Creating pieces both intimidating and inventive, 29-year old Dutch painter, Joram Roukes works out of the small town of Groningen in northern Netherlands. With airy layers and dream-like surrealist landscapes, Roukes’ stream-of-consciousness style creates multiple layers of content as well as medium. Fluidly designed, elements of Roukes’ creatures and narratives extrude and protrude from one another. “I am engaged in what the viewer will see and think. I think the paintings steer but not dictate. That is what I like to do, to confuse, allowing the viewer to express or project their point of view on what they see.”

Black Dynamite has been slowly infiltrating his way into all forms of media ever since Michael Jai White first conceived the character in 2006. After a critically acclaimed film in 2009, the Black Dynamite team joined up with Carl Jones to take Dynamite into television.

In the approximately 35 years of modern skateboarding, the importance of the artwork adorning the bottom of the boards themselves cannot be overstated. A mash-up of personal expression, corporate branding, propagandic conveyance, and sometimes, even true fine art at their best, they can express many of the seemingly schizophrenic facets of the skateboard world for which they speak.

For Steve Powers, the mandate of Public Art is entrenched in public service. I hope his mission continues and catches on with others in the field. Beyond offering an inspiring uppercut of double entendre’d messaging, Powers offers a free sign making service to the surrounding neighborhood during his stay. In this way he can give back to the local shops in need of some exterior surface painting outreach. After all, they are the ones permanently hosting the event whether they like Powers’ work or not. That way, he leaves an impression when he leaves an impression.

Walt drew a pleasingly plump, smiling mouse and built a home for him in Disneyland, the Happiest Place on Earth. Big Daddy Roth created a sweaty-palmed, bloodshot, orbed rodent who looked like he frequented the seedier side of the Golden State. Fittingly, Ed Roth ended up spending the sunset days of his career at Knott’s Berry Farm, which was known for shoot ‘em up tableaux and way scarier rides. I stopped by Robert and Suzanne’s homestead to get a firsthand spin from the flinty eyed Williams himself.

Very few artists over the past five years have generated collective attention more than the young Spanish muralist and fine artist, Aryz. There’s no envy, nor pretention, but artists around the world speak of Aryz in a way that is rare in contemporary art; everyone just wants to see what he will do next. with the unassailable fact that Aryz has taken this movement, he and I agreed this interview should be comfortably labeled “contemporary muralism,” given it’s a novel perspective of comic book characteristics and detailed texture rarely seen on six stories of concrete.  

It’s 1970 and a Seven-year old boy happens upon a weird Russian clown at a carnival. Weird Clown grants Boy the life of his dreams. Boy signs the deal in blood. Weird Clown erases the bargain from Boy’s mind. But Weird Clown makes good on it; Boy unwittingly lives the dream life, as agreed. Fast forward forty years, we find that the boy is an artist who has become renowned for creating elaborate installations and performances about a mysterious Russian clown. The subconscious mind is a powerful thing, isn’t it? For the boy has subliminally recalled the carnival meeting, the bargain, even the clown’s correct name: Dr. Pyotr Mastolf Ilyas. Or “Flotsam,” for short.

James Jean retired, then didn’t really retire at all. In a similar vein of Michael Jordan, who retired from one phase of his career only to return stronger and more well-equipped to dominate once again, Jean left the illustration world behind in 2008, redefining himself as one of the most talented and intriguing fine artists of his generation. On the eve of perhaps the biggest show of his career, Parallel Lives, opening at Tilton Gallery in NYC on January 9, Jean is, once again, at a crossroads.

Journalists love the idea of making lists, and “Best Of” and “Man of the Year” picks. I’m not sure if we like to do this because it magnifies our positions as cultural arbiters, but as far as year end issues go, there will be plenty of publications and journalists making their play to define 2012. I personally don’t make lists, but I like to look at a calendar year and see who has contributed a body of work that can define, explain, and embody contemporary art at that given moment.  

What can I do to change the world? I’m no folk singer! (paraphrased from Bill Maher)