I might be a little bit late on this item, but if you live in the Bay Area, you still have plenty of time to check out this amazing looking exhibit of Residents ephemera that is running through June 17 at Johansson Projects in Oakland. Featuring album cover production art, promotional photos, drawings, scratch-board illustrations, and digital imagery from the archives of Homer Flynn, principal architect of the band’s visual imagery, the show also has some of Flynn’s private, non-Residents work on display:

Through his work, Homer Flynn has created a unique folklore composed of morosely ironic tales intertwined with the poignancy of thinly veiled emotion, revealing Flynn’s obsession with both the vulnerable and perverse aspects of the human psyche. Using a wide vary of materials, he draws on imagery from Walt Disney comics, outsider art of the Deep South, M.C. Escher and fetish pulp. Committed as much to the discovery as to the revelation of ideas, Flynn pursues his vision through a diversity of media, allowing his rich artistic output to be driven by ideas manifesting themselves through drawing, painting, print making, sculpture, digital media, photography, film and performance. Flynn’s figurative prints and drawings are notable for their intense mark making, often rendered with stark, contrasting colors. Similarly bold, his photography reveals forceful characters through stark black and white compositions as well as a vivid, often garish, use of color. While the mood of these images is often confrontational, Flynn also reveals a vulnerability that deepens the reading of his work.

Homer Flynn is best known for his involvement with The Residents, the Bay Area based art collective internationally renowned for their avant-garde music, theatrical performances and filmmaking. In the main gallery Flynn will exhibit work he created for the Residents, including production art for original Residents album covers, promotional photos, art used in print advertising and set designs.

Since his work for The Residents has taken the primary focus of his output for nearly 40 years, Flynn has thus far chosen to keep his personal work private. At Johansson Projects he will show a survey of his entire career curated by his daughter, Jana Flynn, including much work that has never been shown publicly. This work, featuring pastel depictions of natural disasters collaged from the pages National Geographic magazine, scratch board illustrations, silkscreened prints and graphite sketches from his journals, will he featured in the project room of the gallery. Finally, a slideshow will be projected in the viewing room showing recent digital work produced for The Residents.

 

 
Below, the Residents cover James Brown:
 

 
Thank you Chris Musgrave!