Week #43 ('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.

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An album cover needs an element of immediate attention-grabbing, some form of challenging or visually engaging imagery that gets people to turn their heads and check this shit out. For both of the projects I have to show for you today, this element is front and center, not so much telling any kind of story as much as it is grabbing that valuable eyeball real-estate and not letting go. Artists than manage to have such a talent understand many different visual tricks to draw that attention, an understanding of art as a medium rather that just pretty images on a screen. Especially in the world of album covers, that initial draw can mean everything; there was no way I was going to let a new DJ Muggs record slide, but I am being totally honest when I say that I probably would not have given Revenge Of The Truence’s new LP a listen if it hadn’t been for the art, proof of concept if there ever was one.

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): al.divino

Kilogram, by DJ Muggs & al.divino

I’ve talked about divino before on my Art Appreciation’s before, and every time I see a new piece from him I can see his talents becoming more defined and precise. There is a madness here, a visual acid trip that very well could be explained away as a mindless collage of paints to someone who isn’t willing to put in the work to really *see* what could be happening here. There is an unmistakable abstractness to this painting, similar to Jackson Pollack, yes, but I think the visuals here can go back even farther into the 20th century; imagine taking the fluidity of Pollack’s work, and imposing the color palettes of  artists like Kandinsky and Klimt (especially with those shades of gold), and then, to top it all off, just stick that motherfucker in the oven and melt it. I don’t know if divino is drawing upon these artists, but nonetheless I get the same feelings from this piece as I do the ones from those artists, a kind of anxious unease, but with one very different and unique spin… I think this is a portrait. The proportion of the colorful “aura” shall we call it is strangely head-like, and it’s placement on the canvas is about where a head would be (not to mention how the darker tones below almost look like brooding shoulders). Those blues on the right side of the color splotch are too deliberate to not be some kind of face even. That’s where the unease comes from, not knowing exactly what you’re looking at, but you *know* that, whatever it is, it’s looking at you too. Knowing al.divino’s status as a totally unique emcee in hip-hop, with his style of beating you with collages of words and threats, I could see this being some sort mirror-reflection of what divino sees as his style: it’s weird and off-putting, but it immediately grabs you, and, if you stare (listen) long enough, you might even be able to make out what’s going on.

divino's Twitter/divino's Instagram

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Artist(s): Deadly Album Covers

Slims 2, by Revenge Of The Truence

Like I said above, I owe this album cover all the credit for getting me to listen to this fantastic album. Any piece of art that get’s you to say “what the actual fuck is going on here” is already doing something right in my book, and this piece right here is full of all sorts of fascinating questions. Did this skeleton guy just hop out of the sarcophagus with the gat? Why is skeletor pimped out in suit? Who is he shooting at? Did he have the gun with him the whole time? Did the ancient Egyptians have pistols? None of these things are answered, but do they really need to be? Sometimes the absurdity of a piece speaks for itself, and it comes down to how many questions can remain *unanswered* as opposed to how many mysteries can be solved. Besides the ridiculous narrative here, I love the stylings of the piece, which looks like some old 50’s movie poster, what with the very tightly packed action washed out colors. It’s given the look of the old media, while also made to look as if it has lived since the 50’s as well with it’s rustic lines and especially that dense cloud effect going on around the barrel of the gun. It’s a kind of campy cinema-inspired piece that may not 100% align with the musical material, but hey, it got me to listen to the music, so that’s mission accomplished in my book.

Deadly Album Cover's Instagram

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