(seen right: This is what an issue of JUXTAPOZ will look like in the future when Elisa Ang is featured on the cover.)
I first heard about Juxtapoz Magazine in my junior year of high school, from my best friend’s older brother—a twenty-something, coffee-and-cigarettes, Coachella-frequenter and overall Urban Outfitters indie kind of guy. Growing up in a conservative, suburban town about one freeway exit long, I didn’t get a lot of exposure to what was going on in the world of art, especially in what has now become somewhat of an obsession to me—the underground urban art scene. From the moment I first scanned through the vibrant and visually stimulating pages of Juxtapoz, I was hooked. Never before had I seen the likes of someone like Robbie Conal’s politically charged images of Dick Cheney as a Playboy bunny. I didn’t know that graffiti could reach the artistic sophistication that Bansky has become so popular for. I always thought of graffiti as what gangs did to mark their territory, much like a dog would mark its territory by peeing on something. Juxtapoz exposed me to everything I needed as a young artist searching for inspiration as I developed my own style, doing all the work of researching and filtering through all the shit to find the latest and greatest artistic talent for me. I was blown away by the motion pictures of Italian artist BLU, whose work I could never describe in words that would convey its awesomeness (highly recommend YouTubing that shit by the way), and through Juxtapoz I discovered my idol and greatest muse, Sylvia Ji, whose haunting and morbid yet strikingly beautiful paintings of hot bitches became a huge influence on my own personal style. For all of you art fans and practitioners, I definitely recommend giving Juxtapoz a gander, and you don’t even have to subscribe to check it out—just go to www.Juxtapoz.com for an online summarized version of the magazine to get a taste. You’re welcome.
