Artists Meticulously Create Posters One at a Time with Handmade Silkscreens

For those of you who are unfamiliar with silkscreen printing, Malleus has created a short video that shows the work that goes into creating one of their posters:

As you’ll see in their video, the inks and colors are applied layer by layer to every poster they print and is a very meticulous, time consuming process. Also, everything is printed by hand allowing for small imperfections that make every poster unique! Malleus, a three-person team, is composed of Lu, Urlo, and Poia and was formed in the early 2000’s.

When asked to comment on their beginnings, Malleus states,

“Like many things, it took shape little by little, and then became our main activity. Since the beginning, music is the main fuel of our artistic vision.”

Malleus combines their love of music with their passion for art which is definitely reflected in their work. So far, Malleus has produced posters for some very notable rock bands including, The Black Keys, The Flaming Lips, Mars Volta, Beck, Queens Of The Stone Age, and The Sex Pistols just to name a few. Malleus also has their own rock band called Ufomammut.

They make their own posters, of course. In a world of mass production and insta-everything, it’s refreshing to see such attention being put back into the art that people produce. Malleus could just as easily have composed their posters on a computer and printed thousands of copies, but printing their work by hand makes it that much more special.

They mention,

“With handmade silkscreens we can keep a certain balance between the idea of the single original piece of art and the chance of spreading the work to many people. With hand printing you can have a certain number of originals, each one slightly different.”

Being hand made, each poster becomes a valuable piece of art instead of being just a piece of paper that people might throw away. To an extent, their work is a comment on the nature of modern pop culture of being fast and disposable. Malleus instead, tries to “slow down and focus more…

giving the music a durable and touchable shape.” Indeed, Malleus is a great example of applying old school methods to a new school mentality and we’re excited to see what Malleus comes up with next. Below you’ll find some of Malleus Rock Art Lab’s beautiful work.