MISTER CARTOON, MUCH MORE THAN A NEW LIMITED EDITION

Montana Colors is back with a new limited edition aerosol. The multidisciplinary artist from Los Angeles, Mister Cartoon, is responsible for giving color to this unique collection can, which, starting today, becomes a fetish object of Chicano culture and LA imagery.

It’s not the first Limited Edition that Montana Colors has launched with Mister Cartoon. It’s been 14 years since the Angelino artist created what would be his first numbered MTN can. The design in question, much more ornate than its predecessor, uses Violeta Cosmos as the main color for both the content of the spray and the composition. Mister Cartoon marks his return to the MTN universe with a noteworthy new design.

“At the time, in the 80’s it was all about where you fit in, in hip hop. ‘Are you a breaker? Are you a rapper? Are you a locker? Are you a writer?’ And I was like, ‘I love breakdancing and all that shit, but I couldn’t hang. But I could draw.”

Mister Cartoon, “LA Originals”, 2020

LA Originals

The figure of Mister Cartoon has once again resonated strongly in popular culture, along with Estevan Oriol, thanks to the 2020 release of the documentary LA Originals. The footage tells the story of the two artists who were in charge of building the aesthetics of Los Angeles street culture through tattooing and photography. In the case of Cartoon, his artistic career spans from his childhood to his success as a tattoo artist via a passion for graffiti.

With testimonials from all kinds of hip-hop celebrities in addition to documentation of an already historical nature, LA Originals builds its story upon the legacy of these two characters that constituted the artistic axis of the Cypress Hill production company, Soul Assasins.

Mister Cartoon triptych and installation at Beyond The Streets exhibition in Saatchi Gallery, London.

CARTOON & ORIOL

Two years after Beyond The Streets and Montana Colors had Estevan Oriol on the MTN Limited Editions list, the new can from Mr. Cartoon arrives with a design that opts for black and white, and not by chance. In fact, all the Limited Editions released by Montana Colors in collaboration with Beyond The Streets and Los Angeles artists, coincide in the gray color in the part intended for the product description… By coincidence?

Aesthetically speaking, the new spray by this well-known tattoo artist goes perfectly with that of his companion and complementary artist: Estevan Oriol. In this way, the new MTN Limited Edition marks the closure of a complete tribute to the culture of Los Angeles, but also a reaffirmation of friendship, specifically that of two artists who helped build the aesthetics of what we now consider the culture of the “West Coast”.