Graphic artist Jim Phillips, the 81-year-old creator of the iconic "Screaming Hand" logo for Santa Cruz Skateboards, has opened his first solo gallery in his hometown of Santa Cruz, California. The exhibition, titled "Jim Phillips: New Fine Art Prints and Classic ’70s and ’80s Pen and Ink Drawings," runs at the R. Blitzer Gallery and features 15 new large-scale art prints and 30 hand-drawn pen-and-ink works from 1971 to 2026. The show includes his famous "Screaming Hand" and "Hand Wave" pieces, alongside surf, skate, and rock poster art from his career, which includes work for The Doors, James Brown, and Neil Young.
The opening matters because it marks the first time Phillips has had a solo exhibition in his hometown, despite his global influence as a visual artist whose "Screaming Hand" design has been licensed worldwide on skateboards, apparel, and collaborations with major franchises like "The Simpsons" and "Star Wars." The gallery, organized by his fine art manager Richard Reilly of ArtByrne, creates a centralized market for Phillips’ fine art, which had previously been difficult to find. It also serves as a retrospective of a lifelong artist whose work is deeply tied to Santa Cruz’s surf and skate culture, elevating his legacy from commercial graphics to fine art recognition.