Jim Evans (artist)

Jim Evans

Evans in 1994
Born Jim Evans
1950s
San Diego, California U.S.
Nationality American (United States)
Education Art Center College of Design, Cal Arts
Known for Painting, Cinema, Graphic design, Illustrator, Web design
Movement Poster art, Underground Comics,

Jim Evans was born sometime in the 1950s. Sometimes known as T.A.Z., Jim Evans is an American painter, printmaker, and Creative Director who was a contributing figure in the visual art movement known as underground comics. After a successful career as a comic illustrator, Jim Evans became known for his work as a painter, poster maker, and owner of the digital design group, Division 13.

Biography

Early life

Evans was born in San Diego amidst the surfing culture of southern California. After attending Oceanside High School,[1] he played in several local bands and then created comic strips for the Los Angeles Free Press and other underground papers while working for Eric Matlen's Sawyer Press. Evans then began to take commissions doing work in several comic books.[2] These included Yellow Dog, and a solo effort titled The Dying Dolphin, released by the Berkeley-based Print Mint, it included collaborations with Rick Griffin and Ron Cobb. Evans also drew for Slow Death Funnies, and Tales from the Tube, which was published by Surfer Magazine, and included contributions by Zap Comix artists Robert Crumb, Spain Rodriguez, Robert Williams, and Rick Griffin.

Hawaii

The Underground period was followed by a move to the North Shore of Oahu, and contributions to both Surfer and Surfing magazine, as well as illustrating a succession of Surfing posters, such as Hal Jepson's A Sea For Yourself, and the posters for Bud Browne's successful Going Surfin' series.[3] He did posters for many Australian surf films like On Any Morning, and A Winters Tale. During this period, he also did posters for Oahu's infamous Crater Celebration, featuring bands like Santana and Little Feat. Some of the time in Hawaii was spent doing commercial and advertising art for ad agencies, including ads and record sleeves for Don Ho and the Allihi's, and The Society of Seven.[4]

Album art

Returning to the mainland, Evans began to do record sleeves and continued his relationship with Surfer and Surfing magazines, doing numerous illustrations[5] for both, including a collaboration with surfer Mike Doyle on a series of ads for Wax Research. Evans also contributed regularly to Skateboarder and Powder magazines.[6] Working with Dean Torrance of Jan & Dean fame, he did the art for their revival album, Dead Man's Curve, and a compilation of Jan & Dean and Beach Boys hits called Golden Summer.[7] In collaboration with Dean, Evans also did the art for the Beach Boys albums 15 Big Ones, and Live in London. At the same time, he created a logo for The Beach Boys that is still used. This, in turn, led to the commission to create a logo for the band Chicago. His list of album jackets includes; Alice Coltrane, The Robby Kreiger Band, Chicago (band), The Allman Brothers, Neil Young, The Beach Boys, Beastie Boys, Beck, House of Pain, Symbol Six, Face To Face, and Toto.

Jim Evans painting

In addition to the record sleeves and ongoing work with the surfing magazines, Evans became a contributor to the newly formed Skateboarder Magazine, handling all of the illustration work for the first four issues. Jim did a series of ads for Cadillac Wheels, the first polyurethane skateboard wheel. Other skate art commissions included one for filmmaker / skater Stacy Peralta, for an early skate film titled Freestylin', as well as the poster for the first World Professional Skateboard Championships.

Film posters

The period of record sleeves and skate posters ran parallel to commissions for a number of film posters.[8] Working for most of the major studios, Jim completed art for the Lumiere, I Never Promised You a Rose Garden, Kentucky Fried Movie, Big Wednesday, Neil Young's Rust Never Sleeps (for which Jim also animated the opening title sequence), and John Carpenter's first film Dark Star. Numerous books began to appear at this time and his work is included in the History of Rock Art, Phonographics, Roger Dean's Album Art Book, and The History of Underground Comics.[9]

An interest in film led to work as an Art Director, set decorator, and storyboard artist for films. Evans worked on Killer's Kiss and Growing Pains. He also helped to prepare an American release for a series of Japanese films called The Baby Cart Series. Jim created the poster for the 1980 release titled Shogun Assassin, and Jim's son Gibran voiced the narrative as Daigoro.

Fine art

An association with Playboy led to a series of silkscreen portraits of celebrities, the magazine commissioned Evans to do portraits of Sean Connery, David Letterman, Joe Montana, and Marilyn Monroe. These portraits led to art shows in Chicago and New York, in addition to a large scale show at the Hansen Gallery Rodeo Drive location, where he did portraits of Sly Stallone, Madonna, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Billy Idol, Steve Vai, Bob Dylan, and Robert Mitchum. Later a show of feminist icons, done in collaboration with pop artist Richard Duardo, had a successful run at the Zero One gallery in Los Angeles. More recently Evans' art has been shown at The Nyehaus gallery, Metro Pictures and Friedrich Petzel Gallery in New York, for a bi-coastal tour called "Swell". Other artists in the show included Billy Al Bengston, Ed Ruscha, Laddie John Dill, and Dennis Hopper.[10]

Jim Presents Sylvester Stallone with a portrait painting (1978)

Most Recently, Evans' work can be seen in The Lords and the New Creatures art show at the NYE+BROWN gallery,[11] which also featured Judy Chicago, Ed Moses, and Chris Burden. In addition, work from Jim's comic and illustration period were included in the Paid To Play show at the Robert Berman Gallery. Both of these shows were part of the Los Angeles-based Pacific Standard Time: Art In L.A. 1945-1980 initiative.[12]

T.A.Z. rock posters

In the late 1980s, Evans turned his attention back to rock music. Agreeing to do a poster for Nirvana and L7 for a Rock for Choice benefit, he created a new moniker, T.A.Z.[13] The name was inspired by Hakim Bey's anarchist handbook titled The Temporary Autonomous Zone, This began collaboration with Jim, Gibran Evans and silkscreen artist Rolo Castillo.[14] To date they have created over 200 silkscreen limited edition rock posters for bands such as U2, Jane's Addiction, Oasis, Pearl Jam, Smashing Pumpkins, Metallica, and Beastie Boys.[15] As a group, T.A.Z. has completed commissions for numerous record sleeves. These include the Beastie Boys, Beck, Aerosmith, Face to Face, House of Pain, The Voodoo Glow Skulls, Slayer, Luscious Jackson, and Orange 9mm. The creation of T.A.Z. led to Jim's association with the Lollapalooza festival, and the Tibetan Freedom Concerts. In 1994, he was commissioned by Marc Geiger and Perry Farrell to decorate the Lollapalooza festival.[16] T.A.Z. continues as an ongoing collaboration, and recent T.A.Z. poster artists include, Ariel Celestino, Kirk Canning, and Omaha Perez.[17]

Digital media

The move into electronic media led to the founding of The Big Gun Project. The Big Gun Project was conceived as a loosely organized artistic electronic commune made up of artists, designers, writers, and computer programmers.[18] The Big Gun Project was responsible for creating early websites such as The Crash Site, FilmZone, and Salvo. The Big Gun Project's work-for-hire initiatives led to the completion of many web sites for major motion pictures. Among them, Men in Black, Tomorrow Never Dies, Seven, Jackie Chan's Rumble in the Bronx, The Mummy, The Big Lebowski, and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, which was done in collaboration with the film director Terry Gilliam. On the music side, the Big Gun Project built web sites for The Beastie Boys, The Ozzfest, Grand Royal Records, and The Tibetan Freedom Concert.[19]

In the late 1990s Evans worked as the Executive Creative Director for Al Teller's online label Atomic Pop. He was in charge of interface design, content creation, web site development for artists signed to the label, and interactive game design. While at Atomic Pop he created sites, videos, and games, for Public Enemy, Ice-T, The Black Eyed Peas, and Smashing Pumpkins. Smashing Pumpkins.

Current

Evans is currently residing in Malibu with his wife and business partner Nancy. He is the Executive Creative Director and owner of Division 13 Design Group, a web-based design firm specializing in the collaboration of art and technology. With recent clients like Sony Pictures, DreamWorks Animation, Lionsgate, Fox, Universal, and Paramount, he does web sites and viral marketing campaigns for films like Kung Fu Panda 1&2, Madagascar 1&3, Hellboy, Shrek, Ice Age 3&4, the SAW series, and recently, Real Steel, In Time, and Rise of the Guardians.[20]

Works

Film Projects

Film posters

Music posters

° 311

Album art

References

  1. ↑ "Jim Evans".
  2. ↑ Evans, Jim. "The Dying Dolphin".
  3. ↑ Warshaw, Matt. Surf Movie Tonite!: Surf Movie Poster Art, 1957-2004. Chronicle Books.
  4. ↑ "Club of the Waves Jim Evans". Club of the Waves. 16 August 2011. Retrieved 2012-07-26.
  5. ↑ Weyland, Jocko. The Answer Is Never: A Skateboarder's History of the World. Grove Press.
  6. ↑ Weyland, Jocko. The Answer Is Never: A Skateboarder's History of the World. Grove Press.
  7. ↑ Benedict, Brad. Phonographics: Contemporary Album Cover Art & Design. Collier Books.
  8. ↑ "Acapulco Gold".
  9. ↑ Dean, Roger. Album Cover Album. Collins Design.
  10. ↑ Smith, Roberta (2010-07-22). "Artist and Surfer as Best Buddies". The New York Times.
  11. ↑ nyehaus and brown (2011-10-06). "The Lords and the New Creatures at NYE+BROWN" (PDF). nye+brown. Retrieved 2011-11-22.
  12. ↑ "Club of the Waves Jim Evans". Club of the Waves. 16 August 2011. Retrieved 2012-07-26.
  13. ↑ Editors of Abbeville Press. The Art of Rock Posters from Presley to Punk. Abbeville Press.
  14. ↑ Lipton, Shana (2006-01-01). "High Art". LA Alternative.
  15. ↑ "Beastiemania.com - Prints". |first1= missing |last1= in Authors list (help)
  16. ↑ Grushkin, Paul D.; Editors of Abbeville Press. Art of Modern Rock: The Poster Explosion. Abbeville Press.
  17. ↑ "Gig Posters - TAZ". Gig Posters. 26 July 2012. Retrieved 2012-07-26.
  18. ↑ "Brotherhood of the Guitar". Brotherhood of the Guitar. 26 July 2012. Retrieved 2012-07-26. A commission to art direct the look and feel of Lollapalooza 1994, led Evans to the Internet and the chance to develop online identities for rock musicians. A series of websites for the Beastie Boys, Ozzy Osbourne, and The Smashing Pumpkins, led to Evans becoming a founder, with music mogul Al Teller, of the online record label, Atomic Pop. The label became home to Public Enemy, Ice-T, The Black Eyed Peas, and even released a single by the legendary L7.
  19. ↑ Treiman, Daniel. "From freeing Tibet to rebooting Judaism".
  20. ↑ "Division 13 Official Site". Division 13. 26 July 2012. Retrieved 2012-07-26.

External links

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