Books llll Chris Yormick Kelsey Brookes Kofie Mel Kadel R. Grimes RETNA Tim McCormick Travis Millard Blek Le Rat Caia Koopman Cody Hudson David Ellis Eye One Francesco LoCastro Freddi C James Jean Jeff Soto Joshua Krause London Police Michael Sieben Ron English Andy Mueller Angela Boatwright Dalek David Choe Kenton Parker Mike Giant Andrew Pommier Blaine Fontana J. Shea Rammellzee Sage Vaughn Yoskay Yamamoto

Francesco LoCastro For the last ten years, Francesco LoCastro has been South Florida's thoroughfare to the national Lowbrow art scene, as both a respected artist and as the curator of intrepid art exhibitions. LoCastro was born in Catania, Italy in 1976, raised in Germany, and transplanted to sunny-yet-strange Ft. Lauderdale during high school. His collegiate employment at a commercial art studio opened his mind to art as a life-long career, as well as being the place of introduction to fellow artists and Europeans, Colin and Sas Christian. As a painter, LoCastro's works are bound together by a hallucinatory surreality, and along the way have featured appearances by pop culture icons such as Tom Waits, controversial figures like Charlton Heston, and a motley assortment of unearthly creatures affected by intensely earthly afflictions and dispositions. His stylistic influences are widely varied - from Sebastian Krueger's exaggerated pop portraiture, Alfonse Mucha's ornate art nouveau illustrations, Chuck Jones to Chuck Close, and beyond. LoCastro's current series of portraits depict a more human identity, but his scintillating touch of the surreal remains. He has shown in numerous galleries all over America, including Copro Nason Gallery in Culver City, Lineage Gallery in Philadelphia, Perihelion Arts in Phoenix, The Shooting Gallery in San Francisco, L'Art Noir Gallery in New Orleans, Fuse Gallery in New York City and Thinkspace Gallery in Los Angeles. As a curator, Francesco LoCastro's electrifying shows in Miami's Design District and Wynwood Arts District have ushered in a caliber of Lowbrow art previously unseen in South Florida. "Parallel Universe", "Culture Shock" and "Monsters of Lowbrow" delighted local and national audiences with their vibrant colors, hand-painted and silk-screened mural backdrops, and eye-catching works by many of the biggest luminaries of the movement. LoCastro's curatorial series culminated with "We'll Make a Lover of You" during Art Basel Miami Beach 2006. LoCastro is featured as one of the distinguished artists who have forged the New Miami Art Movement in the upcoming book "Miami Contemporary Artists" to be released in Spring of 2007 by Schiffer Publishing.