Brian Hubble

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Brian Hubble
The Second to Last Resort - mixed media on glass
Born	June 22, 1978 (1978-06-22) (age 29)

1 Biography
2 Illustration Process
3 The Second to Last Resort
4 Solo and Group Exhibitions
5 Publications
6 Awards
7 Notes and References
8 External links

[edit] Biography

Brian Hubble (born 1978 in Virginia) is an American painter and illustrator. He is best known for his Outsider Art approach with dark collage illustrations for such publications as the New York Times, Harper's Magazine, M.I.T. Technology Review and Psychology Today. In 2004, he collaborated with Yoko Ono through The Stranger, author of Under the Tuscan Sun Francis Mayes through Atlanta Magazine, and legendary rock band Guided By Voices through Cincinnati Citybeat. He has also taken part in many group shows in the United States and abroad. He currently resides in Brooklyn, New York.

Hubble attended the Illustration Academy in the summer of 2002. He received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Virginia Commonwealth University in 2001. In 1999, he studied painting at Edge Hill University in Liverpool, England after attending college at Christopher Newport University in Newport News, Virginia for studies in Latin and Biology.

In 2005, Hubble was interviewed in Print (magazine) for being one of 20 top international artists under 30 years old. He is also an annually visiting lecturer at the Illustration Academy in Sarasota, Florida.

Brian Hubble's paintings, drawings, photographs, video, and interactive experience blurs the line between reality and imagination, with a reminder to be wary of a culture constantly barraged with misinformation. His work reflects satirical commentary on topics that have become a part of our society’s routine digestion. Subjects such as internet consumption, the media, politics, substandard healthcare, and social class prejudices are spared no lenience. Through allegorical approach, the artist perplexes, amuses, and provokes. The viewer must decide when truth is negotiated, and what underlying message is ultimately voiced.

Many of his photo-collage illustrations deal with social injustice and the human psyche. He has been called upon to visually explain topics from why different cultures hate one another (Yale University Alumni Magazine) to everyday life for children in third world countries (Johns Hopkins University).

[edit] Illustration Process

Cover illustration for San Francisco Chronicle Magazine by Brian Hubble

The physical process of Brian Hubble's illustrative work consists of a multi-stepped and repeated process. He begins by taking several photographs of the subject matter at hand. After photographing is complete, the artist performs a process of elimination, choosing the strongest 2 to 5 images for the illustration. He then begins to manipulate the photographs by means of screen-printing, photo-transferring, scratching and melting. Much of these results are then adhered to glass. This act allows him to draw and paint on, around, behind and on top of the image via the glass and come closer to a final outcome. He sometimes pushes and pulls the images digitally to start forming a composition. This result is printed. He then begins to draw, scratch, paint, cut, rip apart and tape the printed image before re-scanning. This process is repeated starting from the beginning until the illustration is complete.

[edit] The Second to Last Resort

[edit] Dual Compromise

Ten years after working as an auto-parts delivery driver in Bible Belt secured Virginia, Hubble was inspired to create Dual Compromise (2006), which depicts a pick-up truck posed alongside an image of itself just before giving its own battery a jumpstart. A desolate cityscape towers over the pair as they convene at a precarious intersection. The axiom “Southern Baptist” is boldly painted underneath cartoonishly rendered jumper cables. Hubble produced this piece hoping that it might sell to one of the mechanics he once delivered to, for any price they deemed appropriate.

Dual Compromise Video (2007), co-produced with comedian Paul Ketterman, is a documented disapproval of the painting by these educated and versed mechanics. It is immediately disregarded as a fundamentally failed attempt at presenting messages they feel artistic expression should convey. By revealing biting one-liners and sharp, sometimes humorous observation from this social class, the artist forces a reconsideration of hierarchical distinctions between individuals or groups in the currently defined condition of state.

[edit] William Williams: lunamission

William Williams on the cover of Descend Magazine

In 1998, Hubble met a man named William Williams while stuck in a small town in North Carolina due to car trouble. Williams befriended the out-of-place artist, and the two kept in contact over the years. Hubble recently agreed to help Williams with a Myspace profile. Amongst many other notable images, the page contains several works of art Williams has displayed in hopes of strengthening an application he submitted to the I.S.A. (Italian Space Association) for an opportunity to take a journey into space. According to Williams, seven lucky international citizens will soon be chosen for a once in a lifetime experience. Friends' comments act as a source of reference to help place his application ahead of the other American hopefuls. The artist is his greatest supporter.

[edit] "My" Bike for President

Banner by D.B. Wood Jr.

In the winter of 2006, Hubble discovered a man named D.B. Wood, Jr. who ran an exploratory committee to have his bike, a black Zebrakenko 10-speed from Tokyo, Japan, run for the Presidency of the United States in 1988. With a slogan stating, “If it Ain’t Metal, it Ain’t Music!” Wood's bike quickly gained much popularity in many parts of the south. The works in "My" Bike for President (2007) are the only remaining records (most of which were confiscated by police during a rally in Raleigh, North Carolina) produced by some known and many unknown supporters. The cornerstone of the bike’s platform was to have fluorides added to the public’s water supply. It felt that reducing the ongoing tooth decay epidemic in this country should be confronted immediately. Also on the agenda was adding national bingo night and promoting better sex education in public schools.

Unfortunately, the Presidential House Committee disqualified the bike for having been born outside the United States. An appeal was never fully realized.

[edit] Reject Illustration

In April of 2006, Hubble was commissioned to create an illustration for Blank Magazine to accompany an article on the unfortunate corporate takeover of the (name edited) Post. Reject Illustration (2006) consists of several revenue-driven goals this corporation desired to implement, listed in black on a white background and placed between sections of the article as it appeared in the publication. After the piece was quickly dismissed by the art director and editors as not sellable or illustrative, the artist tersely signed the bottom “ Brian Hubble Illustration-rejected illustration for Blank Magazine.” He then contacted the magazine’s printer and explained that a mistake had been made and to replace the later approved piece with his original intent. This wile was a tongue-in-cheek reaction to the kind of imagery our media thinks must be fed to the public. Furtherover, the actual article's attempt at negating some of these types of behaviors only heightened the satire.

[edit] Minute

One Long Nite in Switzerland and the Second to Last Resort was originally a storyboard documenting a small bird’s (Minute) account of a child's nightmare. In the dream, a family of four were brutally murdered and eaten by three monsters while on holiday deep in the Swiss Alps. The storyboard was later developed into six paintings which were the proto-type for a children's book. Hubble later played two major book publishers against one another by drumming up fake interest in the story, which resulted in a fierce bidding war.

[edit] Solo and Group Exhibitions

2007 One Long Nite in Switzerland, Wonk Gallery, Brooklyn, New York; 2005 Brooklyn, Westport Arts Center, Bridgeport, Connecticut; New Works, Amy Simon Gallery, Bridgeport, Connecticut; Brooklyn Underground Film Festival; 2004 Confluence, Open Ground Gallery, Brooklyn, New York; New Works, Madarts Gallery, Brooklyn, New York; 2002 Calendar Works, Starch Gallery, Richmond, Virginia; 1999 Katherine Fletcher, Edge Hill University, Ormskirk, England

[edit] Publications

Punchline Magazine, Technology Review, Wisconsin Review, Baltimore Magazine, U.S. Banker, Pulp Factory, America Magazine, Tikkun, Psychology Today, The Deal, Girlfriends Magazine, Va Journal of Education, Chesapeake Bay Magazine, Pennsylvania Bar Association, Inside Magazine, Dovecote Records, The American Lawyer, 11211, New York Press, VPS Magazine, The American Prospect, Gotham, Westport Magazine, Johns Hopkins Magazine, The Stranger, Minnesota Magazine, Government Executive, ABA Journal, Boomer Market Advisor, Beautiful Decay, Atlanta Magazine, Yale Alumni Magazine, AOPA Pilot, Benefits Selling, New York Times, SMA Magazine, New Hampshire Magazine, Cincinnati Citybeat, Inc., National Law Journal, B & C Aviation, Hemispheres, Baseline, Attenex, Harper’s Magazine, Common Ground, Out Magazine, Healthcare Informatics, Avenue (with article on artist), Staffing Management, Improper Bostonian (with article on artist), Northshore Magazine, Point 5 Design, Genre, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Nylon, IEEE Spectrum, Up! Magazine, (with article on artist), PC Magazine, Notre Dame, Foreign Policy, The Atlantic Monthly, Utne Reader, Multifamily Executive, Boston College Law Magazine, American School Board Journal, Regional Economist, San Francisico Chronicle Magazine, Columbia Journal Review, Hampton Roads Sourcebook (with article on artist), Chief Executive, Developer, New York University (NYU) School of Law, Duke University, Sierra Club, Golf World, 5280 Magazine, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Momentum Magazine, Chicago Magazine, U.S. Catholic, Our State, OmniStudio, Shopping Centers, Weekly Reader