HANNES ISAKSSON’S NY GANGSTERS CASE STUDY
While surfing the big web, I bumped into an amazing artist from Sweden. His name is Hannes Isaksson and he is a bad ass illustrator. His naive style is hard to compete against… I contacted him to get a little bit more information about him and his fascination for the New York most notorious gangsters. Here is what Hannes has to say:
Think it was in 2005 after I had seen Paid In Full, that I read the FEDS article about Alpo, Rich and Azie. I found it incredible that it was actually based on a true story. So that got me a little curious of the American crack era. After that I started reading about The Supreme Team, cause of the whole Murder Inc/Supreme thing. And the more I read about it the more the more fascinating it got; lookouts with walkie talkies on rooftops, embroided Supreme Team jackets, assault teams armed with machine guns, the way they dressed, that they had names like Robo justice, Prince, Divine, Black Just. I actually made board game about the drug trade in Jamaica Queens. By that time i was pretty much obsessed with drug crews and kingpins. I find their life stories beyond compelling, even though they’re kind of similar. They start to hustle, they come up in the game, live like kings for a couple of years and then they go to jail for the rest of their lifes or get killed. I think most people can relate to that, the wish to become someone, even if it means spending the rest of your life in jail. I can anyhow.
Here is Hannes’s Bio:
Born and raised in Stockholm, Sweden.
Attended Stockholm Art School in 2003, went to Nyckelviken School of Arts 2004.
And in 2005 i enrolled at Idun Loven art school wich I graduated from in 2007.
Right now Im part of the Detroit Stockholm art collective and last year I released a book/magazine called “Aint no Uzis made in Harlem” on Cederteg Publishing
Posted on June 09, 2008 at 08:05 AM | Previous Entry | Next Entry | Entry List | Email Entry | Digg
Responses to this entry
There are 9 total comments about this entry. The most recent comment was posted 2 months, 4 weeks ago...
Is this a joke? I hope so. These drawings have no artist quality and look like a middle school kid made them. His naive style is not hard to compete against, it is just plain terrible.
You the one joking mate thiss ranking the best I ever seen! Who is this guy?? Quality!
This is trash, absolute 11yr old garbage, i dont know why the obesession of a mentally challenged person has so caught your intrest. dissipointing
A corny swede who comes to nyc and becomes fascinated with gangsters and draws elementary school level pictures of them.
This bastard needs to see a psychologist.Go back to sweden,mommys waiting for you in that gingerbread house you grew up in.
herb.
Naive style is wack. Popularized by zines like Arkitip so the founders can big up their friends that lack talent. An effect of incestuous circle jerking.
You must really have love for this guy to put your credibility so foolishly on the line. This shit is whack! Plain and simple. Sorry. You usually have dope blogs otherwise. Don’t let your boys interfere with your own gangster.
Not trying to go against the grain here, but this post is great. With the current illustration/design world being so incestuous, it’s nice to see something so refreshingly out there. As for arkitip, those guys do a really good job with the magazine. Arkitip provides a forum for some of todays most creative minds to put forth work that pushes the boundaries of what contemporary art/design is. Some of the most talented and respected designers, photographers and artists contribute! It’s definitely not a zine to “big up their friends that lack talent.” Anyways, these drawings are great.
This cat has style! To all those who say it’s like “kids drawings” i say you should take an extra look.
These somewhat humorous drawings prove, that something spectacular doesn’t have to be complicated.
It’s funny how this kindof childish way of coloring connects with the subject of the drawings which is pretty serious i think.
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Dope!