“The Record Show Poster Show” will open on Saturday, Feb. 18 and run through March 10 at the Carleton College Art Gallery. The exhibit’s posters were commissioned by Richard Shelton, an LP collector and artist and a former professor at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. He has used them to publicize a bimonthly Minneapolis record convention for collectors called “The Record Show.”
“The Record Show Poster Show” celebrates the creativity formed by the overlap between popular music and contemporary graphic design. Various designers from the United States, Europe and Asia have contributed their unique graphic designs to these posters, including artists such as Nick Wiggins, San Francisco; Santiago Cucullu, Milwaukee; Marcel Hermes, New York and Amsterdam; and Kiyo Matsumoto, Tokyo. Graphic arts luminaries are happy to design posters for “The Record Show” because they are given total creative freedom in doing so. Posters range in style from a retro psychedelic look to edgy fields of text.
Shelton and his wife, Kali Nikitas of Graphic Design 4Love&$, will lecture on trends in contemporary design on Saturday, Feb. 18 at 7 p.m. in Boliou Hall, Room 104, and Shelton also will host the exhibit’s opening party at 8 p.m. in the Carleton College Art Gallery, which will feature music selected by Shelton and friends. Both events are free and open to the public.
Finally, Carleton students are being given the chance to design the next Minneapolis Record Show poster. Shelton and Nikitas will judge the posters and announce the winner at the opening reception. The winner will produce the posters advertising a June convention.
A resident of Boston, Shelton is an animator, music historian and artist. An avid LP collector, he has a collection containing more than 18,000 albums, chosen for the artistry of their cover art rather than for their music. Selections from his collection were featured in last year’s critically acclaimed exhibit “Hip Art That’s Square” at the University of Minnesota’s Goldstein Gallery.
The Carleton College Art Gallery is located near First and Winona Streets in the lower level of the Music and Drama Center. It is open daily at noon and closes at 6 p.m. Monday-Wednesday, 10 p.m. Thursday-Friday, and 4 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. For more information or disability accommodations, call the Art Gallery at (507) 646-4342 or go to http://www.carleton.edu/campus/gallery/
