jessie douglas

jessie douglas is an illustrator from Oregon. She focuses on the urban landscape with an interest in sign typeography. She's got a really nice sketchy style that makes even the most mundane street corner interesting to look at.

Check it out here.

Alex Varanese

Alex Varanese is an artist living in San Fran who loves red. "More than you" he proclaims. His work is super graphic and he is obviously influenced heavily by music.

Check it out here.

Marco Zamora

Marco's paint style is really rough and rugged, yet manages to have a real elegance to it. He focuses on cycle and messenger culture, but has an overall urban theme that includes graffiti'd trucks and the homeless.


Check it out here.

Cai Guo-Qiang

Cai Guo-Qiang is a Chinese artist who has been gaining worldwide acclaim for some years now. He works in a unique medium, gunpowder. His "illustrations" or fire paintings are created by setting different mixes of gun power on fire on a large canvas or piece of paper. He recently did a performance at the Philadelphia Museum of Art where he created new works while the public watched. The contrast between the aesthetic of the works vs. the violent way they are created is gorgeous. He also works in many other mediums. Some of his work on display now involves hanging cars from the ceiling with rope lights protruding from them giving the illusion of them being fireworks. He also has a piece featuring a stuffed tiger with arrows protruding from all directions. Also evocative of fireworks. I sense a theme here.





Check it out here.

Michael Sieben

Michael Sieben is an illustrator from Austin TX who takes his inspiration from skateboarding. He's been a staff illustrator and writer for Thrasher Mag for some time and has his own line of skateboards with a friend. His work is funny and fascinating using comical expressions and distorted proportions on his characters.

Check it out here.

Mr Brainwash

Mr Brainwash is a kind of enigma the same way Banksy is. There is now speculation that they are either the same person or very closely related. His/her work uses stencils of iconic personalities and juxtaposed situations to convey his/her ideas with a street sense of humor.

Check it out here.

John John Jesse

JJJ is a legend from the NY punk scene of the 70s and 80s. He's left the grit of NY to pursue his new love painting to tremendous success. His work has a great tension and beauty to it. It really evokes what it was like growing up in a punk scene with girls and booze and tattoos etc.


Check his work out here.

Michael Genovese

As far as excitement levels go, I'm pretty high on finding Michael's work. He never went to art school and is a "professional" sign painter in Chicago, yet his thought and vision and inspiration far outweighs 99% of the creative people I've met. His work is almost totally text based, whether it's graffiti text, Latino sign text or book type. He's worked on canvas, tin, zinc, steel and he's had solo shows around the country. If you haven't seen his work you should go to these links and look at it right away.

Read more about him here.

Check out the work here.

The Date Farmers

The Date Farmers were just that until they were discovered by a gallery owner in Los Angeles as the new hot folk art duo. They worked in the California date groves during the day and painted Latino cultural inspired works at night. They take ques from the hand painted signs of urban bodegas. Of Dia de Los Muertes figurines and legends. From Libre wrestling heroes and accessories. The work is truly beautiful and primitive by design.

Check it out here.

Os Gemeos

Os Gemeos are twin brothers from Brazil that I've been following for years. Their style is unlike any graffiti here in the States. It's really reflective of the unique culture and climate that Brazil offers. Their characters are depicted in a very playful, cartoony style that makes they infinite and tangible to anyone in any country while maintaining a uniquely Brazillian look.

Check them out here.