Joe Kral
Joe Kral (b. 1974) is an American artist based in Minneapolis, MN. He grew up in a small town in Southern Minnesota and was raised on skateboarding, BMX, heavy metal and art. He went to school at Brown Institute for Design and has worked at several large design studios.
He creates mixed media paintings focusing on people, typography, colour, shape and texture. The paintings are made by hand on wood panels using vintage printed ephemera from books, magazines, maps and postcards. He then uses spray paint, stencils, paint markers and ink to add colour and texture. The black layer is an image transfer, which he describes as a “poor man’s screenprint”. The results of the image transfer vary widely and add an element of surprise in the final piece.