Following a five-year hiatus, San Francisco-via-NYC hip-hop artist Aesop Rock recently returned with his first solo album since None Shall Pass. Released by the Rhymesayers label, Skelethon is the rapper’s effort to come to terms with the death of a close friend, as well as the deterioration of several friendships and close relationships. “Death has become commonplace in my life,” he says. “The past few years was an endless period of skeletons. But, hopefully, Skelethon will help put all of this behind me. It’s like a giant purging—like finishing a chapter and preparing to jump into the next one.” Aesop will also be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our recent feature on him.
Aesop: Aryz is a painter from Barcelona. He works in different mediums in all sizes, but I’d say a healthy introduction to his work would include a browsing of some of the large-scale mural work he has done around the world. His imagery captures a lot of the subtleties one might usually associate with smaller, more controlled brush-painting, but on a massive and magical scale.
The environments, characters and palette pull you into the alternate universe Aryz works in, and once you’re there all you can really do is stare … for a long time. Bones, guts, animals, various sorts of biological imagery mixed into dreamlike environments, floating flower pedals and beams of sun, all choreographed to perfection on hundreds of feet of raw wall.
The size is unbelievable, amplifying the oddities in the imagery, and the character stylization and colors are unique and exquisite.
When I see new Aryz murals, my first thought is always, “That seems undoable.” But there it is.
Video after the jump.
