Anthony Ausgang is considered The Lord of Low Brow Art art scene, and is known for his decision in the early-1990s to make ownership of his original art available to everyone, regardless of their budget. Since his higher-priced paintings were being sold in commercial galleries, Ausgang began to show work in cafés and pop-up shops. Dubbed the ATM Shows, Ausgang would paint up to fifty 18 x 24 inch black and white paintings for each exhibition, initially all priced $40 and sold on a cash and carry basis. Although the price has risen since then, Ausgang still has regular ATM shows in Los Angeles, New York City, Seattle, and Portland. Over the years, Ausgang photographed each painting, and now the best of these are to be compiled into a comic book, which will be produced by one of the last remaining staples in Punk rock, at pig-records.@bandcamp.com. youtube.com/pigrecords
The initial idea was to present all the photographs in a traditional format, but as the images were laid out, the book began to look more like a comic than an art catalogue! Rather than change plans, Ausgang and graphic designer Damon Bradshaw decided to go with it, and found that when the images were put in sequential form, all the separate narratives created an ongoing psychedelic story. Granted, every person who reads Swizzle will find a different story in its pages, but this unintended use of the paintings leaves just about everything open to interpretation. And to help us with that, the first issue of Swizzle will feature an introduction by Andrew van Wyngarden of the band MGMT.
Among other rewards for different amounts, a pledge of 500 dollars will earn an actual 18 x 24 inch black and white painted for an upcoming ATM show.
The comic is set to releases in the spring of 2020. It’s an expensive endeavor and being released selflessly and solely as an effort to entertain the audience and can use any support to compensate production costs for the artist, production label and others involved. But these limited kick ass rewards will only be offered through Kickstarter. We are only asking for enough to get the comic printed. No one is getting paid, we do it for your enjoyment!