Blaine Fontana
Encyclopedia
Biography
Fontana was born in Seattle, Washington and raised on Bainbridge Island. He began his interest in artArt
Art is the product or process of deliberately arranging items in a way that influences and affects one or more of the senses, emotions, and intellect....
at a young age. During his teens he commuted to two High Schools in order to study graphic design, photography, sculpture and life drawing. After graduating in 1994, he pursued his education of life in the streets of Seattle and Portland as a Graffiti
Graffiti
Graffiti is the name for images or lettering scratched, scrawled, painted or marked in any manner on property....
Artist.
After about 4 years of being in and out of towns and community colleges, Fontana chose to attend Otis College of Art and Design
Otis College of Art and Design
Otis College of Art and Design is an art and design college in Los Angeles, California.The school's programs, accredited by WASC and National Association of Schools of Art and Design, include four-year BFA degrees in illustration, fine arts, graphic design, architecture, landscape design, interior...
in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
in 1998. Four years later Fontana left with a BFA in Communication Art/Design. During School he worked as an Art Director at a design firm, Abound LLC, and also as a Graphic Designer at a Fashion/Lifestyle Magazine, Metro Pop. Recently Fontana had worked as an Art Director at a young men’s apparel company, Drifter. In January 2003 he became self-employed as a fine artist and designer. website After pursuing his career in LA for 9 years he has recently returned to his roots on Bainbridge Island, Washington.
Work
Blaine Fontana has varied styles, including abstractAbstract art
Abstract art uses a visual language of form, color and line to create a composition which may exist with a degree of independence from visual references in the world. Western art had been, from the Renaissance up to the middle of the 19th century, underpinned by the logic of perspective and an...
, cartoonesque, and figurative
Figurative art
Figurative art, sometimes written as figurativism, describes artwork—particularly paintings and sculptures—which are clearly derived from real object sources, and are therefore by definition representational.-Definition:...
. He has also been classified as a lowbrow
Lowbrow (art movement)
Lowbrow, or lowbrow art, describes an underground visual art movement that arose in the Los Angeles, California, area in the late 1970s. Lowbrow is a widespread populist art movement with origins in the underground comix world, punk music, hot-rod street culture, and other subcultures. It is also...
artist. http://www.ocweekly.com/culture/arts/not-so-starving-artist/24680/ http://lowbrowart.tribe.net/thread/7fee3903-05a2-4dfc-900d-9681ce2c9354 However, he has described his work as "urban-contemporary". http://www.myartspace.com/blog/2008/12/art-space-talk-blaine-fontana.html
Influences
Robert RauschenbergRobert Rauschenberg
Robert Rauschenberg was an American artist who came to prominence in the 1950s transition from Abstract Expressionism to Pop Art. Rauschenberg is well-known for his "Combines" of the 1950s, in which non-traditional materials and objects were employed in innovative combinations...
, Ralph Steadman
Ralph Steadman
Ralph Steadman is a British cartoonist and caricaturist who is perhaps best known for his work with American author Hunter S. Thompson.-Personal life:Steadman was born in Wallasey, Cheshire, and brought up in Towyn, North Wales...
, Hayao Miyazaki
Hayao Miyazaki
is a Japanese manga artist and prominent film director and animator of many popular anime feature films. Through a career that has spanned nearly fifty years, Miyazaki has attained international acclaim as a maker of animated feature films and, along with Isao Takahata, co-founded Studio Ghibli,...
, Basquiat
Jean-Michel Basquiat
Jean-Michel Basquiat was an American artist. His career in art began as a graffiti artist in New York City in the late 1970s, and in the 1980s produced Neo-expressionist painting.-Early life:...
, Scott Hansen, Andy Goldsworthy
Andy Goldsworthy
Andy Goldsworthy, OBE is a British sculptor, photographer and environmentalist producing site-specific sculpture and land art situated in natural and urban settings. He lives and works in Scotland.-Life and career:The son of F...
. http://www.ocweekly.com/culture/arts/not-so-starving-artist/24680/
Represented galleries
- Distinction Gallery, Escondido, CA
- Limited Addiction Gallery, Denver, CO
- Scribble Theory Gallery, Santa Ana, CA
- Yves Laroche Gallery, Montreal, Canada
- Josua Liner Gallery, New York, NY
Published work and press
8.5, Issue 8Cm, Consumption Manual, Issue 01
CMYK
Happy Magazine, cover
ISM Quarterly, cover Winter 2006
Juxtapozhttp://www.juxtapoz.com, cover Issue #67, August 2006 http://www.juxtapoz.com/jux/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=364&Itemid=85
Line Up the Magazine
Metro Pop
Modart Magazine
OC Weekly
Prequel, Issue 0, pg 28 (2006)http://www.prequelmag.com/prequel_issue0.pdf
SqueezeOC
Synthesis
The Industry Standard Anthology, 2005
Vision Magazine, May 2005, cover http://www.visionmagazine.com/5_05/may05_homepage.htm
Case Magazine, Issue One, cover
Myartspace Blog, Interview with Brian Sherwin
Brian Sherwin
Brian Sherwin is an American art critic, writer, and blogger with a degree from Illinois College in 2003. Sherwin is the Senior Editor for the artist social networking site myartspace, where he has written an extensive interview series with emerging and established visual artists...