Wikipedia

Zoltron

Zoltronis an American rock music poster designer, street artist, and creative director. His posters are included in the collections of Victoria Albert Museum, London,[1]de Young fine arts museum, San Francisco,[2]SFMOMA,[3]Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art,[4]Boston Museum of Fine Art,[5]the US Library of Congress, and The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Museum.[6]

Although he is secretive and carefully conceals his identity behind his pseudonym, Zoltron is known for his iconic rock art for bands likePrimus,Iggy Pop,Blondie,Black Keys,NIN,Jerry Garcia,Soundgarden,Alice in Chains,Dweezil Zappa,Queens of the Stone Age,Ween,The Melvins,Les Claypool,Pussy Riot,Jerry Cantrell,PJ Harvey,Die Antwoord,Widespread Panic,Devo.

He has been awarded a 2006 Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) certified gold disc for his work as producer of the grammy-award nominated alternative rock band Primus albumHallucino-Genetics,and a 2004 RIAA certified platinum disc for the Primus albumAnimals Should Not Try to Act Like People.[7][8]

Early career

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Zoltron was inspired by his older brothers and sisters' album covers, which he pinned to his bedroom wall. He bought albums simply for their cover art, and would "use the record as a frisbee". Among his major early influences he cites punk rock fliers, and the art ofHipgnosisdesignerStorm Thorgeson.His first professional poster was made for aThe Residentsconcert at the Fillmore Theatre in San Francisco in 1996.[9]

Street art and poster design

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He is a street artist whose large murals have covered walls in the San Francisco Bay Area. The works are characterized by a strongly anti-establishment theme, and frequently useDay of the Deadandmemento moriimagery.[10]

His mural of a penitent Ronald MacDonald in the Mission District of San Francisco was featured in a Huffington Post story about street art that challenged the McDonaldization of society. He said, "While I was drawing Ronald as an evil tyrant, I saw a glint of compassion in his eyes, like he was caught in an existential crisis... Maybe suddenly he realized that he was solely responsible for massive rainforest destruction & onset adolescent diabetes. So rather than draw him as an enemy, I decided to draw him as a born-again humanitarian, an empathetic leader... A compassionate clown."[11]Hi-Fructose published a photo story of the dialogue in paint that soon obscured the image.[12][13]

He has designed iconic posters for the live music scene, which have captured the attention of rock audiences and perceptive gallerists. His work has been exhibited in galleries in San Francisco,[14]New York,[15]Washington DC[16]and Portland by curators keen to capture the unique spirit of the West Coast street art scene. His imagery has made an international impact, too, and he has participated in exhibits at galleries in Mexico,[17]Paris,[18][19]and Bordeaux, France.[20]Zoltron's "Primus and the Chocolate Factory" and "The Melvins" posters are featured in a four page spread about him in the bilingual edition of HEY! Modern Art & Pop Culture.[21] In 2010 his Red Vic Movie House poster design forWes Anderson's movie ofFantastic Mr. Foxwas featured in a Halloween exhibit at Spoke Art gallery in San Francisco.[22][23]The poster was followed by a design for Martin Scorsese's 1980 classic movie, Raging Bull.[24]He also designed a Red Vic poster for Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.[25] Zoltron's posters are in the collections of major museums as examples of early 21st century popular culture iconography, including the Victoria & Albert Museum,[26]the Los Angeles County Museum of Art,[27]Boston Museum of Fine Art,[28]The de Young Museum in San Francisco,[29]SFMOMA,[30]Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Library & Archives[31]and the U.S. Library of Congress.[32]

There are Zoltron fans among the great names of contemporary rock. WhenDave Grohl'sFoo Fightersplayed a private pop-up gig at the Blue Note, a 150-person capacity club in Napa, California, Grohl asked Zoltron to design a collectible limited-edition poster for the audience.[33]

Primus

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Zoltron began his career in the rock and roll world in 1996 at Prawn Song Design, a freelance graphic design company founded by Les Claypool of Primus,Larry LaLondeandAdam Gates,focusing on the exploding opportunities of Web-based design in the mid-1990s, creating the entire online catalog for music industry titans Interscope Records, Geffen, Aftermath, Death Row Records, and A & M.[citation needed]

By 1998 he had become Creative Director for Prawn Song, responsible for the design and creative direction of all Primus and Les Claypool related projects, including:Antipop,Videoplasty,Rhinoplasty,Hallucino-Genetics: Live 2004,Green Naugahyde,Animals Should Not Try to Act Like People,They Can't All Be Zingers,Blame It on the Fish: An Abstract Look at the 2003 Primus Tour de Fromage,Oysterhead,The Grand Pecking Order,Colonel Claypool's Bucket of Bernie Brains,The Big Eyeball in the Sky,and Les Claypool's solo projectsPurple Onion,Of Whales and Woe,Of Fungi and Foe,andElectric Apricot: Quest For Festeroo.[citation needed]

In 2003 Zoltron produced the platinum-selling, retrospective Primus DVD, 'Animals Should Not Try to Act Like People,' an interactive DVD experience spanning the band's rich history dating back to early bootlegs and live radio performances.[8]Primus' singer/bassist Les Claypool remarked that, "It seems of late that bands are adding supplemental DVD material to their album releases to promote record sales. We've done the opposite. We've added a supplemental audio recording of brand-new music to an extremely comprehensive DVD of classic visuals."[34]In his review forAllMusic,Greg Prato predicted that "while hardcore fans will want to hear what Claypool and the boys have been up to lately in the recording studio, the main attraction ofAnimalsis its exceptional DVD. "[35]

In 2011, Zoltron initiated a limited-edition poster project for Primus, commissioning artists to produce hand-printed, individually signed, and numbered silkscreen posters, and using a new image for each of the shows on their tours, skidding across the United States. There are now 400 unique 18 in × 24 in (460 mm × 610 mm) designs, chronicling every gig the band has played with as much hallucinatory variety as their music.[36][37] Zoltron's work for Primus included a collaboration with designer Zombie Yeti to produce a "frizzle-fry acid trip" design for Primus-themed pinball tables, built as a limited edition byStern Pinball.[38][39][40][41]

Sticker Robot and political activism

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In early 2002, Zoltron founded the sticker printing company, Sticker Robot. During Barack Obama's campaign for the US Presidency, Sticker Robot produced stickers ofShepard Fairey's famousBarack Obama "Hope" poster.[42][43]The first printing was for 5,000; by the time of the election the run had increased to 500,000 and the stickers had become a collectible.[44] Zoltron produced his own Obama poster, which was photographed and commented on in aTimemagazine article.[45]The poster was shown in "a giant art exhibit" in Washington D.C. held to celebrate the inauguration.[46]

References

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  1. ^Museum, Victoria and Albert."Pussy Riot Postponed | Zoltron | V&A Explore The Collections".Victoria and Albert Museum: Explore the Collections.Retrieved2021-10-24.
  2. ^"FAMSF".
  3. ^"Zoltron".SFMOMA.Retrieved2024-09-15.
  4. ^"Zoltron - Pussy Riot Postponed".LACMA.Retrieved27 October2021.
  5. ^"California '88 (Iggy Pop)".collections.mfa.org.Retrieved2021-10-24.
  6. ^"LibGuides: Archival Collections: ARC-1251 to ARC-1300".
  7. ^"Gold & Platinum".RIAA.Retrieved2021-10-04.
  8. ^ab"Zoltron Songs, Albums, Reviews, Bio & More".AllMusic.Retrieved2021-10-04.
  9. ^Richard, Anne (2018).HEY! Deluxe #1: Modern Art & Pop Culture(French ed.). Hey L'Editeur.ISBN9782490097029.
  10. ^"Outside - zoltron".
  11. ^Short, Kevin (24 April 2014)."15 Captivating Works Of Art That Challenge The McDonaldization Of Society".HuffPost.Retrieved17 September2021.
  12. ^Harman, Ken (16 September 2011)."A Dialog with Zoltron".Hi-Fructose.Retrieved17 September2021.
  13. ^Trippe."Zoltron & The 18th St. Forum".FecalFaceDotCom.Retrieved17 September2021.
  14. ^Frye, Eva (16 September 2011)."Inside 18 Reasons New Digs, Now Open in the Mission".Retrieved17 September2021.
  15. ^"Star Gallery NYC Presents" Memento Mori "A Group Exhibition".Cision(Press release).Retrieved17 September2021.
  16. ^"Manifest Hope: DC First Look (NOTCOT)".
  17. ^https://zzz.zoltron.com/Punk-Rock-Poster-Show-MexicoMexico
  18. ^J., Caroline."Foo Fighters Sonic Art Ways a la French Paper Gallery".Sortir a Paris.Retrieved17 September2021.
  19. ^C., Mailys."Hey! Modern Art Pop Culture S'Installe a la Galerie Arts Factory".Sortir a Paris.Retrieved17 September2021.
  20. ^Bosdecker, Laurie (6 December 2014)."BDX-LAX, L'art Relax".Sud Ouest.Retrieved17 September2021.
  21. ^Richard, Anne (2018).HEY! DELUXE #1: Modern Art & Pop Culture.Hey L'Editeur.ISBN9782490097029.
  22. ^Bromwich, Kathryn (6 August 2016)."The life artistic: Wes Anderson-inspired works – in pictures".The Guardian.Retrieved17 September2021.
  23. ^Harmon, Ken (2016).Bad Dads: Art Inspired by the films of Wes Anderson.Spoke Art Publishing.
  24. ^Harman, Ken (11 May 2010)."Zoltron x Raging Bull".Hi-Fructose.Retrieved19 September2021.
  25. ^Chojnacki, Matthew (2013).Alternative Movie Posters - Film Art from the Underground.Schiffer.ISBN9780764349867.
  26. ^Museum, Victoria and Albert."Pussy Riot Postponed | Zoltron | V&A Explore The Collections".Victoria and Albert Museum: Explore the Collections.Retrieved2021-10-04.
  27. ^"Pussy Riot Postponed | LACMA Collections".collections.lacma.org.Retrieved2021-10-04.
  28. ^"California '88 (Iggy Pop)".collections.mfa.org.Retrieved2021-10-04.
  29. ^"FAMSF".
  30. ^"Zoltron".SFMOMA.Retrieved2024-09-15.
  31. ^Thomas, Jennie."LibGuides: Archival Collections: ARC-1251 to ARC-1300".library.rockhall.com.Retrieved2024-09-15.
  32. ^"[Barack Obama election ephemera]".www.loc.gov.2007.Retrieved2021-10-04.
  33. ^Harrington, Jim (27 May 2017)."BottleRock Act Foo Fighters Play Secret Show in Napa".Mercury News.Bay Area News Group.Retrieved17 September2021.
  34. ^"PRIMUS Animals Should Not Try To Act Like People DVD CD Tour Fall 2003".Primusville.2003. Archived fromthe originalon 26 July 2011.Retrieved4 October2021.
  35. ^Prato, Greg."Animals Should Not Try to Act Like People".AllMusic.Retrieved1 October2021.
  36. ^"Zoltron On Curating Primus' Expansive Poster Series".1xRUN Blog.2015-07-30.Retrieved2021-10-04.
  37. ^"Jim Pollock, Chuck Sperry, Zoltron Among Artists Set for Primus Tour Poster Series".Relix Media.2011-09-20.Retrieved2021-10-04.
  38. ^pin2d (2018-11-23)."Primus Pinball Revealed! Interview with Zoltron and Zombie Yeti".This Week in Pinball.Retrieved2021-10-04.{{cite web}}:CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  39. ^"Primus unveils first-ever pinball machine".The Music Universe.2018-12-04.Retrieved2021-10-04.
  40. ^"Primus Unveils Limited Edition Pinball Machine For Cyber Monday".L4LM.2018-11-23.Retrieved2021-10-04.
  41. ^"Primus Details Limited Edition Custom Pinball Machine".JamBase.Retrieved2021-10-04.
  42. ^Arnon, Ben (13 November 2008)."How the Obama" Hope "Poster Reached a Tipping Point and Became a Cultural Phenomenon: An Interview With the Artist Shepard Fairey".Huffington Post.Retrieved23 September2021.
  43. ^Gross, Jennifer (2009).Art for Obama: Designing Manifest Hope and the Campaign for Change.Harry N. Abrams.ISBN9780810984981.
  44. ^"Obama Hope Stickers".Obey Giant.17 March 2008.Retrieved23 September2021.
  45. ^Scherer, Michael (29 December 2008)."Barack Obama Person of the Year 2012".Time Magazine.Retrieved1 October2021.
  46. ^"Marin Artists Join Obama Inaugural Festivities".Marin Independent Journal.19 January 2009.Retrieved23 September2021.
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