Hi-Fructose is an "Under the Counter Culture" quarterly magazine presenting subversive art or what we like to call lowbrow. Hi-Fructose Vol. 9 is out and, as you would expect, is brimming with glorious works "alternative to the norm".
At first it looks very similar to the also cool Juxtapoz Art & Culture Magazine, but Hi-Fructose has less emphasis on commercial style design and more on individualistic art. Indeed, they 
are different enough that they compliment each other and both are equally recommended. But it feels a bit more of an event when a new issue of Hi-Fructose arrives.
It seems to celebrate the artists more richly and push the envelope of pop-surrealism and individualistic arts a
little bit further. It feels almost a little more pure. It also uses high quality paper and printing. Hi-Fructose tries to be the magazine as work of visual art in itself.
A minor frustration about Hi-Fructose as apposed to Juxtapoz is that back issue become rare very quickly. I
guess that adds to the excitement of a new issue, but means newcomers cannot go back and see what new and exciting art has been presented. And I'm sure that's the very reason for the forthcoming Hi-Fructose Collected, a selection from the first four volumes.
Getting back to Juxtapoz, though dedicated to the more lowbrow end of art it tries to have broader appeal by including design, street arts and cultural aspects. In its earlier days it was more like Hi-Fructose in content and attitude.
I think they like where they've gone, but I think they can miss the old days just a little. Perhaps in response to this they just published Juxtapoz Illustration, a showcase of the current crop of quality pop surrealists with galleries of their works.
As an art book of lowbrow it's as good as they come. It's also an excellent guide to who's doing what's hot in contemporary graphic arts. They've also published Juxtapoz Tattoo, but I'll talk about that another time.
Leave a comment