ToyCyte: Toy Culture Collected

I’m psyched to have finally met Alex Pardee and snagged a copy of his first ‘legit-as-fuck’ art book. Upper Playground in San Francisco held a pre-release signing for Awful Homesick on Sunday, with Alex holding court in what looked like a will-call window. The forty or so books that had been alotted for the event all sold out. The book is truly awesome. I think that even though the subject matter is often dark and mutated, Alex’s art still resonates as quite beautiful. The imagery and bits of text in the tome will give fans insight into a complex artist. Alex is also a great and generous guy. After a couple months of corresponding about it, he presented me with #99 of his Upper Playground x Barack Obama print. It rules so much. I’ll be hitting up the frame shop this week for sure.

Upper Playground will have Awful Homesick available in mid-September here.

From the twisted artwork of Alex Pardee comes “Awful | Homesick,” a 96-page hardcover collection featuring the fine artists favorite works from 2005 to the present. Mixed with the dark, bizarre, and horror-inspired characters, “Awful | Homesick” also shows Pardee’s influences from a comic book and graffiti-inspired childhood, with an exploration into the different styles of line work that he has worked on over the past few years. “Awful | Homesick” features a foreword from Jeben Berg. Now that you know the basics, just remember that the next time you are dreaming of waking up in a pool of your own blood. Remember the man Alex Pardee, because he probably has drawn the scenario better than you can think it.

The awesomeness…