Fri, May 8, 20157:00 PM Fri, May 15, 201511:00 PM
"HEAVY SODA ROCKS"
A SOLO EXHIBITION BY HARLEY JONES
An illustrator and street artist based in Melbourne, Australia. Jones was part of the original wave of graffiti in his hometown of Dunedin, New Zealand, some nine or ten years ago. Jones translates his bold, vibrant style between wall and print, pumping fresh illustrations into the world through all available channels. Featuring characters like purple jacket-wearing dudes, flipped cars, and candy-colored hand lettering, Jones’ work is wild enough to weird out the square bears, yet wickedly clean.
Jones uses a healthy mix of traditional techniques to create slopped-up, vibrant, beautifully kinetic illustrations that simply drip with narrative power. Inspired by the lot of wildly talented artist friends he surrounds himself with and by both his father’s (the man was an animator for the legendary Hanna-Barbera productions) and grandfather’s artistic work ethic, Jones combines cartoon-like imagery and sublime narratives that boast Jones’ authentic and off-beat color palettes. Simple lettering and fresh textile patterns in pastel shades and squiggly lines, and the fantastical combinations of the two, make his pieces show like something from a theme park funhouse.
His creativity knows no bounds as his passions for the things he paints and draws stem from his roots in graffiti and his desire to bring a modern touch to the traditional styles associated with graff.
The inspiration for HEAVY SODA ROCKS is Jones’s humorous take on small or less serious crimes, the anticipation of seeing America for the first time, and cartoon nostalgia. Harley will be showing a series of original drawings, paintings, and risograph prints.
www.amadeusmag.com/blog/super-funk-a-conversation-with-illustrator-harley-jones
http://amadeusmag.com/blog/today-can-go-to-hell-an-art-show-from-harley-jones/
