Kenneth Apeland (b. 1982)  has distinguished himself – under the name Loco Mosquito – over the period of the past decade as a leading producer of silk-print concert posters for artists all over Norway. What began as a hobby at home on the kitchen counter in Bamble and was commissioned for the first time by the Porsgrunn Rock Club has developed during the past years into a major production outlet with its own print shop that Apeland operates together with his former bandmate Martin Hvassing (b. 1982).

Loco Mosquito’s client list includes artists and bands such as Raga Rockers, Satyricon, The Dogs, Thomas Dybdahl, Motorpsycho, Honningbarna, Kvelertak, Sten Torleif Bjella, Bel Canto and Sivert Høyem. The designer duo has also teamed up with large concert arrangers and festivals such as Skien Live and Buktafestivalen in Tromsø. In 2014, they received the “Concert poster of the Year” award during the by:Larm Festival, having received a majority of the votes cast by members of the Norwegian Live Music Association.

In the exhibition of «The Posters of The Heroes He Once Had», we encounter 25 unique concert posters from the previous decade, all carefully hand-picked by Apeland and Hvassing themselves. All of the posters are designed and produced by the silk screen printing technique.

Silk screening (also known as serigraphy, stencil printing and screen printing) is a graphic technique whereby printing ink is pressed through a fine-mesh screen, often of silk, that is stretched over a frame.  The subject to be printed is attached to the screen by photo-emulsion and constitutes a stencil that determines where on the print surface – paper, wood or textile – the colour is to be applied. The method was frequently used in the production of advertisement posters in the USA during the early 1900s and enjoyed a renaissance during the Pop Art movement of the 1960s. Today it is common to print digitally, but there are still crafts enthusiasts who use silk-screening as a technique  – among them, Loco Mosquito.