X-8 (artist)
X-8 (born 1960 in Whittier, California) is an American painter of visionary art and outsider art. He is also a publisher, and is co-founder of punk fanzine Flipside.
Career
X-8 began creating mud paintings living in Downtown Los Angeles in 1982. His tar and bullet paintings, hair paintings, and various mudworks were exhibited at the Satellite Gallery in Downtown LA in 1986. He also did portraits of serial killer Richard Ramirez. In July 1991, the Los Angeles Times published an editorial about the 'death' of the Downtown Los Angeles loft/art scene and commented on his burgeoning series of misanthropic works.
In 1992, he began creating large exorcistic and cathartic figuratives as a method of purification. In October 1999, CNN featured his work as a reference for a news story about the demonic possession of a church in rural France.
Placing works in film and TV, the painting "Headless Angel" was part of the main set design in the 2000-2001 Fox horror/paranormal television series Freakylinks.
X-8 contributed inside sleeve artwork (textures taken from mud paintings) and a guitar part on the Collide album Some Kind of Strange. Also making musical contributions on the album were Danny Carey from Tool and cEvin Key of Skinny Puppy.
His work has been featured in such publications as alternative online arts magazine The Independent Mind and New York literary and arts publication Outsider Ink.
He is currently art editor for New York literary magazine Mad Hatters' Review. He is represented by the outsider and visionary art gallery Henry Boxer in the UK.
Themes
Flipside fanzine and other media
X-8 co-founded Flipside, a magazine that covered the burgeoning punk rock scene in Los Angeles in 1977. It was with Flipside he derived his pen name, based on his favorite letter and number. He designed the logo, created early covers and participated in the various interviews and reviews. Early Flipside covers were displayed in the Track 16 Gallery exhibit Forming, The Early Days Of LA Punk in Santa Monica. Flipside was also featured in the New Day Rising punk exhibition at the Experience Music Project museum in Seattle.
X-8 was interviewed regarding the early LA punk scene in the book We Got The Neutron Bomb: The Untold Story of L.A. Punk by Spin writer Marc Spitz and Masque owner Brendan Mullen.
His comments regarding Flipside and the Germs appeared in the book Lexicon Devil: The Fast Times and Short Life of Darby Crash and the Germs, published by Feral House.
He currently publishes GODPHOTO, which presents selected images and photos compiled from the World Wide Web and creates photo essays focusing on detachment and escapism.