Z.Vex Effects Featured Artists

zvexAlthough the art movement of effects pedals was initiated at the same time by a number of creative individuals, Zachary Vex, the founder of Z.Vex Effects company, has been one of the most influential and truly original in designing high-quality stompboxes that are painted by artists.

Zachary Vex started manufacturing hand-painted pedals with artists Susan Krhin and Leonie Hoekstra back in 1995-96, before the beginning of internet marketing.  At that time, the term “boutique” was rarely applied to pedals at all!  Essentially, he was the first to have the artists to hand-paint pedals.  As Zachary explains, “players listened to my pedals and bought them as a result of finding them in stores and being fascinated by them in person.”

Vex employed many artists over the years.  The Art of the Stompbox features four artists that have worked for Z.Vex Effects over the years and attained high recognition both as independent artists and as artists of stompboxes. The pedals featured in the exhibition are examples of truly beautiful products that could be found at little shops all over America (and Japan, at the time).

 

lbennettLaura Bennett

Laura F. Bennett lives and works in Minneapolis, MN.  She has painted hundreds of one-of-a-kind effect pedals for companies such as Z.Vex, Penny Pedals, Devi Ever, Properboy, B.Y.O.C, Keeley, and Secret Seasons.   Her canvases are owned by collectors worldwide.  She plays drums in her art rock band Red Pens and is one of the hugest music fans you will ever meet.

“I used to listen to my dad’s records and always noticed the crazy fuzz sounds and special effects and wondered what in the world is that.   I love the idea of these mad scientists all around the world trying to create their own weird effects boxes and I feel honored to get to put my artwork on them.   I have always tried to emulate the way sounds look in my work and there is nothing cooler than to do it on a device that makes noise.”


Lisa McGrath

Lisa McGrath was born in Minot, North Dakota in 1975.  Her family moved to Grand Forks when she was 12, where she attended junior high school and her first year of college at UND studying visual art.  She received her BFA from the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis in 2000.

Lisa has worked at Z.Vex Effects since 2007 and continues to study off and on at the Minnesota School of Botanical Art, which both provide a unique blend of art and science.  She takes inspiration from forests, farms, and her own backyard – the places where she spends most of her free time.

 

hhaugbergHannah Haugberg

I am a 25 year old artist born and raised in South Minneapolis. Shortly after graduating from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design in May 2007 (BFA in Graphic Design) I joined the Zvex team as a full time pedal painter and in-house graphic designer. Together with Lisa McGrath I help maintain the art department at Z.Vex Effects.

While studying design at MCAD I envisioned pursuing a higher degree in typographic studies from a university in the Netherlands. I was “anti-band poster” — inspired by stylized design but rarely a participant. It’s funny to see how far I’ve come. I still have a strong passion for mapping and informational graphic systems, however it is more of an art form I admire from afar as the music industry is my current area of expertise. This flip flop on my life path was unexpected but I couldn’t be happier with the result.

Since early 2008 I’ve been fortunate to spend a majority of my time focusing on custom pedal designs. A lot of my early pedals were patterns I’d been sketching for years, but lately I’ve started to refine by illustration style and enjoy watching it evolve and take shape. I work primarily in lettering enamel and fine grades of glitter. Most of these applications are pretty permanent and is difficult to remove once applied to the surface of the enclosure. This detail sets artistic limitations, however it has taught me to embrace mistakes and proven to reveal some interesting results. I love experimenting to achieve different surface textures that later inspire the lettering and overall aesthetic of the pedals I create.

Since starting college in 2003, my freelance design work revolved around non-profits and small businesses while my leisure projects in college normally focused on hand made objects. Combining these two into a full time career never entered my mind until the situation presented itself. Working for Z.Vex is one of the best things that has happened to me. Zack essentially allows 100% creative freedom from myself and coworker. Any artist will tell you this is the ultimate goal one strives to achieve in a creative position within the workforce. I am allowed to push my artistic limitations completely uninhibited and I am grateful for this everyday I enter the office. I never thought I’d be fortunate to find a job that fully suits my creative needs and desires.

 

jmyroldJason Myrold

During his lunch break between classes in the Spring of 1997, an art student attending the Minneapolis College of Art and Design made a phone call in response to an ad in the schools bi-weekly job postings.

The phone conversation that ensued not only addressed the nature of the freelance work involved- applying artwork to small aluminum boxes with Testor’s hobby enamel paints, but soon became a three hour discussion about the conceptual influences of beat writers like William S. Burroughs and pop artists such as Andy Warhol on American culture.

The art student, who missed the rest of his classes that afternoon, was Jason Myrold, and the ad he answered was placed by Zachary Vex, the owner of Z.Vex Effects, a budding boutique guitar effects pedal company.

Out of this initial conversation between Vex and Myrold about art, culture, language, and “word viruses,” formed a friendship and working relationship which would propel the world of boutique guitar effects pedals forward and consequently inspire countless numbers of guitarists and electronica junkies, both famous and unsung, in their quests for defining their own creative worlds.

For the better part of the decade that followed, from 1997 to 2007, Myrold was the exclusive painter for Z. Vex Effects and applied his distinct and colorful artwork to some 12,500 pieces. In addition to painting, Myrold’s responsibilities for preparing the aluminum enclosures that would be home to Z. Vex circuits included everything from drilling holes to applying the final “lozengy” clearcoat. (“Lozengy” was the term used by Vex in describing to Myrold how he wanted the final finish to make his pedals look- like a shiny piece of candy, or rather, like a cough drop that had just been in someone’s mouth.)

The success and rapid growth of Z.Vex Effects required Myrold to continuously adapt and innovate new ways to paint and manufacture by hand. Since Myrold didn’t work from stencils but executed each of what he called “movements” from physical memory, streamlining the application of artwork and creating simple colorful designs became both a necessity and trademark style of his painting process and would come to define the unique look of Z.Vex products.

Since his work with Z. Vex Effects, Myrold has focused on creating large scale paintings and has continued to take on commissioned projects, including the occasional custom guitar and effects pedal. His most recent work with guitar pedals is quite a departure from the days at Z. Vex, and presents a very instinctive, even violent surface. While his recent large scale work- massive paintings of flowers- is very reminiscent of his past work with Z. Vex, and explores achieving visual impact by working with a limited palette of finely tuned color fields.