FACE 2 FACE – Interview with Alessandro Gottardo aka Shout

Alessandro Gottardo – born in Pordenone, a speck of a city near Venice – is SHOUT, an Italian artist who studied Illustration at the Istituto Europeo di Design in Milan. His SHOUT pseudonym was born in 2005, a name that represented his idea to speak with his own true voice. Shout’s conscious goal was to work on projects where he could express his personal beliefs about a subject, rather then always being forced to present the safe, commercial option. His graphic works go straight to the point with much closer perspectives and centralized subjects. His success followed worldwide recognition and celebration of his work in important publications, including the Society of Illustrators and Society of Publication Designers. On a personal note, his work has influences like Chaval – the enigmatic French cartoonist and master of the silent gag – and the graphic wit of Roland Topor. U CAN C his last show – til May 14th – @ Known Gallery 441 North Fairfax Avenue, Los Angeles, a series of 50 prints & 8 hand-finished aqua tints.

After a chat with La Bestia aka Roberto Croci (I too, owe my own nickname) here some of his thought, his life, the gallery, his recent trip to Los Angeles.

WHY CASEY & THE KNOWN GALLERY?
“The Known gallery is managed and operated by Casey Zoltan aka the magician, a name that seems to be taken from Conan The Barbarian movie’s characters, when instead, Casey is a gentle soul, a well known figure in the underground LA graffiti artist’s world, a man who curates many MOCA exibits and one of the most prominent members of the LA art community. Last detail: Casey and Know Gallery are very well tied up with Juxtapoz magazine, THE contemporary and underground ART bible: Juxtapoz Art and Culture Magazine”.

FROM ITALY TO LOS ANGELES, KALI, USA. FIRST TOUGHTS.
“First toughts, from my italian point of view, first time in America, first time in Hollywood, I did experienced 5 intense days, probably the most intense days of my life, where I saw lotsa of stuff. Beautiful homes, houses in the middle of nowhere, gothic palaces standing next to swiss chalet. One thing I can say for sure: LA is big, man, widespread huge!“.

“No Metro (sismic area, hello!), no taxis in the streets (we are not in New York!) and no public transportation (they were just late, dude). I loved it, but no car, no city, no movement, no trip, no fun, no, no, no. I spent a great deal of my morning trying to find an Italian ESPRESSO, done the right way (on this, I am with you, man)”.

WHERE DID U GO?
“By car, we went to the Getty Museum, 80’s contemporary architecture, a wonderful garden, nice cactuses. After that, I went to the Observatory where I know James Dean shot part of Rebel Without a Cause and then we just went by the Grauman’s Chinese Theater, getting out of the car to check star’s footprints and handprints was not necessary“.

WHAT DID U LIKE?
“Loved Venice Beach, the canals, the colored houses with little boats, all of which had a manicured small little garden. If dwarfs would have walked out of those homes, I would have not been surprised. (what about Snowhite!!) LA is different from San Francisco, where I lived from 2008 to 2010, here you do have really krazy guys, most of them in Venice, from the immortal Harry Perry, the iconic GuitarMan on Rollerbalde of the Zoo, the Boardwalk; to the hipsters on skateboards pulled by pure bread American Staffordshire with glasses and sado-maso chains; to the medicinal “homeopatic” marjuana that you find everywhere“.

WHAT DID YOU DO HERE?
“I was invited by Shelley Leopold, LA Weekly editor and curator of the Knonw gallery to show my work. The whole thing was organized a year ago, and we decided for 50 limited prints illustrations, all of them taken from my book, MONO SHOUT, where you can find 10 years of my working life: newspapers, ads, magazine prints, ervything I did and liked in 10 years. The opening went well, I was hoping for some hollywood stars to show them to my parents, instead I got Rosie Perez (a Spike Lee’s favorite) and Jim Carrey’s daughter, but even if I didn’t get any Hollywood people, I sold a lot of my prints and got congratulated a lot. Beside me, @ Known Gallery there was Kellisimone Waits, Tom Waits’ daughter, I liked her stuff, she was nice and simpatica, molto simpatica, same voice as Twitty in Tom & Jerry. Funny, really funny. There was also Gary Baseman, pervasive Artist, Painter, TV/Movie Producer, Toy Designer (he owns an extensive toy collections dated back as far the ’20s & 30′s) and Curator. Gary is also the three-time Emmy award winning creator and executive producer of the critically acclaimed animated series and feature film Teacher’s Pet. A series about a talking dog who disguises himself as a boy in order to attend school with his master. The following day he invited me at his house and it was like a Spike Jonze’s movie where I was Being Gar Baseman instead of John Malcovich. His works, his toys an paintings are everywhere, including his new work for the Venezia BIENNALE 2011“.

The strangest thing?? “Meeting La Bestia, whose articles and expose’ on LA are among my favorite XL Repubblica articles. Definitivelya fan, definitively“. C U SHOUT. TIL NEXT TIME.

www.alessandrogottardo.com
www.knowngallery.com
www.nicolaboccaccini.com

They said about him:
“We cannot talk about Shout’s work without first discussing the choice of name – SHOUT. Shouting is for people who need to yell to be noticed. But Shout’s work does not scream – it invites you in. It is subtle, brilliant, surprising, quiet, and gorgeous all at the same time. 
Shout is my favorite whispering artist. ” Paul Buckley, Vice President and Executive Creative Director, Penguin Books.

“With simple, bold and graphic strokes, Shout turns complicated concepts into colorful solutions”. 
D. W. Pine, Design Director, Time Magazine.

Thank you Nicola Boccaccini to let us use your beautiful pictures…