JUXTAPOZ 7

Juxtapoz Vol. 2 No. 3 is a wild collision of underground comics, avant-garde philosophy, graffiti culture and outsider art, stitched together with the magazine’s trademark mix of intellectual chaos and punk attitude. The issue swings from the stark, confrontational drawings of Raymond Pettibon to the bizarre cosmic theories of Paul Laffoley, whose obsession with death, architecture and metaphysics makes the magazine feel less like an art publication and more like a forbidden archive discovered in a basement laboratory. The feature on NSK drags in militant industrial aesthetics and post-Cold War paranoia, while Justin Forbes’ voodoo-inspired work pushes deeper into ritual, myth and psychological unease.

At the centre of the issue sits Kenny Scharf whose exploding cartoon universe of fluorescent aliens and pop-culture mutations perfectly captures Juxtapoz’s fascination with beautiful visual overload. Shirin Neshat’s politically charged photography adds a sharper emotional edge, while fantasy coffins, Detroit artist John Bell, graffiti legend Zephyr and the grotesque chaos of GWAR turn the magazine into a parade of strange American nightmares. Wrapped in gallery listings, savage reviews and anti-establishment editorials, the issue feels like a spray-painted transmission from a culture happily mutating outside the boundaries of respectable art.