----------------------IS a'Gallery----------------------

IS a'Gallery
Curators: Carina, Emily, and Jake
"We show work from all different time periods, including modern, and works from an assortment of artists."

Directions to IS a'Gallery

Cover Street, Riverside California

The Exhibition

JUST BECOVERS an exhibition by IS a'Gallery

Todd Mcfarlane
Hipgnosis
 Frank Frazetta
IOSHVA

Micheal Whelan
Mark Ryden
Bernhard Willhelm

Drew Struzan
Ralph Steadman
Emek

This month, IS a'Gallery is having an exhibition focused on cover artists. What type of cover artists? We decided to focus on movie, CD, and book cover artists and even one artist featured in a magazine. These three types of  art have similar themes in that they are all covers. The art produced by these artists is used to catch the customer's eye so that they may buy the product. The art may also entirely focus on showing what the product is about. These artists are chosen to represent an entire book, movie, or CD. When we were selecting these artists, we looked for artists that actually had their artwork used on a movie cover, a CD cover, or a book cover first and foremost. Cover art is a way for the average person to actually own the artwork of an amazing artist. 

Todd McFarlane

"TEN THOUSAND FISTS"

by Todd Mcfarlane

2005

75 cm x 45 cm

Ink, Hand Drawn

(CD Album Cover Art)

-Born in Alberta, Canada in 1961.

-Always had a passion for comic books and after playing baseball in college, he tried to get into the comic industry. He sent out over 700 pieces of his artwork and was rejected over 700 times.

-He was eventually picked up by marvel and worked his way to the top of marvel comics. He ended up doing most of the first spider man comic.

-He split from marvel with several artists and created Image Comics where he produces his own comic called Spawn.

-He made spawn into an action figure series and a live action movie.

-This popularity led Disturbed to request McFarlane to animate their mascot, The Guy, who is on the cover of this CD.

-The Guy started out as just a grinning face with pointy teeth until McFarlane animated him.

-I chose this CD cover because it was the beginning of an image that Disturbed has become known for. The Guy is their logo on most CDs to date.

-Statement: “My ability to deliver a good product is my greatest strength,” said McFarlane. “I'd like to be remembered as a guy who turned out some quality comics and toys, while doing a few different things even if it wasn't the easiest road to follow.”

Hipgnosis

“The Division Bell”

Hipgnosis Design Group

Photograph

5”X7”

1993

Hipgnosis specialized in creating cover art for albums of rock musicians and bands like Led Zeppelin, AC/DC, Scorpions and many other bands. When they first started out, Powell and Thorgerson, the creators, adopted their name from graffiti they found on the door to their apartment. Their approach to album design was strongly photography-oriented. For the photograph, Hipgnosis erected two large metal heads, each the height of a double-decker bus, in a field near Cambridge. The sculptures were positioned close together, and photographed in profile, to give the illusion that they were not only talking to each other, but to present the viewer with a third face. The sculptures were devised by Keith Breeden, and constructed by John Robertson.

Frank Frazetta

"Sea Witch"

by Frank Frazetta

22 x 15 inches

1967

Oil Painting
(CD Cover Wolfmother)

-Born in Brooklyn, New York, 1928

-Frazetta went to the Brooklyn Academy of Fine Arts until the age of 16.

-He did many comics like Flash Gordan, Li’l Abner, and Little Annie Fanny, as he worked on developing his personal style.

-He took a Z out of his name so it wouldn’t sound ‘Clunky’.

-Most of his work is not commissioned but the commercial industry tries to get permission to use it for whatever book cover, movie poster, or calendar they are producing.

-Sold an original comic painting for $380,000 which is a record for a single page of American comic-book artwork.

-He produced a movie called “Fire and Ice” that featured his art but the technology at the time didn’t fit very well with his art animated.

-His most famous covers are for Molly Hatchett (death dealer)(dark knight), Conan the barbarian, the old Tarzan novels, and Wolfmother’s debut album.

-Died last year, May, 2010.

-I chose this painting because I like the band and never knew about Frazetta until I looked up the album artwork. I think that if I did that, then other people would of as well and learned about Frank Frazetta. After I looked him up, I realized it wasn’t the first time I had seen his artwork since my Mom has some old Tarzan books with his art printed as the cover.

-Statement: “What I do is create images, period.”

IOSHVA

"A Book Like This"

September 8, 2007

IOSHVA

Ink Hand drawn

300x300

For the Band Angus and Julia Stone

IOSHVA is a creative director and digital designer with several years of agency experience, he has completed works for a variety of a national and international clientele, working on both print and new media campaigns. As an artist IOSHVA has been involved in several group exhibitions over the years, he has also presented two solo shows. Along with his ARIA (AUSTRALIAN RECORDING INDUSTRY ASSOCIATION) Nominated for the best cover art in 2008. IOSHVA was also presented an accredited GOLD ARIA award for his design contributions for new Australian music sensations Angus and Julia Stone. He works independently from his studio based at Avalon in Sydney. He provides print design services, and a variety of new media applications including website designs-Development and e-commerce solutions suited for small business and individuals print design/graphics.

The album was designed by Ioshva, who is the brother to the band’s drummer; Mitchell Connelly’s who also happens the band’s photographer. So that’s two sets of siblings working on the album. The band also direct their own film clips too. The illustrations however were done by Caroline Pedler from the UK, who has done a few children’s books.

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Micheal Whelan

"The Way of kings"

by Micheal Whelan

2010

24 x 36 inches

Acrylics
(Book Cover for Brandon Sanderson "The Way of kings")

-An artist since 1980.

-He has a B.A. in painting from San Jose State University.

-He is a heavy hitting cover artist with 350 book and album covers for people like Stephen King, the Jacksons, and Meatloaf.

-He focuses on fantasy based covers and has won numerous awards in that field like Best Professional artist for locus magazine.

-A member of the graphic Artists Guild.

-As an illustrator, he usually incorporates part of the book into the cover and creates a scene or story in of itself.

-I like this piece because it represents the book very well with many elements from the book included into the painting. I feel as if I can step onto one of those plateaus and be swept away into the story.

-Statement: “The dignity of the artist lies in his duty of keeping awake the sense of wonder in the world.”-G.K. Chesterton. ---- This is a quotation Whelan uses to sum up his artist statement.

Exaample:

This is the last of the Gunslinger series by the author Stephen King but Whelan, as an illustrator followed the whole series for cover art. As their were more books, King went back to Whelan for a new cover.

Mark Ryden

"Rosie’s Tea Party"

Mark Ryden

Oil on canvas

36”X36”

2005

Ryden was raised in Escondido, California. He studied illustration and graduated from the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, CA in 1987. His images are said to be deep, modern, and timeless. The little girl in this painting is a portrait of his daughter, he said he liked using his daughter as a model because she got what his work was about and never questioned it. A famous quote he had is, “Just experience it”, because he believed adults always got stuck when looking at his artwork. He also said that the whole reason for the meat theme is because, “meat is a physical substance that can be alive or just an inanimate substance. Meat is the matter that holds our spirit in this plane of existence”.

Bernhard Willhelm

"Volta"

Bernhard Willhelm 

470x470

Photograph 

2007

(CD Album Volta by Bjork)

The sculpture by Bernhard Willhelm, a famous fashion designer, is a mix between a Russian Doll and a melted bag of Chuppa Chups. 

Bernhard Willhelm was born in 1972 in Ulm Germany. He studied at the ROYAL ACADEMY OF FINE ARTS in Antwerp from 1994-1998. In 1999 Bernhard Willhelm was founded together in business with partner Jutta Kraus. First women’s collections are presented in Paris. Later in 2001 Bernhard receives the Moët & Chandon Fashion Award. He is a creative director for the first ready-to-wear collection CAPUCCI; Milan. Latter in 2003 he becomes the first men's collection Solo Exhibition at Art Foundation URSULA BLICKLE and works with curator Nikolaus Schaffhausen. In 2005 he wins the first prize of ANDAM fashion award, given by French cultural minister.

Drew Struzan

"Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone"

by Drew Struzan

24 x 36 inches

2001

Acrylic and colored pencil

(Movie Cover)

-Born 1947 in Oregon.

-Went to the Art Center College of Design then in Los Angeles.

-This is another heavy hitting cover artist with many famous covers like The Beach Boys, Black Sabbath, Earth Wind and fire, Police academy, The Goonies, Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Harry Potter and many, many more.

-He is probably most famous for his Indiana Jones covers and when he was asked what made it so popular, he replied that he just drew him as he looked.

-This Harry Potter painting was used on the cover of the first Harry Potter movie.

-While he is most famous for his Indiana Jones paintings, I chose this Harry Potter cover because of a picture he posted on his website. This picture shows how he did many different paintings for on commission because the movie studio asked for little changes. He did a minimum of 3 paintings and probably more than that.

-Statement: "The first thing the counselor asked me was 'what do you want to major in,' so I asked what the choices were." He was informed that he had two choices: fine art or illustration. The counselor went on to describe the two careers, telling Struzan that as a fine artist he could paint what he wanted, but as an illustrator he could paint for money. It didn't take him too long to choose his course of study. "I'll be an illustrator," he announced. "I need to eat."----His paintings go for around 40,000+ a piece now.

http://www.drewstruzan.com/illustrated/portfolio/?gs=2&type=mp

Ralph Steadman

Ralph Steadman

“Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream”

Three color silkscreen on white rising Stonehenge deckle edge paper.

22”x30”

2006

Ralph was born in 1936. He started as a cartoonist and through the years diversified into many fields of creativity. He has done artwork for “Alice and Wonderland”, “Treasure Island”, and “Animal Farm”. He worked with Hunter S. Thompson to create a genre called Gonzo Journalism, the most popular of this genre being “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas” which featured this picture as the cover of the book. This piece features two of Steadman’s humanoid figures driving down an invisible road at an extremely fast speed; the figure on the right is portrayed to be a monster while the one on the left is supposed to be Hunter S. Thompson. The sky is represented by a series of horizontal lines. The background is of a stereotypical desert, with cacti and a cattle skull. He employed such a simple background to make the focus of his design clear. 

Emek

"Return of the Ankh"

by Emek

800x800 CD Cover

(Album New Ameryka Part Two (Return of the Ankh) by Erykah Badu)

2010 

Hand drawn and heavily layered. 

Designed by artist Emek, the album illustrats espacing through her head 

Israeli-born illustrator Emek is one of the talents keeping poster art alive. Described by Henry Rollins as the “thinking man’s poster artist”, Emek continues many of the traditions of 1960′s psychedelia. His work is always hand drawn and heavily layered, mashing the political and personal; the organic and technical.

Conclusion

What did we learn from organizing this gallery? Cover Artists just don't get enough credit. Period. Whenever we looked up a cover and found some cool piece of art, there was sometimes no information at all about the artwork. The product and the studio that commissioned the art gets mostly all of the credit and the majority of the time, the cover artist isn't even mentioned or given credit to. This made organizing the gallery a try, try, and try again for each art work we chose. When there wasn't enough information about the artist or the artwork, we just had to move on. Being a curator is more difficult than we ever expected but when the exhibition was entirely put together, it was very satisfying to see. The majority of these artists all made this specific piece of art just for the product. There were a couple that made the artwork and then let a product use it, like Frazetti and Mark Ryden. The main thing as that each artist had a piece of artwork that connected to an entertainment source which in turn connected to the audience of the product and society as a whole.