I Heart Cool Stuff

Joe Ledbetter stopped by GAMA-GO’s flagship San Francisco store yesterday, and not to rub things in, but between Joe up from SoCal and fans in from NY, everyone was talking about our spectacular Bay Area weather. Having just returned from Brooklyn, I can’t help but concur. Joe was in town to sign his brand-new art book, Creatures of Habit, published by SF’s own Last Gasp. Creatures contains the usual suspects in awesome full color: signature JLED characters like Mr. Bunny and Firecat, going about their business either A) about to unexpectedly get snuffed out or beset by a bit of ultraviolence or B) up to some mischief-making of their own design.

I’m a big fan of collabs, so I particularly enjoy the pages of collaborations with Luke Chueh, Nathan Jurevicius and Alayna Magnan that I hadn’t seen previously. Creatures also features a forward by GAMA-GO co-founder Greg Long on meeting Joe and giving the young artist some pointers along the way, and a rumination by Joe on the question, “So, what do you do?” As a toy journalist, I field that question myself fairly often. There really is no right answer.

I hadn’t seen Joe since his last show at Gallery1988, and he was great to chat up and game to sign/draw for fans. A couple people brought DIY Mini-Munnys, and one lucky fan had a Lava Unicornasaurus. I’m a Qee guy, and I don’t care if the only Sharpie was a fat-nibbed sucka: this mini-fig is already at home in my collection with Joe’s Toxic Swamp Qees. GAMA-GO also had a special JLED shirt just for the event, as well as some stock from last season’s hoodie collab. Stop by and see if there are any remainders. Note to Saki: your shirt and signed book will hit the USPS on Monday.

I hope you guys didn’t forget about the name contest and giveaway we had on the site? Well, what’s important is that we didn’t forget. Today marked, 2 weeks since we (Lou Pimentel and IHCS) began the search to name Lou’s unnamed cherries. And, while the search provided us with a sizeable amount of responses– it seems we haven’t found a name yet.

Or better stated– the quest for a name, made Lou realize, that maybe, they shouldn’t have names. While some people came up with some rather expected names, others went in a whole new direction. This isn’t bad, it’s actually a good thing, because it made Lou realize, that you all have some idea of the character’s name and that’s part of interpreting his pieces.

So what do we do now? Although, you don’t get bragging rights for naming Lou’s cherries– kind of– Lou still picked his two favorite names.

And the winners are…

S. with the entry: Blossom!

& Shakey with the entry: Emilio!

Lou’s going to be contacting you soon, so look out for an email from him. Remember, you each get a one-of-a-kind canvas from Lou. Yay!! Congratulations, I’m officially jealous. =)

Just spotted this new original piece on Kathie Olivas’ flickr, and I was so blown away by it, I had to share. I’m sure we all know I’m a huge fan, and with works like the piece above, how could I deny her my fandom?

One of the reasons I’m a fan of Kathie’s works are because though I find her characters to be cute– they have a creepy aura to them. I interviewed her a while back, but things kind of fell through and I was never able to publish it on the site it was meant to be published– I should ask if it’s okay to share on my site, even though the interview took place last year around her solo show at MPH and the group show at The Opera Gallery.

Anyway, this piece is very different, at least to me. Not only does it seem to be the darkest yet, with the black surrounding the character– which bears the question, what is in the darkness that haunts? But, I think her character style looks more evolved here, don’t you think? I’m not sure if it’s because this is the most “human” character I’ve seen, or the soft glow on the cheeks, or because the image is much darker– but it seems different. I never took an art history class, so I’m not familiar with the termanology to describe this work– but I know many of you are. What do you think? Check out her site and tell me if you agree.

I’m not sure where this piece is being submitted too, or how much it costs, but I do know that I appreciate the darkness and I’d love to add it to my collection.

There are a couple times during the year where I actually feel envious of the West Coast– SDCC and anything that takes place at G1988 (either one of them), are great examples of this envy. Well, Crazy4Cult is one of those shows that really rubs it in my face and makes me an angry New Yorker– kidding, there are many things that make me a moody New Yorker.

Anyway, I’ve had the flyer sitting on my desktop for a while, but Jensen (I feel like we’re on a first name basis, but then I remember he signs off on all the blog posts) recently posted an exclusive print for this year’s Crazy4Cult show.

The print, created by Jim Horwat, pays homage to ‘Back to the Future’! I just took a look at the list of participating artists and man do I feel the burn. The show’s going to take place on July 16th at G1988 LA. Who plans on attending? I want pictures please!

…Polina Shoshkina and Jerome Miller. I’m super excited to be attending tommorrow’s “3: Exhibition” which features the works of Patrick Francisco who is a great buddy of mine. I haven’t seen the works of the other two artists, who are apparently good friends of Patrick, therefore, I have a feeling that everything is going to have some great synergy. If you’re in the NYC area tomorrow, head on over to the APW Gallery tomorrow:

“3″ Exhibition
48-18 Van Dam St.
Long Island City, New York

Oh by the way, I’m really looking forward to seeing Patrick’s customized Mega Munnys. I like hugging mega munnys, so if one goes missing, it wasn’t me. ^_^ See you there.

Last year, Murakami successfully invaded the Brooklyn Museum of Art and in my opinion had one of the most amazing art exhibitions I’ve ever seen. I only wish that the installations were permanently housed there instead of moving on to other museums around the world. During the Brooklyn invasion there was an entire area dedicated to the Murakami x Louis Vuitton collaborations– and it seems that this partnership continues to be successful.

I’m sure I wouldn’t be able to afford it, but above is one of the pieces currently on display in Japan of the latest collaboration of the Murakami and LV. I want panda, and I want panda now. I don’t care about the other stuff, I’ll settle for 1 over-sized panda please. My favorite part, aside from the obvious choice of mammal– are the splashes of color used on the ears. Someone in Japan, please get on this stat– email me for my snail mail. >___<

This weekend at Gallery Nucleus, the Street Fighter Tribute show made its debut. I wanted to blog about it sooner, but I think I needed to deal with the fact that it wasn’t next to me first. =) I personally am a SHITTY Street Fighter player, especially the latest release SFIV– I’m a professional loser. heehee. But, I will admit that I love seeing my friends play, especially when they pull off some ultimate combos. Hit the jump to see my favorite pieces of the show– and be aware, many are still available : (more…)

This weekend, Gary Taxali will be taking over Jonathan Levine Gallery. This is the first, of an exceptional line-up of shows that Jonathan Levine will be hosting. I look forward to a great evening of new works by the man, and I hope to update this post with more information soon. Does anyone plan on attending?

Update: For his fist solo show in New York, the artist has created a series of mixed-media paintings and sculptures in what will be his largest collection of original work to date, both in quantity and in scale.

I’m not a very big fan of Joe Ledbetter. I love his characters, but it upsets me that I’ve seen no growth from the man– so the characters I once favored a year ago, are getting old pretty fast. Does that sound fucked up? I’m sorry if I offend JLed or fans of his art– but seeing his old stuff in comparison to today– the only noticeable difference to me are sharper lines.

I will, however, admit, that if the above is a print release– I kinda need it. I’ve got loads of Mexican pride– and this is a nice combination of two of my loves. [Source]

*Although I am frustrated with Joe Ledbetter, it doesn’t mean I don’t love/own some of his figures.

Jon and Jim Doodling

Last week Jon Burgerman and Jim Avignon had their show at Factory Fresh in Brooklyn at the exact same times as the Bossy Bear and Friends event I posted about. Although I love David Horvath, my priority on Thursday was really to get my butt to Brooklyn and meet Jon for the very first time. Turns out, Jon hasn’t been in the states since 2004, so I really didn’t want to miss my opportunity to not only meet the UK artist, but also steal his soul by scoring a sketch in my book. I don’t discriminate. =)  (more…)