Something akin to Jeremyville on a steady diet of methamphetamine and sludge metal. This is the art and design equivalent of a double kick drum and a bloody nose. Illustrator Nicolas Taul, aka Dekor, has cranked my left brain up to 11 with his mutated, psychedelic masterpieces, and face-meltingly awesome illustrations. I bow to you, sir.
I’ve never been interested in vinyl toys. I mean, they’re cute and everything, but I can’t rationalize paying $50 for a toy. I play with toys in the bathtub (yes, seriously), so why would I want something that’s so expensive I can’t even play with it? Books go on shelves, toys are meant to play. But I might have to reconsider my stance on collector toys thanks to Peskimo and their BambooZoo figures. Peskimo is a UK-based design firm whose character driven illustrations were just begging for toydom. I love their work, and dammit if I don’t love their toys. I’m not hyped on them being sold in the blind though. If I’m paying for it then just let me pick which one I want. Probably the toast guy. Or the weird, sad, blue monster. Or all of them. The good news: for $7.95 each I won’t have any problem playing with them in the bathtub. They are gonna kick my lego guys’ asses.
Coming in hot (and coinciding with one of today’s videos) is Philly artist Leanne Biank. Do Philadelphia residents hate when people call it Philly, as much as I hate San Fran or Frisco? Just wondering. Aside from being button cute, Biank throws down some amazing work in a variety of mediums. There doesn’t seem to be a substance that she can’t create beauty with. Her work falls somewhere in between some Blaine Fontana and Jason Sho Green, but with a composition and lexicon of symbolism all her own. If I had a rating system for work around here, this would get two high fives, which would have to be the highest rating because I only have two hands. I mean, I could do feet, too, but no one needs to touch my feet. That’s damaging for everyone involved.
Keeping the hits coming back to back, Gallery 1988 in LA has just opened their new group show TOYS!. The show is full to bursting with a plethora (800 verbal on my SAT, bitches) of artists reimagining all the toys you know and love from hiding in your room when your parents were fighting. Not only that, but there are some life-sized hot wheels for you to drool over along with some mini, tricked out, V-Dub busses. I mean it when I say that this might be 1988’s best show ever. And yes, I am taking into account all three I Am 8-Bit shows. What would I have painted? I’m glad you asked. I would’ve done a piece featuring me and all my lego guys hanging out, but the Lego guys would be the size of adults, and we would be at a waterpark. That’s pretty much how I always saw them. Those dudes were my first posse.
You can view all the works for sale in the show over here, and some setup shots right here.
Recently I got an announcement for Robert Burden’s upcoming show at Seattle’s Roq La Rue gallery (opens this Friday, March 14th). I wasn’t really familiar with Burden’s work even though he’s a Bay Area res., but I liked what I saw from this new show. Burden has taken the action figures from his (and my) boyhood and painted them in all the majesty that they had in his young imagination. I understand this work completely, since one of the largest sources of grief in my life is the death of the complete, reality-altering imagination that I had as a child. My toys were real, complex individuals who had missions and lives outside of their work. Now I’m lucky if I can even convince myself that the Lego men in the bathtub are a submarine crew lost at sea. The old toys that I had seem like lifeless plastic now. Burden faced the same problem and decided that he would create paintings of his toys seen through the window of youth; as powerful, mysterious, and dramatic figures of ultimate glory and evil. I think that whatever effect he intended for his audience, he’s successful in one thing at least: I want my toys back, and a quiet place in the front yard for the next mission.
San Francisco artist Jeremy Fish, who I haven’t met yet for some reason, has created possibly the greatest vinyl toy of all time. The design is innovative, the character is cute, and it’s a vibrator. Yeah. If you couldn’t tell from the picture, Ol’ Barry there is a battery-powered tang toy for the ladies who want to put their poon playthings on a pedestal. Is this alliteration selling it? So you can proudly display the toy when your folks come to visit, and then with a turn o’ the tree stump base you can forget all the ways that they make you feel like a little kid. Or hell, get one for your mom if you’re from that kind of family.
Purveyors of twisted and amazing toys, Strange Co., have finally set the launch date for their long awaited art-toy series The Vivisect Playset. They’ve taken the work of artists from the Gallery 1988 Vivisect Playset shows and created these killer limited edition toys featuring the work of Anthony Ausgang, Luke Chueh, Peter Gronquist, Thomas Han, Joe Ledbetter, Greg Simkins and Amanda Visell. I had the pleasure of meeting these dudes at Baby Tattooville (I also got one of their Amanda Visell toys which watches me sleep every night. Creepy.), and participating in a rare moment of synchronicity where all of our adjoining hotel room doors were open and Astroboy was on every TV. I guess you had to be there to think that’s even remotely interesting. Fuck your judgement, just get the toys when they drop next Saturday at Gallery 1988, or barring a flight to LA, you can probably scam some from the internets.
Tyler Stout created posters that are jagged and smooth simultaneously. Does that make sense? I doesn’t really need to because you can see for yourself what I mean. Menomena seem to really like him and I really like Menomena. Icing on the cake really. I was smitten before I even knew that. Sweetastic illustration, Tyler.
I had to use that title. How could I pass up the opportunity? I couldn’t. Exactly.
But Take-G Toys really does blow my mind with their intricately made wooden toys. Both the character design and the craftsmanship are perfect, and if I could understand Japanese I would probably be able to track down where to buy one. The culture gap is all too apparent.
On April 26th Kid Robot released a series of toys in collabo with the design collective DOMA. The toys, called Acid Sweeties are the most original and colorful toys that I’ve seen so far from the ever expanding vinyl figure market that populates a part of modern street culture. I like toys that I can play with so I’ve never even considered spending $100 on a limited edition artist designed vinyl whatever, but these little guys are $8 per and I can definitely come up with some great scenarios in which they fight my toy motorcycles in the bathtub. Seriously I do that. And just to make things more interesting there is a massive scavenger hunt to go along with the toy release. You can win $1000 shopping spree at Kid Robot and the full set of Acid Sweeties and some other shit. Of course finding all the stuff and then shipping it will probably cost you about $1000 so you might just want to buy the toys and leave it at that.
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