Artists

American, b. 1994

Adam Lundquist is a Chicago-born and based designer, printmaker, and visual artist. His distinctive style is influenced by skateboarding culture and its confluence of rock & roll, tattooing, graffiti and street art. The aesthetics and imagery of these subcultures intertwines in Lundquist’s handcrafted wood carvings and detailed paintings. Lundquist is a regular collaborator and featured artist at numerous commercial venues, skate collectives, and art institutions throughout the city.

Italian, b. 1980

Based in Rome, Alice Pasquini is an internationally recognized street artist, illustrator, and painter. With expressive lines and bursts of color, Pasquini’s practice explores the intimacies of emotional connection and the universal qualities of human experience. She frequently depicts strong female characters, presenting a more nuanced alternative to the highly sexualized image of femininity that dominates the street art world. Her prolific street art practice extends into her studio work, which often incorporates found materials and vintage ephemera. An avid traveler, Pasquini’s work can be found on city walls from Sydney to New York, Moscow to Marrakesh. She has been featured in gallery and museum shows worldwide, including the MACRO Contemporary Art Museum in Rome, Saatchi Gallery in London, the Museo Italiano in Melbourne, and the Mutuo Centro de Arte in Barcelona.

British, b. circa 1975

Whether plastering cities with his trademark parachuting rat, painting imagined openings in the West Bank barrier in Israel, or stenciling “We’re bored of fish” above a penguins’ zoo enclosure, Banksy creates street art with an irreverent wit and an international reputation that precedes his anonymous identity. Banksy has gained his notoriety through a range of urban interventions, from modifying street signs and printing his own currency to illegally hanging his own pieces in institutions such as the Louvre and the Museum of Modern Art. Although his identity remains anonymous, it is believed that his style grew out of the Bristol underground scene, where he bombed with the city’s DryBreadZ crew in the 1990s. Most often using spray paint and stencils, Banksy has crafted a signature, immediately identifiable graphic style—and a recurring cast of cops, soldiers, children, and celebrities—through which he critically examines contemporary issues of consumerism, political authority, terrorism, and the status of art and its display.

American, b. 1945

Best known for layering aggressively directive slogans over black-and-white photographs culled from mainstream magazines, Barbara Kruger’s visual language is strongly influenced by her early work as a graphic designer at magazines including House and Garden, Mademoiselle, and Aperture. In bold black letters against a strip of red, some of her instantly recognizable slogans read “I shop, therefore I am,” and “Your body is a battleground.” Much of her text questions the viewer about feminism, classicism, consumerism, and individual autonomy and desire, while her images are appropriated from conventional publications selling the very ideas she is disputing. Kruger’s work has been exhibited in museums and galleries worldwide, as well as on billboards, bus cards, posters, a public park, a train station platform in France, and other public spaces.

American, b. 1966

A revered figure in a bi-coastal subculture that comprises skaters, graffiti artists, and West Coast surfers, Barry McGee creates drawings, paintings, and mixed-media installations that address the struggles of contemporary urban life. Operating under the tag ‘Twist’, McGee became known for his stylized images of hobos, liquor bottles, and screws painted on walls and subway cars. He is a prominent member of the Mission School, a group of artists that emerged from San Francisco's Mission District in the late 1990s and whose handmade aesthetic and DIY attitude contrasted with the dot-com gentrification of the area during that time. McGee has participated in multiple international biennales and been featured in exhibitions at major art institutions such as the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles.

American

Using collage to create what he calls “mutated scenes,” the Brooklyn-based street artist known as Bäst has been embellishing urban environments in New York and Europe with his wheat-pasted posters for more than 15 years. Inspired by early punk flyers and a gritty urban aesthetic, Bäst appropriates iconic images from 20th- and 21st-century mass culture, creating collages that merge classic cartoon characters, fast food branding, and sex advertisements into biting satires of consumer culture. The artist has exhibited internationally with both solo shows and collaborative projects with the artistic duo FAILE. As Bäst’s work continues to gain notoriety both on the streets and in the galleries, he remains one of the few truly anonymous artists.

British, b. 1970

Ben Eine (aka EINE) is one of London’s most prolific street artists, developing his signature typographic style from the basis of all graffiti – the form of letters. Eine has painted his trademark large, colorful letters on shop fronts and streets around the world, including LA, Paris, Tokyo, Berlin, Dubai, and most famously in London on what is now ‘Alphabet Street.’ Deeply connected to the British street art scene, Eine produces screen prints with Pictures on Walls and creates original works with spray paint and acrylic on canvas. In 2010, British Prime Minister David Cameron gave one of Eine's paintings to President Obama during a state visit, and his work is currently held in the permanent collections of the Victoria & Albert Museum, London, The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, and galleries worldwide.

Australian

Australian artist Ben Frost is known for his kaleidoscopic Pop Art, mash-up paintings that take inspiration from areas as diverse as graffiti, collage, photorealism and sign-writing. By subverting mainstream iconography from the worlds of advertising, entertainment and politics, he creates a visual framework that is bold and often controversial. He has been exhibiting throughout Australia and internationally over the last 15 years, including sold-out solo shows in London, New York, Toronto, Singapore, Miami and San Francisco, as well as group shows in Beijing, Mongolia, Amsterdam, Berlin, and Chicago.

American

Blake Jones is a Chicago-based graphic designer, illustrator and fine artist. His playful characters and bold, color-drenched aesthetic lend his work a cartoon-like quality that is instantly appealing. In addition to his fine art and outdoor murals, Jones has worked for numerous local businesses and major companies including Soho House, Threadless, Budweiser, and Mountain Dew. Jones was selected by a panel of judges for both Line Dot's Second and Third Annual Juried Shows.

French, b. 1973

Christian Guémy, aka C215, is one of the most talented and ubiquitous stencil artists working today. He is known for creating site-specific works that reflect the local community, especially the individuals most often neglected by society. Portraying his subjects with respect and sensitivity, he uses his street practice to draw attention to the marginalized and disempowered. He typically works with a restricted color palette, masterfully manipulating the subtleties of light and shadow to capture details usually lost in stencil work. The distinctive style of his street stencils—known the world over—translates fluidly into gallery pieces that often incorporate found objects to retain their urban aesthetic. Beyond his extensive street practice, C215 has exhibited in numerous international fairs and galleries, including Banksy’s Cans Festival and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Rome.

American, b. 1987

Based in Chicago, Caroline Liu is a multi-dimensional artist who creates work that visually navigates the inner workings of her concussed mind. Her work is a therapeutic practice for holding onto memories she’d otherwise forget, as well as a vehicle for self-exploration and documentation of her everyday struggles as a person with memory loss. By focusing on personal narratives that highlight and camouflage the many facets of her identity, Liu is able to touch on themes of vulnerability and loss. Her work divulges into illusory moments of nostalgia, respite, and sorrow. Liu has painted for companies such as Adidas, Goose Island, Lululemon, and Vans, in addition to Netflix’s Easy and Vam’s Damaged Goods. Liu was selected by a panel of judges for Line Dot's Third Annual Juried Show.

American

Chris Gallevo is a painter, watercolorist, and graphic designer born and based in Chicago. Gallevo draws his artistic inspiration from a deep love of film, animation, music, and street art. His signature ‘Starmaidens’ are an imaginative study of the female form based on the idea of mermaids in space. Gallevo was selected by a panel of judges for Line Dot's Second Annual Juried Show.

American b. 1973

Cleon Peterson is an LA based artist whose chaotic and violent paintings show clashing figures symbolizing a struggle between power and submission in the fluctuating architecture of contemporary society. Peterson’s works are monochromatic and channel the fashion sensibility of the early 1980’s, complete with skinny ties and day glow colors. His distinctive style is recognized internationally, and his work has been shown in Los Angeles, New York, London, Paris, and Sydney among others.

American

Cost is a legendary graffiti writer and artist who, from the early 1980s to the mid-1990s, blanketed New York City and the surrounding metropolitan area with his wheatpaste stickers, spray paint tags and paint-roller pieces. Collaborating frequently with fellow NYC graffiti writer Revs, their work is widely recognizable for its bold, black printed letters and intentionally obscure messages such as Cost Fucked Madonna or Suicide Revs. When asked in 1993 by a New York Times reporter what it all meant, Cost responded, "If you could give us [Cost and Revs] the meaning of life, I’d give you the meaning of us."

American, b. 1993

Cristi López is a Florida-grown artist, painter, and illustrator based in Chicago. In 2016, she graduated from Ringling College of Art & Design with a BFA in Illustration. She was recently a Resident Artist (2017–18) and Instructor at Chicago’s Lillstreet Art Center. She has exhibited her artwork across the country and abroad, and her pieces are held in private collections around the world. 

López's work chronicles a life-long journey contending with mental health disorders. She uses the human figure as a means of externalizing the covert aspects of mental illness. Amidst the chaos, absurdity, and violence of their situation, the figures remain strong, nurturing, and tranquil. In her intensely personal, allegorical imagery, she aims to remind others struggling that their painful endeavors, in their varied manifestations, are ultimately of hope. 

 

American, b. 1981

Based in Chicago, Curtis William Readel is an artist and printmaker/co-owner of Pop!nk Editions. Reflecting and responding to his personal interactions with money and success, Readel constructs visual criticisms on power, consumptive greed, and the absurdity within our current social evaluations of wealth and accomplishment. From referencing monetary images to using actual currency, he creates semi-satiric, political commentaries that challenge our distorted views of financial normalcy and success. His work has been exhibited domestically and internationally in Brussels, New York, Kiev, and Bucharest among others.

British

Based in London, D*Face is an urban artist who has painted walls all over the world with his incisive, pop-inflected murals that critique consumerist society and the media-saturated environment of the modern world. His work often features iconic celebrities or appropriated cartoon figures such as Mickey Mouse and Hello Kitty spliced with images of decay and mortality. Influenced by modern art masters, graffiti, punk music and skateboarding, he works in a variety of different media and continues an illegal street practice while becoming increasingly sought-after in the gallery world.

British, b. 1979

Daniel Wilson is a fine artist and photographer from Cambridge, UK currently living and working in Chicago. Wilson’s captivating multimedia approach includes a diverse mix of acrylic, pen, pencil, spray paint, vintage images, and the artist’s own photography. His layered pieces aim to expose the hidden fabric behind the reality of the human condition, exploring the interrelational web of thoughts, feelings, atoms and energy waves that create our universe. His artwork often centers around the representation of human emotions, emphasizing the shared aspects of humanity that outweigh what divides us. Attracted to street art’s democratic nature, Wilson crafts artwork specifically for the urban environment and has executed several popular murals, including recent commissions for the Violet Hour and the Chicago B_Line.

American

Eric Weatherford is a fine artist and owner of Oddwall Painting, a mural company based in St. Louis. A self-proclaimed ‘Illustrative Surrealist,’ Weatherford balances fine art and urban art with his unique combinations of realistic subjects against patterned or abstracted backgrounds. His work draws inspiration from music, meditation, his artistic circle and his everyday interactions with people and objects. Weatherford has exhibited in galleries nationwide, and his paintings were selected by a panel of judges for Line Dot's Third Annual Juried Show.

British

Ermsy is a Paris-based graffiti artist and graphic designer best known for his deconstruction of pop imagery and cartoon characters. Beginning his graffiti work in 1991, Ermsy has been painting walls across the globe ever since, in countries such as Colombia, Brazil, Argentina, Australia, and Canada. His studio work has been exhibited internationally and he collaborates with top brands such as Converse, Ecko Unlimited, and Cartoon Network. With a strong underground following, he also continues to paint for graffiti crews FMB (UK), PBG (Lithuania) and TT (Paris.)

American/Canadian

FAILE is the Brooklyn-based artistic collaboration between Patrick McNeil (Canada, b. 1975) and Patrick Miller (American, b. 1976). Since its inception in 1999, FAILE has attained global recognition for their pioneering street art techniques and for their explorations of duality through a fragmented style of appropriation and collage. Spirituality, heroism, unconditional love, a greater moral purpose–and equally a lack of these–are among the central themes tying together their vast array of multimedia projects. Their prints, paintings, sculptures, and interactive installations have been exhibited at prominent institutions the world over, including The Outsiders London, the Brooklyn Museum of Art, Lisbon’s Portugal Arte 10, and the Tate Modern among others.

 

American

Frank Quintero is a painter, illustrator, and muralist based in Chicago. Working with acrylic, aerosol, and other mixed media, Quintero creates imaginative characters that recur frequently throughout his street and studio pieces. His bright, bold color palette and energetic style facilitate interaction with the viewer, opening a dialogue that Quintero sees as essential to the maturation of artistic culture. Quintero was selected by a panel of judges for Line Dot's Second Annual Juried Show.

American

Chicago artist Gary Schechner is fueled by a passion for all things with a motor. Schechner finds inspiration in the technology, lines, curves and livery of race cars, as well as from his first-hand experience of twisting the throttle open and 'dragging a knee' as an amateur motorcycle racer. His fine art practice, ‘abstractRPM’ (rpm= revolutions per minute and is the standard measurement for how fast and engine is turning over) is centered around his interpretation of these passion points. Schechner was selected by a panel of judges for Line Dot's Third Annual Juried Show.

British, b. 1982

Bristol-based artist and fashion designer Gemma Compton combines classic wildlife, popular culture and religious iconography with a strong illustrative style. Her childhood in the English countryside instilled an early love of nature that continues to inform her work. Darkly glamorous women merge with flora and fauna in her compositions, juxtaposing our modern human ideals of beauty with the natural beauty and cruelty of nature. Though she works mainly on her own studio practice, she continues to create stunning street pieces and collaborations with her husband, fellow street artist Copyright. Her work has been exhibited throughout the UK and internationally, including the Houses of Parliament in 2014.

American, b. 1963

Glenn Wexler is a Chicago-based artist who documents aesthetically intriguing features of the urban landscape that we habitually overlook in our daily lives. An advanced practitioner of multiple mediums, Wexler draws on his mastery of photography, printmaking and installation to create works that bridge art and design. He assiduously examines the complexities of visual experience in an ever-changing metropolis, elucidating the emotive power of our environments. In his ‘Lights Unfolded’ series, Wexler manipulates nighttime stills of distant lights in motion to evoke the frenetic energy and allure of the city illuminated. His artwork has been exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary Art, the Chicago Cultural Center, the Rockford Art Museum, and internationally in France, Italy, Switzerland and Hong Kong.

American, b. 1982

Minneapolis-based artist Greg Gossel illustrates a visual history of change and process that simultaneously features and condemns popular culture. With a background in design, his layered compositions are an expressive interplay of words, images, and gestures balanced by precise and expressive mark marking. His work has been exhibited throughout the U.S. and abroad, including Japan, London, San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles, Copenhagen, and Chicago. His commercial clients include American Express, Levi’s, Burton Snowboards, Stussy, VICE Magazine, and Interscope Records.

British, b. 1985

Hayden Kays is a London-based artist whose practice encompasses painting, sculpture and printmaking with a focus on the relationship between words and images. Kays has situated himself as an involved, sometimes complicit, commentator on capitalist culture, delivering challenging messages that range from the hard-hitting to the absurd. His work is characterized by acerbic word-play, traditional craftsmanship, deadpan humor, and bold imagery drawn from popular culture and art history. Employing everyday references and pithy witticisms, his artistic practice relates to and subverts the canon of the Pop Artists of the 1950s and the Young British Artists movement of the 1990s. Kays has enjoyed international exposure from platinum-selling band The Kooks, who used his work as the cover art for their latest album, and his solo exhibitions have garnered critical and commercial success.

American, b. 1981

Hebru Brantley is a Chicago native whose acclaimed artistic practice addresses the issues and injustices of urban life in America through his cast of youthful characters and their adventures. Imbued with a sense of fantasy and imaginative storytelling, Brantley’s work is inspired by a mix of comic book heroes, pop culture icons, Japanese anime, and street art pioneers Jean-Michel Basquiat, Kaws, and Keith Haring. While spray paint is often at the forefront of his mixed-media illustrations, Brantley experiments with a wide variety of mediums from oil and acrylic to more non-traditional forms like vinyl figures and comic books. His public works and solo shows have garnered international attention and major collectors including Jay-Z, LeBron James, and Lupe Fiasco. He has collaborated with Adidas, Nike, Red Bull, and Skyy Vodka, among others, and has exhibited worldwide.

American

J. Mikal Davis, aka Hellbent, is a Brooklyn-based artist known for his unique style of abstract graffiti that integrates ornate floral patterning, discordant colors, and sharp, fragmented geometry. His studio practice evolved out of a formal arts education and an early love of street art growing up in the South. Hellbent’s aesthetic language fuses the contemporary and the traditional, reflecting both the minimalist deconstruction of Graffuturism and the handmade, folk art style of the Mission School. Signing “Hellbent” in pastel colors or swirling cursive, a playful sense of irony informs much of his work, as does his deep love of music—his street name is drawn from his favorite punk musician Richard Hell and many of his pieces reference songs he listens to while working. In addition to gallery shows throughout the US and Europe, Hellbent continues his street practice with numerous large-scale murals and public commissions.

 

French, b. 1969

Invader, also known as Space Invader, is an anonymous French street artist best known for pixelated mosaics installed in cities around the world. Invader’s works are composed of tiles resembling vintage graphics from the 1970s video game Space Invaders, the source of the artist’s pseudonym. The artist "invades" cities worldwide, adroitly placing his tiled pieces in certain locations and awarding himself "points" based on the intricacy of the mural and the difficulty in placing it. Invader began these urban, outdoor installations in Paris in 1998, and continued to "invade" 31 other cities in France, followed by an additional 22 cities across Europe. Currently, cities in the United States, Canada, Asia, and Australia are also home to examples of Invader's work. Since 2000, Invader's work has been featured in galleries around the world, and he gained greater popularity and renown after he was featured in Banksy’s 2010 documentary film Exit Through the Gift Shop.

Austrian/French

Jana & JS­­­ are a street art duo based in Salzburg, Austria composed of Franco-Austrian couple Jana Balluch and Jean-Sebastion Philippe. Their distinctive art practice involves turning photographs- typically portraits- into stencils which are transferred to recycled materials such as metal, glass, canvas or wood. These materials lend themselves to the duo’s subject matter: a blend of human connection, architectural urban spaces, and the vulnerability inherent to the ephemeral quality of each. Through their unique art practice, Jana & JS aim to capture the feeling and esthetic of both urban environments and the people who shape them. In addition to creating artwork in the streets of major cities worldwide, Jana & JS have exhibited in gallery shows in Germany, Austria, France, America, Israel and England.

American, b. 1971

JAS (James Mariano) is a multimedia artist, animator, and illustrator based in Chicago. His playful sculptures are hand-crafted from porcelain, making each character unique. An insouciant sense of humor pervades his work, influenced by the artist’s love of childhood cartoons, monster movies, and The Three Stooges. In addition to award-winning animation and design projects, his artwork has been exhibited in galleries nationwide.

American

Jay Byrnes is a Chicago-based artist, graphic designer, and owner/creative director of an independent streetwear brand called Fourth is King. Jay’s visual art blends pattern, shape, and color with his stylized characters and layered backgrounds. He uses spray paint, collage and acrylic paint exploring themes of imagination and discovery, as well as the juxtaposition of chaos and calm present in today’s urban landscape. For over 10 years he has been developing cutting-edge creative work for brands in the food, music, fashion, and education industries, and his art and design work has been featured in books and publications internationally. Jay was selected by a panel of judges for Line Dot's inaugural Holiday Show. 

American, b. 1979

JC Rivera is a Puerto Rican-born artist currently living and working in Chicago. Rivera is known for his iconic Bear Champ, a boxing glove-sporting bear who serves as the artist’s personal avatar and expresses his reflections on identity, ambition, survival and power. Whether in the studio or on the street, Rivera imbues his artwork with a sense of humor and playfulness that makes his message accessible to a diverse audience. With countless murals and collaborations throughout the city, Rivera is a central figure in the Chicago scene. His artwork has been featured and exhibited in numerous galleries, commercial venues, and esteemed publications.

American

Born in the midwest and currently living in Los Angeles, Jillian Evelyn is a highly accomplished painter, sculptor, illustrator and printmaker. Her practice balances challenging conceptual themes that tackle the darker sides of modern life with a brightly-colored pop aesthetic. In addition to gallery shows across the US, her work has been featured in Juxtapoz, Vice, CONTEXT Art Miami, and other major fairs and publications.

Evelyn's new solo show ‘It’s About Time’ investigates temporal experience from a female perspective, delving into the near-obsessive nature of women’s relationship with time. The increasingly rapid pace of our technology-driven world and the feminist reckoning of the ‘Time’s Up’ movement lend a particular relevance to the subject, but Jillian Evelyn’s panoptic lens extends beyond the current moment and is rooted in her own life. Evelyn created the artwork for this exhibition as a way to confront and to process her personal and cultural observations around time, embracing the female experience in all of its messy complexity. In these new paintings, Evelyn plays with texture and linework to novel effect, resulting in a fresh take on the signature style of her previous pieces. Reflecting on this creative process, she articulates that “it felt suitable to utilize this time to grow as an artist rather than fear change and the idea that my time as an artist will come to an end.”

All artwork from 'It's About Time' will be available for pick-up (or will ship) after the show closes on April 20th. Email us at hello@linedoteditions.com with any questions.

American, b. 1995

Joseph Renda Jr. is a fine artist living and working in Chicago. Renda is intrigued with unifying contrary ideas such as life and entropy, chaos and order and nature and mankind. While integrating stylistic approaches from classicism, surrealism and urban contemporary art, Renda utilizes urban materials such as spray-paint with traditional oil painting mediums and techniques. An emphasis on the value of material and unique mark-making can be found within the technical aspects of the work. His creative process ranges from throwing chemicals on top of paint to obtain uncontrollable reactions, to highly refined realism and trompe l’oeil. He is influenced by the human experience, examination of self, synchronicity and surrealism.

American, b. 1977

Josh Grotto is an artist, designer, and illustrator born and based in Chicago. Beginning with graffiti writing as a young kid, Grotto’s interest in art intensified and evolved through formal education at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, from where he holds a degree. His signature artworks are an elegiac confluence of abstract expressionism, urban wheat-pasting, and traditional portraiture. Working intuitively, he splices together hundreds of pre-existing images sourced from prosaic materials, adding paint and texture to create new characters that are hauntingly abnormal, yet intimately familiar. Despite their melancholic mood, these works are a celebration of Chicago’s complex history, the artist’s personal narrative, and the robust lineage of picture-making. Grotto maintains an active studio practice and has exhibited work in solo and group shows in Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco.

American

Julia Banderas is a contemporary artist working and living in Chicago. Her signature artwork has evolved into a pattern-based “LePanther” series that illustrates a leopard and panther merged together as a representation of strength and evolution. This new series was inspired by Banderas' fascination with fashion design and old Hollywood patterns. As a co-owner of a screen printing studio, she experiments with different media in her fine art practice and creates original works in a custom mix of paints and silkscreens. Banderas was selected by a panel of judges for Line Dot's inaugural Holiday Show. 

American, b. 1974

Brian Donnelly, known internationally as KAWS, is a Brooklyn-based artist whose multi-media practice spans the worlds of graffiti, pop art, and consumer culture. His cartoonish aesthetic—including his best-known characters with X-ed out eyes—has its roots in his early career as a street artist, when he began replacing advertisements with his own acrylic paintings in the early 1990s. Continually blurring the boundaries between fine and commercial art, many of his most well known images are reimagined versions of animated characters. With their approachable Disney-esque style, these characters are able to express and provoke a complex array of human emotions. KAWS' diverse body of work has been exhibited worldwide in Paris, London, New York, Berlin, and Tokyo among others. Recent solo museum shows at the Brooklyn Museum and the Museum of Modern Art of Fort Worth have cemented his reputation, garnering popular and critical acclaim.

American, b. 1994

Born and raised on Chicago's South Side, Kayla Mahaffey (also known as KaylaMay) is quickly becoming one of the city's most sought-after artists with her unique blend of flat, cartoon elements with brilliant photorealism. Mahaffey's work gives voice to the unheard stories of contemporary youth and, as elucidated by the artist, "serves as a guide to bring hope back into our daily lives by cherishing each moment not in the mindset of an adult, but with the fresh eyes and imagination of a child.”

American, b. 1958

Keith Haring was an American artist and social activist known for his distinct pop-graffiti aesthetic centered on fluid, bold outlines against a dense, rhythmic overspread of symbolic imagery. Bridging the gap between the art world and the street, Haring rose to prominence in the early 1980s with his graffiti drawings made in the subways and on the sidewalks of New York City. Combining the popular appeal of cartoons with the energy of Art Brut, Haring’s practice explored themes of exploitation, subjugation, drug abuse, and rising fears of nuclear holocaust, which became increasingly apocalyptic after his AIDS diagnosis. Although the artist’s career was tragically cut short with his untimely death at the age of 31, Haring is regarded as one of the most influential street artists of his generation. His work can be found in the collections of The Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C among other prominent institutions.

American

Blending abstraction and portraiture, Kurt Kreissl is a painter whose work focuses on organic form and fluid movement. His art practice examines the space between emergence and drift, choosing moments to seize, develop, and relay. These paintings reflect senses from the ephemeral world of change and refract them into our own: light becoming breath; response becoming sensuality; physicality becoming spiritual ecstasy. Kreissl explores the properties of sensate life in mixed media: oil & acrylic paint, graphite, and digital. Kreissl was selected by a panel of judges for Line Dot's Third Annual Juried Show.

American

Left Handed Wave is a Chicago-based street and visual artist. Highly acclaimed for iconic characters and intricate pattern work, LHW's art started in the street and has branched off into a variety of different mediums. From plush toys and clothing to public murals and fine art, LHW continues to evolve in Chicago while gaining national attention from frequent travels around the states.

American, b. 1981

Amanda Marie, known internationally by her artist moniker Mando Marie, is an American painter and stencilist currently based in Amsterdam. Mando’s instantly recognizable characters draw their stylistic inspiration from Golden Age picture books, exuding a sense of childhood adventure and wonder. Adding a contemporary spin that reflects her street art savvy, Mando works primarily with spray paint, stencils and collage elements. Her paintings frequently feature repetitive and mirrored imagery, eliciting a dream-like quality that is simultaneously pleasant and haunting. In addition to her renowned stencils and murals, Mando has exhibited in solo and group shows throughout the US and Europe.

German, b. 1972

Based in Germany, Matthias Jung is an artist and graphic designer known internationally for his surrealist collages. Juxtaposing myriad architectural elements to dream-like effect, Jung creates ornate structures that feel both terrestrial and otherworldly. These hybridized edifices float above environments on the outskirts of civilization, appearing like mirages above rolling plains or arctic glaciers. Jung describes his creations as ‘architectural short poems’ aiming to challenge our relationships with traditional spatial environments. An avid traveler, Jung draws from his adventures both conceptually and physically, manipulating photographs from his trips to design each original collage. The resulting whimsical creations have been featured in multiple international publications including The Guardian, and influential blogs like Colossal and Designboom.

American, b. 1981

Max Sansing is a Chicago-based fine artist and one of the city’s most prolific and talented muralists. His distinct aesthetic fuses the color-drenched dynamism of street art with the technical elegance of photorealism. Born and raised on the South Side by two artistic parents, Sansing discovered his passion and creative gift at an early age. During his youth he was involved with several graffiti crews and taught himself oil painting before completing formal training at the American Academy of Art. In addition to his studio practice, Sansing is frequently commissioned to create large-scale murals and experiential installations across the country. He is deeply committed to supporting his Chicago community and is involved with numerous youth programs that expand arts opportunities in underserved areas. His work has been featured in gallery shows and special events in Chicago, New York, and Miami among others.

American, b. 1969

With their symmetrical compositions, intricate patterns, and lush colors, Maya Hayuk’s paintings and iconic outdoor murals evoke views of outer space, mandalas, airbrushed manicures, and traditional Ukrainian crafts. Hayuk weaves visual information from her immediate surroundings into her elaborate abstractions, creating an engaging mix of referents from popular culture and advanced painting practices alike while connecting to the ongoing pursuit of psychedelic experience in visual form. In addition to her myriad inspirations, Hayuk employs a vast repertoire of materials, using acrylic, ink, glitter, spray paint, watercolors, tape, ballpoint pens, and wheat paste in both public and private spaces. She has painted her massively scaled murals all over the world and maintains an active studio in Brooklyn, sketching in paint to inform her larger public works. Hayuk’s work has been the subject of solo exhibitions and commissions at venues including The Bowery Wall, NY; The Hammer Museum, LA;Democratic National Convention, Denver; Bonnefanten Museum, The Netherlands; and Musee E.A.V., Brazil.

American & Russian

Based in New York, Mint&Serf (collectively known as Mirf) is the artistic collaboration between Mikhail Sokovikov and Jason Aaron Wall. Deeply embedded in the New York graffiti scene, Mint&Serf distill their art practice to it’s most raw and unapologetic in defiance of the commercial beautification of graffiti as an illegal action. Rather than merely basing their aesthetic in graffiti, Mint&Serf translate the subversive attitude and lifestyle of the culture into their canvasses. Their chaotic compositions are built over many late nights in their studio, where they are often joined by members of their crew Peter Pan Posse (PPP) to create the succession of layered tags that lends their work a striking depth and authenticity. The duo has been featured in ArtNet, ARTFORUM, Artinfo, NYMag, The New York Post, Interview Magazine, Huffington Post, ARTNET, Dossier Journal, The DailyMail, Vice, Paper, ANIMAL, Complex, Mass Appeal, Gothamist and Blackbook.

 

French, b. 1966

Mr. Brainwash is the pseudonym of Thierry Guetta, a French artist and videographer best known for his role in Banksy's film Exit Through the Gift Shop that documented his rise to success. Mr. Brainwash practices an irreverent brand of appropriation characterized by the use of copyrighted images from history, popular culture, and other artists. Mr. Brainwash subtly alters the picture or its context, mischievously undermining the tone of the source material. His work hinges on the idea that anything is possible in his practice. “Art has no walls. Anybody can be an artist,” he claims. “Art has no rules. There’s no manual.”

Dutch, b. 1967

Based in Amsterdam, Niels Meulman is an internationally known visual artist, graphic designer, and art director. Meulman began tagging “Shoe” in 1979 and became a graffiti legend by the time he was 18. Together with Bando in Paris and Mode2 in London, he formed the Crime Time Kings and strove to define the style of European graffiti. In the 1990s Meulman furthered his technique by apprenticing under the Dutch graphic artist Anthon Beeke, and later ran his own design company, Caulfield & Tensing. In 2007, he revolutionized the art of writing with Calligraffiti, an art form that fuses calligraphy and graffiti. The intricate curves of his linework are derived from a long interest in the beauty of the written word, referencing an impressive range of forms from the calligraphy of sacred Arabic texts, to the vertical writing of East Asian scripts, to the richly illuminated manuscripts of medieval times. Widely acclaimed, Meulman’s calligraphic paintings have been shown in countless international exhibitions and are in the permanent collections of the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam and The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

French

Born and based in France, OakOak is a world-renowned street artist who specializes in creative, place-based interventions. Playing upon existing elements of the environment, OakOak wields his wit and humor to enliven public spaces and draw our attention to oft-overlooked details of our urban habitats. Accessible and endearing, his street work draws on comic books, video games, tv shows, and other beloved staples of pop culture. Whether it’s a sewage cover turned PacMan game or a stop sign altered to warn against climate change, OakOak’s interventions transform the mundane elements of city life into amusing and inspiring pieces of art. Declared one of Juxtapoz’s all-time favorite street artists, OakOak has been featured everywhere from BBC Brazil to Beijing’s biggest newspaper and has shown in galleries worldwide.

Oscar Joyo is a Malawian born, Chicago based artist known for expressive portraiture that features his unique combination of photo realism and tribal patterning. His practice fuses both traditional and digital mediums to explore imagery and themes connected to afrofuturism and afrosurrealism.

For this exhibition, Joyo has created a collection of 17 paintings on wood panels. Each is, at its core, a photorealistic portrait painted in acrylic of a member of the artist’s community. Joyo then coats each of the panels with a thick, clear resin. On top of this shiny surface he paints a layer of patterning and symbols that both embellish and obscure the subject of the portrait. The work is raw at the edges and is imbued with a spiritual psychedelia.

For Joyo, the creative process is profoundly influenced by music, and his interest in visually representing the sounds he perceives. As Joyo overlays his portraiture with vibrant, dynamic lines, shapes and patterns, they are in response to musical tempo, timbre and mood. As he further explores and understands his personal relationship with sound and it’s conversion into visual imagery, Joyo hopes that this synesthesia will be a point of connectivity for the viewer.

British, b. 1978

Based in Brighton, Pam Glew is a contemporary artist best known for her unique bleaching technique on vintage fabrics. Themes of national identity, gender relations, and anti-war politics feature prominently in her work. Flags, quilts, and other reclaimed materials are used to explore and challenge how our sense of self is constructed through our ancestral and contemporary cultures. An internationally renowned artist, Glew has been featured in over 100 group exhibitions and solo shows in the US, England, Germany, Sweden, Australia, and Korea among others.

Mexican, b. 1989

Polly Jiménez is a fine artist and illustrator from Mexico City known for her delicate, narrative-driven watercolors. With 'SheBody' Jiménez explores the relationship between women's bodies and the natural environment as an antidote to machismo culture, creating a space to honor difference across the feminine spectrum. Jiménez studied Fine Arts at the Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México and Visual Storytelling at the School of Visual Arts in New York. Currently, Jiménez works on a diverse range of illustration projects under the name Short Stories Studio, collaborating with both local and high-profile international clients. Some of her recent favorites include illustrating and designing a children's book about corruption in government and leading a workshop for Nike during Air Max Day.

American, b. 1980

Chicago native Jordan Nickel, aka Pose, has become one of the world’s foremost graffiti-style fine artists. In addition to his formal training, his artistic practice is deeply rooted in his graffiti experience and his immersion in traditional sign painting. Inspired by the streets, comic books, cartoons, and pop art, his compositions—whether on a wall or on canvas—burst with bright color, energy, and a pileup of fragmented, overlapping images. He is a member of The Seventh Letter, an acclaimed West Coast artist collective, and Mad Society Kings (MSK), a world-renowned graffiti crew. He has painted murals all over the world and his studio work has been shown at galleries from London and Dubai to New York and Los Angeles.

British, b. 1968

Pure Evil is the alias of Welsh-born graffiti artist and gallery owner Charles Uzzell Edwards. Pure Evil was first exposed to street art while working as a designer in California and was heavily influenced by artists such as Twist and Reminisce, who dominated the West Coast graffiti art scene of the 1990s. Returning to England after a decade in California, Pure Evil became involved in Banksy’s pop-up gallery concept known as “Santa’s Ghetto” and began producing his trademark images of fanged bunnies. Following the success of his first solo show in London, he opened up his eponymous Pure Evil Gallery in a Dickensian shop in the East End of London in 2007. Known for his highly regarded Nightmare series of portraits of famous figures, his work has been exhibited worldwide at the Saatchi Gallery and Victoria & Albert Museum in London, at the Culture Gallery in Cape Town, South Africa, and at the Baker Gallery in Cologne, among others.

 

American, b. 1977

Ravi Zupa is a multi-disciplinary artist who draws from a variety of aesthetic material past and present to incite critique on contemporary society. His mixed media artworks often thrust repurposed materials into novel situations that challenge their original functions and build from their previous connotations. The resulting pieces balance a vintage aesthetic with a distinctly modern feel, addressing issues from anarchy and violence to religion and idolatry. Zupa’s work has been featured in top arts publications and exhibited in major cities from LA to Shanghai.

American, b. 1979

RETNA (Marquis Duriel Lewis) is a Los Angeles-based artist known internationally for his unique style of abstracted letterforms. Each block of text is a sophisticated system of hieroglyphs, calligraphy and illuminated script. With influences from Arabic, Egyptian, Hebrew, Anglo-Saxon and Native American typographies, RETNA’s distinctive language communicates a personal form of poetry. As the artist elucidates: “I want my text to feel universal. I want people from different cultures to all find some similarity in it—whether they can read it or not.” In addition to his celebrated public murals and collaborations with high-profile brands and musicians, RETNA’s work has been shown in galleries and major art institutions across the globe.

American

Based in Pittsburgh, Ron Copeland is a multi-media artist whose practice centers on the recontextualization of salvaged materials from abandoned spaces in the Rust Belt region. Forgotten architectural fragments and vestiges of the commerciality of bygone eras are transformed into an original visual language that is deliberately nostalgic, yet given new life by unexpected juxtapositions and reimagined purposes. In addition to major public projects and commissioned works, his pieces have been exhibited in solo and group shows across the US.

Scandinavian, b. 1975

Tony ‘Rubin’ Sjöman is a mural and studio artist currently based in Brooklyn. The son of Finnish immigrant workers in Sweden, Rubin began his artistic journey with his first graffiti tag at nine years old. He traces the roots of his signature style to his childhood in the working class housing projects of Bergsjön in Gothenburg, Sweden. The rigid skylines of his urban environment and the balanced serenity of Scandinavian design both inform his clean, geometric style and muted color palettes. Rubin’s murals can be found in cities around the world and his work has been exhibited in Hong Kong, Tehran, Stockholm, Reykjavik, Marrakesh, Montreal, New York and Los Angeles among others.

Danish

International artist Rune Christensen creates paintings and portraits that tell the stories of their sitters through a complex array of tattoos, decorative symbols, and patterned clothing. An extensive world traveler, Christensen collects his visual inspiration from all over the world, sourcing his motifs from the iconography and textiles of Asian, South American, European and North African cultures. Obscuring the faces of his subjects, Christensen has developed a unique method of portraiture that instead communicates to the viewer through a panoply of symbol and pattern. His work has been featured in galleries worldwide, with recent sold-out solo shows in Europe and the US.

American, b. 1993

Savannah Jubic is a Chicago-based fiber and installation artist whose work explores themes of anxiety and desperation through labor-intensive gesture. Materiality is of the utmost importance as the artist processes intangible concepts, ultimately realized in haptic forms. Processes such as hand weaving, destruction of woven cloth, and repetitive mending lend a direct physical engagement, their physicality embedding emotion in object, performance, and installation. Jubic’s work has been exhibited both in the United States and internationally. She has been the recipient of a Distinguished Scholar Scholarship from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, a John W Kurtich Travel Scholarship, and a Mary Hambidge Weaving Fellowship.

American

Sean Hannaway is a Chicago born-and-based painter known for his punchy, densely layered style that blends high Renaissance subjects and graffiti aesthetics. The push and pull between his techniques, colors, and influences creates a dynamic tension in his work. A cheeky sense of humor pervades his practice, and is manifest in his use of plastic framed rococo-style mirrors from the 1960s as his canvases. Once obscured by layers of paint, the forms of the mirrors lose their gilded, gaudy essence and become graceful curves and flourishes that seamlessly blend into the final painting. Hannaway daylights as a Creative Director at Leo Burnett and has been featured in three previous shows at Line Dot, all of which sold out.

American, b. 1970

Shepard Fairey is a renowned graphic artist known for the posters, stickers, and murals of his Obey Giant campaign and his iconic 2008 "Hope" portrait of Barack Obama, now in the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery. Constantly shifting between the realms of fine art, commercial art, street art, and political art, Fairey steeps his ideology and iconography in the self-empowerment of those who refuse to be manipulated by the machine of manufactured consent. With the biting sarcasm of his Obey Giant works, he goads viewers—using the imperative OBEY—to take heed of the propagandists out to bend the world to their agendas. In addition to his guerrilla street art presence, the artist has executed more than 50 large-scale painted public murals and installations around the world. His works are in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), the Victoria & Albert Museum, the Boston Institute of Contemporary Art, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and many others.

British, b. 1980

Creating one of the largest bodies of street art to date, Sickboy is a leading artist to emerge from Bristol’s infamous graffiti scene. With his iconic Temple, Coffin, and “Save the Youth” tags, Sickboy’s work is characterized by a colorful exuberance and playful visual language steeped in a carpe diem philosophy that embraces the omnipresence of mortality. Formally trained in art school, Sickboy’s practice extends across media and disciplines, negating distinctions between graffiti and sculpture, street and studio. In addition to his wide-ranging work on walls and wheelie bins, he has gained global recognition for solo exhibitions, public interventions like his protest piece at the Tate Modern, and his featured appearance in Banksy’s Oscar-nominated film Exit Through the Gift Shop.

 

American, b. 1979

Chicago native Steve Seeley is a Pop!nk Editions printmaker/co-owner and an artist whose work draws inspiration from a wide range of pop culture sources including superheroes, celebrities, cartoons and comic books. Technically gifted, his artistic practice spans multiple media with a fresh sense of experimentation. His work has been exhibited throughout the US and is held in private collections worldwide.

American, b. 1970

Los Angeles-based photographer Steven Nereo began taking snapshots between waves while surfing Malibu and Venice Beach in the 1990’s. Trial and error in the water allowed him to develop the unique vantage point that imbues his photos with their immersive quality. Printed in large format, the work often resembles color field paintings more than photographs. Nereo tracks the weather and watches surf cams seeking out ideal conditions where the waves are flat and the pauses between them are dead calm. “It doesn’t happen that often here” he says, “so you really have to watch everyday for when it does.”

Japanese, b. 1962

One of the most acclaimed artists to emerge from postwar Asia, Takashi Murakami is known for his contemporary Pop synthesis of fine art and popular culture, particularly his use of a boldly graphic and colorful anime and manga cartoon style. Murakami became famous in the 1990s for his “Superflat” theory and for organizing the paradigmatic exhibition of that title, which linked the origins of contemporary Japanese visual culture to historical Asian art. Drawing on both traditional printmaking techniques and Japanese manga, Murakami’s art acts as a cultural barometer with subversive undertones and imagery. His innovative practice includes paintings, sculptures, drawings, animations, and collaborations with brands such as Louis Vuitton. Murakami’s work has been the subject of numerous exhibitions around the world, including those held at the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo, the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, the Versailles Palace, and the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago.

American

Taylor White is a muralist and fine artist who synthesizes the refined techniques of figure painting with the bright color and expressive movement of street art. Heavily influenced by improvisational dance, White grounds her visual vocabulary in the exquisite grace of the human body as it traverses through space. Her paintings utilize the human form to transcribe conversations, explore fields of consciousness, and realize the cathartic points at which the soul confronts its physical form. In addition to her large-scale murals and street art around the world, White has exhibited in major international cities from Sydney to Berlin, Oslo to Miami.

Australian

Hailing from Sydney, Australia, Vexta is recognized as a leading female artist of the international street art scene. Juxtaposing animals and human forms amid colorful, geometric shards, Vexta’s work aims to provide an insight into our fundamental engagement with the human condition. Currently based in New York, Vexta spreads her vision across continents and countries, studios and streets, with an international array of public murals, exhibitions, and collaborations. She has work in prominent art institutions globally, including The National Gallery of Australia, and was featured in Banksy’s film Exit Through the Gift Shop and his Cans Festival in 2008.

American, b. 1992

Vivian Le is a Chicago based illustrator and painter. She received her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Painting from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2014. Her work has been featured in numerous publications and has been exhibited nationally including Portland, OR and Miami, FL. 

Throughout Vivian Le’s body of work, many of her characters are either young children or dolls embodying the shape of young children. The artist explains that using dolls has allowed for the potential to explore the influence of the adult gaze with more depth while simultaneously “subverting the convention of the artist and their muse”. 

Le explains that her inspiration is drawn from many sources including illustrated works she explored as a young child, her daydreams and a consideration of the unconscious influence and performative quality of gender taught from generation to generation. The artist further comments that her drawings should be considered “fragments of storybooks” and that they are intended to express an implied narrative. Despite it’s somewhat onerous underlying themes, Le’s work is simultaneously charming and challenging; a compelling duality that invites deeper consideration from the viewer both visually and conceptually.

French, b. 1969

WK (aka WK Interact) is a French artist who has lived and worked in New York City for the last 25 years. His unmistakable imagery features subjects captured in motion while surrounded by the frenetic chaos of urban environments. Employing a monochromatic color palette, WK’s high-energy, streaked figures blur through areas of stark negative space that balance their sense of urgency. Whether working on the street or in the gallery, WK chooses imagery specifically with a concern for encounters in public environments, or “interactions” as the artist indicates in his pseudonym. In the late 1990s his images began appearing on building facades in downtown Manhattan, complimenting the constant stir of bodies and the perpetual motion of contemporary urban life in the fast-paced city. With an extensive international following, WK has now exhibited in galleries from Tokyo to Berlin, Los Angeles to Sydney.

American, b. 1985

Zach Schrey is a Chicago-based artist and printmaker/co-owner of Pop!nk Editions. Rooted in contemporary urban culture, Schrey creates an alternate world of characters and designs that remind us of the everyday, yet have an instant presence because of their bold, clean aesthetic. Influenced by the ubiquitous imagery of cartoons, comics, and corporate logos/brands, Schrey’s work collectively pokes fun at these cultural icons, heightening our awareness of their superficiality and constant presence in our lives. His paintings and prints have been shown throughout the US and abroad.