Flume + Jonathan Zawada Pop-Up in LA

Album art takes another dimension in this new installation of hung fabric and video works

11 August 2016

The artwork of Jonathan Zawada lives on your computer hard drive and—if you still buy CDs—on your bookshelf, too. The Perth, Australia-raised (now LA-based) multimedia artist has been regularly commissioned to create album covers for largely electronic music acts like Classixx, Rustie, Baauer and The Presets. (Fun fact: Zawada used to be the creative director at Sydney-based label Modular Recordings.) While conceiving an imagined new universe ruled by each musician, Zawada seamlessly weaves the digital and analog to develop visuals that really synergize the music—rather than feel like his own work, simply tacked on.

One of the greatest examples of this collaboration is Zawada’s work with fellow Aussie, Flume (notable tracks include “Drop the Game” with Chet Faker, and his remixes of Disclosure and Lorde). The tracks and cover of 24-year-old’s recent album Skin (featuring guest spots from Beck, Tove Lo, Little Dragon, AlunaGeorge, Vince Staples and more) are visually represented by Zawada’s CGI-like flora. Flume’s elastic beats and bass are surprisingly as tender as they are grandiose, creating a niche for the music producer in the EDM world, and the artwork complements them successfully.

Offering another way to experience this audiovisual collaboration is a pop-up installation coinciding with Flume’s shows in Los Angeles this weekend (he’s performing four nights in a row at Shrine Auditorium; kicking things off yesterday with SOPHIE). Zawada’s brightly colored artwork has been printed onto tactile fabric, and there are also new video works on view.