PAINTURA PITCH PROJECT/STOIQUE/PUMA

	PAINTURA PITCH PROJECT/STOIQUE/PUMA Vacant NYC Feb'03 12 scrawled soccer-balls exhibition, in cooperation with PUMA.Ben Drury, David Foldvari, ESPO, Genta Kosumi, Kostas Seremetis, Kate Gibb, Mr. JAGO, REAS, Reggie Pedro, Steff Plaetz, Var, Will Barras. Tomomi Nakajima, who heads "Stoique," a Tokyo-based group of designers engaged in graphic, product, and image design, approached Ric Blackshaw, head of "Scrawl Collective," a group of agents and consultants for street artists and illustrators based in London, out of an utterly simple reason that they were both soccer fanatics and engaged in art work. The proposal that was put on the table involved a project concept known as "Paintura Pitch Project," an attempt to merge the passionate spirit of soccer with the spirit of art. This project has come to fruition, and will be on display at Vacant. Please note all events are by invitation only. Items are subject to change or cancellation.
	BEN DRURY Paintura Project / Stoique / Puma Ben Drury is well respected for his art direction for British record label, Mo'Wax Records. With 140 releases in 8 years, he is best known for album sleeves such as DJ Shadow's ‰gEndtroducing‰h and Unkle's ‰gPsyence Fiction.‰h In addition to his record sleeve and marketing designs, Drury has also sculpted limited addition toys for the Mo'Wax Toy Division and has designed the recently released book, ‰eFutura‰f by Booth-Clibborn Editions. ‰gMy work stems from my love of music but equally my love of design itself, an instinctive interest in lettering‰cfrom graffiti to letterpress and a need to solve problems, or perhaps I mean a pleasure in finding visual solutions.‰h
	DAVID FOLVARI Paintura Project / Stoique / Puma David Foldvari, a 28 year old artist and graduate from the Royal College of Art, is recognized for his editorial work on Dazed and Confused and his work on the permanent collection of the Hamburg Museum of Modern Art. Foldvari's description of his own illustrated world is: ‰gIt's reality as I see it. Everyone always says I draw ugly people- I don't think I do. I just try to draw people as they really are. I'm not really interested in featureless model types. I'm into grimey inner cities full of grimey inner city people.‰h Davids its down to create his illustrations using a pencil, some paper, some filth, a Mac, tobacco, and coffee. In the future, Foldvari plans on working further in animation whilst releasing more music and record sleeves through his record label, Small Time Productions.
	ESPO Paintura Project / Stoique / Puma Stephen Powers is considered to be the leading figure in today's Philadelphia graffiti scene. ESPO, Powers' tag name, stands for "Exterior Surface Painting Outreach.‰h Since attending the University of the Arts in Philadelphia from 1990 - 1992, Powers has had speaking engagements at the Boston Museum School, the Art Institute of San Francisco, and the Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia. ESPO produces artwork, which has roots in Pop Art tradition, using old signs or labels of products sold in grocery stores. His style (using brushes and paints instead of spray paint) and where he tags (tops of the buildings) makes his graffiti unique.
	GENTA KOSUMI Paintura Project / Stoique / Puma Genta Kosumi, who was born in Osaka, Japan in 1974, began his artistic endeavors back in his childhood years. Genta now continues to draw through solitary study on waste paper, notebooks and canvas. His art, which is a mix between graffiti and illustration art, has been displayed numerous times at ‰g&'s gallery‰h in Osaka, has appeared on a CD jacket for ‰gEGO-WRAPPIN' ‰h, and has been published in magazines such as ‰gCommons & Sense‰h and ‰gRenoma Visual Magazine.‰h Genta remains in Osaka, where he continues to gain inspiration for his artwork.
	KOSTAS SEREMETIS Paintura Project / Stoique / Puma Kostas Seremetis is a Brooklyn-based, graffiti-influenced artist who has been painting for the past ten years. His work portrays popular comic book and sci-fi heroes and villains, depicting the eternal battle between good and evil. This internationally recognized artist has exhibited his work in many major cities around the world, including London, New York, Paris, Hong Kong, Tokyo, and Berlin. In addition to painting, Kostas works on short films, does t-shirt, action figure, html, and cd cover graphics, and manages and designs his own website, www.kostasystems.com.
	KATE GIBB Paintura Project / Stoique / Puma Kate Gibb's artistic creations are influenced by her everyday environment- photography, old family photos, shops, people, graffiti, music, cultures, colours, and clothing. Gibb's designs are mainly screenprinted‰cshe operates in an unrestricted manner producing one-off prints that cannot be repeated, so each one is more like a painting than an edition of screenprints. Gibb is recognized for her work on the spring/summer campaign for Dries Van Noten Fashion Label, CD album designs for the Chemical Brothers, and editorial work for The Face. In the future, Kate Gibb looks forward to doing more collaborative work mixed with the inclusion of her own photography work to obtain a different feel. She will be doing more fashion and book projects, including a set of self-initiated, limited-run, hand made pieces.
	MR. JAGO Paintura Project / Stoique / Puma Mr. Jago comes from the tough streets of Suffolk, an area second only to NYC itself when it comes to Hip Hop authenticity. Despite this creative environment, Mr. Jago insisted on running away to Bristol where he began his journey to Artdom. He does tee designs for Osaka based company Satan Arbeit and in December 2000 went out to Japan to take part in a live show along with an international cast of street artists, doodlers and other ne'er do wells. Mr. Jago has gone from strength to strength doing many varied commissions, from rock/soul band LSK to Yohji Yamamoto and Levi's to animated ads for French children‰fs television.
	REAS Paintura Project / Stoique / Puma Todd James, known as REAS, is an artist and designer who spent the bulk of his childhood Saturdays with cereal and cartoons. He therefore counts Sid & Marty Kroft, Hanna-Barbera, and Frankenberry among his early artistic influences. In Junior High, he began to paint enthusiastically upon New York City subway trains. REAS has an upcoming exhibit at the Tate in London in September 2002. Todd currently works doing production and puppet design on the television show "Crank Yankers.‰h
	REGGIE PEDRO Paintura Project / Stoique / Puma Reggie Pedro's artistic creations, which are sometimes melancholic and sometimes humorous, reflect the alienation and fragmentation that can characterize life in modern urban environments. His work generally shows a bold and confident use of color often combining realistic representation with more graphical features, such as outlines, flat planes of color and text. ‰gMy work spans areas of our lives, which deal with civil unrest, love, boredom, isolation, exuberance, and spirituality, to name the most obvious subjects that I am trying to tackle.‰h Pedro is well known for his images that have been used for the numerous Gomez album and single covers.
	STEFF PLAETZ Paintura Project / Stoique / Puma Growing up in Birmingham, with some formative years also spent in Bristol, Steff Plaetz grew up with a love for skateboarding and fine artwork. Combining these obsessions has proven to be a rich vein of inspiration for him - " part of the reason I create dynamic figures is because I have absorbed a lot of imagery from skate magazines and videos‰cand part of the reason I do art at all is seeing other stuff I really love." Steff produces his own personal material for exhibitions and also faces the challenges of doing commercial work‰cin recent months he's produced a large number of canvases and also completed can designs for a drink company in the USA that makes fizzy flavoured milk! Steff continues to produce designs for numerous clothing labels and is working on some record sleeves.
	VAR - Bjorn Karvstedt & Karl & Grandin Paintura Project / Stoique / Puma Var is the Swedish word meaning both ‰espring‰f and ‰eours‰f‰cit is also the name of Stockholm-based illustration design team Karl Grandin and Bjorn Karvestedt. Var‰fs work, which includes t-shirt designs, book and record covers, and magazine designs, has been exhibited at various galleries in Sweden, at Gallery Speak FOR, and at Parco Logos in Tokyo. Recent projects include Mikrofonkat (a book about Swedish hip hop), cover art for Penguin Books, and illustrations for magazines like Commons & Sense, Tokion, Harper's Bazaar, Vogues Hommes International, and Wallpaper. Their work is also exhibited at www.creativeunion.co.uk and www.woo.se.
	WILL BARRAS Paintura Project / Stoique / Puma Like his compadre and stablemate Mr. Jago, Will Barras began his glittering career in a call centre, where doodling was one of the more accepted methods of not going insane. Although he is often associated with all things skate and hip-hop, his style owes as much to rhubarb and yellow submarine as it does to street art. Often inspired by whatever is around at any given time he sucks up the world through a straw and reconstitutes it on paper, sort of like the artistic equivalent of a bluebottle. He has recently done board designs for Burton snowboards and continues to produce clothing designs for GSSA, Osaka.