Blog: Art

Margaret Kilgallen aka META / Matokie Slaughter


A couple of weeks ago I watched Beautiful Losers, a short film by Aaron Rose documenting the NYC art and graffiti scene in early 90's and celebrating, "the spirit behind one of the most influential cultural moments of a generation".

There are many talented artists in the film including Shepard Fairey, Barry McGee, Jo Jackson and Mike Mills, but for me it was Margaret Kilgallen's work that really stood out. I had seen some of it before, but had no idea who was behind it. The giant, typographic murals really struck me, they're fantastic - the colours, the scale and the typefaces, I just love them.









Her work was heavily influenced by American folk art which can be seen in the illustrations and colour palettes. She valued craftmanship and loved old hand-painted shop signs, something that clearly inspired her murals.

"I like things that are handmade and I like to see people's hand in the world, anywhere in the world; it doesn't matter to me where it is. And in my own work, I do everything by hand. I don't project or use anything mechanical, because even though I do spend a lot of time trying to perfect my line work and my hand, my hand will always be imperfect because it's human. And I think it's the part that's off that's interesting, that even if I'm doing really big letters and I spend a lot of time going over the line and over the line and trying to make it straight, I'll never be able to make it straight. From a distance it might look straight, but when you get close up, you can always see the line waver. And I think that's where the beauty is."

Margaret did many colaborations with other artists in the film including her husband, Barry Mcgee. She was also a grafitti artist on the freight trains, influenced by Hobo tradition, she worked under the tags 'Meta' and 'Matokie Slaughter'.

Sadly in 2001 Margaret Kilgallen died aged 33 of breast cancer just weeks after giving birth to her daughter, Asha. She was a talented and inspirational artist and I'm so pleased to have found her work. I really want to see it in the flesh and retrospectives do pop up now and again, but until then this Flickr group has a great collection of her work.

Images copyright the authors - from the Margaret Kilgallen Flickr.

Wed 18 Nov 2009

Posted under: Design , Typography , Art , Illustration , lettering

1 Comment

ART-O-MART


Art-O-Mart is our new sister blog, focused on great art, design & photography - inspirational work from established artists & fresh new talent, must-see exhibitions and info on where to buy great stuff.

The Art-O-Mart online store will soon be opening for business too, selling limited edition prints, photography, vintage posters and specialist magazines.

If you are a photographer, designer, printmaker or artist and would like your work showcased on the Art-O-Mart blog send samples of your work to featureme [at] art-o-mart.com

Mon 04 Aug 2008

Posted under: Design , Photography , Art , Illustration

2 Comments

Extreme cutting and sticking



Sculptor Chris Gilmour creates these amazing life-size sculptures out of only cardboard and glue, that's it, no chicken mesh, no framework, just cardboard and glue! The detail is amazing and I love the idea of making crappy old packaging into art.

Via Computer Love.

Tue 10 Jun 2008

Posted under: Design , Art

1 Comment

Modern Toss: Museum of Urban Shit Naks



Modern Toss have created a 'Museum of Urban Shit Naks' to celebrate Brighton Fringe Festival, it includes a lifesize Alan, a selection of decorative wall-mounted ceramic Shit-Frisbees and a four hundred pound hand-knitted Book-Cosy.

You can see it in all it's glory at Ink-d, an independent Brighton gallery throughout this month.

Tue 13 May 2008

Posted under: Design , Funny , Art , Exhibition

1 Comment

Visions of America at Crane Kalman


If you do pop down to the coast for the Brighton Festival make sure you visit photography gallery, Crane Kalman situated in the heart of the lanes. Throughout May until the 8 June they are running, ‘Visions of America’ an exhibition showcasing work from Jeff Liao and Christoph Morlinghaus.

I love the contrast of these two collections shown together, Liao’s images are very raw and colourful, whereas Morlinghaus captures a nostalgic faded glory in his black and white images, as shown above in ‘Great White 2, 2007’. Take a look, you won’t be disappointed.

Thu 08 May 2008

Posted under: Photography , Art , Things to buy , Exhibition

0 Comments

Artizan Editions at Castor + Pollux


Brighton Gallery, Castor + Pollux are hosting a great exhibition, ‘Artizan Editions: A printmaking retrospective’ as part of the Brighton Festival Fringe 3 – 26 May. The exhibition is a retrospective of the publishers and proponents of original art in print - Artizan Editions.

We were lucky enough to have a sneak preview at the weekend and it really is a great collection of work from printmaking greats like Bridget Riley and Brian Rice . Plus it’s right on the beach – what more could you want?

Thu 08 May 2008

Posted under: Art , Prints , Things to buy , Exhibition

0 Comments

Christian Hückstädt Collages



We love the work of German, illustrator Christian Hückstädt, especially his corrugated card and vegetable collages, they're really clever and guaranteed to make you smile.

Sat 03 May 2008

Posted under: Design , Art , Illustration

0 Comments

Nike 1/1: Art of Football


Nike 1/1 is an art competition, this year themed on the Art of football - submit your work for the chance to exhibit in Basel with some of the world's most respected talents (the Nike 1/1 associates). 11 artworks will be selected to exhibit and 1 chosen as the overall winner which will be immortalised on a new limited edition series of Nike Dunks.

It doesn't sound like a great prize to me, but if it's your bag, get those pens and pencils out - oh, and 'Be True' apparently that's the only rule!

Fri 18 Apr 2008

Posted under: Design , Web , Art

0 Comments

Brighton Graffiti



Spotted this amazing graffiti at the weekend on Kensington Street down the back of the lanes in Brighton. It's so refreshing to see great graffiti from talented artists and it really has brightened up a dull part of town.

Thu 27 Mar 2008

Posted under: Design , Art

0 Comments

Welcome

Welcome to the Delicious Industries blog. We're an independent design studio based in Brighton, UK and this is our scrapbook packed full of design, illustration, photography & typography inspiration. Check out our work here.

Links

DELICIOUS FRIENDS

DELICIOUS FAVOURITES

DELICIOUS EPHEMERA

DELICIOUS GALLERIES

Blog Categories

Blog archive

Most Comments

Vintage VW Bus Signage (19 comments)

Country Fair: A monthly journal of the open air (12 comments)

Mac Fisheries (10 comments)

Howdoos (9 comments)