On today’s market, he’s one of the funkiest graphic designers who everybody is — or will be — fighting for. Jelsen Jargon has already proven his off-the-wall style working with Pepsi, Vitamin Water, Brown Girls Burlesque and Dunkin Donuts. Let’s slow down and chat with the inspired and inspiring Jelsen Jargon.

TRACE: What inspires you?

Jelsen: Hmm. Everything inspires me. “Input Dictates Output” is my saying. In general I just try to keep my eyes and ears open; try to take in as much as possible.

Traveling’s a big deal. I wish I could travel three months out of every year — at least. The more perspectives in my back pocket when approaching a specific problem the better I can solve it.

I’m also a fan of riding the subways of any city. It’s such a great rotation of interesting content; the sounds, the colors, the languages, the pace…the way people interact with with each other — gotta love it.

T: What would be the ultimate client you would like to work with?

J: I’d love to collaborate with oodles of folks, but if I had to pick one industry to work in for the remainder of my career it would have to be a community and grassroots organization — ideally in an African (diaspora worldwide) community. The opportunity to contribute to the further advancement of my people via graphic design is just about the coolest win-win scenario imaginable. I couldnt possibly think of anything better than that.

(more…)

Sometimes it takes little more than being in the right place at the right time to document history. So it was for photographer Martha Cooper in the early 70s, when she began taking pictures of the graffiti on New York’s subway cars and taglines on the walls.

Almost 40 years later, graffiti has more or less morphed from a pastime of ‘degenerate’ youth to a veritable art form, its influence seen throughout the art, fashion and design worlds. Starting this week at Gallerie Bailly in Paris, curator Hélène Bailly showcases a selection of Cooper’s photographs alongside thirteen, primarily French, artists who have either photographed graffiti, tagged something or have been influenced by it.

Other artists on display include L’Atlas, who has taken graffiti to express ideas both political and indelible, questioning culture in contemporary France and, Darco, one of Europe’s first great graffiti artists. A nice counterpoint to the New York-based images of the art form, “Taguer n’est pas Jouer” shows how graffiti inspires and is reinterpreted globally in addition to offering a slice of other street cultures.

Through May 24, Check it out.

Taguer n’est pas Jouer
Galerie Bailly
25 Quai Voltaire
Paris 75007

For more information on the show, click here.

On April 24th the Somerset House will open Skin + Bones: Parallel Practices in Fashion and Architecture as the inaugural exhibition of its riverside Embankment Galleries. Organized by the Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles (LA MoCA) this sublimely transcontinental exhibition showcases the similarities present in architecture and fashion during the past two decades.

Perhaps it was the 80’s mix of cocaine, Prince, and an encroaching millennium that brought the towering cinematic works of Yohji Yamamoto, Vivienne Westwood, Diller, Scofidio + Renfro, and Shigeru Ban to shadow over the terrestrial in flesh, steel, and paper.

Whatever the reason, the world has seen beautiful tectonic design in the spheres of fashion and architecture since that time. And this exhibition captures the sharpness, shock, and amazement that met its forward-thinking designers during the height of urban innovation. “Forty-five of today’s most brilliant and creative fashion designers and architects are represented by a wide range of more than 300 objects: from stunning one-of-a-kind haute couture gowns to intricate architectural models and special full-scale installations,” LA MoCA promises.

During a season where retrospective runway collections and cut-and-paste condominiums run rampantly, an exhibition comparing cross-disciplinary design principles through a poetic matrix (“Wrapping,” “Folding,” “Draping,” “Pleating,” “Printing,” “Suspension,” “Canteliever”) sounds like the kind of thing to shake design to its very bones.

The British music scene has always been known for being at the forefront of experimentation, defining new directions and trends on the global musical scene. One of the most innovative jazz-cum-electronica acts coming out of England in the last decade is The Cinematic Orchestra (TCO), whose musical repertoire, evocative of dreamy images of cinema noir sets, made the band an instant classic worldwide. TCO’s soul-quenching power that draws on their ability to translate raw emotions into fluid soundscapes is comparable to the dark and melancholy lyricism of their compatriots, Bristol-based Portishead.

The Cinematic Orchestra was founded by Jay Swinscoe who used to work at South London-based record label, Ninja Tune back in 1999. Their debut album, Motion, received critical acclaims, and was voted Album of the Year by the listeners of Gilles Peterson’s Worldwide radio show. The success of the album landed them a performance at the Director’s Guild Awards ceremony for the presentation of the Lifetime Achievement Award to film director Stanley Kubrick. Six albums later, The Cinematic Orchestra remains a force to be reckoned with, continuing to play a major role in shaping the future of nu-jazz.

In the last three years, TCO have been spreading their wings across the globe packing venues from intimate jazz cafes to massive outdoor festivals, including the highlight of their US tour playing as the supporting band for legendary jazz-fusion guitarist John McLaughlin in Central Park, NYC. As a culmination of their 2007 tour repping their latest album “Ma Fleur”, bandleader Jason Swinscoe brought an enhanced line-up of the Cinematic Orchestra incorporating the 24-piece Heritage Orchestra to the stage of legendary venue, The Royal Albert Hall, and played a show to a sold-out crowd of more than 4,000 people.

This month welcomes the release of two live recordings, the Barbican Live DVD and their epic Royal Albert Hall Live CD. You’ll have a chance to catch them performing live this week on

April 23rd, - Williamsburg Music Hall (Brooklyn, NY, USA)
April 26h, - Coachella Music Festival (Coachella, CA, USA)
April 28th, TBC, (Los Angeles, CA, USA)

Check here for more info.

I was disappointed to find out that Philadelpia’s Lineage Gallery has recently closed its doors, since it was one of few galleries that represented the next wave of underground art in the U.S. A heavy-hitter line-up including A.J. Fosik, Blaine Fontana, James Naccarato, Robert Hardgrave, Ron English, Sam Flores, Shawn Barber and Tim Biskup were among Lineage’s regular exhibitors, and collectors could find cutting edge artwork at an affordable price.

Lucky for us living in New York City, Lineage co-founder Joshua Liner decided to transport his expertise to Chelsea’s fast-growing art colony. His new project, the Joshua Liner Gallery, opened this month with an Inaugural Group Exhibition featuring art from Shawn Barber, Crash One, Mike Davis, Ron English, Jeremy Fish, Blaine Fontana, Futura, Robert Hardgrave, Naoto Hattori, Kenji Hirata, Zach Johnsen, Jessica Joslin, Josh Keyes, Koralie, Kris Kuksi, David Choong Lee, Travis Louie, Tomokazu Matsuyama, Chris Mendoza, Aiko Nakagawa, Pat Rocha, Greg Simkins, Damon Soule, Stash, Heidi Taillefer, Ben Tour, Mark Dean Veca and Oliver Vernon.

I checked out the opening reception and I was blown away by the stellar collection of works representing some of the bests of the U.S. outsider art scene. Robert Hardgrave’s beautiful collage piece, entitled ‘Powerhouse’ and Ron English’s ‘Superpop Cowgirl Guernica’, a neo-pop reinterpretation of Picasso’s masterpiece, ‘Guernica’, were among the best. Those present had a chance to mingle with many of the artists, including NYC legend, Futura.

You can go and get your aesthetic fix until May 10th. For more info, check here.

Keep your eyes peeled for future shows showcasing work from Koralie + Robert Hardgrave (5/17 –6/14), Jeremy Fish + Josh Keyes (6/21 — 7/26), Greg Simkins (9/6 — 10/4), Blaine Fontana + Damon Soule (10/11 — 11/15) and Kris Kuksi + Pat Rocha (11/22 — 12/20).

He totally brings you more than a “little bite of feel good”. British funk singer Jamie Lidell hits one more time the joy session with new album “Jim” released this month.

Revealed to a larger public in 2005 with his song “Multiply,” Lidell has now scored a try with a funkier music, still holding the influence of the great Otis Redding but with a much more personal vocal signature that can only be brought by a longer experience on stage and studio. Recorded in LA, Paris and Berlin — where Jamie spends now most of his time - “Jim” mixes vibrating bits with deeper soul music tracks singing about his life. Lidell definitely keeps his rythm going.

For all you art appreciators out there with blazing Peter Pan complexes, check out the World of Imagination Custom Toy Show at APW Gallery opening in SoHo, New York on Friday.

With over 40 toy junkies-cum-fine artists from around the world exhibiting — many with names that would just as well suit a Tokyo graffiti artist — it’s going to be quite a trip á la Candy Land, albeit one probably populated with more gumdrop monsters as regular gumdrops.

Unfortunately, you probably can’t play with the art, but if you’re down to meet the minds behind the work, they’ll be around for the reception on Friday from 7-9pm.

There’s nothing quite like the sounds of patois coming out of a Lyons-based ska/reggae/punk rock band. I’ve got to hand it to Babylon Circus, though, they’re latest album, Dances of Resistance (April 29th), manages to pull off the unlikely combination with ease, charm and infectious, head-neck-and-shoulder swaying rhythm.

It’s been awhile since ska even approached mainstream cool, but like a few other ska-inflected groups — New York Ska Exchange and Golgol Bordello, for example — Babylon Circus has endured by more than just catchy tunes. There’s an easy mix of the political and the dance-able in their culture-crossing music and a good show in their hilarious and mad stage performances. Well, maybe NYSE isn’t quite like that, but Golgol and Babylon are.

Catch them out on tour for Dances of Resistance in the U.S. this spring and this summer back in France. Stopping in New York tomorrow for a show, check out the rest of the dates here.

Swishing down the runways from today through Friday in London, the annual Alternative Fashion Week returns to showcase over sixty hopeful young designers vying for a bit of limelight, glory and riches.

To be clear, it’s not all high fashion and glamour here. Some of it may be, but regardless it is quite an event and it is free. Some of the launching labels, moreover, are actually pretty nifty, too, and will no doubt be heard from again quite soon. Alternative Fashion Week a good time all around and it’s also one of few avenues for the recently-graduated-from-art-school to show off their imaginations without having to pay for it — the event is fully sponsored by Alternative Arts and fully free for both designers and audience.

Also, check out the parallel Fashion Market happening around the runways at Spitalfields Traders Market. Catwalks at 13:15 every day and wallet frenzies daily at the Market from noon to 15:00.

These readings are both on Wednesday, so choose wisely or travel quickly.

Wednesday, April 23, 6:30pm
The New School, Wollman Hall, The Eugene Lang Building (65 W, 11th Street, 5th fl., enter at 66 W. 12th St.)
Cave Canem Presents: Cornelius Eady

This is a reading and book signing to celebrate the release of Hardheaded Weather, the latest collection of poems by Cornelius Eady, co-founder of Cave Canem and author of many collections including Brutal Imagination, a finalist for the 2001 National Book Award in Poetry. This is a free event but seating is first come first serve. You can learn more about Eady and hear him read “I’m A Fool to Love You” here.

Wednesday, April 23, 7:30pm
Word Books (126 Franklin St., in Greenpoint, Brooklyn)
Broken Land: Poems of Brooklyn

Broken Land is the first collection of poetry to focus exclusively on verse that celebrates Brooklyn. From the contemporary to the classic, the collection chronicles nearly two centuries of life in the borough, celebrating it’s places, people and culture. Contributors will read Wednesday at Word Books in Greenpoint, including Patricia Spears Jones, Julia Spicher Kasdorf, Michael Morse and co-editor Michael Tyrell.