MTV Newsroom › art

Pop Culture's Digital DaVinci Sam Spratt Talks Star Reactions To His Work

Posted 1/27/12 10:25 am EST by in art, Kanye West, Television

<i>Kanye West by Sam Spratt</i>

Kanye West by Sam Spratt

By Zachary Swickey

When digital painter Sam Spratt was a spry art college grad in June 2010, he immediately became the (first) in-house staff illustrator for popular media conglomerate Gawker. Articles boasting his work were getting plenty more hits than ones carrying boring stock photo images. Before long, Spratt was getting more commission work than he could handle and had to say goodbye to Gawker and venture out on his own. (But trust us, he’s doing just fine!)

Since his departure, Spratt has diversified his portfolio - creating merch designs for herbal enthusiast and rapper Wiz Khalifa, as well as album artwork for rockers Foxy Shazam and metal-heads Trivium. Spratt has no problem with tricky imagery, whether it’s a Renaissance period piece for a private client or his collaboration with Rovio Mobile’s super-mega-smash-hit “Angry Birds.” It seems he’s up for any type of visual challenge.

Quite the fan of pop culture, Spratt has painted multiple interesting likenesses of various characters, including Ron Swanson from “Parks and Recreation,” quirky Dwight Schrute of “The Office,” Kanye West, a breathtaking portrait of “2 Broke Girls” star Kat Dennings and a hilarious take on Troy and Abed of “Community” in a fake movie poster for “Inspector Spacetime." Even his personal self-portrait is stunning to say the least. We are simply floored by the visual creations Spratt manages to create and with Twitter as an outlet – some of his creations have gone viral. Rainn Wilson is even using his portrait as his Twitter avatar.

Spratt is currently based in Brooklyn, New York, and was kind enough to chat with us about his interesting craft and provide us a look into his digital art domain. Read More...

Tags , , ,

Anne Hathaway, Gary Oldman Rally Around Joseph Gordon-Levitt's Passion Project

Posted 10/11/11 8:56 pm EST by in art, Concerts, Miscellaneous, Photos, reviews, Video

For those who only know Joseph Gordon-Levitt from his excellent work in television and film over the past 20 years or so, do yourself a favor and expand your fandom by heading over to hitRECord.org, Gordon-Levitt's collaborative production company/community and passion project. On Monday night, the roughly seven-year-old operation celebrated its creative success with the 2011 Fall Formal, a live performance event at which Gordon-Levitt served as emcee and performer, along with guest appearances by supporters and friends Anne Hathaway, Neil Patrick Harris, Gary Oldman and Sia, along with an audience full of hitRECord members and enthusiasts.

The spirit of the evening was lighthearted and welcoming, with a vaudeville-esque lineup of readings, short films and musical numbers. Also, everyone in attendance was encouraged to record however much of the show they wanted. The video below, which features Gordon-Levitt, hitRECord artist the Metafictionis and Hathaway, will give you an idea of what I'm talking about.

Admittedly, I expected to be further charmed by Gordon-Levitt. He is just so darn talented and passionate and genuine, it's irresistible and inspiring watching him move smoothly from narrating to dancing, to singing, to drumming to improv'ing. He's an artist in every sense of the word, and while his name is attached to hitRECord and he emceed the program, it is obvious that Gordon-Levitt truly enjoys creating art that comes from a collaboration and collection of other equally talented individuals.

Also, when you get Oldman, Hathaway, Harris and Sia to come in and play with you during their time off, you know you are loved.

It was hard to pick a favorite moment, but when Oldman got up onstage to read a "Tiny Story" called "The Man With a Turnip for a Head," written by hitRECord artist Metaphorest, he brought down the house.

"It's going to be hard to top that," Gordon-Levitt told the crowd as Oldman left the stage. Yet somehow, I'm sure he will figure out a way to do just that for next year's event.

What do you think of Gordon-Levitt's passion project, hitRECord? Tell us in the comments!

Tags , , , , ,

Exclusive: Britney Spears Video Director Curates Music Video-Based Art Show

Posted 9/6/11 12:00 pm EST by in art, Video

<em>Let\'s Make a Sandwich</em> by James Roper

Let's Make a Sandwich by James Roper

Music video auteur Chris Marrs Piliero (Britney Spears, the Black Keys, Taking Back Sunday) is mixing his love for the medium and his love for art with a new art show, aptly titled "I Want My Music Video Art Show." The director kindly provided MTV News with some insight on the project and some first looks at what music video lovers will see when the show kicks off this October in the City of Angels.

"I love art shows and have always wanted to put together one myself," he tells MTV News about the project, which features re-imaginings of videos by the Smashing Pumpkins, Lady Gaga and more. "I wanted to pay tribute to the art of the music video beyond just the musician and the song. Music videos have always provided us with really f---ing rad imagery. There's so many iconic visuals thanks to music videos and the medium has opened the door for so many amazingly talented directors that have gone on to influence television, commercials and movies. An art show like this needed to be created."

Of course, the show also pays some homage to MTV, which became the network and driving force for music video creation. "MTV changed the face of music with its creation and its devotion to the Music Video art form so it only made sense to give MTV a proper tribute," he says of the art show's title, an homage to MTV's old-school slogan, "I Want My MTV." Read More...

Tags ,

MGMT Is For The Children (And Those Children's Therapy Bills)

Posted 6/4/09 11:17 am EST by in art, MGMT

Your reaction to MGMT's new "Kids" video probably says a lot about you. To wit: if you are a sociopath, you probably really like it.

This is because the clip, which appeared yesterday on the foppish faux-hippies' official Web site, is basically just six loooong minutes of super-scarring, deeply psychic child abuse. The kind you need decades of therapy to un-scrub from your brain. You know, the awesome kind.

Starring a precocious tyke (certainly no older than two), who for the duration of the video is positively brutalized by visions of terrifying, maw-dripping monsters, it's both incredibly unsettling and incredibly provocative, recalling both the sorta-twisted Saturday morning visions of Sid and Marty Krofft's "H.R. Pufnstuf" and the definitely twisted photography of Jill Greenberg, only, you know, on drugs. And with some flames and animation and an on-screen quote incorrectly attributed to Mark Twain.

And while all that is amazing, the real testament to MGMT (and director Ray Tintori's) brilliance is the reactions the video elicits from people. I've shown this clip to about six different folks, and their reactions have run the gamut from "wide-eyed shock" to "face-tightening delight." Oh, and one dude broke down and started weeping openly, too.

Basically, it's part high art, part psychological barometer, only with really gruesome monsters thrown in for good measure. They really don't make videos like this any more ... mostly for legal reasons.

Want to be entertained/horrified? Check out MGMT's "Kids" video, after the jump.

Read More...

'Snoop Dogg TV': The Reason They Made The Internet Published

Posted 4/10/09 12:55 pm EST by in art, Snoop-Dogg, The Interweb

Yesterday, for no apparent reason other than he was stoned and had just bought a Web cam, Snoop Dogg launched his very own online show, "Snoop Dogg TV," a mind-blowing, decidedly, uh, "free-form" series that revolves around him smoking spliffs, lounging in what appears to be someone's rec room, and singing along to R&B tracks being played on his computer.

It is sort of insane. It is sort of compelling. And it is quite possibly the most amazing thing ever foisted on these Interwebs of ours.

So far, Snoop has broadcast four episodes of "Dogg TV" (or, more specifically, two very-long episodes broken up into four segments of indeterminate length and subject matter ... usually whenever the Web cam conks out), which means that it's not too late to get on the bandwagon before this thing turns into another Shiba Inu cam.

And to get you up to speed on what you've missed so far, I've compiled a handy episode guide, which you can read after the jump. Read More...

Pharrell Williams Has Enough Free Time to Design This Chair

Posted 5/30/08 11:04 am EST by in art

pharrellchair

So you're telling us that Pharrell can produce Madonna, sing the hook on another hit record, get ready to drop the new N.E.R.D. album...and get home in time to design furniture??

What have we been doing with our free time?

Oh, and it's called the "perspective" chair. For some reason.

Thanks to Kanye's always excellent blog for pointing this out. 'Ye also recently posted some ridiculous Chinese fashion pics that are totally in line with the spooky aesthetic trip he's been on lately...

Tags , ,

When Great Artists Play Themselves: From Weezer to Prince

Posted 4/23/08 6:34 pm EST by in art, Music

lovesexycover

Because Cap'n Montgomery refuses to let the Weezer album-cover controversy die, we're inspired to point out that this is not the first time a talented band/artist has chosen to make themselves look ridiculous in public through flamboyantly awkward album cover art. Oh no, there have been many, many instances of this throughout rock history.

And, you know, we can speculate about the source of the bad judgment -- anything before 1980 we're blaming on one drug; anything after 1980 on another; anything during the mid-90's was more likely due to an over-developed, overly self-conscious sense of irony. Anything in the early 00's can be blamed on "sincerity"; anything since on the generational-sincerity backlash. Or something.

After the jump, a few of our most favorite examples of when artists have chosen to artistically display themselves on the covers of their (quite excellent) albums -- to spectacularly bad effect. Seriously, these are great records, but you kind of want to brown-paper-bag 'em... Read More...

Tags , , , , ,

Black Metal All-Access Video That Will Freak You Out

Posted 4/10/08 2:08 pm EST by in art, Music



OK, we get it: you're into some heavy business. On that tip, we're taking you deeper into the black-metal experience, with the down-and-dirty -- and pretty terrifying -- video series "True Norwegian Black Metal" photog Peter Beste made with VBS. It's wild to think that a trip to Milwaukee Metalfest to snap some band pics could have unfolded into a years-long obsession with this outrageous crew.

Head to Norway and meet up with the key players on this deadly-dark scene -- first covered in the mainstream Norwegian press in the mid-90's in relation to a dozen church burnings, and the ritualistic murder of Mayhem's guitarist by his bandmate. Central to the series is Gaahl, the frontman of extreme, Satanic band Gorgoroth, who's been convicted of assault and torture. This isn't stuff that goes down easy -- but it's a side of metal that's rarely been captured. And depending on where you work, this is also, um, fairly NSFW.

More of the series after the jump. Read More...

Tags , ,

Black Metal So Much Scarier Than Your Metal

Posted 4/8/08 2:46 pm EST by in art, metal

blackmetal1

You know, we in the States tend to think we've cornered the market on metal. But those Norwegians make Ministry look about as dark as My Little Pony. Black metal, based on a completely bonkers 'n' bloody Viking lifestyle fantasy of death and destruction (pig's head on a stake, anyone?) has been bubbling up in Norway for the last 20 years. It's a combo of extreme metal, paganism, and even Satanism -- and it's redefined the meaning of "underground."

So we were heavily impressed by "True Norwegian Black Metal," photog Peter Beste's collection of photos of the radical community, published by our frienemies at Vice. Beste spent the last seven years snapping pics of the scene, which he boils down to "a war against Christianity, a return to the worship of the ancient Norse gods, and the complete rejection of mainstream society." No biggie. The bulk of the book is portraits of black metal disciples -- with names like King, Nocturno Culto, and Necrobutcher -- stomping through the Norwegian woods (puts a whole new spin on that Beatles track). But there are also great pics of the scene itself -- bands like Mayhem and Immortal live -- packed with lots of, well, pigs' heads on sticks. Sheep's heads, too. Oh, and can't forget the gentleman in a loincloth covered in blood and "nailed" to a crucifix onstage.

Not for the faint of heart.

More pics after the jump.

Read More...

SPONSORS
AD:
©2013 Viacom International Inc. All Rights Reserved. MTV and all related titles and logos are trademarks of Viacom International Inc.