Death/Traitors





Brooklyn artist and musician Alexander Heir has created one of the defining aesthetics of the contemporary underground music scene, through more than 15 years of design and printing work for countless international punk and metal artists. For those who truly crave the transgressive, Heir’s work will connect immediately. His work has graced the albums, singles, and flyers of highly regarded artists such as The Mob, Martin Rev of Suicide, Warthog, and John Carpenter, and his commission work includes ephemera for horror films It Follows and The Puppet Man.
Similarly, his clothing brand Death/Traitors has become a counterculture staple, reaching beyond the hardcore punk community, while still embracing its values. Members of Three Six Mafia, Fucked Up, and Odd Future have all been known to support the brand.
In addition to his design and commission work, Heir also fronts the industrial punk band L.O.T.I.O.N. and has a prolific artistic practice of personal work. Heir has exhibited around the world, including a solo show at Boo-Hooray in New York City in support of his first book, Death Is Not the End.
Heir's art has all the prominent elements of 50 years' worth of subversive underground culture. Somewhere between Japanese wood cuts and Russian prison tattoos, this is the kind of art that gets kids in trouble with their parents. His morbidity, which is blended with a sick humorous quality, has a penchant for the bizarre taboo, and a raw, physical compulsion has allowed him to achieve such delightfully confounding imagery. Referencing an eclectic cache of dark symbols in his unapologetically graphic style, he has created a stunning and recognizable collection of work.