Interview with AGENT X

q)Please introduce yourself and tell us something about yourself and
your background.

a)First thank you so much and I love the magazine!! My name is Agent X and I am a visual artist living in Vancouver.

q) Talk about your art.

a)My artwork is mostly experimental, multimedia collages, paintings, and 2D artwork. I describe it as ‘Pop Art with thought,’ I try to juxtaposes pop culture, technology, fashion, music, politics, and race in visually complex amalgamations expressing the anxieties of the global, post-modern world and the dark side of consumerist, media-obsessed culture. My artwork occupies a unique intersection between the aesthetics and philosophy of Futurism, the social critique of the Dada movement, and contemporary artistic movements ranging from Pop Art to Superflat.

q) What’s the central theme of your work?

a)Mostly futurism and Pop Art with thought. I love the medium of collage because I can do anything and any topic. I try to do themes that are timeless and not over used. I like it fresh. Also I like to communicate a high level of skill in the artwork. It also depends on how I feel and what statement I want to make or not. I will make pieces like "Annabel Levels" or "Ice Cream" as they are like my Norman Rockwell type of artworks or something like "Lawrence Steele Schlesinger and 2x dimebags" with a Sim card, dimebags,watercolor,oil, and magazine clippings. I never make the same thing twice. Always spontaneous with extreme execution.

q) your most beautiful dream

a)Making art & music in a world with no war or poverty.

q) your worst nightmare

a)Donald Trump President of the United States lol!

q) Best way to spend a day off?

a)Listening to music or walking in the park with my girl or watching female battle rap with my homie Pauly 

q) who, what inspires you ....

a)God,my parents 

q) books that you love….

a)Critical Thinking by Richard Paul, Italian Futurism by Walter Adamson, Decoded by Sean Carter.

q)music…artists….that you love

a)Uk grime, Kendrick,Kanye,Future,J Cole,A$AP Rocky,Joey Bada$$,Tyler the Creator and some house and jazz music.

q) What are you really excited about right now?

a)Kanye West "The Life of Pablo" and his fashion line at Adidas. Most artist can't do 2 things successfully. He is. Pretty amazing.

q)your current projects….

a)I am working with the best manager Dan Syrett at Naked Inc Artist Management in London https://www.facebook.com/NIArtistManagement/

plus I have some great things coming up with my main gallery Beautiful Crime http://www.beautifulcrime.com/shop/?category=Agent+X with the awesome Ruthie Holloway and Liam West selling my artwork and getting my artwork to big brand companies like Microsoft and others. 

q)your future projects….

a)I am selling some of my artwork for charity with ArtSmart Contemporary Gallery  http://www.artsmartcontemporary.com/#!agent-x/uygbz in London as well I have some future projects coming in the fall.

q) Where can people see more of your work on the internet? 

a)They can see my artwork at my personal gallery site at www.agentxart.com and also at my Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/agentxart/

q) Final words?

a)I would like to thank you very much for this wonderful interview and you can see what I'm up to always at www.agentxart.com  :) 

Thank you !!! 

Interview with Mark Klink

q)Please introduce yourself and tell us something about yourself andyour background.

a)I’m an artist living in Carmichael California, which is in the central valley of California, near the state capitol,  Sacramento.Before adopting digital methods, I spent many years using conventional media and techniques.. painting, drawing, printmaking. At one time I was a freelance computer programmer.. that was one of the paths that led me towards digital art.

q)Talk about your art...What’s the central theme of your work?

a)Apart from discussing the technical means I employ, almost anything I say about my art, at least about its “meaning” or “theme” is a rationalization after the fact.. I work instinctively, without verbalizing, internally or externally, what it is I am about...I speculate sometimes on what it is in my work that others react to .. I have a sense that the figures and faces I create evoke the “post-human” .. the challenge and threat to our traditional sense of what it is to be human as the world transforms around us... perhaps the distortions and apparent lack of affect that you see in the figures I create suggest the “uncanny” – something unfamiliar that generates unease. At the same time, we find these potential ways of being human to be fascinating and even beautiful... it’s a curious mix of anxiety and allure.

q)Your most beautiful dream...Your worst nightmare...

a)When it comes to my dreams, I think that rather than talking about  “beautiful dreams” or “nightmares”  (I almost never have nightmares..) I should note that I seem to be gifted with dreams that are unusually vivid and strange. I once dreamt that I  went to the airport to catch a flight.. but when I arrived I was told that I would have to go “4^th class.”  .. and what that turned out to be was that I was behind the plane on the runway, holding onto a long tether, like a water skier, wearing roller skates, goggles, and with a pair of stubby wings strapped to my back ... the subsequent flight was delightful. I was trailing the plane in the sky, weaving through the clouds with the  wind in my face.. and that is one of my least bizarre and elaborate dreams!

q)Best way to spend a day off?

a)With family, with friends, in nature, walking, exercising.. and, above all, making art!

q)Who, what inspires you ....

a)My daughter, my wife.

q)Books that you love….

a)I used to be a great reader.. but currently most of my reading is limited to technical manuals.. nevertheless, recent enthusiasms  have been the work of David Markson (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Markson),  William T. Vollmann (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_T._Vollmann), and Roberto Bolaño (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roberto_Bola%C3%B1o)

q)Music…artists….that you love

a)Man.. so many, too many!! I could go on for pages...  so I’ll deliberately restrict myself to just a few.,.When it comes to music, my favourite composer is György Ligeti (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gy%C3%B6rgy_Ligeti)  .. I’m an aging child of the 60s from Northern California .. so I’ll also admit to having lots of bootleg recordings of the Grateful Dead ;-). Joanna Newsom is a favourite among current artists.. she comes from Nevada City which is a bit to the east from where I live (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joanna_Newsom).When it comes to digital artists.. there are dozens and dozens whom I admire and who have influenced me.. you couldn’t possibly list them all, and I wouldn’t want to leave any of them out.. so I’ll only mention a handful of pre-digital artists whose work I go back to, again and again: The abstract painter Howard Hodgkin ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_Hodgkin), H.C. Westermann ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H._C._Westermann). Going back a ways – Maya Deren ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maya_Deren), and going way back - Durer, and the Van Eycks ...

q)What are you really excited about right now?

a)Video, virtual worlds ( simulations, virtual reality, game engines, webGL).

q)Your current projects….

a)At the moment I’m mainly collecting materials and doing research in preparation for several projects that I will be tackling later this year.. for more on that see my answer to the next question...

q)Your future projects….

a)I’ve made a lot of still images..  I haven’t come close to exhausting all the possibilities .. but I’m looking forward to making much longer, more elaborate, and more structured artworks: videos with a narrative or “narrative-like” form. Game-like simulations using webGL and several game engines. I won’t say anything more about these.. you’ll have to wait and see!I will mention that the wonderful artist, Philip Ob Rey (http://www.humantropy.com/), and I are planning a collaboration over the next year.

q)Where can people see more of your work on the internet?

a)https://www.facebook.com/srcxor/

http://srcxor.tumblr.com/

https://vimeo.com/srcxor

http://www.srcxor.org/

q) Final words?

a)What distinguishes humans from the rest of this universe, is the imagination.. our ability to contemplate and to create things that are not literally here...