Jim Evans, sometimes known as T.A.Z., is an American painter, printmaker, and creative director who was a contributing figure in the visual art movement known as underground comix. After a successful career as a comic illustrator, Evans worked as a painter, poster maker, and owner of the digital design group Division 13.
The Underground period was followed by a move to the North Shore of Oahu, and contributions to both Surfer and Surfing magazines, as well as illustrating a succession of surfing posters, such as Hal Jepson's "A Sea For Yourself", and the posters for Bud Browne's successful "Going Surfin'" series.[3] He did posters for many Australian surf films like On Any Morning, and A Winter's Tale. During this period, he also did posters for Oahu's Crater Celebration, featuring bands like Santana and Little Feat. Some of the time in Hawaii was spent doing commercial and advertising art for ad agencies, including ads and record sleeves for Don Ho and the Allihis, and The Society of Seven.[4]
Album art
Returning to the mainland, Evans began to do record sleeves and continued his relationship with Surfer and Surfing magazines, doing numerous illustrations[5] for both, including a collaboration with surfer Mike Doyle on a series of ads for Wax Research. Evans also contributed regularly to Skateboarder and Powder magazines.[6] Working with Dean Torrance of Jan & Dean fame, he did the art for their revival album, Dead Man's Curve, and a compilation of Jan & Dean and Beach Boys hits called Golden Summer.[7] In collaboration with Dean, Evans also did the art for the Beach Boys albums 15 Big Ones, and Live in London. At the same time, he created a logo for The Beach Boys that is still used. This, in turn, led to the commission to create a logo for the band Chicago. His list of album jackets includes; Alice Coltrane, The Robby Kreiger Band, Chicago, The Allman Brothers, Neil Young, The Beach Boys, Beastie Boys, Beck, House of Pain, Symbol Six, Face To Face, and Toto.
Jim Evans painting
In addition to the record sleeves and ongoing work with the surfing magazines, Evans became a contributor to the newly formed Skateboarder magazine, handling all of the illustration work for the first four issues. Jim also collaborated with Frank Nasworthy on a series of ads for Cadillac Wheels, the first polyurethane skateboard wheel. The posters, with titles like, "From Out of the West" and "Accept No Substitutes" came to represent the paradigm shift taking place in skateboarding. Other skate art commissions included one for filmmaker / skater Stacy Peralta, for an early skate film titled Freestylin', as well as the poster for the first World Professional Skateboard Championships.
The period of record sleeves and skate posters ran parallel to commissions for a number of film posters.[8] Working for most of the major studios, Jim completed art for Lumiere, 20th Century Oz, I Never Promised You a Rose Garden, Kentucky Fried Movie, Big Wednesday, Herowork, Acapulco Gold, The Space Movie, Patrick, Neil Young's Rust Never Sleeps (for which Jim also animated the opening title sequence), and John Carpenter's first film Dark Star. Numerous books began to appear at this time and his work is included in the History of Rock Art, Phonographics, Roger Dean's Album Art Book, and The History of Underground Comics.[9] An interest in film led to work as an Art Director, set decorator, and storyboard artist for films. Evans worked on Killer's Kiss and Growing Pains. He also helped to prepare an American release for a series of Japanese films called The Baby Cart Series. Working with director Robert Houston and his partner David Weisman, Jim created the poster and title treatment for the 1980 release titled Shogun Assassin, Jim's son Gibran Evans voiced the narrative as Daigoro. An ongoing creative collaboration with John Hegeman, president of Orion Pictures, led to Jim illustrating promotional posters for the SAW films for Lionsgate, The Green Inferno for BH Tilt, the film Mirrors for New Regency, Anna And the Apocalypse and a poster-centric street art image for Child's Play.
Fine art
An association with Playboy led to a series of silkscreen portraits of celebrities. The magazine commissioned Evans to do portraits of Sean Connery, David Letterman, Joe Montana, and Marilyn Monroe. These portraits led to art shows in Chicago and New York, in addition to a large scale show at the Hansen Gallery Rodeo Drive location, where he did portraits of Sly Stallone, Madonna, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Billy Idol, Steve Vai, Bob Dylan, and Robert Mitchum. Later a show of feminist icons, done in collaboration with pop artist Richard Duardo, had a successful run at the Zero One gallery in Los Angeles. Evans' art has been shown at The Nyehaus gallery, Metro Pictures and Friedrich Petzel Gallery in New York, for a bi-coastal tour called "Swell". Other artists in the show included Billy Al Bengston, Ed Ruscha, Laddie John Dill, and Dennis Hopper.[10]
Jim Presents Sylvester Stallone with a portrait painting (1978)
Evans' work was included in a group show titled "The Lords and the New Creatures" at the NYE+BROWN gallery,[11] which also featured Judy Chicago, Ed Moses, and Chris Burden. In addition, work from Evans's comic and illustration period were included in the "Paid To Play" show at the Robert Berman Gallery, which also featured John Van Hamersveld and Dave Willardson. Both of these shows were part of the Los Angeles-based Pacific Standard Time: Art In L.A. 1945-1980 initiative.[12]
A group show at WAAS Gallery in Dallas titled, "Collect / Respect" featured Evans' work in addition to Sebastian Walker, Restoration Press, Gregory Siff, and SLICK.
A collaboration with artist Ned Evans led to the creation of the TAZBONES team, and a two-man show at the ICON Gallery in Los Angeles. It featured a series of fantasy surf-posters and was called "The No Shows 1972-1999." This collaboration was later included in a show at the Harwood Museum Of Art in Taos, NM titled, "¡Orale! Kings and Queens of Cool." This show also included the work of Gary Baseman, and Joe Coleman.
In 2014 a one-man show celebrating Evans' early work was mounted by the Palm Springs Modernism Week in conjunction with Gallery 446 and Eddie Donaldson, it was titled, "MODERNISM: The Art Of The Pop Portrait - Jim Evans 1984-1986." This period of work was also showcased at the Level Gallery in Dallas, TX in a show titled, "The Art Of The Pop Portrait - Jim Evans 1984-1989."
Jim Evans / TAZ presented solo works as well as collaborations with RISK (Graffiti Artist) at the Buckshot Gallery in Santa Monica, CA in a show titled, "Unconventional Forces." Jim Evans / TAZ followed up by working with RISK and photographer Dennis Morris on a pair of limited-edition prints celebrating The Sex Pistols and Peter Tosh.
T.A.Z. rock posters
In the late 1980s, Evans turned his attention back to rock music. Agreeing to do a poster for Nirvana and L7 for a Rock for Choice benefit, he created a new moniker, T.A.Z.[13] The name was inspired by Hakim Bey's anarchist handbook titled The Temporary Autonomous Zone, This began collaboration with Jim, Gibran Evans, and silkscreen artist Rolo Castillo.[14] During the 90's they created over 200 silkscreen limited edition rock posters for bands such as U2, Jane's Addiction, Oasis, Pearl Jam, Smashing Pumpkins, Metallica, and the Beastie Boys.[15] As a group, T.A.Z. has completed commissions for numerous record sleeves. These include the Beastie Boys, Beck, Aerosmith, Face to Face, House of Pain, The Voodoo Glow Skulls, Slayer, Luscious Jackson, and Orange 9mm. The creation of T.A.Z. led to Jim's association with the Lollapalooza festival, and the Tibetan Freedom Concerts. In 1994, he was commissioned by Marc Geiger and Perry Farrell to decorate the Lollapalooza festival.[16]. The T.A.Z. collective branched out into film posters with the 10th Anniversary poster for the SAW franchise, American Ultra, a series for Eli Roth's Green Inferno, and a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Limited Edition. T.A.Z. as a group also continues to do rock posters, commissions include, Pearl Jam, Foo Fighters, Blink-182, Queens Of The Stone Age, Bad Religion, and Anderson .Paak. A recent[specify] issue of CAMP, the Coachella magazine featured an interview with Evans and poster artist Emek. Flood Magazine commissioned T.A.Z. to do a cover and interior illustration for activist rapper M.I.A. to coincide with the release of her documentary Matangi/Maya/M.I.A. Other T.A.Z. collaborators include, Ariel Celestino, Kirk Canning, and Omaha Perez.[17]
Digital media
The move into electronic media led to the founding of The Big Gun Project. The Big Gun Project was conceived as a loosely organized artistic electronic commune made up of artists, designers, writers, and computer programmers.[18] The Big Gun Project was responsible for creating early websites such as The Crash Site, FilmZone, and Salvo. The Big Gun Project's work-for-hire initiatives led to the completion of many web sites for major motion pictures. Among them, Men in Black, Tomorrow Never Dies, Seven, Jackie Chan's Rumble in the Bronx, The Mummy, The Big Lebowski, and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, which was done in collaboration with the film director Terry Gilliam. On the music side, the Big Gun Project built web sites for The Beastie Boys, The Ozzfest, Grand Royal Records, and The Tibetan Freedom Concert.[19]
In the late 1990s Evans worked as the Executive Creative Director for Al Teller's online label Atomic Pop. He was in charge of interface design, content creation, web site development for artists signed to the label, and interactive game design. While at Atomic Pop he created sites, videos, and games, for Public Enemy, Ice-T, The Black Eyed Peas, and Smashing Pumpkins.
^"Brotherhood of the Guitar". 26 July 2012. Retrieved 2012-07-26. A commission to art direct the look and feel of Lollapalooza 1994, led Evans to the Internet and the chance to develop online identities for rock musicians. A series of websites for the Beastie Boys, Ozzy Osbourne, and The Smashing Pumpkins, led to Evans becoming a founder, with music mogul Al Teller, of the online record label, Atomic Pop. The label became home to Public Enemy, Ice-T, The Black Eyed Peas, and even released a single by the legendary L7.
