Award-winning illustrator James Jean is dreamy. His art is an OxyContin cloud in a clear winter sky. The fluid lines, vibrant color and fantastic subject matter combine melancholia and poetry. Fashion designer Miuccia Prada was so inspired by Jean’s work that she used his art on dresses for her Spring/Summer 2008 collection and has displayed his pieces in her flagship stores across the world. This winter Jean returns to personal projects, culminating in his first solo show on January 10 at the Jonathan LeVine Gallery in New York.

GIANT: Do you work from home or a studio?
James Jean: The studio is part of my home. I have a door I use to shut away distractions such as pets and women.

What’s your typical day like?
JJ: I start around 10 [am], work like hell until 10 [pm]. I’ve worked longer, but I’m trying to have more fun and some social time.

What made you aware that you needed some downtime?
JJ: The long fingernails and jars of urine tipped me off. Your work can be wistful.

What’s the happiest you’ve ever been?
JJ: I’m even-keeled; one guy actually said I always seem sedated. I don’t have highs or lows. I’m focused—like a laser beam.

How do you work?
JJ: I plan everything out and have a sketch to work from, but there’s also a lot of improvisation. The last 20 percent of a painting is the most important. This involves destroying what’s there and coming up with some new idea or element that creates that final feeling of magic.

Shepard Fairey is certainly on a roll these days. His work for the new prez-elect hangs in the Smithsonian, as well as gracing the cover of Time’s “Person of the Year” issue. Most recently, he has designed the official Inaugural Poster.

And now, you’ll be seeing his work on the shoulders of all the fashionistas supporting the economy with their retail addiction. Fairey was chosen to reinvigorate the brand of Saks Fifth Avenue, bringing his bold Constructivist designs to their Spring campaign.

Forgive me but I have decided that Mr. Fairey makes way too much money and I’m not sure if I can read anything else about him for a minute.

FIFTY24SF Gallery in San Francisco ends the year with an amazing show from Jeremy Fish and Miss Van. The double-bill is the big sell for most, but I disagree. Miss Van’s popularity never made sense to me. I mean, the work is cool and all but I get it—what’s next? Jeremy Fish on the other hand, I can’t get enough of.

His work is a fine blend of dark and light, both poppy and macabre. His paintings have a ski lodge quirk with a fantastic bend, incorporating a natural woodsy feel to compose his surreal subject matter. This exhibit is ”Ghosts of the Barbary Coast,” a meditation on the “hoodlums and harlots” who ventured all the way to San Fran during the California Gold Rush.

While you’re there, if you have the time, Miss Van’s “Still a Little Magic” is on display in the lower level gallery…

Rita de Alencar curated a sick calendar for ’09 featuring the young legend Wangechi Mutu, as well as David Ellis, Bjorn Copeland, Nico Vascellari, Jota Castro, Alighiero Boetti and others. The calendar will be part of a five-year project pushing emerging artists, each year’s proceeds benefiting a new charity. This year’s cause is the African Medical and Research Foundation and artis. The calendar—essentially a way to buy prints from ill artists for cheap—is printed as a limited edition run of 800, and is selling for $50. Go here to buy.

I love popping bubbles. Mary saves me all the shipping bubbles from her incoming packages. Amanda enjoys when I pop them off one by one as she’s designing POV. I can’t help it, it’s just fun. If that BubbleWrap app on my iPhone was any damn good, I would literally never stop popping. 

Anyway, take a look at my new toy. It is my new reason to treasure waking up each morning. Buy it here.

Ellen von Unwerth shot GIANT’s Beyonce cover in The Hotel on Rivington’s glass penthouse in downtown Manhattan. Her work is bold, flirtatious and never ever shy…

Our Creative Director, Graham Rounthwaite, put me on to a fan page that has collected all things Ellen. From her luxe books and gallery exhibits to every piece of editorial and advertising work she’s ever shot, it’s all right here.

It’s kinda hard to hate Friends with You, the two-man art collabo of Arturo Sandoval and Sam Borkson. Their world is colorful and bright and cute. To hate Friends with You would be like hating kids or ice cream or lollipops. And I love all three.

All that sweet shit aside, the dudes sure know how to work an angle. The two are giants in marketing their brand with a smile. I mean, they are everywhere. Featured in the lounge of this year’s Scope Miami art fair, the duo represent the difference between the more high-end blue chip galleries listed at Art Basel Miami Beach and the more experimental, cutting-edge galleries of Scope.

In 2006, the Miami natives presented the awesome Skywalkers parade  (below) across South Beach, taking all the silicone girls and hairy Speedo dudes by surprise. This year’s installation is giant bouncy house and recreation area—with picnic tables, concession stands, and places to chill—all candy-colored and pretty. Should be a fun exhibit! Be sure to wear matching socks… 

Just in time for the holidays! The Ray Caesar Art Collection features 178 pages of the artist’s work, including sketches, studies and illustrations. Of specific interest are Caesar’s essays, describing his process. The work—sometimes dark and perverse, at times bright and fantastic—is meticulously detailed, obviously created with painstaking care, bringing peers such as Mark Ryden and Marion Peck—both noteable hyperrealist painters—to mind. Yet, it is surprising to most that Caesar is actually a digital artist, manipulating his images to create the illusion of texture and materiality. But the subjects are actually “sculpted” on his computer screen, pushed and pulled into shape using a mouse. The model becomes 3D and a skeleton is added, which allows his models the ability to move and pose, as well as absorb light and create shadow. The final steps are a coat of color, then a layer of texture. Caesar saves images of textures—wood surfaces, a close-up of skin, cloth, flower petals, etc.—to use in his work, to lend the digital image some warmth and realness. He says, “I collect textures the way some people collect little silver spoons, and I have a story about each texture in my collection.”

The book goes for $54, but is also available in a super luxe edition for those collectors in the audience. The $625 version features a signed copy of the book, only this time with a black linen hard cover, as well as a beautiful print of one the featured works and 6 collector’s cards. Go here to choose. 

In the style of antiquated Victorian portraits, Travis Louie paints the shadowy friends inside his head. While they are indeed a strange lot, they seem cool enough. 

“Strange Neighbors” is up through January 3rd at the Fuse Gallery in NYC. 

Check out William Hundley‘s crazy ass photos of ghosts floating through the street at Kinsey/Desforges in LA through December 20th.

Black Milk’s first single off Tronic (Fat Beats Records) flaunts the production and rhyme skills of our boy. Pick up the LP asap, if you haven’t yet.

Bloc28 was launched three years ago to breathe new life into the visual mythology of Walt Disney. Acting as a stage for graffiti artists to twist and reshape the classic Disney characters, Bloc28 invites an impressive sampling of the best artists working today to the drafting table. A bold move for such an iconic American company, and yet, one can argue, an obvious attempt to get some attention. Many companies seeking street-cred are eyeing graff and street artists these days—no mystery there. But, one must admit, it is pretty cool to see a burner of Mickey.

Last weekend, Bloc28 launched “Series 2″ at the Continental Gallery in downtown LA.  Featured artists include Suiko and Tenga One, two of the illest Japanese graffiti writers; the living legend, Ewok; the UK big boy, Aroe; Chaz, the OG of east LA, and my fav, Rime, the calligraphy man. Unfortunately the show only lasted a few days. But, Disney, the savvy capitalist empire that it is, wouldn’t let it fade out just like that.

Check it out on eBay (here) where they’re selling prints by these greats. Auctions end November 20.

The Smithsonian Institute is quickly pulling together bits of the Obama campaign experience to preserve the historic moment for a future exhibit. One of the plans is to recreate a campaign field office by gathering strategy literature, maps and signage. As Virginia was a big win for the prez-elect—Obama being the first Democrat to win the state since 1964—the Smithsonian chose one of the state’s satellite offices to represent the occasion. Other locations eyed are Chicago and Colorado.

It is also rumored that the Smithsonian is looking to purchase Shepard Fairey’s iconic rendition of Obama to include in the National Portrait Gallery. That’s an impressive addition to an antiquated collection of oils—I can just see the crowd gathered around the work now. Leave it to Obama to bring style to every aspect of this position. And props must go to Fairey for climbing the ladder from illegal street artist to one of the most influential artists of our day, bumrushing the National Mall.

It’s here people: H&M x Comme des Garçons. Hurry up before it’s all gone. (I mean it—stop reading and move.)

The Comme des Garçons for H&M collection debuted in Tokyo on November 8th but is available worldwide today. Designed by Rei Kawakubo, who founded the esteemed label in 1969, to marry the commercial experience of H&M with the fantasic design sensibility of Comme des Garçons.

The collection features men’s and women’s garments, as well as accessories and a unisex fragrance. Now go!

FAILE, if you don’t know, is a two-man team working out of Brooklyn. This summer their work was included in Tate Modern’s “Street Art” exhibition, which was painted directly on the exterior of the massive venue (formerly a power plant) overlooking the Thames River. “It worked out really well because we were thinking of coming and bombing [the Tate] in the middle of the night a few months ago,” they said during the large-scale installation. “So, the fact that they asked us made it so much easier.” Other artists included Os Gemeos, Blu, Sixeart, Nunca and JR.

Their latest UK show, “Lost in Glimmering Shadows,” is presented by the ever-fresh Lazarides Gallery. The show runs for only ten days, opening tonight and closing on November 16th. The location is an old schoolhouse in Kennington, but fret not, a map is provided.

FAILE’s 2007 New York show (left) “Nothing Lasts Forever” was quite possibly the coolest out-of-the-white-box exhibitions in the city that year. The show lasted only one weekend in June, with a Chinatown address released on the day of the event. The installation was stunning, enabling a wholly different experience from passing their stencil work on a street corner.

“Lost in…” will feature all new work on canvas and wood. This is a must-see show for all uninitiated.

If you haven’t had the chance, better make some time this weekend: “The Outsiders” exhibit, a Lazarides Gallery off-site project featuring an insane line-up of artists who like to play both indoors and out. Featured artists are Faile, Paul Insect, JR, Invader, Conor Harrington, Zevs, David Choe, Mark Jenkins, Vhils, Blu and many more…

The show was originally scheduled to run for two weeks, but was extended through this Sunday, October 26th. It’s not often that you get to see all this creative energy in one space, so check it out.

Johnny Rodriguez, aka KMNDZ, is a Los Angeles-based artist who walks the line, as many do, between successful commercial artist and emerging painter. His latest show “Red Forest,” a collaboration with Ekundayo is up at Thinkspace Gallery on Santa Monica Blvd through October 31st. (By the way, “KMNDZ” refers to the Mac keystroke command: Command+Z.) 

What is the vein or common thread behind the works exhibited in “Red Forest”?  That we are making a habit of calling evil good and good evil, in turn deforming ourselves spiritually and mentally.

Describe your style.  Rendered paintings of old rusted metal characters on dirty walls with worn-out signage. Or you can say that I’m soul rebel and my paintings are weapons. Don’t think I have the right answer, but I’ll get there.

When you set out on a new work, do you have an idea in mind or does a piece grow more organically? I tend to go into a piece with a solid idea. I hope that as I progress as a painter I’ll open myself up to letting the piece grow organically.

What is the current state of the contemporary art world? Are artists getting love?  I would like to think it’s in a good place. Galleries seem to be doing less group shows and focusing on individual artists. Pop culture is embracing the scene. I can turn on TLC and see Shawn Barber or Hussar making cameos. Every other gallery show is sponsored by a surf or skate company. So, yeah, we’re getting lots of love, but I’m sure some may think it’s a bad thing. They might even say the market is flooded. I say any state is a good state as long as artists are working hard and putting themselves out there.

Rik Cordero directed Q-Tip’s second vid from his upcoming “The Renaissance.” Love the Dilla-produced track, kinda feeling the video. What do you think?

Move

Also, here’s “Getting Up” for those of you who haven’t seen it yet.

Gettin Up

Did I mention how good B is looking in her new vids? So, here is Beyonce’s second premiere for the day, “Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It).” It’s a simple vid with a clean look and great choreography. And Beyonce in a leotard—nuff said.

MTV will be spotlighting our girl throughout the week, pretending they still care about the music biz.

Damn, B is looking good. “If I Were a Boy” is the first single off of Beyonce’s highly anticipated album, due to hit the streets in just a few weeks on November 18. The video, directed by Jake Nava, is definitely one to watch as it is not only a playful switcheroo outdoing M. Night Shyamalan’s recent efforts, but just to see Beyonce back doing her thing again. We missed you B. It’s been a minute…

The video for “All the Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It)” will premiere today as well on MTV. It’s B in a club, hand claps and all. This winter’s going to be fun with this as the soundtrack. To hear the two singles, go here.

Angelbert Metoyer’s artwork is heavy stuff. Walking around his “ASK: Another Sound Kingdom” installation at the Dactyl Gallery in Soho is mentally exhausting, but well worth the effort. Unlike many of his peers who package their work into pretty little pills, Metoyer’s paintings are layered with spiritual and mental residue. As your eyes span the different works, they find several keys to other mindstates in the hidden symbols and “automatic” writing scrawled across the composition. But it’s not that deep for Metoyer: “I need to sell some work so I can buy a TV.”

Metoyer, born in New Orleans on 7/7/77, is a Houston resident. This exhibit is his first show in New York since 2006′s “Masquerade of the Divine” at the Paul Rodgers 9W Gallery. That exhibit consisted of detritus the artist found on the streets of his birthplace after Hurricane Katrina tore it apart. The tone of the exhibit was grotesque; at times horrifying, at others, beautiful. Just last month, another storm shook the artist, this time Hurricane Ike which killed dozens in Houston and left Metoyer without power until just days ago. This made it a little complicated for the artist to pull together this show, and many of the works hung at Dactyl were created in the two weeks leading up to the opening date. Luckily, the artist is able to channel such energy.

The result is raw and natural; ancient in feel and palette, while shining futuristic throughout. It’s what you’d see if you were to close your eyes while listening to Sun Ra.

The exhibit is open through October 25th, take the trip.

Obvious statement: My man Madlib can’t sit still. He just released Sujihno, a collabo with Brazilian drummer Mamão of the band Azymuth, re-imagined the classic Madvillain project with Madvillainy 2, and trumpeted his boy by dedicating his latest Beat Konducta installment, Vol. 5: Dil Cosby Suite, to Jay Dilla. Ok already, time for a vacation. But no, that would be too easy.

Mad’s latest LP, WLIB AM: King of the Wigflip, is released on BBE’s Beat Generation Series, which included Pete Rock, Jay Dee, DJ Spinna, Marley Marl, Jazzy Jeff and King Britt. Word is that Wigflip will be the final installment for Beat Generation. Sad news for those of us who pay attention, but at least they left off on top of the world.

Wigflip‘s beats are premium quality, of course. Always a smoky blend of grit and soul, Madlib’s orchestrations reach beyond your everyday hip-hop ballads for some true jazz spirit. Through the music, he summons you to follow where his mind leads. Like it or not, that is the signature. As usual, Madlib brought along his crew to ground the heady work. On call we have Guilty Simpson—one of my favorite MCs—as well as Talib Kweli, MED, Oh No, Defari, J-Rocc, Frank N Dank, and Murs. The result is a required addition to the library. This is tomorrow’s hip-hop today.

While you’re at it, pick up the newly re-released 2001 Beat Konducta Vol 0: Earth Sounds available exclusively on the Stones Throw store.