermodernism. Here’s his explanation:

“Artists are looking for a new modernity that would be based on translation: What matters today is to translate the cultural values of cultural groups and to connect them to the world network. This “reloading process” of modernism according to the twenty-first-century issues could be called altermodernism, a movement connected to the creolisation of cultures and the fight for autonomy, but also the possibility of producing singularities in a more and more standardized world.”

To my eyes this really fits what Frank is describing.

Altermodernism itself is still rather vague and ill-defined… it’s very new after all… but at least it’s meaning is not yet so overstuffed like it’s predecessors post-modernism and modernism. I for one would be thrilled to see comics at the head of an artistic vanguard, embracing and extending the meaning of the zeitgeist with the same kind of determination seen in the art world. Down with Alternative. Long live Altermodern!

Hot Ink: Comics Art in Minnesota

minnesota museum of american art photo

From the MMAA:
The Minnesota Museum of American Art is proud to announce the opening of its fall exhibition, Hot Ink: Comic Art in Minnesota on September 28, 2008.
The MMAA will host an opening party on October 3, 2008. The party will open up for MMAA members only at 7pm and open for the general public at 8pm. DJ Justin Olson will spin a live set and complimentary refreshments will be provided.
Admission for this event will be $10 for the general public and $5 for students and MMAA members.
Here’s a list of artists included in the show:
Kevin Cannon
Zander Cannon
Will Dinski
Tom Kaczynski (that’s me!)
Reynold Kissling
Lars Martinson
King Mini
Tyler Page
Evan G. Palmer
Brittney Sabo
Zak Sally
Barbara Schulz
Tim Sievert
Andy Singer
Tom Spence
Steven Stwalley
A bunch of my originals will be on display along with other artifacts and sketchbooks. I’ll be at the event tonight so stop by and say hello.

I’ll Speak You Sing

This is about a month old, but I just got around to posting the pictures on flickr. The show was great. I only saw one performance. Everyday was improvised. It was a sort of shamanistic ‘conversation’ between Momus and Mai. Momus would improvise stories based outside input provided by Mai. An Apple iBook served out some spooky ambiance. I also captured some video and audio using my little Canon Elph. I’ll try to post it sometime soon. More about the show here: iMomus.