Buff Monster (born April 14, 1979) is an American painter. His work is characterized by happy characters living in brightly colored bubbly landscapes.
Buff Monster was born in Hawaii and graduated from the
University of Southern California
The University of Southern California (USC, SC, or Southern Cal) is a Private university, private research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1880 by Robert M. Widney, it is the oldest private research university in C ...
with a fine arts major.
He made a name for himself by putting up thousands of hand-silkscreened posters across Los Angeles. Along with his paintings, he has created a range of merchandise, from prints and stickers to vinyl toys and plush. In 2012 he created a homage to
Garbage Pail Kids
''Garbage Pail Kids'' is a series of sticker trading cards produced by the Topps Company, originally released in 1985 and designed to parody the ''Cabbage Patch Kids'' dolls, which were popular at the time.
Each sticker card features a Garbage ...
called The Melty Misfits; a collection of vintage-style trading cards, complete with wax wrapper.
The color pink, a symbol of confidence, individuality and happiness, is present in everything he creates. He cites heavy metal music, ice cream and Japanese culture as major influences. His work has been shown in galleries worldwide, often accompanied by large installations. In 2010, the
Bristol City Museum acquired a painting of his for their permanent collection.
[. Retrieved November 6, 2013.] His art has been published in a variety of magazines, websites, newspapers and books, including Juxtapoz, Paper, Nylon, Cool Hunting, Angeleno, the ''
Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...
'', ''
LA Weekly
''LA Weekly'' is a free weekly alternative newspaper in Los Angeles, California. It was founded in 1978 by Jay Levin, who served as president and editor until 1991. Voice Media Group sold the paper in late 2017 to Semanal Media LLC, whose paren ...
'' and ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
''. He was also featured in
Banksy
Banksy is a pseudonymous England-based street artist, political activist and film director whose real name and identity remain unconfirmed and the subject of speculation. Active since the 1990s, his satirical street art and subversive epigrams ...
's movie: ''
Exit Through the Gift Shop
''Exit Through the Gift Shop'' is a 2010 British documentary film directed by street artist Banksy. It tells the story of Thierry Guetta, a French immigrant in Los Angeles who, over the course of several years, filmed a host of street artists at ...
''.
In 2012, Buff Monster moved from Los Angeles to live and work in New York City.
References
External links
Buff Monsteron
Artnet
Artnet.com is an art market website. It is operated by Artnet Worldwide Corporation, which has headquarters in New York City, in the United States, and is owned by Artnet AG, a German publicly traded company based in Berlin that is listed on t ...
1979 births
Living people
20th-century American painters
American male painters
21st-century American painters
Artists from Los Angeles
American graffiti artists
20th-century American male artists
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