Lawrence Carroll created the cover art for Slayer’s Reign In Blood, South Of Heaven, Seasons In The Abyss and Christ Illusion.
Lawrence Carroll, the artist who designed and created four of Slayer’s most iconic covers, has died at the age of 65.
The news was confirmed by the Karsten Greve Gallery and his friend Jason Holley, who called him a “giant” and the man behind “some of the best metal covers of all time.”
Carroll, who was born in Melbourne, Australia, in 1954, created the covers of 1986’s Reign In Blood, 1988’s South Of Heaven, 1990s Seasons In The Abyss and 2006 ’s Christ Illusion.
Speaking about his work with Revolver in 2010, Carroll said: “Not many art directors were lining up to ask me to illustrate the next Aerosmith or Sting album.
“I think they were afraid of what they would get. I was always told my work was too dark for most folks. So Slayer was a good fit for me.”
Carroll’s work has been shown in museums across the world, including New York’s Guggenheim, the Contemporary And Modern Art Museum of Trento and Roverando and Stuttgart City Gallery.
Galerie Karsten Greve Statement:
It is with great sadness that we announce the death of Lawrence Carroll, who suddenly passed away this morning, Tuesday 21st May, at the age of 65.
He leaves behind an intimate and melancholic body of work, a unique testimony of both a creative and deconstructive time. In his paintings, which often morph into objects, humble materials, forgotten fragments and the passing of time always leave their mark on the canvas. They are continuously being reinvented as every brushstroke erases the precedent. For Lawrence Carroll, creativity lay within a lengthy process of concentration and contemplation: he constructed an intimate connection with his work until it, in effect, slowly revealed itself to him. The Galerie Karsten Greve has had the privilege of collaborating and promoting his sensitive and subtle oeuvre since 1999.
Lawrence Carroll was born in Melbourne, Australia, in 1954 and grew up in California. His work has also been shown in major contemporary art museums and acquired by prestigious, both public and private, international collections. These include the Guggenheim Museum in New York; the MOCA in Los Angeles; the Contemporary and Modern Art Museum of Trento and Roverando; the Vatican Museums in Italy; the Stuttgart City Gallery in Germany and the Museo Cantonale d’Arte in Lugano, Switzerland. In 2018, he was exhibited at the Kunstmuseum Kloster in Magdeburg, Germany, for an important monographic show and the Fondazione Rolla in Bruzella, Switzerland, is currently showing his photographic production. « Moments », his last solo exhibition, opens on Friday at our gallery in Cologne.
