10 Things To Know About Wes Lang, the Artist Who Designed Kanye West's Yeezus Tour Merch

The most talked about rapper works with America's favorite tattoo artist.

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Complex Original

Image via Complex Original

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A skull wrapped an a Confederate flag, the Grim Reaper, a praying skeleton, and a dead Native American—these are the images that appear on the merchandise for Kanye West's Yeezus tour, and they have unsurprisingly stirred up some controversy among fans. For the loaded graphics, Kanye called upon Wes Lang, an edgy artist who is more comfortable on a motorcycle than in a gallery and who has made his career off of charged images. His work is full of skulls, crosses, Native Americans, and even blackface. "I like to take American history and then completely ignore it," he told Interview Magazine in 2009. "I come at it visually, taking images and telling my own story. It comes out of criticism and great love. There are problems [with America], and we all know that, but I'm attracted to the dark side of things." Now Lang has taken his dark and twisted version of the U.S.A. to Kanye's tour. Both Kanye and Lang have a penchant for shock value, so it's no surprise that the pair have come together. Check out our list of 10 Things To Know About Wes Lang, the Artist Who Designed Kanye West's Yeezus Tour Merch to find out why Kanye picked Lang to do the art for his tour.

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He taught himself how to draw after working as an art installer at the Guggenheim.

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He also worked at a tattoo parlor.

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For a month, he lived in and made art at the Chateau Marmont Hotel.

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He also designed merchandise for Grateful Dead.

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He collaborated and released book called Skulls and Shit with Donald Barchler.

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He teamed up with Bamford Watch Department to create a series of Rolex watches.

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One of his most notable exhibitions, "Life and How to Live It," was shown at V1 Gallery in Denmark.

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MoMA carries some of his prints in their collection.

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Deitch Projects pulled Wes Lang's art from their exhibition because it was deemed racially offensive.

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He made the controversial merchandise for Kanye West's Yeezus tour.

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