The Artful Home: Hammerpress Gigposters

Band posters have come such a long way since I plastered every inch of my teenage bedroom with glossy images of sweaty, shirtless rockers (sorry, Mom).

These gigposters from Hammerpress, the Kansas City, Missouri letterpress studio run by Brady Vest and Lindsay Laricks, are a prime example. Subtle and beautifully rendered, they're truly frame-worthy -- and you still get to show off your favorite acts, like Elvis Costello, above, $50.

Neko Case (love her!), $25

Decemberists, $25

Yo La Tengo, $25

Camera Obscura, $25

The New Pornographers, $25

Blonde Redhead, $25

Low, $25

Funnyman David Sedaris, $50

Though gigposters are Hammerpress's stock in trade, their non-performance images are definitely worth a look as well. Above: Man Silhouette, $12

Merde mini print, $10 (I'm having one of those days, and may just have to snap up this one)

Hammerpress has several more signed and numbered limited-edition prints available from Portland's Office PDX, including 013 and 975, above, $100 each.

See more letterpress goodness from Hammerpress right here.

(Pssst -- if you're in the Portland area, Office is hosting a Hammerpress print show that will be up through May 24. Show details are here, and prints are for sale here.)

Mark Your Calendar: Friday Night Art in Oakland

Photo by Vonguard

This Friday, April 4, is Oakland's monthly Art Murmur, which we've missed for one reason or another the last few months. I'm looking forward to getting out and seeing some of the homegrown art on display in the Uptown galleries. There are few new shows that I'm especially looking forward to:

My favorite Oakland art spot, Johansson Projects, 2300 Telegraph Avenue, is hosting Propagations, a mulitmedia exhibit from artists Tadashi Moriyama, Paul Hayes, Alexis Amann, Rebecca Whipple, and Kiersten Essenpreis.

Propagations "explores the conjunction of natural, cultural and technological forces that foster unexpected artistic transmissions, replications, and disseminations."

Across the street at the Rock Paper Scissors Collective, 2278 Telegraph Avenue, is Science Fair. Curated by Detroit's Andrew Thompson and featuring the work of eight local and national artists (including Amanda Lechner, Erik Peterson, and Trisha Brookbank), the exhibit "addresses the intersections of art and science as subject matter, whether it be through the guise of pseudoscience, the lure of technology, or the eccentricity of cultural anthropologies."

Front Gallery, at 35 Grand Avenue, is hosting an opening reception for Venue, a joint show from Judith White, Danny Scheible, and Art Hazelwood that's described as a study of spaces, "whether they be exterior or interior; physical or psychological."

Galleries participating in the Oakland Art Murmur's First Friday event are generally open from 6 to 9 p.m. -- though a few stay open until 10.

And Bloom Screen Printing, at 2310 Telegraph Avenue, is having a big print sale -- including rare, out-of-print, slightly damaged, and brand-new gig posters from Jason Munn's The Small Stakes (below) for $5 to $25 each. The sale is from 5 to 10 p.m.

See you there!

The Artful Home: The Small Stakes

I love the simple palettes and clever images of Oakland's The Small Stakes studio. Founded by Wisconsin transplant Jason Munn in 2003, The Small Stakes designs frameworthy silkscreened gigposters for a variety of bands, as well as CD packages, t-shirts, and book covers.

Take a look:

Ted Leo + Pharmacists

Chavez

The Decemberists

Mark Kozelek European Tour

Stars Canadian Tour

Noise Pop 15th Anniversary

Castanets

Mates of State

Mark Kozelek East Coast Tour

My Brightest Diamond

Each poster costs $25 and is available right here.

(And if you're in the area, be sure to check out "The Small Stakes: A Year in Posters" at San Francisco's new Curiosity Shoppe. The opening is Friday night, December 7, from 6 to 9 p.m., and the show runs through January.)

Etsy Find of the Day: Strawberryluna

Concert posters: They're not just for college dorm rooms anymore ...

I love these colorful and graphic screenprinted gig posters from Etsy seller Hatin' on Spiders (aka Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania artist and graphic designer strawberryluna), which let you show off your good taste in music and art in one fell swoop.

Take a look:

Death Cab for Cutie (limited edition), $75

Of Montreal, $25

Jucifer 2007, $25

Tori Amos, $30

Of Montreal 2007, $25

Jucifer, $25

Mozza (limited edition), $100

Rilo Kiley, $25

Scissor Sisters, $25

Framing these seems a bit formal to me -- though of course we're all a bit beyond taping posters directly to the wall, no? One solution: Mounting them. I like to have inexpensive prints and posters spray-mounted to thick pieces of wood at my local full-service framing shop for about $20 a pop. It gives them a nice finished look and is much less expensive than custom framing, or even using standard-sized frames and mats. (Of course, I wouldn't mount anything truly valuable or highly collectible, since it's permanent.)

Check out all of the offerings in Hatin' on Spiders' Etsy shop right here.