Mike Giant

Mike Giant has achieved fame as a graffiti artist, illustrator and tattooist. Black ink is Giant's specialty and whether his medium is concrete, paper or skin his signature style - made up of equal parts Mexican folk art and Japanese illustration - is unmistakable.

Having drawn since childhood, it wasn't until his early twenties that Mike Giant began to pursue art making as a career. It was the end of his fourth year studying architecture in his hometown of Albuquerque, New Mexico when he was offered a position drawing graphics for Think Skateboards. He accepted the job and moved north to San Francisco, the city where he would spend the next ten years and cement his place in the world of fine art. In San Francisco he found the ideal venue for his unique style of artistic expression- graffiti, zines, graphic design, and ultimately tattoos.

In 2001, Giant's artwork transcended its original home on the streets and he had his first solo exhibition at WDWA Gallery in New York City. He has shown his drawings in Tokyo, Japan alongside Sam Flores and Bigfoot, at Misanthropy Gallery in Vancouver, BC as well as at countless venues in San Francisco and Los Angeles.

Though it is his graffiti art for which he remains most widely recognizable, his tattoo work has become internationally renowned in the relatively short number of years in which he has been tattooing. First working in 1998, Giant has since been employed by exceptional shops in San Jose, San Francisco and New York City, working alongside heavyweights such as Paco Excel, Mike Davis and Patrick Conlan. His recent work can be seen in the 2004 tattoo issue of Juxtapoz magazine.

In 2003, after a brief stay in rural France, Giant returned to Albuquerque where he will revisit his old university and study art formally for the first time. He has opened a tattoo shop, Stay Gold, in Albuquerque where he continues to tattoo. His drawings can be found on apparel available from Tribal Gear, Upper Playground, and Rebel 8 clothing, as well as at www.skullzpress.com. Giant uses the venue of the Skullz Press publications to create artwork that expresses his individual interests, apart form the content and structure that is dictated by the limitations of tattooing or drawing for graphics.

Latin and hispanic culture too play a major role in the execution of his silhouettes, which often resemble buxom pin-up femme fatale's and assorted other voluptuous characters, often with skulls and animal tenticals (for good measure).
Be them shapely graceful figures or flashy femme fatale's from various era's and cultures, Mike Giant's characters from every epoque gurantee a stellar viewing experience.