|
Don Ed Hardy is a painter, printmaker and tattoo
artist. Fascinated by tattoos since childhood, Hardy has
become a master of his craft while continuing his work
in the more traditional mediums of painting and drawing.
A scholar of tattoo history and lore, Hardy has curated
tattoo exhibitions and written and published catalogs
about the art of tattooing. Don Hardy collaborated with
Master printer Bud Shark in March 1995 to produce a
portfolio of
lithographs entitled "Tattoo Royale". These seven
images based on traditional tattoo designs, as well as
original images, range from the spiritual iconography of
"Nurse Mercy", to the autobiographic
"Frontier Justice". Graphic images of a panther, a
devil, and a shark are included in the portfolio.
In 2000, he completed a 500 foot long
scroll painting of 2000 dragons in honor of the turn of
the century and the Dragon year. The scroll has been
exhibited at Track 16 Gallery, Santa Monica, The Museum
of Contemporary Art, Denver, the Cuenca Bienal in
Ecuador and the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San
Francisco.
Hardy's most recent prints are
"Our Gang" and
"Floater" and their companion editions
"Our Gang - State II" and
"Floater - State II".
Don Ed Hardy curated the exhibition,
"Pierced Hearts and True Love", which was shown
at The Drawing Center in New York in September 1995 and
traveled to several other museums. His work is
represented in the collections of The Honolulu Academy
of Art, The Contemporary Museum, Honolulu, The San
Francisco Fine Arts Museum Achenbach Collection, and the
University of Colorado Fine Art Galleries.
A monograph about Don Ed Hardy's
work, "Tattooing the Invisible Man" has been
published by Smart Art Press.
He designed a line of sunglasses with
bejeweled tattoo graphics on the arms, and each pair of
sunglasses comes with a fabulously decorated
coordinating case (as shown above).
Ed Hardy
Sunglasses, by Revolutionary Eyewear, use the
combinations of leather, denim, and Swarovski Crystals
with the design of their products. The tattoos of Don Ed
Hardy, "The Godfather of Tattoo," are incorporated into
their sunglasses and are brought to life with its vivid
colors.
|
