Seonna Hong
Seonna Hong taught art to children after graduating from California State University in Long Beach in the 1990s. A few years later, she decided on a career change and began working in animation. Hong landed a job at children’s TV channel, Nickelodeon, where she earned an Emmy Award for her background work in the show, My Life as a Teenage Robot. Hong went on to work at Disney, Fox and Sony. Recently, she contributed to the visual development of the blockbuster movie, Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2.
As she developed her career in animation, Hong also worked independently as an artist. She began exhibiting her canvases and prints in 1999 and continues to do so today, launching her first solo exhibition, Princess, in 2003. Hong’s paintings possess a quiet yet colourful graphical style, with clear layers differentiating the background and foreground. While she paints trees and buildings with sharp corners and edges, her figures – often girls – have rounded features arranged in geometric fashion. In 2005, Hong released her first book, titled Animus. Read more »
Mister Cartoon
Los Angeles may be the most populous city in the U.S. state of California, but few people are visible on the streets. This is a city where most travel by car rather than stroll about on the sidewalks. Given the long distances, it’s almost impossible to survive without wheels. Mexican-American tattoo artist Mr Cartoon embraces this sense of remoteness. His tattoo studio is located in a sort of industrial area that’s almost as barren as a desert. A few parked cars provide the only signs of humanity.
From the moment we enter his studio, we can hear the buzz of a tattoo needle coming from upstairs. And we can see his style not just on skin, but also on CD covers and video games such as Grand Theft Auto. We sit down with the legendary tattoo artist on a balcony that straddles the two parts of the building – his studio and a sprawling garage for his cars. Read more »
Emma Reeves
Emma Reeves is a true avant-gardist. Always ahead of her time, she doesn’t scout trends but shapes them instead. While she used to influence our visual culture at cutting-edge fashion magazines such as Dazed & Confused and AnOther, she now works with moving images. Reeves is the creative director of MOCAtv, the YouTube channel of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles.
We met the U.K. native in the Californian sunshine to discuss old and new media. Read more »
Rik Reinking
When art critic, dealer and collector Rik Reinking showed a sprayed canvas to an auctioneer friend of his ten years ago, he received nothing but a disparaging smile before being waved aside. Reinking was one of the first to estimate the value of stencils, graffiti, stickers and pastings at a time when street art was not yet defined as art and when Banksy was regarded more as a pubertal vandal than an artist. “Whereas today, these exact people who amused themselves back then, kneel in front of artworks from, for example Banksy,“ says Reinking. „And yet, the artwork hasn’t changed – just its image.”
Reinking writes books about art and buys art for others, especially for himself. His collection is composed of too many works to count, though it’s more than enough to fill several exhibitions. We met him at his office in his home in Hamburg. The shelf behind his desk is filled with books and catalogs. A quick overview suggests Reinking does not separate high and low art. He values the scrimshaw before him on the desk as much as the OS-Gêmeos guitar leaning against the corner. We spoke to Reinking about his collection and about a unique piece of art he purchased in 2008 called TIM, probably the only one in the world that has its own needs. Read more »