Todd James

Todd James (born 1969) is a contemporary artist from New York City. Self-taught, he started tagging the New York City Subway system under the name REAS when he was very young. James designed the Beastie Boys' Brooklyn Dust Elephant logo (1987) The Source (Magazine) logo as well as for Mobb Deep, Red Man, Eminem, Kid Rock. Art from his coloring book/zine Attitude Dancer was used as a cover for Iggy Pop's Beat 'Em Up album. Todd was the puppet designer for Crank Yankers on Comedy Central produced by Jimmy Kimmel, Adam Carolla, and Jackhole Productions. He is also one of the artists who was commissioned to create a version of the Dungeons & Dragons ampersand for the digital magazine Dragon+. He created, with Barry McGee and Steve Powers, Street Market at New York City's Deitch Projects. This exhibition was selected for the 2001 Venice Biennale. In 2004, he also participated in the group exhibition Beautiful Losers which traveled to several museums in the United States. The Street Market installation was rebuilt and expanded for the L.A. MOCA Art in the Streets in 2011. His works have been shown at numerous museums and galleries worldwide, like the Tate Liverpool, the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts and the Institute of Contemporary Arts in Philadelphia. His distinctive cartoon-style paintings are very ironic. Todd's paintings reflected a variety of influences, including the pop culture and American expressionist painters such as Willem de Kooning and Franz Kline.