Jacob Bladders and the State of the Art

Jacob Bladders: illustrator, braggart, and victim of assault by thugs sent by the mysterious Charlie. Part satire of commercial art, part noirish detective story, part puzzle to be solved or left in pieces. Roman Muradov’s latest is an ink-smeared Blakean vision of 1940s New York where Twitter exists as a network of pneumatic tubes, but artwork is still delivered by hand.

Roman Muradov was born in Moscow, Russia. He now resides in San Francisco, California. As an illustrator he has worked for Vogue, Random House, the New Yorker, the New York Times, and Penguin. In 2013, Muradov received a Gold Medal from the Society of Illustrators. His first book, (In a Sense) Lost and Foundwas published last year by Nobrow Press.