Futura 2000

FUTURA 2000
Futura painting the cover of "Never, Never, Land" (2003)
Birth name	Leonard Hilton McGurr
Born	November 17, 1955 (1955-11-17) (age 54) New York
Nationality	American
Field	Graffiti

Futura 2000 (born 1955) is an internationally acclaimed graffiti artist. He started to paint illegally on New York's subway in the early seventies, working with other artists such as ALI. In the early eighties he showed with Patti Astor at the Fun Gallery, along with Keith Haring, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Richard Hambleton and Kenny Scharf. Futura 2000 began painting "legally" as the live on-stage backdrop painter for The Clash's 1981 European tour. More recently, he is a successful graphic designer and gallery artist. One of the most distinctive features about Futura's work is his abstract approach to graffiti art. While the primary focus, during the 1980s, of the majority of graffiti artists was lettering, Futura pioneered abstract street art, which has since become more popular. Conversely, his aerosol strokes are regarded as different from those of his peers, as they are as thin as the fine lines achieved only through the use of an airbrush.

While he is an infamous graffiti artist, his most prolific work is as an illustrator and graphic designer of record sleeves, first becoming involved with The Clash; producing a sleeve for their "Radio Clash" 7" single and handwriting the sleeve notes and lyrics sheet for their LP Combat Rock. He also toured extensively with The Clash during the Combat Rock tours, 'performing' with them on stage by spray painting backdrops whilst the band performed.

Years later James Lavelle resurrected his career by getting him, alongside Ben Drury, to produce the artwork for several releases on Mo' Wax records; this also led to Futura producing the imagery which has largely defined James Lavelle's UNKLE project.

During the 90's he was involved with clothing companies such as GFS, Subware and PROJECT DRAGON. More recently much of Futura's artwork has evolved into the production of highly collectible toys, SNEAKERS; and a diverse range of CREATIVE media. Working with Recon, Nike, North Face, Medicom Toy, Undercover, Supreme, Levi's, and A Bathing Ape.

Futura also designs his own clothing label FUTURA LABORATORIES with a store located in Fukuoka, Japan.

His art has been exhibited at V1 Gallery, a contemporary art gallery in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Appearances in other media

• On The Clash's Combat Rock, Futura 2000 delivers a spoken word part on the song "Overpowered by Funk". The Clash also appeared on his song "The Escapades of Futura 2000."^[1]
• In Emile de Antonio's 1982 film In the King of Prussia Futura 2000 creates the film's opening title as a graffiti mural.
• On the album MiLight Futura's voice can be heard giving a shoutout to artist DJ Krush.
• In DJ Mehdi's 2002 music video "Breakaway", Futura covers an entire room with his signature tags in black marker and spray paint.
• In the 2005 film "Just For Kicks", about sneaker culture in hip hop, as himself.
• John Mayer's 2006 music video "Waiting on the World to Change", alongside graffiti artists DAZE and the Tats Cru.
• The 2006 video game Marc Ecko's Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure as himself.

Notes

External links

• the OFFICIAL 2010 daily calendar from the intrepid author @ futura2000.com
• the OFFICIAL 2009 daily calendar @ futura2000.com
• the OFFICIAL 2008 daily calendar @ futura2000.com
• the OFFICIAL 2007 daily calendar @ futura2000.com
• the COMPREHENSIVE collective from the photographic ARCHIVES @ flickr.com
• the BLACK backgrounded PHOTOSTREAM @ flickriver.com
• the MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL summer @ RECON
• the ORIGINAL domain from NINETEEN NINETY SEVEN @ FUTURADOSMIL