Peter Tunney is an American Pop artist renown for his creative use of text. Tunney works as a painter, photographer, installation, and collage artist. Tunney had great success with a series that specialized in skulls.
Price range information: Sorry none available.
Below we view the artist in his studio:
Tunney worked as an investment banker on Wall Street.
Below an interview with Peter Tunney:
The artist is based out of New York City and Miami, Florida.
Tunney shows a wonderful sense of creativity in his use of text. Some of my favorite artists working with text include Mel Bochner, Steven Powers, and Robert Cottingham.
Michael Bevilacqua was born in Carmel, Georgia in the year 1966.
In this clip we see and hear the artist talk about his work. He is very energetic and one important thing to remember about his work is that he is always listening to music when he creates. I find this very inspirational also, to be inspired to do my art by listening to someone else perform their craft orally.
For his collegiate studies Bevilacqua first went to the Cambridge College of Art and Technology located in Great Britain. Bevilacqua then attended Santa Barbara City College and Long Beach State University both located in California.
Bevilacqua currently lives and works out of New York city.
The artist has works in many prominent collections including the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of New York, and museums located in Greece, Denmark, Norway, and Japan.
The artist reminds me of several people but first off Mel Bochner. Bochner is renown for using text and sometimes quite vulgar text to spread his message. Bochner was born in 1940 and still produces works in this very expressive style. Below is a great example of Bochner’s work and sometimes vulgar way of painting.
And another work below is titled “Money.” I love the way he takes one theme, and then uses words to bring the viewer closer to his thoughts. Money is the idea, then we have what money is called in various places around the world, and finally the effects of money such as the root of all evil. Bochner is very creative in his designs but always straight forward in his message.
Lets take a quick glance at someone else doing great work with text, Stephen Powers. Very expressive and blunt in the same manner as Bochner, but with a more colorful palette. Here are two great examples of Power’s style.
And another example of Stephen Power’s work below.
Bevilacqua’s style is perfect for modernism and art. He uses a variety of highly recognizable logos, music, fashion, and even children’s cartoons. Where as Andy Warhol’s work was a snapshot of the consumer in the 1950s and 1960s, Bevilacqua’s work is a great snapshot of what it is to be a consumer in the world of today. Where as in the 1950s and 60s some logos might only be known in a certain area of the world, the internet and globalization will make many companies more familiar outside of their own borders.
Try designing and executing a great work of art using text as the subject!
Stephen Powers was born in 1968 in New York. He grew up in Philadelphia. Powers started off as a graffiti artist and went by the name of ESPO. Short for Exterior Surface Painting Outreach. He tagged in New York city as well as Philadelphia.
He took drawing and painting courses at the University of the Arts and the Art Institute of Philadelphia.
Was CEO of a magazine called ON THE GO magazine.
Stephen Powers talking about his Flights of Genius project.
In this clip the artist talks about his childhood and growing up in a single parent household. He also talks about tagging. Powers also talks about having the support of the local community behind his artwork.
Stephen Powers is a well known for his style of art which examines the use of letterform and calligraphy, in particular its use in commercial advertising.
Price range info: Lithographs can be found for a few hundred to a one thousand dollars. Very large original works done with enamel on aluminum start around $10,000 with sides roughly 50 inches by 50 inches.
He got his start doing street art by using his graffiti skills to cover up buildings that were no longer used and in most cases deeply vandalized. By the time 1999 came around Powers had figured he had done around 70 grate paintings.
The artist was arrested in regards to an incident where he was on opposite sides with the Mayor of New York at the time, Rudolph Guiliani. The Mayor was trying to shut down a show. Powers wanted the show to go on. Eventually Powers was arrested at his home and eventually took a plea bargain and ended up with some days of community service.
In the year 2000 Powers decided to try and become a full time studio artist working from home.
Stephen Powers has been on the cover of Juxtapose magazine.
For his use of letters the artist reminds me to another great graphic artist who paints facades of old board games, the artist Tim Liddy. Liddy paints the tops of old board game boxes, some are real and some are entirely made from the artist’s imagination. I found his lettering to be quite similar to Powers, kind of a 1960s type of feeling. Below is an example of a Tim Liddy painting.
This artist is very inspiring for many reasons. He came from the streets! Like Richard Hambleton or Swoon, Stephen Powers honed his skills on the streets. Now he is featured in gallery shows and sometimes gets paid by the community who would rather have his awesome graffiti rather than an old dingy brownstone to look at. The fact that communities pay him to put his graffiti on their buildings shows how powerful art can be!
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