Week #44 ('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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I got three things for ya this week, so feel blessed y’all.

Nothing crazy to say this week, just please make sure to go and peruse the stores of these various artists that I show you guys: guys like FRKO have substantial marketplaces with FIRE pieces on there for purchase. You might find your next favorite hat on that motherfucker.

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): FRKO

An Album Called Classic, by Jay NiCE, Ru$h, & Tha God Fahim

Jay and Ru$h have been on a little bit of a run here recently, and luckily for all of us art lovers their covers have been graced by FRKO, one of my favorite cartoonist/music artists in the game right now. I wrote about him the week before last for his work for Fendi Don, and a lot of those same concepts apply here, but you get a little bit more of a clearer picture of his approach to characters. The Fendi Don cover contained a lot of extraneous elements that made a detailed scene, while this one here for An Album Called Classic takes it down to the basics: who you’re about to be listening to, in a style that straddles the line between gangsta cartoon and caricature in the best of ways, exaggerating the details that most define the three artists rapping on the project. Jay NiCE is sticking to the shadows, preferring to let the power of his words speak over a fly fit. The total opposite of the spectrum here is Ru$h, rocking a CRIMSON fit, a beautiful color from FRKO here that really stands out and draws the eye. Fahim is cool as a motherfucker in the timbs and round shades, with his now-characteristic headband and wild hairdo. It’s an album cover with a lot of personality, and another hit from FRKO.

FRKO's Twitter/FRKO's Instagram/FRKO’s Website

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Artist(s): Big Ghost LTD (aka The Mighty Hands of Zeus)

The Ghost of Albizu, by Big Ghost LTD. & UFO Fev

As if the man could possibly be capable of any more talent, it turns out Big Ghost is also a skilled painter in addition to being one of the best producers in the hip-hop game today. This painting is beautiful, colorful, vibrant, and takes into account so many of the different angles that the album itself presents. Fev himself takes center stage, wearing his crown and skull mask, posturing himself as a leader of a Puerto Rican wave in hip-hop culture in the same way that Albizu was in politics. He is surrounded by icons and symbols that reinforce this mindset: literal ghosts, the Puerto Rican flag itself (which is very similar to the American flag for those people who don’t know), angels and crosses to highlight faith, and mural to Pedro Albizu himself complete with his well-deserved halo. I don’t know anything personally about Big Ghost as a person, so maybe he knows more about these subjects than I give him credit for, but what seems so amazing about this piece to me is the lengths that Ghost has gone through to learn and understand what these things mean to UFO Fev, what Albizu means as an idea, and what Fev himself means as a rapper repping these ideas and this culture. Aside from the ideals behind it, the actual construction here is magnificent too, with a great use of colors, whether it’s the red/white/blues of the flag itself being found throughout the piece, or the sharp yellows and lush purples that put those other colors into perspective. The love I have for this album and this piece representing it is immeasurable, the respect is off the charts. Big ups to Big Ghost for this masterpiece.

Big Ghost's Instagram/Big Ghost's Twitter

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Artist(s): Roby Dwi Antono

Never Forgotten, by MadeinTYO

And now we must return to the ABSTRACT art, cause what’s an Art Appreciation without some weird-ass images? Malaysian artist Roby Antono has come through with a piece of art that, while not really representing anything about the music itself, has burned itself into my memory with it’s oddity and uniqueness. Falling into the Surrealist mold perfectly, Roby imitates life without being so unrecognizable that it can’t be understood, but rather giving us hints that what we’re seeing could be real. There is a dog, yes, and there is indeed a little girl kneeling, but everything else has a healthy spin of weird thrown on it. The girl has a bunny head, that much is obvious, but my favorite element of this piece is TYO’s head in the ground, with a hole bored showing us a sort of mini-TYO (maybe like his “inner being” or “psyche” maybe?) with this dumbfounded expression in his face. The attention to textural detail on the hair and fur on the bunny-person is what makes this seem “real” despite the visual evidence to the opposite, and the use of color (or lack thereof) take that flashiness away so you focus on what is actually happening in the scene. Something this reminds me of off top is the original illustrations for the Alice and Wonderland/Through the Looking Glass books, which I have very fond memories of reading whenever I was a kid; a piece like this looks right out of the Wonderland for sure.

Roby's Instagram/Roby's Online Profile

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