Rock’s inspiration on visual art is being examined with a unique collection of the best concert posters of the last decade.Acts as varied as the Arctic Monkeys, the Grateful Dead and Jack White have spurred many memorable images – sometimes very far removed from the usual clichéd photo of a band onstage.Instead a visual artist such as Tom Whalen puts together a striking drawing of two sophisticates on a couch to promote British rock band the Arctic Monkeys for a tour in Australia. The image is cleverly broken in half to advertise two different venues, in Melbourne and Perth. Dan Grzeca, who is known for his brooding birds of prey - hawks, owls or some combination - advertises the Alabama Shakes with an avian figure with a feline head.Many of these posters are hand-drawn, produced in limited print runs of less than 100 and highly collectable both by fans of the musicians advertised and their artistic creators.The pick has been put together into a larger-format book called “OMG POSTERS: A Decade of Rock Art” published by Regan Arts at $50.00. Among the best of the 400 designs: a surreal one for Jack White, with ribs forming a cage for birds; a thoroughly retro-hippy poster for the 50th anniversary of the Grateful Dead; and a fierce coyote leaping in the air for The National.The pick is by Mitch Putnam, the creator of poster blog OMGPosters.com. Other featured indie bands include the Black Keys, Vampire Weekend, Spoon, Tame Impala, and Florence & the Machine. Artists featured include Kevin Tong, Mike Mitchell, Rob Jones, John Solimine, Ryan Duggan, Anne Benjamin, Brian Ewing, DKNG Studios, Burlesque Design, Rich Kelly, Aaron Horkey, and more.
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