Events: Prints and Pieces @ Giant Robot New York (Mar 6-24)
PRESS: GRNY is proud to present a showing of prints and pieces from its collection for sale by artists who are sure to be familiar to readers of Giant Robot magazine: Takashi Murakami, Chiho Aoshima, David Choe, Ai Yamaguchi, David Horvath, Dehara, and Le Merde[CLICK THRU for rest of the press-release]
Essentially, the "pieces" in question are some of the custom kaijus from the Giant Robot Biennale [tagged on TOYSREVIL] making their East Coast Debut, this coming Saturday March 6th, and exhibits thru Wednesday, March 24th, 2010.
WHAT: Prints and Pieces at GRNY
WHERE: Giant Robot Gallery
437 East 9th Street Between 1st Ave. & Ave. A, in the East Village
New York, New York 10009
(212) 674-GRNY (4769)
PRESS: GRNY is proud to present a showing of prints and pieces from its collection for sale by artists who are sure to be familiar to readers of Giant Robot magazine: Takashi Murakami, Chiho Aoshima, David Choe, Ai Yamaguchi, David Horvath, Dehara, and Le Merde, When Takashi Murakami coined the phrase "Superflat," he transformed a generation of popular culture-influenced fine artists in Japan into a movement. His own iconic artworks exemplify the concept of bridging of traditional Japanese panel art and modern manga and anime, old art and new pop culture, and high art and low art. The Tokyo-based artist has been compared to Andy Warhol, collaborated with Louis Vuitton, and had his retrospective shown at MOCA in L.A. and The Guggenheim in Bilbao, Spain.
Chiho Aoshima is one of the primary artists under Murakami's Kaikai Kiki management group. Her digital work has been known to cover entire walls and stairways with an impossibly detailed, richly colored, dystopic, and feminine view of the future. Aoshima's most recent solo shows have taken place at the Joan Miro Foundation in Barcelona, the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, and the Baltic Center for Contemporary Art in Gateshead (UK).
When David Choe first approached Giant Robot, he had dropped out of art school and was looking for gigs. Since his first contribution, a portrait of the buck-toothed cook Martin Yan that reveals an equal influence of both comic books and graffiti, Choe has gone on to become a celebrated artists whose loose, dirty, and effortless style has been spotlighted in London and Beijing. Ai Yamaguchi began her career working for Murakami, but has gone on to forge her own place in the world of art via her hyper stylized depictions of Edo-period courtesans. In addition to regularly showing in museum and galleries, Yamaguchi's work has been featured by a line of Shu Uemura products as well as murals in the upscale cosmetics company' boutiques.
Finally, in tribute to the roots of Asian popular culture (the kaiju scene introduced by Godzilla, Gamera, other giant monsters, and the toy industry they spawned) Japanese indie sculptor and artist Yukinori Dehara, UglyDolls co-creator David Horvath, and Portland, OR-based underground toy legend LeMerde joined forces to create a short run of handmade, hand-painted figures to commemorate the recently concluded Giant Robot Biennale 2 in Los Angeles. This show will be their East Coast debut. Giant Robot was born as a Los Angeles-based magazine about Asian, Asian-American, and new hybrid culture in 1994, but has evolved into a full-service pop culture provider with shops and galleries in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and New York City, as well as an online equivalent.
The prints by Murakami, Aoshima, Choe, and Yamaguchi, as well as the pieces by Dehara, Horvath, and Le Merde, will be shown from Saturday, March 6 through Wednesday, March 24. For more information about the artists, GR2, or Giant Robot magazine, please contact:
Eric Nakamura
Giant Robot Owner/Publisher
eric@giantrobot.com
(310) 479-7311
