Week #35 ('20) Art Appreciation
Welcome to my weekly Art Appreciation post, where I provide a list of some amazing album covers, single art, and random art that have come out within the past week. I’ll give you the artist/photographer/painter/magician’s name, as well as any social media or websites where you can go and check out more of their work. Click here to go back and see some other Art Appreciation posts.
——————————
I’m giving you two very different pieces today that are at opposite ends of a certain spectrum. On one end, you have artists that use image sparingly, selectively representing ideas with as little filler as possible; these pieces are remarkable in how much they can say with so little, and, in the case of music, can define an auditory experience with few, but potent, images and colors. The opposite of this would be cramming an image with as much material as possible, with no filter to the number of ideas that can be presented; it’s not a lesser skill, but a different skill, one that needs a certain amount of artistic balance so that the piece isn’t too overwhelming or illegible. Take note of the density of these two pieces, and how these artists use the space they are given in their own specific ways.
Remember, use this post to follow and subscribe to these artists; they deserve as much recognition as the musicians they are attached to.
Artist(s): ral_duke
Pray for the Evil 2, by Flee Lord
This guy is responsible for a lot of the iconic images associated with the Griselda/Affiliates movement: all of Conway’s Everybody is F.O.O.D. tapes and Look What I Became, Benny’s The Plugs I Met, and he’s even done previous tapes for Flee himself with Lord Talk 2, Gets Greater Later, and Later Is Now under his belt. His style consists of taking images from pop culture and iconic movies, and either brashly obscuring the faces or juxtaposing them in some sort of incongruent environment for effect. This one he’s done for Flee’s newest project is a bit different than ral’s usual fare, but it fits more into line with the original Pray for the Evil’s cover (done by D.Ratz), with the snakes and tribal mask giving this sort of occult or dark magic feel to it, especially when placed against a stark black background. I don’t know if this was planned or not, but this cover also fits in very well with the cover art of Flee Lord’s last project (FROM A WEEK AGO, MIND YOU) Loyalty + Trust II, which has both a black background and a very similar snake/head structure to it, but with very different perceptions and results. It’s amazing how a few little changes to the snakes (making them more life-like here on ral’s cover) and changing the head from Medusa to this masked figure, can make all the difference in the world aesthetically. Effective use of imagery, regardless of the relative simplicity, can go a long way in setting the tone of the final project.
ral_duke’s Instagram
——————————————————
Artist(s): moodzanzan
B4 The Storm, by Internet Money
These collage pieces have always been some of my favorites. It takes a certain skill to selectively include specific elements into a piece, but I think it’s a separately admirable skill to be able to fill your art to the brim with a whole host of references to call-backs, giving us here as viewers a lot more visual work to do. In a way, it’s kind of like reading a book, investing in it’s story and characters. There are all sorts of faces and references you can find in this picture, like a Where’s Waldo of modern trap with a ton of Waldo’s to find. I will say that this right here that I’m showing you is the previous version, the initial one that they used in leading up to the B4 The Storm project, but if you click/tap over on the image above you can see the cover they went with on the final product. The little details in that original cover, from the huge ASTROWORLD callback ala Trippie Redd to the awesome reconstruction of the cover of Don Toliver’s last album, set it apart as something memorable and distinct. Finally, besides the actual construction of the piece, the use of color is A-1, especially when differentiating all of the individuals in the roller coaster, giving each on their own fit and representing their likenesses well enough to make them distinct. It’s a piece of art that you can stare at all day long; I know I have been.
moodzanzan’s Instagram
——————————————————
