My Five Favorite Kustom Kulture Artists

5 Kustom Kulture Artists You MUST Know About!

Vince Ray

 

Vince Ray has always been an image-maker, but about 15 years ago his work became popular on the Low Brow art scene and it’s led to a fruitful career for him as an illustrator. Alongside his commercial illustration, he sings and plays in a band and like his music there’s a certain rockabilly edge to his visual style. Many of his clients are from the music industry.


After 25 years working in London, he’s recently moved to Hastings where he’s discovered a love of the sea. With two children, he has someone to blame for his huge toy collection, which he’s always adding to. Vince is passionate about 1950s car and motorcycle designs and the subculture that surrounds them, but enjoys artwork from various other eras including Victorian times.

 View Vince Ray Tees

 Ben Von Strawn

Ben Von Strawn was a perfectly normal child, UNTIL he was exposed to E.C. COMICS,RAT FINK,Warner Brothers Cartoons and MAD Magazine. After that, he quickly transformed into a frothing at the mouth Juvenile Delinquent MANIAC. He somehow managed to create PRIMITIVE drawings and writings along with developing a MORBID CURIOSITY of-History, Art, Science, Writing, Travel, Philosophy, Food, Film, Languages and Music.
Then one FATEFUL day he was PAID for this GHASTLY work! Which only served to ENCOURAGE him into the DOWNWARD SPIRAL of starting his own MONSTER BUSINESS! His GRISLY work has been featured AROUND THE WORLD in print,and various merchandise.
He is also a WRITER, FILMMAKER, ENTREPRENEUR and grave robber from outer space who is about to set into motion a certain “Plan-9” but that’s besides the point.

View Ben Von Strawn Tees

    

Dirty Donny (The Artist)

Deemed to be one of the most influential artists to invade the pop culture scenes of the punk, rock n roll and heavy metal underground, Dirty Donny has been spreading his art across all mediums for decades; ranging from skate decks to pinball machines, hot rods and album covers to name but a few.
Hired early on by metal giants Metallica, young Donny escaped the cold winter grasps of Montreal  and headed for Sunny California to paint murals, guitars, design T shirts and even paint the grand piano in their rehearsal space.
Fast forward a full decade of west coast living, these days when Donny’s not airbrushing custom van murals or tinkering with his muscle car he can be found in his San Francisco home studio designing art for top fuels Funny cars, skateboard shoes, guitars and guitar accessories, model kits and pinball machines for the likes of Snap-on, Vans, AMT, Fender, Dunlop and Stern pinball to name a few.

View Dirty Donny Tees

 

 

 

BigToe

Bigtoe, AKA Tom Laura was born in LA and makes his home in Southern California. His formative years were spent surfing from Baja south to Ventura in the north, and copying images from Mad Magazine and Ed Roth. After taking 10 years to get a 4 year fine arts degree at Cal State Long Beach, the Toe went into the apparel business, the surf industry to be specific and has Art Directed lines such as Op and Maui and Sons. After opening his own design firm in 1998, he has also produced artwork for brands such as Quiksilver, O'Neill, Rusty, Redsand, Hobie, Burton and Split. During this time, surfing and surf travel has been Bigtoe’s passion, with local status at the “Trestles” punctuated by occasional surf trips to most of the Hawaiian Islands, Samoa and Various parts of Baja and mainland Mexico. After a 15 year "hiatus", he has started painting again: acrylics is his medium of choice, and driftwood or other found materials are his preferred "canvas".

View BigToe Tees

Von Franco

American Artist

Von Franco is a self-taught American artist associated with the Lowbrow art movement and Kustom Kulture. He became involved at an early age in the burgeoning hot rod and Kustom Kulture scene of Southern California. His skill at drawing hot rod and monster art, popular in Kustom Kulture, caught the attention of Ed "Big Daddy" Roth, for whom Von Franco later worked. Von Franco became a builder of custom automobiles, gaining notoriety for building clones of Norm Grabowski's Kookie, Kookie II and Lightning Bug t-buckets, as well as a clone/expansion of the Golden Rod. Von Franco is also known for his distinctive pinstriping and hand-lettering techniques. He was also the guitarist in the surf band The Bomboras and played the vibraphone in The Hyperions.

View Von Franco Tees

Artist of the Week - Shag!

shag

josh agle

Shag is a painter, designer and illustrator working in Southern California. His distinctive artistic style draws from commercial illustration from the past five decades, but the work is imbued with an attitude and sly sense of humor which is unmistakably of our time. Solo exhibitions of Shag's work have been held in the United States, Europe, Japan, Australia and South America.

The paintings themselves celebrate consumerism and consumption on vividly colored sharply rendered panels; the characters drink, smoke and eat in lavish, stylish surroundings. But Shag sees the visuals of his work as window-dressing or stage scenery. He's more concerned with the themes and narratives in the paintings, and the meanings a viewer might find when he looks at a piece of Shag art.

Shag lives with his wife and children in a mid-century home overlooking a peaceful wooded valley, much like homes he paints in his art. He considers Palm Springs, California his second home and is an enthusiastic booster for the city. In 2009 The Shag Store opened in Palm Springs. It is the world's first retail boutique and gallery dedicated solely to his art, prints and merchandise, and has quickly become a must-see destination for people visiting the city.

We celebrate here with some of our t-shirts that we are lucky enough to sell via the USA supplier.....enjoy our favorite top 5 below!