Outside of Pop Art, high fashion, and skate magazines, art and advertisement are seldom more creatively intertwined than they are in rock music, where iconic images from album covers can outlast the music they represent, and photos and flyers create personalities not only for bands, but for whole regions and scenes. People who are only vaguely aware of the Rolling Stones’ music still recognize John Pasche’s lips-and-tongue logo, and people who’ve never been to an indie rock show in Chapel Hill still know the telephone-pole aesthetics of local flyer legends like Ron Liberti and Casey Burns.
Since Hopscotch began eight years ago, it has honored this crucial aspect of music culture in some form or another as Posterscotch, a poster sale that returns to the Raleigh Convention Center this year, where you can cop beautiful, unique screen prints repping your cult-favorite bands and documenting local history.
But this year, the festival is adding a bona fide art exhibit at MOFU Shoppe, the Asian-fusion restaurant at 321 South Blount Street. It’s been up since August 24 and runs through October 4, showcasing the work of eight poster artists and eight photographers who’ve worked on Hopscotch during the last eight years. The snappers include Gus Samarco, Robert Pettus, and Willa Stein, while the poster artists include Skillet Gilmore, Kat Lamp, and the INDY‘s own Christopher Williams. Catch it during the Hopscotch VIP party on the night of Thursday, September 6if you’re, you know, very importantor join the hoi polloi for the First Friday reception the next night, September 7, at 6 p.m.