PARTICIPATING ARTISTS AND BIOS
Andy Biersack: Born on December 26, 1990. Lead Singer/Founder of Black Veil Brides. Andy started the band when he was about fourteen and is originally from the Cincinnati area.
Black Veil Brides is an American rock band based out of Hollywood, California. The group is composed of Andrew Biersack (lead vocals), Ashley Purdy (bass, backing vocals), Jake Pitts (lead guitar), Jinxx (guitar, violin), and Christian “CC” Coma (drums). Black Veil Brides are known for their distinct appearance, mainly being inspired by Kiss’ stage persona as well as numerous 1980s metal acts.
Their freshman album, We Stitch These Wounds released on Stand By Records sold nearly 11,000 copies in its first week, reaching the position of #36 of the Chart Billboard 200 and #1 Independent Release, following their major release Set The World On Fire on Major Label Lava Music/Universal Republic Records. The song, Set the World on Fire was featured in the Transformers: Dark of the Moon movie soundtrack. The album debuted at number 17 on the Billboard 200 albums chart. The album reached #73 on the Canadian Albums Chart.[14] It also achieved moderate success in the United Kingdom by reaching number 3 in the UK Rock Chart.
Gerard Way: Gerard Way began his artistic career after graduating from New York’s School of Visual Arts with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1999. He is the front man and a founding member of the heralded rock band My Chemical Romance. Way is also the creator and author of the 2008 Eisner Award Winning graphic novel series, The Umbrella Academy, published by Dark Horse and recently optioned by Universal Pictures. Source: Gerard Way
Gail Potocki: born 1961, in Detroit, Michigan, U.S.) is an award-winning Symbolist artist utilizing the skills and techniques of the Old Masters in the 21st century. Gail Potocki chose an arcane path of study, training intensely to learn to wield oil on canvas. Influenced by the elegant strength of Anthony Van Dyck and the melancholic mystery of the late 19th century French and Belgian Symbolists artists like Fernand Khnopff, Jean Delville, and Dante Gabriel Rossetti. This blending of inspiration and technical ability creates a method of expression rooted in compelling realism, branching both seductively and effortlessly into the realms of possibility. Potocki’s first monograph, The Union of Hope and Sadness: The Art of Gail Potocki was released in the Summer of 2006, a hardcover book from Olympian Publishing thoroughly examining the first six years of her career and features text by Thomas Negovan, Richard Metzger and Jim Rose of the Jim Rose Circus. Gail was the First Place winner of the First International Online Symbolist Art Exhibition, and has exhibited worldwide, sharing wall space with Gustav Klimt, Egon Schiele, H. R. Giger, Salvador Dalí, and Ernst Fuchs. Gail potocki currently lives and works in Chicago. Source: www.gailpotocki.com (official site)
Paul Chatem: Paul Chatem was born in 1974 in Bellevue, Washington, but grew up in La Crescenta on the outskirts of Los Angeles. He spent most of his time hunting snakes and scorpions in the Tujunga Wash, exploring ruins of forgotten ranches, shantytowns, and asylums, and ducking punches at punk shows with his friends. Growing up in an environment where nature, history, and the impoverished were constantly being pushed aside to make room for golf courses and mini-malls, Paul developed a keen talent for representing the rift between rich and poor, the working man and the boss man, in his surreal, often nightmarish, narrative paintings.
Chatem’s folksy, yet modern illustration style is deeply rooted in vintage advertising, comic books, and animation. His finished pieces are subtly aged and worn, creating the sense that they could have just as easily been constructed in the 1920s as much as they are very characteristic of the times we live in now. is current works focus on a series of large- and small- scale kinetic pieces that invite curiosity and interaction. By simply turning a crank, Chatem’s hand-cut wooden gears spring to life, and the viewer is able to manipulate the composition and create movement within his vivid, carefully painted scenes.
Chatem’s folksy, yet modern illustration style is deeply rooted in vintage advertising, comic books, and animation. His finished pieces are subtly aged and worn, creating the sense that they could have just as easily been constructed in the 1920s as much as they are very characteristic of the times we live in now. is current works focus on a series of large- and small- scale kinetic pieces that invite curiosity and interaction. By simply turning a crank, Chatem’s hand-cut wooden gears spring to life, and the viewer is able to manipulate the composition and create movement within his vivid, carefully painted scenes.
Major influences in his creative life include Max Fleischer, E.C. Segar, Tom Waits, Charlie patton, The Cramps, and a host of early advertising illustrators. He has been honored to show his works at the Shooting Gallery, SF; Copro, Black maria, C.A.V.E., and Dialect Galleries in Los Angeles; Feinkunst-Krueger Gallery, Hamburg, Mondo Pop and Dorothy Circus, Rome; as well as numerous group shows in Europe and North America. Paul is currently hiding out in the fog-bound sierra foothills with his tortoises, the mud, and the bugs. Source: www.paulchatem.com (official site)
Sammi Doll: was born in Northampton, England and raised in various parts of Los Angeles. Always inspired by life itself, she took upon anything creative to get away from the pressures of a highly religious or drug induced surroundings of a small town. Completely self taught, her creative journey began at 16 – learning an instrument and fronting a rock band, later moved to videography and conceptual music videos, onto concert and live entertainment photography for LA based magazines and newspapers, onto still portrait photography ranging subjects from actors, red carpet, events, and modern rock bands. Some recent work and collaborations appearing in Juxtapoz magazine, Guitar World, and Rock Sound (France) Magazine.
Influences ranging mostly from motivation and inspiration, her style has a lot of edge to a simple style. Contrast and bright colors muted by the mix of shadows and subject. “I know exactly the type of photo it’s going to be by the energy and vibe the model or subject gives off. If everyone or everything isn’t 100% into it, it becomes painfully obvious. You can’t force it to be something it isn’t, every shoot is completely unique to the next.”
Kaves: Michael McLeer a/k/a Mr. Kaves’ life up to this point represents all that is amazing, albeit and tumultuous about growing up as a street kid in Brooklyn, NY. Rising up from a loving, yet chaotic family life, Kaves began flexing his artistic urges in the tunnels of the NYC transit system at the ridiculously young age of 10. These activities were well documented in Henry Chalfant’s (Style Wars) pioneering book in 1984 titled, SprayCan Art. While these endeavors secured him a spot in the graffiti hall-of-fame, they almost landed him a rap sheet.
Mr. Kaves also holds title as co-creator and producer of the JAM Awards, a tribute concert and award show benefiting the Jam Master Jay Foundation for Music, which raises money for public school music programs. The event was sponsored by Adidas and Current TV among others. Some of the performers included Snoop Dogg, Everlast, DMC, LL Cool Jay, Mobb Deep, De La Soul and others.
Another huge piece of Mr. Kaves’ life has been spent as a rap pioneer. His hip-hop group formed in the early 90′s, Lordz of Brooklyn, left a substantial impact on the music business worldwide for over a decade. Today, Kaves continues rocking the mic as the co-frontman of the punk/rap group, simply titled The Lordz. The band’s debut album The Brooklyn Way was recently released via Warner Music Group.
In addition, Mr. Kaves owns and operates a successful art, apparel and tattoo shop, called Brooklyn Made Tattoo which also serves as the hub for all his creative endeavors. Source: www.mrkaves.com (official site)
Sylvia Ji: Possessing an artistic voice as unique as the times we live in, Sylvia Ji is at once contemplative, spiritual, enigmatic, and yet whimsically funny. Above all else, it is perhaps beauty that emerges as her defining characteristic, and her art reflects this: an extension of herself; a passionate appreciation of simple aesthetic pleasure fused with intimately complex subject matter.
Make no mistake – Sylvia Ji is the real deal: an artist of genuine, sometimes brutal, sincerity in a world of swirling uncertainty and constant change. Yet, she does more than consistently adjust to the change that life brings, she thrives on it; taking life as it is, content to simply “be”. Using the simplest of materials to create her work….she would say “letting it magically happen”… the results obliterate the antiquated lines between ostensibly “high brow” and “low brow” art. A self-professed lover of travel and life long student of international culture and art, Sylvia’s experiences and relationships continue to shape her exploration of indefinable human emotion. And while the future remains as mysterious to her as she may be to her audience, Sylvia stands confidently poised to continue to surprise. Now, and in the years to come, her life’s journey is more than the sum of its parts –drawn from her past, built on the present and beyond fascinating expressions of love and lust, beauty and decay, delicacy and passion.Born In 1982 BFA Illustration ‘05, Academy of Art, San Francisco Currently resides in Los Angeles, CA Source: www.sylviaji.com (official site)
Shawn Barber: Shawn Barber’s body of work focuses primarily on painting, portraiture, and documenting contemporary tattoo culture. Barber’s intimate renditions of tattooed individuals balance both meticulous brush strokes and loose energy. Figurative in nature, these large paintings take on abstractions with explosive colors, meandering lines and paint dripping down the canvas.
Barber earned his B.F.A from Ringling College of Art in 1999 and has paintings held in private collections throughout the United States, Canada, Asia, Europe and Australia. His paintings have been exhibited in diverse solo and group venues including: Joshua Liner Gallery, NYC, NY; Billy Shire Fine Arts, Los Angeles, CA; The Shooting Gallery, San Francisco, CA; Mesa Contemporary Arts Center, Mesa, AZ; Yves Laroche Gallery, Montreal, Canada; FFDG, San Francisco, CA; University of Houston, Houston TX.
Kim Saigh: I’m pretty sure my tattoo career began the day I received my first tattoo at the age of 16. I remember wanting to take the machine out of the guy’s hand & do it myself,but instead I kept trying to backseat drive the tattoo-I would’ve hated me if I were him. Two years later,my hopes of holding the machine in my own hand became a reality when I was offered an apprenticeship based on a drawing for a friend’s tattoo.
I relocated to Chicago in 1994 & a year later was offered the humbling experience of working next to Guy Aitchison at Guilty & Innocent Productions-the person who is solely responsible for melting my brain when it came to tattoos. Several years later, I opened Cherry Bomb Tattoo & worked alongside my friend Patrick Cornolo for 10 plus years & simultaneously cultivated a deep love for yoga.
The idea of living in California had haunted me since my teens, and when I had just about resigned the idea of doing so, I got a call to join LA Ink…..and so I did, for 3 seasons.
Aside from whisking me away to Los Angeles,the experience introduced me to many inspiring new artists & friends, and has re-acquainted me with old friends from the tattoo community-it’s been the best move of my life to date. My life in tattooing has been no less than serendipitous, and 18 years later, I’m still privileged to do what I love to do-and I love it more than ever! I feel truly blessed. Source: www.kimsaigh.com (official site)
Shepard Fairey: Born Frank Shepard Fairey, February 15, 1970, in Charleston, South Carolina. In 1992, while still an illustration student at RISD, Fairey started his first business venture, Alternate Graphics, to showcase his emerging design and silkscreen printing talents. He created stickers, t-shirts, skateboards, and posters which were all available via black and white mail order catalogs that he distributed. He also did small commercial printing jobs for clients to help cover some of his expenses. In 1994, Helen Stickler created a documentary film, Andre the Giant Has a Posse, that focused on Fairey and the growing phenomenon of his subversive stickers and posters. By 1995, Fairey had two or three full time employees, two of whom were long time friends from Charleston, whom he had known through his many years of skateboarding. During this time, he also created a small sister brand, Subliminal Projects, with Blaize Blouin, and released several skateboard and poster designs using this moniker. Fairey created a skateboard video, ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder), that showcased the small group of skateboarders that he sponsored via Alternate Graphics.
In 1996, Fairey moved from Providence, RI, to San Diego, CA, to partner with Andy Howell in Giant Distribution. Shortly thereafter, Fairey partnered up with Dave Kinsey, Phillip De Wolff, and Howell to form First Bureau of Imagery, FBI, a branding, marketing and design firm targeting the emerging action sports market. In 1999, FBI was dissolved and Fairey, Kinsey, and De Wolff formed BLK/MRKT, another branding, marketing, and design firm. During this time, Fairey met his future wife, Amanda Ayala, who began working with him. In 2001, the BLK/ MRKT offices were moved from San Diego to Los Angeles and expanded to include a small
art gallery. De Wolff’s partnership was purchased by Fairey and Kinsey, who became the sole propietors of the operation, now doing business from an office in the historic Wiltern building located in Koreatown. In 2003, Fairey and Kinsey decided to make a professional split; Fairey kept the location and most of the employees, renamed his agency Studio Number One [1], and renamed the art gallery Subliminal Projects [2]. Kinsey took the name BLK/MRKT and its gallery, and relocated it to Culver City, CA, where it is still in operation. In 2004, Fairey teamed up with long time friend Roger Gastman to create a quarterly publication, Swindle. The magazine documents pop culture, fashion, and music, and each issue is released in both soft cover and hard cover. In 2006, Fairey released a comprehensive, hard cover monograph, Supply and Demand, that documents much of his personal and professional design work. The entire book was designed in-house at Studio Number One and it is published by Ginko Press. It is currently in its third edition. Source: www.thegiant.org (official site)
Usugrow: A skull, flower, horror character, delicate line drawn by black ink on white paper in a pointillist, and complete commitment to the detail. Whether its motif is negative or positive, what you will feel consistently from his piece is the dignified beauty. He came accross a hardcore music when he was a teenager, and he found a path to go by experiencing not only its sound and attitude but also a lot of artworks there. Then, he got himself involved in skateboard, graffiti, hiphop, tattoo, anything that was related to hardcore music. He was deeply in the style wars revolving around the underground. He started his activity by making a flyer art at a local hardcore scene in Sendai which is his hometown Fukushima in early 1990. Since he loved drawing from the beginning, it was natural for him to set up his stage of creation there, as he said. And his artwork got gradually spread to the hardcore scene through the network of underground by word of mouth. Around the same time, he also established his own clothing line and it did not take long for his artwork to become popular besides the hardcore scene. Usugrow’s activity has been supported by a broad range of people, such as bands and kids from underground harcore and metal scene, skaters, hip hop heads, kids bombing streets. And it’s none other than the proof that his inquisitiveness towards music and art has been reflected to his art piece. Right now, he is working based in Tokyo, doing album covers and merchandises for foreign hardcore and metal bands and hip hop groups as well as domestic bands. He’s been also working on artworks for several clothing brands and skateboard companies, and trying some paintings instead of using an ink and some experimental artworks by using organic materials such as wood for several years now. White and black, in other words, light and dark sides of life. Since most of his current artworks have been created for clients, it’s hard to state positively that his own message is fully contained in an art piece.
However, he’s got the simplest and minimal methodology of black ink on white paper and hand- drawing and his stoic attitude that he has never catered to insubstantial media’s propaganda and continued to be supported by the network which was developed by word of mouth, and these might be representing his own style, message and identity as Japanese. Source: www.usugrow.com (official site)
Chloe Trujillo: Chloe was born and raised in Paris ,France around a true creative artistic energy :her parents were successfull fashion designers,her grandfather was a baritone at the Opera,her grandmother a pianist. Their place was a constant gathering of artists and personalities from all over the world.
Having another passion in abstract mathematics, she received a degree in science and matter structure, and while in University, one of her drawings was picked to promote a little art exhibit there. So she submitted her artwork and was accepted in different art schools, one of which was the “Ecole du Louvre.” She discovered all new spectrum of expressions through a lot of different mediums and techniques, widened her artistic horizon and knowledge. She continued to practice music, solfeggio and singing. Meanwhile, she also appeared in a few Parisian theatres performing. It was all fun in appearance… Until she felt a void… Something was missing, she began to feel doubt, questioning the meaning of it all. A shift occurred when she was assaulted by a serial rapist and murderer, she fought for a life that she previously thought had lost its value. More than ever, she needed to exorcise some emotions . The incident triggered a rise of consciousness in her. She had made that event happen in her own unconscious mind to open herself up to the different realms of reality and truth. She discovered meditation,studied works of great spiritual masters and began utilizing the connection between the “Source” and her work. She became a Reiki practitioner and a channeler and the connection became even be stronger. The purpose of her work switched, it became an alley for spiritual liberation. She found she could heal herself and others through images, colors, sounds-vibrations – Shortly after, following her passion for performing, she entered the American Musical Academy of New York City and played in a few off-Broadway productions. She then moved to Los Angeles, continued her exploration of vocal work, sang anywhere she could, from underground rock bands, operas to a gospel choir, started writing, connecting lyrics with images and sounds. She soon married her true soulmate Robert and gave birth to a boy and a girl. Motherhood added a new dimension in her previous knowledge of Love and Share.
Passionate about life’s mysteries and fascinated by our dormant human potential, she still continues the search through her multi-sensorial work … After so many years of performing, one night she experienced the ultimate, magical Oneness!!! And that’s what she unknowingly starved for….
We are One, all connected, all energy, bringing the scientific and the spiritual worlds together again for good! Source: www.chloeinart.com (official site)
Robert Trujillo: Born October 23, 1964 in Santa Monica, California. He’s got rhythm, and he’s most certainly got music. Now Robert Trujillo’s also got the job of being Metallica’s new bassist and family member…one that will doubtless fit this most righteous and cheerful of Southern Californians like a glove.
Although he sometimes does use a pick, Trujillo is best known as a baaaad motherplucker, a finger-playin’ bass monster who’s dexterity, tones and attitude have seen him grace the bass of Suicidal Tendencies, Infectious Grooves and Ozzy Osbourne’s band since his first professional work with Suicidal in 1989. It all stems back to a childhood filled with variety and spice. Growing up in Venice Beach “Dog Town”, Trujillo heard everything, from Led Zeppelin to Motown with a chunk of funk in between. Joined with a young love of surfing, Trujillo developed a rhythm and a vibe that saw him play with a variety of local bands through his early 20s until he met Mike Muir of Suicidal Tendencies via his High School buddy, Suicidal guitarist Rocky George. the two got on infamously well, and thus began a rich and fruitful relationship which saw Rob establish himself as one of the most exciting bass talents in the rock world.
In the early ’90s, he and Muir formed the experimental funk-rockers Infectious Grooves, and then in the mid-’90s Trujillo joined up with Ozzy Osbourne. Together with drummer Mike Bordin, Trujillo formed one of rock music’s most soild and reliable rhythm units. Rob’s name first floated by the Metallicamp during Suicidal’s supporting role on the Summer Shed tour of ’94, when all the band noted his enthusiastic style and performances. Thus when it was time to consider who could step up and take the bass full-time in Metallica, Rob’s name was an obvious choice. By all accounts, Trujillo’s audition dared the band NOT to give him the job, and even producer Bob Rock was heard saying how complete and unequivocally whole the band sounded with Rob playing. And so it was that on Thursday, February 24th 2003, Robert Trujillo walked in to the HQ and saw Ulrich, Hammett and Hetfield immediately start applauding him. Again, Rob is the perfect fit, a calm, even-keeled man with experience and full bass props…and genuinely one of the nicest guys around. It all adds up to the 4th member, an equal part of the Metallica family and an exciting new stage in Metallihistory. Source: www.metallica.com (official site)
Lauren Bergman: Lauren Bergman grew up in Washington, D.C., before relocating to Manhattan in 1987 to study painting and design at Parson’s School of Design and The Art Students League in New York. Influenced strongly as a young woman by her mother, a model and activist, Bergman began her quest to explore and discover the complexities of female identity and relationships. Bergman grew up observing her mother’s revolutionary disposition, reacting against cultural expectations of the times, an environment that encouraged Bergman to become an accomplished artist.
As a high school student Bergman was involved in art courses at the Corcoran School of Art . Her exceptional talents and mature narratives quickly landed her gallery exhibitions in Washington, D.C., exhibiting among renowned American realists, including Burton Silverman and Sondra Freckelton. Lauren Bergman is now regarded as a preeminent female contemporary artist emerging in the 21st Century, respected for her contributions to feminist- inspired art. Select solo exhibitions in New York City include New Works at O.K. Harris Gallery, and American Dream at Makor Gallery. Group shows include Charity By Numbers and ?The War: The Anti-War Show at Corey Helford Gallery, All About Women at Carl Hammer Gallery in Chicago, and Innocence and Insight at Claire Oliver Fine Art in New York City. Bergman has been published in The New York Times, Xlr8r, Boing Boing, Fecal Face, Juxtapoz, Absolute Arts, Glasstire, and Vinyl Pulse. Bergman currently lives and works in Manhattan. Source: www.laurenbergman.net (official site)
Per Øyvind Haagensen: “I’m a concept artist and freelance illustrator producing art for books, film and games. Working mainly for US clients through my New York based agency, I live in my home country of Norway. At present I’m continuing my work for Warner Bros. as a style guide artist on the latest Batman film by Christopher Nolan, The Dark Knight Rises, having previously created art for the Green Lantern movie.
Although I’ve always had a deep passion and inherent need to express myself through visual media I didn’t really pursue an artistic career until my mid twenties. Having been born and raised in a small village up by the Arctic Circle in Norway I looked upon my creative aspirations little more than a dream without solid ground. I chose to go for a more practical education within electronics and computers. I realised early on this wasn’t something I’d necessarily want to do for the rest of my life, but it did also open my eyes to the many creative possibilities the computer can offer.
I went on to spend many years experimenting with 3d animation, sculpting and even music before settling with digital painting as the preferred medium of choice. This background has been invaluable in the development of my current aesthetics. It has also made me more open to continue expand my toolset in whatever way to help bring my visions to life.
In 2005 I moved to England to get an art degree at the University of Lincoln. While still finishing my degree I got connected with the agency Shannon Associates, and was fortunate enough to start my career pre-graduation, creating illustrations for magazines, books and advertisements. One of my paintings from this period, ‘Satan I’, also ended up being used as cover art for Heaven and Hell’s album ‘The Devil You Know’.
I received my Bachelor of Arts in 2008 and landed a job as a concept artist for Age of Conan, the MMORPG computer game. After a couple of years designing ancient monsters, weapons, armors and temples with the other amazing artists at the Funcom studio in Oslo I went on to freelance for Warner Bros. Parallell to this I have also been involved in many other great projects, producing art for franchises like The Lord of the Rings, World of Warcraft and The Walking Dead.” (Per Haagensen)
Nate Van Dyke: Nate (N8) Van Dyke is a prolific artist and illustrator who began drawing at the age of two and has yet to stop. N8′s medium of choice ranges from: pencil, ink, marker, watercolor, gauche, acrylic and oils. Regardless of what medium N8 picks up, his signature style can be seen in the contrast of his thin and thick lines in his pen and ink work and the high sheen contrast in his mixed media pieces. N8′s heavily detailed illustrations feature his heavy metal humans and his well-known future primitive apes with dark menacing personalities. His color work features studies of animals (apes, elephants, giraffes) against lustrous backdrops.
N8 is a full time illustrator and artist. His former job was as a senior concept artist at NCsoft working on City of Hereos. Prior to that, he finished creating concept art and storyboards for the Sega video game, Iron Man. His work has also been featured in several magazines such as JUXTAPOZ, XBox, PlayStation and Heavy Metal. Over the years N8 has attracted clients such as Converse, Levi Strauss, Scion, EMI Records, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Burton Snowboards, Slayer and Wired.
David Stoupakis: Born David Michael Stoupakis on the 26th of July, 1974, in Brighton, Massachusetts, to Greek-Italian, first generation American construction foreman George Stoupakis and his Cape-Briton Island Nova Scotia wife Anne, a hard working woman to say the least at everything she does. Both of them being artists themselves they would go on to push and encourage David to become an Artist.
David was born premature with numerous complications at birth and many thought he would not make it home from the hospital. Mother Anne knew she had to set strength in her new little one and so she gave him the name David and believed with this name little David would be able to beat the giant complications. Just one month later, David left the hospital to see his new home and two older siblings, brother Alex and sister Laura.
Within the first grade of school David was found to have a severe learning disability and his Doctors informed that David would develop more on the artistic side and that he may have the ability to become a great artist. So when the talents in David truly started to shine. His parents were proud and very supportive however his newfound artistic ability concerned his teachers. On several occasions David’ s “gloomy” drawings were the subject at teacher parent meetings. A few years later a wild art teacher entered David’ s life and encouraged him, opened his mind and drove him to experiment. Within that year David made the choice to dedicate himself to his artwork.
In 1992 David gave the Art Institute of Boston a one year try and quickly found that being schooled was not for him. In 1993 he began his road to developing himself and became a self- taught Artist. It was around 1995 when the first painting sold and by 1996 David was working as a contract 2 D / 3D Animator Artist for a game company. Then in 1999 David left the gaming industry and refocused his talents to painting full time. Also, that year he met his companion Aprella, and the two became muses for each other. David lives and works in New York with Aprella and their lovely rescued cat. He continues his dedication to painting and his remarkable works continue to grow. Source: www.davidstoupakis.com (official site)
Joe Petagno: (born January 1, 1948) is an artist primarily known for creating images used on heavy metal album covers. His work has graced covers for bands such as Motörhead, Marduk, Nightshade, and Illdisposed. Petagno was born in Portland, Maine and left the United States in 1972. He worked with Hipgnosis before meeting Motörhead’s Lemmy Kilmister. In 1975, he designed “Snaggletooth” for the band’s Motörhead album and has continued to design the majority of the album and single sleeve covers for the band.
In 1979, Petagno went with a travelling exhibition, sponsored by the Shah of Iran. During this time, he visited France and met his partner, Sanne, in Denmark, where he has lived ever since.
It has been said that Joe Petagno’s paintings never fail to smash the retina like a broad sword to the skull. Petagno’s unmistakeable art has spanned several generations and crept into the very sinews of the contemporary counter – cultural media. His work appears worldwide on Posters, Record and CD covers, Collectable card games, Comic- and Sci-fi book covers, Magazines, Merchandise, Advertising campaigns, videos and Film. Source: www.petagno.dk (official site)
Tony Alva: Tony Alva was born in 1957, in Santa Monica California. In 1968, Alva got his first surfboard and skateboard and developed a passion for surfing, skateboarding and rock-n-roll. In 1972, he joined the legendary Z-Boys skateboard team along with Jay Adams and Stacy Peralta. Alva later went on to win the Men’s World Overall Professional Skateboard Championship in 1977. In the 1980s, Tony formed the infamous “Alva Posse” and sponsors innovative skaters including: Christian Hosoi, Ray Barbee, Mark Gonzalez, Dave Duncan, Eddie Reategui, Chris Cook, John Thomas, Jeff Hartsel, Craig Johnson, John Gibson, Bill Danforth, Fred Smith III, and Jim Murphy.
In 1999, he was presented the X Games Life Time Achievement Award from Tony Hawk, and in 2000, he received the Legend Award from Transworld Skateboard Magazine.
Recently he was featured in the Sundance and Independent Spirit award-winning documentary “Dogtown and Z-Boys”(2002). Tony Alva was an authenticity consultant and stunt coordinator on the upcoming Sony feature film, “Lords Of Dogtown” (2005), based on his life with the Z-Boys. Source: www.alvaskates.com (official site)
Brian M. Viveros: Celebrated fetish artist Brian M. Viveros is internationally embraced for his erotic paintings of doe-eyed beauties with Marlboros dangling seductively from their lips and has also recently been utilizing the medium of film to capture the dark and evocative debris that radiates from his mind. His paintings are a drunken mix of oil, airbrush, acrylic, and ink. In his work Viveros shines a light on his own inner world and society at large and aims to captivate even the most jaded eyes.
Viveros’ recognition accelerated with his participation in ‘The Art of Porn’ exhibition held in Switzerland (1997), where he exhibited alongside H.R. Giger. Since then Viveros’ work has been exhibited extensively in North America and Europe in numerous gallery shows and at Aqua Art Miami (2009) and GenArt’s Vanguard Fair (2008). His work has also been featured in numerous books including Les Barany’s ‘Carnivora: The Dark Art Of Automobiles’, Harry Saylor and Carolyn Frisch’s ‘Edgy Cute: From Neo-Pop to Low Brow and Back Again’, Matt Jordan’s ‘Weirdo Noir’, and Erotic Signature’s ‘The World’s Greatest Erotic Art of Today – Vol. 1 and Vol. II’.
Viveros made his directing debut in 2005 with his quietly eerie, boldly stylized short film Dislandia, a psycho-drama revolving around a young girl who exists in a desolate world full of dreamlike images that range from bizarre to symbolic and erotic. Southern, his latest surreal film, returns cinema to the unclean. Southern is an experience of primordial sights, sounds, and sentiment, blanketed by a fog of troubling eroticism and violence. Viveros was also recently featured on the Sundance Channel’s ‘Pleasure for Sale’ where they featured a behind the scenes look at the artist and the dislandic crew that helped him to create his film Southern. Source: www.brianmviveros.com (official site)
Victor Castillo: Victor Castillo is a Chilean painter currently residing in Los Angeles, California. He was born in Santiago in 1973, the year of Chile’s military coup.
He began drawing obsessively at the age of five, inspired by the animations he saw on television, science fiction movies, and the illustrations on his family’s record covers such as Pink Floyd’s “The Wall”.
Following a disillusive experience with art school, from 1995, he participated in an independent experimental art collective in Santiago, creating mixed media sculpture and video installations.
Victor travelled to Barcelona, Spain in 2004, where he established his painting style with references to comics. After seeing the Prado Museum in Madrid, particularly Goya’s Black Paintings, he adopted aspects of classical painting in his work.
Today Victor Castillo is represented internationally by Merry. Source: www.victor-castillo.com (official site)
Robert Hardgrave: Robert Hardgrave, a Seattle resident for the past 18 years, is an improvisational painter and mixed media enthusiast. He lives with his lovely wife Stephanie and two sweet dogs, a Beagle and a Pug. Robert was recently featured in “Further”, a book featuring 7 artists with their varied takes on contemporary abstraction, mysticism, futurism, and surrealism, “The Upset Young Contemporary Art”, a current survey of contemporary artists and “Magic Beans” , a small monograph of his work, published through ROJO Magazine. He is represented by David B Smith Gallery in Denver, Joshua Liner Gallery in New York, EC Gallery in Chicago and Fetherston Gallery in Seattle. Source: www.roberthardgrave.com (official site)
NAZRN: Naserin Nancy “NAZRN” Bogado, born and raised in Los Angeles, CA. NAZRN has always had a passion for expression. Her artwork is a sci-fi adventure through her head. Packed with the visions of death, love, the nostalgia of youth, survival and the question “who are we really?”. NAZRN is inspired by her youth, own spirituality, the future, the universe and its “aliens”.
Creative Director Assistant to Richard Villa III, has worked creatively on all art shows up to date for Exhibit A Gallery. Art Director’s Assistant for Black Veil Brides “Perfect Weapon” working along Andy Biersack, Patrick Fogarty and mentor Richard Villa III. Source: www.nazrn.com (official site)
Travis Louie: Travis Louie was born in Queens, New York, about a mile from the site of the 1964 World’s Fair. His early childhood was spent making drawings and watching “Atomic Age” Sci-Fi and Horror movies. There were many Saturday afternoon trips to the local comics shop and noon matinees at the RKO Keith’s cinema on Northern Blvd. , where he marveled at the 1950’
s memorabilia: the rocket ships, the superheroes, the giant monsters, and old pulp art covers. He did thousands of sketches of genre characters like Godzilla, King Kong, and a host of creatures from Ray Harryhausen movies.
After high school, he went to Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York, and graduated with a degree from the communication design dept. with the intent on pursuing a freelance illustration career. The work wasn’t as rewarding as he had anticipated. After a few years freelancing, he created a body of paintings and began showing them in local art galleries. The response was very encouraging. He stopped actively pursuing illustration work and began taking on more private commissions and concentrating his efforts on gallery shows.
The visual style of his work is mostly influenced by the lighting and atmosphere of German Expressionist and Film Noir motion pictures from the Silent Era to the late 1950’s. Films from directors like F W Murnau, Fritz Lang, Orson Welles, Robert Siodmak, Robert Aldrich, Jacque Tourneur, and cinematographer, Greg Toland, had a great effect on the way he wanted his paintings to look.
To achieve the dramatic “mood” in his paintings, they are produced primarily in black and white or limited color. He uses acrylic paints over tight graphite drawings on smooth grounds, like “plate” finish illustration board or finely sanded, primed wood panels. When he is not painting, his time is spent writing in his notebooks and journals. Many little drawings and sketches are made from those writings, most of which are less than 10 centimeters square.
The influences for his work are many; the genre films, his fascination with human oddities, circus sideshows, old Vaudeville magic acts, Victorian portraits, and things otherworldly, are all blended together to enable him to bring life to the characters and stories he writes in his journals. Source: www.travislouie.com (official site)
Jon Chase: Jon Chase is a illustrator and clothing designer in the action sport lifestyle world for the past decade. In the action sports world he is know for his bold graphics and unique designs. In the fine art work he is know for his black and grey airbrush portrait pieces. Jon has worked for some of the most sought after brands which include, Monster Energy, The Salvation Army, Mobil 1, Hart And Huntington, Scion and many others. In 2008 he created DSTROYR a lifestyle clothing brand focusing on his many interests and influences. Source: Jon Chase
Nathan Ota: Ever since I can remember, I have always found myself drawing over doing my homework. My early influences came from cartoons on television, comic books, photographs and Punk-rock flyers. I can still remember sneaking into my older brothers room and raiding his ,”Vamperella” comics and trying to copy or trace all the covers I could get my hands on. Classical art never really interested me at that time so I turned to what really spoke to me with artists such as, Robert Williams, Olivia, Puss Head and Raymond Pettibon. Traditional art never came into the picture till I started high school but it still didn’t speak to me. I always found myself gravitating toward popular culture and at that time it was graffiti. I was completely hooked! I loved everything about it, the clicking of the ball in the can when shook, the sound of the constant flow of the paint, the scraping of the can against the wall when drawing, the colors, the scale, the friendships and the complete feeling of freedom. Till this day, whenever I smell spray paint in the air, it brings back good times. I still dabbled a little in graffiti once I entered the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California but a whole new world of art was opening my eyes with Illustration. I never knew what I wanted to do when I entered college and kind of left it in the hands of the instructors to lead me in whatever direction I was going. It was a bit frustrating at first but soon after, I started to get it and knew that I was going to be an Illustrator.
Shortly after graduating in 1993, I started working as a freelance Artist for newspapers, magazines, recording companies, background art for the gaming industry and gallery. Source: www.nathanota.com (official site)
Katy Rodriguez: Born and raised in San Francisco, where she studied fine art and photography, Katy Rodriguez initially made her mark in 1996 as co-founder of America’s premiere designer vintage store, Resurrection, which currently operates in Los Angeles and New York. Over the past fifteen years, Rodriguez has curated several fashion exhibitions and has become a fixture on the international fashion scene. In the late Nineties, Rodriguez collaborated with her business partner, Mark Haddawy, on a satirical women’s collection they called caitie et marc. In 2000, she designed a capsule collection with the artist Raymond Pettibon, based on his ink on paper drawings. In 2005, Rodriguez struck out on her own, designing a group of dresses that drew on her extensive knowledge of fashion’s history, but which featured modern revisions. Rodriguez has continued to build on her original designs, assembling collections that focus on architectural volume, perfect symmetry, and exaggerated elegance. Chosen as one of Gen Art’s “Fresh Faces,” Rodriguez showed her Spring 07 collection at the Gen Art Show in October 2006 as part of Los Angeles Fashion Week. In 2007, Rodriguez was selected to participate in the prestigious California Design Biennial at the Pasedena Museum of Art. Rodriguez has collaborated with artists Richard Villa lll, Sara Glaxia, Wynn Miller, and the fore mentioned Raymond Pettibon on signature prints for her various collections. Since 2008, Rodriguez has shown her collections at Los Angeles, New York and Paris Fashion Weeks. In 2012, she will re-release her controversial “Porno” print to celebrate the seminal collection’s 10 year anniversary.
Katy Rodriguez has been featured in every major international fashion publication including: American Vogue, Paris Vogue, Italian Vogue, W Magazine, Vanity Fair, Harper’s Bazaar, Elle, Dazed and Confused, I-D, The New York Times, WWD, and Style.com. Source: Katy Rodriguez
Dan May: Dan May was born and raised in the suburbs of Rochester, NY. He attended Syracuse University, where he received a BFA in illustration. Dan spends his days (and nights) painting dreamlike environments that transcend space and time. These delightfully haunting images are often based in personal observations of both human’s and nature’
s relationships with each other. His artwork has been exhibited in galleries throughout the US and abroad. Dan has collaborated with numerous publications, design firms, advertising agencies and publishing houses. Some of his clients include WIRED, St. Louis Magazine, The San Francisco Chronicle, Aspen Magazine, Village Voice Media, AOL Productions, 20th Century FOX and VIZ Media. Source: www.danmay.net (official site)
Chris Peters: Chris Peters creates his art in his Los Angeles studio. He trained for 3 years at the Gage Academy of Art, completing their program that emphasizes academic painting techniques. His work has been exhibited in numerous galleries devoted to the Los Angeles Pop Surrealism/Lowbrow art Movement, inclluding Copro/Nason Gallery in Santa Monica, La Luz De Jesus in Hollywood and Last Rites Gallery in NYC. Source: www.chrispeters.com (official site)
Dan Harding: Dan was born and raised in central New Jersey where he grew up with a passion for anything to do with horror. Early on reading old horror zines , comics and books as well as an unhealthy amount of watching television. This sparked his interest in art, wanting to create his own monsters. He spent his teenage years doing art for friends and bands until he moved to PA for quite a few years where art had taken a back seat to life. In the late 90’s he began to feel the urge to get back into art so he started to pick up oil painting.
Never having any formal training it was a long process but he loved every minute of it. He eventually began to get jobs doing CCG art and magazine and book covers here in the US as well as Europe and Canada. He eventually moved back to NJ where he still resides continuing to paint and work in fine art restoration.
However, Dan has never been content with his work ” I feel like I was always so suppressed by creating what publishers and game companies wanted to see that I began to get stale with art. I never really painted something I thought was cool. The past couple of years I have begun to paint what is inside me and I am excited about where my work is heading! Source: www.danhardingart.com (official site)
Shawn Crahan: M. Shawn Crahan, better known as Clown, is the percussionist and founding member of the Grammy Award winning hard rock band, Slipknot. Shawn is also the art director for Slipknot and directed their DVDs, Disasterpieces, Voliminal: Inside The Nine, Of The (sic), (sic)nesses: Live at Download and Goat. He has been the creative vision behind the band since their inception.
Outside of Slipknot, Shawn has had a few other projects of note, To My Surprise who released one album (executive produced by Rick Rubin) on Roadrunner Records in 2004, as well as the alternative group, Dirty Little Rabbits. Crahan produced, played drums and wrote in both groups. In 2009, The Dirty Little Rabbits released the EP, Simon, on The End Records, which was followed by their self-titled full length in 2010. Recently, Shawn has been focusing his musical energy on his newest band, The Black Dots of Death. In this latest band Crahan can once again be found behind the drum kit in addition to writing, recording and producing the band whose debut album, Ever Since We Were Children, hit stores in the spring of 2011.
In addition to producing his own work Shawn has also worked as a producer for several bands including Gizmachi and Dirtfedd as well as serving as an executive producer to bands such as Mudvayne. Shawn has also remixed several songs for artists including; Marilyn Manson, Coheed and Cambria, Mindless Self Indulgence, Suicide Silence among others.
Away from music, Shawn is also very passionate about photography and film. In recent years he has taken to directing Slipknot’s videos, co-directing all four videos for their latest record, 2008’s All Hope Is Gone. Shawn had his first gallery showing in Iowa in 2010, displaying a number of paintings, photographs and other works of art. He’s been a featured speaker, performer and panelist at seminars throughout the country, including South by Southwest. Crahan’s first photo book consisting of medium format Polaroids, will be out in May 2012.
Crahan currently lives in Des Moines, Iowa with his wife of 18 years and 4 children. Source: Shawn Crahan
Steve Caballero: Skateboarding legend Steve Caballero has accomplished so much during his 30-plus years of skating, he’s one of those rare guys who is known simply by his nickname, Cab. As an original member of the Bones Brigade, the eighties skate super team that Stacey Peralta envisioned to redefine skateboarding, Cab appeared in perhaps the most famous skate video of all time, The Search for Animal Chin. Cab has invented tricks including the Caballerial and the frontside boardslide and, in 2009, Cab and Vans celebrated the twentieth anniversary of the first-ever signature skate shoe, the Vans Caballero, while 2012 sees the twentieth anniversary of the longest running and “greatest” skate shoe of all time, the Vans Half Cab. Source: www.vans.com
Patrick Fogarty: Patrick Fogarty – Born July 30, 1981 in Minneapolis, MN.
Patrick acquired an interest in filmmaking at the early age of 13, when he learned how to edit on a linear VHS editing bay at his local public access station, making music videos out of his favorite movies. After a brief stay in film school at Columbia College in Chicago and playing bass guitar in the divisive noise/blues atrocity No Doctors, he moved to California to pursue more practical experience in film production.
In 2005, he began directing music videos as a way to combine his two favorite art forms. After working with dozens of unsigned bands on shoe-string budgets and mastering the craft, Patrick has carved out an audience with the help of a few rising stars in the music industry, most notably, Hollywood’s own Black Veil Brides, who he has directed videos for at every stage in their career, thus far. Source: Patrick Fogarty
Chad Michael Ward: Chad Michael Ward is a critically-acclaimed self-taught artist, photographer and filmmaker who has spent the last 14 years shooting musicians, celebrities and pretty faces in the urban wilds of San Francisco and Los Angeles.
His unique portraits and hyper-stylistic imagery has made Ward one of the more sought-after talents in the music and art industries with work appearing in numerous galleries, magazines, album covers and books including the forthcoming The New Erotic Photography volume II from TASCHEN.
Ward’s work has also been collected into several monographs including Black Rust, Autopsyrotica, DevilEngine, Dangerous Beauties, Storyteller and Storyteller: NUDE.
He is currently represented by Shannon Associates in New York. Source: Chad Michael Ward
Squindo: Born in New Jersey in September of 69, Squindo grew up on heavy doses of Saturday morning cartoons and the smells of gasoline and grease. At age 10 he attended his first drag race and was instantly fascinated with the hot rod world. From that moment on he was either drawing a car or under one.
In the summer of 1999, after years of pushing his art, he met Lars Ulrich of Metallica and the luck began to change. Since then he’s been creating Metallica merchandise nonstop. He has designed album art, clothing, DVDs, and toys for some of the most influential bands today including the Misfits, Ramones and GreenDay.
In 2005, he finally quit the daily grind again to pursue art 100%. Since then his lowbrow work’s have shown on gallery walls from the ASR Ripper Show, Gasoline Gallery and Gallery 1988 in LA to east coast galleries The Parlor, Art N Soul, East Atlanta Gallery and the Spacejunk Galleries in France. His art has been published in two books thru Korero books and in several magazines from IronHorse to Tattoo Life, with the growing popularity of his use of wood stains and hand carved panels, auto body filler, fiberglass and acrylics, strongly influenced by his cartoon and gearhead upbringing.
Squindo is steadily designing merchandise and countless show posters for bands and venues, ski design for Rossignols ‘Seven Artistic Sins’ project, Hasbro design and layout, and skateboard design for several skaters including legend and brother-in-law Tom Groholski with Pocket Pistols. At the same time, painting, sculpting, tattooing and wrenching on his hot rods in a secluded North East Pennsylvania studio and log cabin home. Source: Squindo
Sorrow: There are a few different paths a devoted family man can take immediately after a handful of his loved ones are prematurely stripped of life. One path leads to a realm of unanswerable questions and emotions—a world of defeat. Another path leads to a fantastical world, where art is therapy, colorful worlds are created, and a hidden passion is rediscovered in honor of lost love. A decade ago, Sorrow chose the latter path. After adopting a name that summed up his feelings, he conjured up old inspirations like HR Giger and Aiden Hughes, and dove headfirst back into his childhood love of drawing, graffiti, and skateboarding. For the last 15 years, he has used a mixture of acrylics, spray paint, and inks to forge a galaxy of octopus-like skulls and Cronenberg-esque flowers mixed with a cup of street culture on everything from walls and trains to canvases and kicks. Now, both his life and his art are constantly getting brighter. —Alex Pardee Source: Sorrow
Travis Smith: Travis Smith, born in 1970, is a self taught mixed media artist who is best known for his album cover artwork. Since 1995 he has produced hundreds of works for several Hard Rock and Heavy Metal artists including Katatonia, Opeth, Devin Townsend, CKY, Death, All That Remains, Avenged Sevenfold, Amorphis, We Are the Fallen, Overkill, and Psychotic Waltz. His work has also appeared in comic books, band merchandise, posters, and DVDs. He lives and works near San Diego, California. Source: Travis Smith
Wynn Miller: Wynn Miller’s career as an artist has spanned over 30 years, both as an award-winning advertising photographer and photojournalist. His late- 1970′s work — capturing skateboarder Tony Alva and his fellow Dogtown skateboarders has achieved iconic status. Miller’s now – infamous Freshjive Mad Dog Chronicles has been traveling the world in exhibition, with extensive showings in Tokyo, Paris, Los Angeles and New York.
Early in his career, Miller chronicled a year in the life of a East Los Angeles street gang known as “Arizona Maravilla”. He hung out with the gang, earner their trust and was allowed to photograph them on their own turf. This was a gang culture born on tradition and dedication, a far cry from today’s Crips and Bloods. Nonetheless, violence was endemic and after the shooting death of young gang member with whom he was very close, Miller called it quits and never returning.
Miller, a Los Angeles native, studied photography at Santa Monica College. Source: Wynn Miller
