Anthony Ausgang was born in Trinidad and Tobago in 1959 to a Dutch mother and Welsh father. The family moved to Houston Texas in the early 1960s, a particularly difficult time for an immigrant family to parse American culture. Nevertheless, Ausgang’s father made brave attempts to assimilate by attending custom car shows and demolition derbies. Ausgang eventually encountered Ed Roth and before long had a shoebox full of Rat Finks, a small plastic figurine of a noxious rodent that had somehow become the embodiment of Hot Rod and Custom Car Culture. Ausgang’s mother continued the European traditions by dragging her son to endless operas, symphonies and art museums. This combination of High Art and Low Art was to prove a fertile cultural mulch for Ausgang’s artistic inclinations. After a short stint studying art at The University Of Texas in Austin, Ausgang succumbed to the myth of California and moved to Los Angeles where he began classes at The Otis Art Institute. Disappointed to find out that the curriculum there didn’t include target practice, admiring cars or watching surf films, Ausgang dropped out to start showing his artwork to as many galleries as would tolerate his frequent visits. Finally accepted by the infamous Zero One Gallery, a combination of after hours nightclub, gallery and crashpad, he had his first official sale, to a drug dealer. At his solo show later that year Ausgang sold to a more diverse and socially acceptable crew as collectors and critics began to take notice. At the Zero One Ausgang met Robert Williams, who had been one of the main forces at Roth Studios in the 1960′s and at this time was the most successful practitioner of the type of art that would later be called Low Brow. As the “official” artworld began to accept Ausgang’s work so did the commercial artworld and he began making record covers and posters and working as a consultant on computer generated animation. In 1993 Ausgang was included in the Laguna Beach Art Museum’s seminal exhibit “Kustom Kulture” which investigated art influenced by gearhead car culture. In 2003 Ausgang’s paintings could be seen in Morning Wood, a primer of Post Graf art; in 2004 his work graced the pages of contemporary art survey Pop Surrealism and in 2005 Weirdo Deluxe explained his art to the unenlightened. Ausgang draws influence from as many outside channels as possible, preferring the toy contents of grocery store gumball machines over the latest exhibit at the Whitney. Opinionated but informed, he is able to see the beauty in both a Rembrandt and a rat rod. This variety of interest has led him to design his artwork on the computer but complete it on the easel, the perfect combination of new technology and traditional media.

Ausgang now shows regularly in Amsterdam, Holland and Bologna, Italy. Commercial clients include the Boredoms (Warner) in Japan and Apollo 440 (Sony) in England. Collectors include Nicholas Cage, David Arquette and Perry Farrell.

chipsouthworth.com

“Sarah Emerson graduated from the Atlanta College of Art in 1997 and went on to complete a Master’s Degree at Goldsmiths College in London, England in 2000. Over the years she has exhibited her paintings in galleries throughout the United States and Europe, including at White Columns, New York, Cosmic Gallery, Paris,  Real Art Ways, Hartford, CT and Tache-Levy, Belgium.  In 2010 she exhibited her work in “Catastrophe” the Quebec City Biennial curated by Sylvie Fortin as well as Flux Projects Atlanta.  In 2011 her work was included in the new Biennial publication Noplaceness published by Atlanta Art Now.

In 2012 her work was featured in issue 100 of New American Paintings and  she recently completed a large mural for Living Walls 2012.  In 2013 she will exhibit a selection of  paintings and a large mural at the Museum of Contemporary Art Jacksonville.

Emerson currently teaches Painting and Drawing at Emory University.”

 In Black Sea of Trees, her new Underland mural for Project Atrium, Emerson explores the space and scale of the Haskell Atrium Gallery to create a view for those standing at the edge of the wilderness, safe and sound from the blackness in the distance. Using the impressive scale to emphasize the mystery and power of nature and the unknown lurking in the dark or beneath the surface, the mural documents an imagined landscape based on the visual exploration of innocence lost and the beauty within our natural environment. Within the composition, Emerson integrates large-scale letters spelling SAFE & SOUND in a whimsical, sweet, and comforting text type. This creates a jarring contrast to the steaming, molten rivers of blackness ooze down the mountain, leaving behind trees stripped of foliage and the skeletal remains of its arboreal denizens. Overall, the piece shows the epic aftermath of man and nature’s eternal struggle to coexist. While she tried to reassures the viewer that all is safe and sound at the edge of the wilderness, she reminds us, as Robert Frost stated that “…the woods are lovely dark and deep.”

Sarah Emerson is featured in this video from Living Walls 2012. Living Walls is a non-profit organization promoting public art through installations, workshops and a yearly conference bringing artists from around the world to Atlanta. This segment was featured on “This is Atlanta,” an Emmy-nominated magazine show from PBA 30, Atlanta’s PBS Station

Donny Miller is both a fine artist and commercial artist based in Los Angeles who has worked with: Vans, Emerica, Etnies, éS, Rusty, X-Large, Paul Frank Industries, Men’s Health Magazine, Adidas, Nike, RVCA, Skate Mental, Orthodox, Orbit Chewing Gum, Jeremy Scott, Nicktoons/Nickelodeon, American Apparel, & Rockstar Games just to name a few.

Art Dorks is an international collective featuring renowned artists from around
the globe.

“A native of Milledgeville, Ga., Hudson graduated from the prestigious North Carolina School of the Arts and the Boston Museum School of Fine Arts. She has had numerous exhibitions throughout the Eastern United States.

Her most recent series of works entitled “The Meanies” is a mixed media mash-up of perfectly devastating collisions between an increasingly ephemeral high culture and fringe society.

Ostensibly disparate, precariously stacked veneers of mid-century American collectibles and advertising iconography, found objects, perverse cartoon characters and hand lettered quotes conspire to create an immediate, thought provoking graphic language that uniquely quantifies the human condition.

Born of formal training, Hudson’s masterful technique is noticeable among the strident layers of familiar messages combined in unfamiliar ways.”

“Blue or Nothing. That is the motivation behind the art of Bev Hogue.

It’s a modern interpretation of luxury that’s more than more or less. It’s about embracing the odd beauty of the world, rather than trying to escape.
It’s living with a broken heart, not a broken spirit.

The accomplished painter found abundant inspiration in the character of her childhood home of Fenwick, Ont. She graduated with distinction from Toronto’s George Brown College in graphic design. It secured her success as a national magazine illustrator. Her “blue” sketches quickly became a hit with collectors worldwide. Bev now works from a 1960′s pad in the heart of Canada’s wine country — Niagara. From her studio-gallery in Fonthill, she creates sentimentally sombre portraits in settings that seem to shift between eras.

They may be familiar or foreign, but her blue women all share a dignity and poise despite the surroundings in which they often find themselves. They are curious and confident.

Bev’s work is exhibited and collected around the world. The complete catalogue of her creations is distributed by Beluxe Inc.”

“[it's been] Two years since I have updated my artist’s statement, so I thought it was time.  As of late, I have been consumed with the idea of atomic art.  For me, atomic art involves art that deals not only with front and center images of the Bomb, but also atomic testing, particularly imahes of the Doomtown that was set up in the Nevada desert, and then lit up by atomic blasts to see what the effects on the typical American town would be.  I am also concerned with the effect of the Bomb on American culture – the paranoia, the acknowledgement, acceptance and eventual embracing of the Bomb and its insertion into American popular culture.

There is no shortage of fodder to draw from, from educational films, to 1950s comic books, horror and science fiction movies, civil defense literature, fallout shelter plans, radiation detectors – this list goes on.  This is a part of our culture that is really foreign to a lot of today’s young people.  I want to make art that educates about this era.  Knowledge is a good thing – it’s how we keep history from repeating itself, theoretically anyway.”

Shaun Thurston is an artist from Jacksonville, FL.

“Mitch’s stunning illustration work has been featured in magazines from Newsweek to the New York Times, on the covers of million selling CD’s and used in advertising campaigns from McDonald’s to Coca-Cola! His fine art masterpieces have been exhibited from New York to Berlin to Tokyo! His tantalizing tattoo designs are a fixture on the walls of tattoo shops around the world!”