DJ Q-Bert to Unveil “Bold as Scratch” 2/19

Urban art imprint When Art Imitates Life (WAIL) deals in music visionaries creating visual art collections. Its premiere release, a collaboration with The RZA titled Victory Or Death, dubbed “the greatest painting of 2010” by Village Voice, ‘remixed’ the historic Washington Crossing The Delaware painting, replacing Washington with Wu-Tang Clan visionary RZA, the man who changed the sound and business of hip-hop. The Valley Of Kings fused Egyptian iconography with the philosophy and aesthetic of Hieroglyphics, the Bay Area collective that molded underground hip-hop as we know it today.

And on February 19, 2011, WAIL will officially unveil “Bold As Scratch”, their artistic collaboration with Q-Bert, the world-famous deejay who made turntables a musical instrument and turntablism an artform. Conceptualized and created behind closed doors in San Francisco by Q-Bert, hip-hop photographer Trevor Traynor and the WAIL team over the course of more than a year, the piece evolved from a multitude of ideas and sketches to a mixed-media canvas focused on QBert’s personal tribute to one of his musical heros. In creation, photography, graphic art, found images and acrylic were utilized. Each piece in the collection of 250 are massive in size, and features custom augmentation by Q-Bert, making each a one-of-a-kind collectible.

The man referred to in many circles as the Jimi Hendrix of deejays has racked a list of accolades in his 25 years on the ones and twos that put him squarely in a league of his own. The three-time DMC world champion created the first musical annotation system for scratching. He was a member of the Invisibl Skratch Piklz, the world’s first band composed entirely of turntablists. His 1994 release Demolition Pumpkin Squeeze Musik is considered by institutions like The Source Magazine to be the greatest mixtape in hiphop history. Graffiti artist Dug-1 created animations to the sounds of Q-Bert for the animated/live-action feature Wave Twisters, which premiered at the 2001 Sundance Festival. His equipment creations for Vestax and Ortofon have reached sales into the millions.

Sign up early at www.qbertart.com for details on the piece, as well as a chance to receive a Golden Ticket, allowing you to view the piece on February 17, two days before the general public.