FRIDAY, AUGUST 31:

Unparalleled in subtle intensity is American graphic designer extraordinaire, Brent Rollins. Born and raised in S. Central L.A., he now calls Brooklyn his home. Getting started at the age of 18, he apprenticed for Art Sims, who produced indelible images for Hollywood’s elite, including Spike Lee and John Singleton. With his canon of work, both commercial and personal, Brent has trumped the term ‘graphic collagist.’ He’s edited ego trip’s Book of Rap Lists and Big Book of Racism; designed murals for Nike and Undefeated; and treated images onto tee’s for Supreme. The Milton Glaser of our generation, he’s the cover art mastermind behind Spank Rock, Dilated Peoples, Blackalicious, Gang Starr, and Mos Def and Talib Kweli’s Black Star. Did I mention homeboy is responsible for iconoclastic logos such as Boyz N the Hood, Dead Presidents, and Mo’ Better Blues? How about the ingenious all-lower case ego trip logo? His current show “Fly Girls” at Tyler Gibney’s HVW8 Gallery, on Spaulding and Melrose, is a mixture of whimsical pop art reinvented on acrylic; spray stencils with pixelated dots, evoking Lichtenstein’s abstract expressionist style. The theme is indeed a fly girl in all her bodacious glory—rendered as poetic muse, appropriately scribed on his t-shirts, also available at HVW8 and reading “She’s Alive! Alive!” You owe it to yourself to check out Brent’s poetic pieces. His ingenious technique of laying one image on top of another—horses, fly honeys with stilettos, and cherubs—all in the form of intricate cut-outs, is simply breathtaking. All the others biting his style have been left in the dust. (SL)