Friday Night with Kal Honey, “Text in Art”

{Submitted by Ingrid Mueller}

On February 24, artist Kal Honey discussed the use of text in art.

A graduate of OCAD, Kal Honey has honed his skills in graphic art and has a penchant for painting, assemblage and collage. However, his eye for detail and gravitation towards graphic art has led Kal to create stunning work using typography and calligraphy.

Kal briefly covered the history of typography, stemming back to the caveman. He showed examples of text in art like ancient hieroglyphics and ancient Chinese calligraphy, explaining that the alphabet is actually a series of signs and symbols.  Classical art featured text, mostly biblical. The POP art era including Warhol, Lichtenstein and Greg Curnoe used text in their art.  Post Modern/Contemporary Art brought artists like Basquiat, Barbara Kruger and Banksy, all of whom used text in their art.

Although the use of text in modern art originated predominantly in commercial art, it has become nicely intertwined in contemporary fine art and will remain, as words carry more than literal meaning.