Show Notes
Art Cast Series 3 Episode 7: Cey Adams
Art Cast is a podcast series of informal discussions with professional artists and designers, presented by Matt Gee, Programme Area Manager of Fine Art, joined by students from Morley College London - Chelsea Centre. For this episode Matt is joined by graffiti artist Cey Adams from New York and student Emma Allan from Morley College London's Chelsea Centre HNC in Fine Art.
Cey Adams is a graffiti artist who began from the late 70s to the early 80s. He attended the School of Visual Arts in New York, and his work was exhibited alongside Jean Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring. In 1982, he was featured in the PBS documentary Style Wars about subway graffiti in New York. In 1983, he formed a close relationship with the Beastie Boys and designed their 12" single cover for Cooky Puss. He also worked with Russell Simmons' Rush Artist Management to create logos, tour merchandising, and advertising campaigns for rap artists. In the late 80s, Adams and his partner Steve Carr co-founded The Drawing Board, an in-house visual design firm for Def Jam Recordings that oversaw the visual style of their artists. Adams went on to create corporate advertising campaigns for companies such as Levi's, Nike, HBO, Coca-Cola, Burton Snowboards, Moët & Chandon, Comedy Central, HBO, and Warner Bros.
Cey Adams has had a long, successful career as a designer and artist, creating logos and branding for many different companies and music artists including the Beastie Boys, Public Enemy, Jay Z and Mary J Blige. He was the founding Creative Director of Def Jam Records.
Having previously designed clothes for Run DMC for Adidas, in 2006 he was commissioned to design his own custom track suits and sneakers featuring Beastie Boys. He was also commissioned to do a mural for the National Urban League conference and the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture, and collaborated with Brooklyn Arts Council in 2015. He also did a project with photographer Janette Beckman and created a limited edition run of 500 clothing pieces for the launch of Levi's new store in Times Square. His work is known for its themes of pop culture, race and gender relations, and cultural and community issues.
More from Art Cast
Art Cast Series 6 Episode 3: Babak Ganjei Art Cast is a podcast series of informal discussions with professional artists and designers, presented by Matt Gee, Deputy Head of Art, joined by students from Morley College London - Chelsea Centre. This Episode is led by Imane Bouziane and we are also joined by BA Fine Art peer Hamish Cowan. Today we are joined by Babak Ganjei, an artist, writer and musician who turns everyday thoughts, jokes and anxieties into the artwork itself. Among his most notable achievements are publishing two acclaimed books with Rough Trade Books, including Art Is The Thing Nobody Asked You To Do, as well as creating short films for Channel 4 and appearing in multiple BBC Radio 4 programmes with his son Arthur. He gave a talk on the 18th of March to students from a variety of courses about his work, in Morley waterloo. He studied at Central Saint Martins, but his work moves away from that kind of traditional polish and instead leans into something more immediate and diaristic. He’s exhibited in London galleries like Transition Gallery and The Sunday Painter while also showing in more informal spaces like Doomed Gallery. Across text based paintings, drawings, comics, and books, his works read like fragments of an inner monologue, funny, self-aware and sometimes uncomfortable, sitting somewhere between stand-up, notes app entries and conceptual art while quietly questioning what art is supposed to be and who it’s really for.