From The Underground To The Basement:
Cartoons, Drawings & Signs by Justin Green
Who: Comic Underground Legend & Master Sign Painter, Justin Green
What: From The Underground To The Basement: Cartoons, Drawings & Signs
When: Show opens with a reception Sat., March 8th 6pm. Closes Sat. April 12th, 2008
Where: Shake It Records, 4156 Hamilton Ave., Cinti., OH 45223 Ph: 513-591-0123
Why: Read below.
Opening Reception Saturday, March 8th 6 PM @ Shake It Records 4156 Hamilton Ave in Northside Cincinnati.
Shake It Records is hosting a rare art show with underground comic legend & master sign painter, Justin Green. Justin has been creating Shake It's signs in & outside of the store for the last 7 or so years. If you live anywhere near this, you're an idiot if you don't go. This is Justin Fucking Green, man.
Justin Green is one of the most prolific artists of the San Francisco Underground Cartooning movement, recognized as the originator of the autobiographical comic with the publication of "Binky Brown Meets The Holy Virgin Mary," in 1972. This seminal work also anticipated the groundswell in literature about OCD by over two decades. Other artists, including Robert Crumb and Art Spiegelman, have cited Green as an influence. He contributed to scores of anthology titles, including two which are comprised entirely of his own work: "Show + Tell" ('73) and "Sacred and Profane" ('75). A collection of his subsequent Binky work was published in '95, "The Binky Brown Sampler."
From 1992 until the 2002 demise of Tower Records, Green did a monthly biographical comic strip in their PULSE! Magazine, titled "Musical Legends." They were compiled in a single volume and published in 2003. Since 1986, he has done a monthly comic for Signs of the Times, our nation's oldest trade magazine (published in Cincinnati), titled, "Justin Green's SIGN GAME." At 62, he is one of the youngest practitioners of traditional sign-painting. In addition to designing and and painting the Shake It sign, his work adorns the storefronts of several Cincinnati businesses, and he is also the designer of the official Hamilton County flag. He recently did an installation with the graffiti artist ESPO (Steven Powers) in Miami.
His work has been exhibited at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and he has appeared in such esteemed venues as The New Yorker Magazine, Print Magazine, The Sacramento Bee, the WVXU website and lately, Cincinnati Magazine, yet he is still known primarily as "The Underground Artist," Justin Green.
The exhibition at Shake It Records in Cincinnati features original pages from private collections and works for sale; reproductions of published work; teaching materials from his forthcoming book, "The Dying Penman," and small scale signs. Several of his "Musical Legends" pages are on permanent display at the store. The show will run from Saturday March 8th thru Saturday, April 12th.
