Week #6 ('21) 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 only have one thing to tell you before we get into this: the use of colors on the two pieces I have to show you are incredible, evoking two completely different moods through their color palettes while still maintaining strong and bold choices. Without further ado, let’s get into this shit.
Remember, use this post to follow and subscribe to these artists; they deserve as much recognition as the musicians they collaborate with.
Artist(s): Gabriel Alcala
Gang Signs, by Freddie Gibbs
You know what? I think there is an incredibly underrated form of art that we have all engaged with in our lives, one that teaches us a lot about how colors can work together to build art into something that is larger than the sum of its parts. I’m talking about a motherfucking coloring book guys. Look, is it ‘high art”? Naw, but that shit is pretty as hell y’all, especially if you take it as a challenge and make it as well-colored as possible. All of this is a roundabout way of saying that I not only love this piece right here from Gabriel, but I love everything I’ve seen from him so far. It is all incredibly chromatic where, like the coloring books I was talking about, there is really no “shade” or “gradient” to speak of (besides the rainbow of the sunset behind him of course), instead opting to color each shape and form in one, solid color. This makes the entire piece pop, with every element having its own beauty and frivolity. Plus it’s always amazing when that frivolity comes from a rabbit throwing up his set with a bag of dough in his hand Also something that I think is hilarious for some reason is where the fuck *is* this rabbit? Like there are trees but this isn’t the woodlands; there’s a pond but this ain’t a swamp; big ass rocks n shit. I’ll tell you where this rabbit is: exactly where he needs to be. Stay the fuck out of his business.
Gabriel's Instagram
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Artist(s): Huey P.
In The Same Token, by Emilio Craig
Forgive me if this mask is from something (because it does seem vaguely familiar), but I’ve never seen a mask that works so well for a piece like this one. I mean it would have been *so* easy to make this reclining Scarface-esque character in a way that still would have been badass, but Emilio decided to go through this album rollout with the mask on, and the results are something iconic, something I won’t forget for a long time. Hip-hop has no shortage of building characters; I mean, shit, one of the greatest examples of this exact thing, the Metal-Face himself, died not too long ago, so there is sufficient history here. Sometimes it’s as easy as going to a Halloween store, and picking up that shit that really speaks to you. The character is a central focus in this piece (and in a lot of the video and picture material for this album), but what makes it standout even more artistically is the effort of the eternally-gifted Huey P., who uses to great effect like many of his other works, shades of reds and blues to make something saturated in color. The dangerous reds outside of the window are oppressive, like a wave of hostility trying to break its way into the car, while the blue upholstery in the vehicle isn’t exactly bright and welcoming either. It’s a brutish and still-hostile blue, but the rapid change to the baby-blue of the scary man’s shirt isn’t exactly the assuaging force you want it to be… Within the piece you are trapped: you can brave the outside where you know the guns of the world are trained on you, or you can risk it all in a car with this madman… who is staring right into your everlasting soul. Something making you feel genuinely uncomfortable, especially in a still piece of art like this one, is a gift that only the most talented of artists can pull off, and I give Huey all of the props in the world.
Huey's Instagram
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