Monday, October 26, 2009

Lowbrow Art / Pop Surrealism


Robert Williams

Lowbrow Art, also known as Pop Surrealism, is an art movement that has its origins in the 1960s and 1970s, coming originally from California hot rod / kustom car culture, underground comix, countercultures from the 1960s, 70s, and 80s, and other subcultures as well.

The term Lowbrow art came about as a reaction to the highbrow* art typically found in many art galleries and museums. Where the mainstream of much contemporary art places little emphasis on skill, artists in the lowbrow movement are typically highly skilled; many come from an illustration background.

*definition of highbrow: a person with intellectual or cultural pretensions; an intellectual snob. May also refer to pretentious art galleries and museums-- supposedly sophisticated, but maybe not!

One of the major promoters of lowbrow art is the magazine Juxtapoz, founded by lowbrow artist Robert Williams. Williams worked as an "underground comix" artist in the 1960's, appearing in Zap and other comic books as well. Prior to that he worked for Kustom Kar designer Ed "Big Daddy" Roth, who was also the creator the the character Rat Fink.

Ed "Big Daddy" Roth






Robert Williams


Todd Schorr




Mark Ryden




A great place to see a lot of lowbrow art online is the website for the California gallery La Luz de Jesus.

Some lowbrow artist links:

Robert Williams
Todd Schorr
Mark Ryden

Monday, April 20, 2009

Mr. Jacobi at CPOP Gallery


The Opener of the Way, acrylic, 18" x 24", 2008.
(click on image for a larger view)

Mr. Jacobi's painting The Opener of the Way will be included in the show “It’s All About ©” at Detroit's CPOP gallery. The show opens on May 2, and runs through mid-June. For more details, see Mr. Jacobi's personal art blog by clicking here.

Friday, March 13, 2009

New student art from this year, fall/winter 2008-2009


Taylor Wilder


Duron Lawler


Holly Phelan


Artina Gomez


Aric Pasciak


Alex Roberts-Perazza


Taylor Wilder


Ramon Roberts-Perazza


Miles Martinez


Sydney Wright


Duron Lawler


Artina Gomez


Alex Aniol


Melissa Desrochers


Heather Bommarito


Carmel Liburdi


Alex Roberts-Perazza & Carmel Liburdi