Let It Be Lowbrow

Juxtapoz, the art magazine devoted to the upstart genre loosely known as “lowbrow,” turns 10 this month. The brainchild of artist Robert Williams, primary founder and a San Fernando Valley resident, the glossy bimonthly gives the raspberry to academia-approved conceptualism. Juxtapoz celebrates instead the figurative, unashamedly decorative pop aesthetic pioneered by patron saints such as the late Southern California-based hot rod artists Von Dutch and Ed “Big Daddy” Roth. From tattooing and underground comics to lowrider cars, black velvet and pinup art, the flaming eyeballs rule at a periodical where “retinal gratification” is by way of a sacred trust.