JUXTAPOZ 4

Juxtapoz Vol. 1 No. 4 from Fall 1995 feels like a transmission from the molten centre of underground American culture, where hot rods, psychedelic painting, skateboarding, outlaw comics and lowbrow surrealism all collide at full speed. The issue is packed with artists operating far outside institutional respectability, from visionary painter Alex Grey and underground comix legend S. Clay Wilson to skateboarding wild card Mark Gonzales, whose feature frames skating itself as a form of raw creative genius. Lydia Lunch opens the issue with “The Juxtapoz Philosophy,” setting the tone for a magazine proudly devoted to strange minds, damaged beauty and anti-mainstream art.

Elsewhere, Michael Knowlton’s dreamlike paintings, David Perry’s “Hot Rods From Hell,” and XNO’s grotesque Franken-pop imagery push the issue deeper into carnival-nightmare territory. Miran Kim’s mixed-media work and Walt Stewart’s courtroom sketches add layers of paranoia, crime and urban mythology, while Chaz Bojórquez and the “Top Illin’” aerosol exhibition cement the magazine’s connection to graffiti culture and street aesthetics. Wrapped in hot rod photography, underground gallery reports and savage Beat Down columns, the issue burns with the reckless energy of a scene still inventing itself in real time, somewhere between an art movement, a garage band and a back-alley drag race.