Wednesday 16 November 2005
Donnell Library Auditorium
20 West 53rd Street
6:30 to 7:00 p.m. Reception
7:00 to 8:30 p.m. Presentation
PrettyUgly looks at the work of three young illustrators, Aya Kakeda, Tara McPherson and Souther Salazar, exponents of the so-called New Weird America aesthetic. Delicate and deranged, homespun and psychedelic, they are confidently situated among the high/low, illustration/design/art pigeonholes. And they seem to have found their place in the commercial environment without any obvious loss to the soul of their work.
Moderated by Laurie Rosenwald.
Admission
Advanced registration
$15 AIGA members
$10 AIGA student members
$25 General public
register
Aya Kakeda – www.ayakakeda.com
Aya was born and raised in Tokyo Japan. She now works and lives in Brooklyn, New York. She likes cats, seals, and receiving postcards and she has ever-changing weekly obsessions; now it’s the French language and a star-nosed mole. She also elaborates lots of theories about a lot of things. When not indulging in her obsessions she paints and draws, creating her own whimsical narratives.
Tara McPherson – www.taramcpherson.com
Tara is a painter, poster artist and freelance illustrator based in New York City. She graduated from Art Center in Pasadena, CA in August 2001. She interned at Rough Draft Studios, working on Matt Groening’s “Futurama” during college. Her recent projects have been painted covers for DC/Vertigo Comics, and numerous gig posters for rock bands such as Green Day, Duran Duran, Modest Mouse, Queens of the Stone Age, Death Cab For Cutie, and others. Recalling many issues from childhood and good old life experience, she creates images that are thought-provoking and seducing. People and their relationships are a central theme throughout her work.
Souther Salazar – www.southersalazar.net
Souther grew up near a chocolate factory in the cowboy capital of the world (Oakdale, Ca). He has been making art since 1983, when he won a blue ribbon for a crayon drawing of a pirate. His mixed-media sketchbook/sculpture collage-painting paper scrap installations have been described by some as a bum’s wallet exploding. Words and pictures are his flint and tinder and reams of paper feed the fire.
Laurie Rosenwald – www.rosenworld.com
Laurie is the World’s Most Commercial Artist and principal of rosenworld, an overfed, undertaxed, government-subsidized corporation with wholly owned subsidiaries in Gothenburg, Sweden and TuCan, a New York neighborhood also known as “Too Close To Canal Street.” The studio’s areas of expertise include drawing, graphic design and typography. Her New York Notebook, a guidebook, sketchbook, and blank book all mushed up together, was recently published by Chronicle Books. Rosenwald teaches at The School of Visual Arts, and also conducts a workshop about how to make mistakes on purpose.