Ben Nylen Descendents Minneapolis Poster

Ben Nylen has cool looking new poster for the Descendents, I'll let him tell you about it.

I started this design on a whim a few weeks before the show, mostly because I'm a huge fan and they were starting their tour in Minneapolis at the venerated First Avenue. The last time they played Minneapolis was almost two decades ago and they blew my 16 year old mind. Three days before the show I got the got the go ahead so it was a real turn and burner. 

They sold out quick at the show and Ben has about 50 copies for sale. They're 18x24, 2 color screenprints on cougar white. They are a signed and numbered edition of 110

On sale here http://hamfistinternational.bigcartel.com/

Tweet

Ben Nylen Art Print Series

Ben Nylen released a bunch of new prints. They range from only $25 to $15 and are all first edition runs of less than 60! The 18x24 "Order of the Electric Bat Child" even glows in the dark! All printed by Ben at Shelterbelt Studio.

 Ben gives you the details:

The Jellyfish print is excerpted from a painting entitled "the Pretty, Never" I did quite a few years ago.. I've always felt like it was a solid composition and wanted to give it new life and release it to a wider audience. I essentially re-illustrated a portion of the original piece, and the 3 color layers. Same process for the TV/test-pattern print which was excerpted from a collaborative painting entitled "What Happens in the Living Room, Stays in the Living Room", that I did with artist and friend, Dennis Conrad. Also same with the Crow on a Longhorn Skull print. They are all 4-color on
Cougar Natural, signed and numbered first edition of 55. (FYI if I do print a second edition they will be an entirely different color way).

The "Order of the Electric Bat-Child" prints are a recent illustration that I've been sitting on for a few months, waiting and plotting for the right opportunity to unleash it. I've made it into a mini-print at 9x12" 1 color on cougar natural signed and numbered ed of 60. As well as an 18X24 Glow in the dark version 1-color on French Blacktop. For those I made a super-limited quantity of 25! (and yes the second edition will be a different color). So get em before they're gone! I also have shirts available, discharge printed on super -soft Next Level brand tees! Everything except the tees we printed by myself and Johnny Quinine at Shelterbelt Studio, Minneapolis, MN.

You can purchase directly from Ben at http://hamfistinternational.bigcartel.com/

Tweet

Ben Nylen Mudhoney & Flipper Posters

Recently Ben Nylen did a poster for the Mudhoney show in Phoenix & the Flipper show in Brooklyn.

I asked Ben about the designs:

This was the third Mudhoney poster I've done and I was thinking about how I don't see my Grandma all that often, and then I heard a story about elderly people using robots as companions to stave off the crushing loneliness of their golden years, which is both hilarious and sad, so I started with that. But I didn't want to just draw a robot and an octogenarian and slap some text on it, because that's fucking boring. So I strapped an organ to the robot, and turned that into a meat grinder, and stuck a goddamn monkey in a fez hat in it. Then I decided that meat would be everywhere. Then I thought, how about if that grandma was a weird crab-creature knitting meat sweaters? I wanted the text to subtle and somehow embedded in the illustration so I lifted, er, borrowed the idea of writing the name across the sweaters from one of their videos. I was also very enamored with the monkey, I didn't want the other characters to be too expressive so hence the vacuous eyes and the tube-headed robot. While looking at pictures of tubes, I noticed a lot of them had really cool text so I used that to the full extent of the law. Then I looked at a bunch of USDA logos and meat-tags, I guess you'd call them, and the rest is history. I will say this though, at the beginning of their documentary, which is great BTW, Mark Arm says, "Anytime you're playing music for the crowd instead of yourself, you're fucked." I wholeheartedly agree, and I try to approach my work in general, and this poster specifically, in similar spirit. I mean, I don't want to pile up paper, but I'd rather have a stack of weird art than do another poster with a bird in a tree on it (probably my next poster).

Flipper/David Yow, was a quicker turn time so I didn't get too in depth. Just had been thinking about kids toting guns, and centaurs. I wanted the poster to be celebratory but still a bit strange so thats what I came up with. Perhaps the idea to give the centaur underwear came subconsciously from the back of a Jesus Lizard album. I didn't really think about it at the time. After I did the font I noticed it looked a bit like pubes, and I was ok with that.

Thanks for your interest, and the opportunity to reflect on these posters which I dont often do.

The poster for Mudhoney at the Crescent Ballroom, 10-22-15, is 18"x24" 2-color screen-print on 100 lb. Banana Split French paper. Signed and numbered edition.

The poster for Flipper at the Acheron, 11-06-15, is 18"x24" 3-color screen-print on 100 lb. Blu Raspberry French paper. Signed and numbered edition of 65.

Buy them at  http://hamfistinternational.bigcartel.com/

Tweet

Ben Nylen Melvins & High On Fire Posters

Ben Nylen is a designer and printer from Minneapolis and has released some new posters for the Melvins and High on Fire. They are printed at Shelterbelt Studio in Minneapolis by his partner Johnny Quinine and himself.

Each one is only $25 and has an edition less that 75.

Buy these posters and see more of his work at http://hamfistinternational.bigcartel.com/

Tweet