FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Prints and Pieces at GRNY

Saturday, March 6, 2010 - Wednesday, March 24, 2010

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) | grny.net

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's 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’s 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

Labels: Ai Yamaguchi, Chiho Aoshima, David Choe, David Horvath, Dehara, Giant Robot, Giant Robot Biennale, Giant Robot Magazine, Giant Robot New York, GRNY, Le Merde, Takashi Murakami

Today the original, one of a kind pieces fom the Giant Robot Biennale go on sale at giantrobot.com. LEDAVHARA is a tribute to the /kaiju/ scene featuring collaborative works made by indie sculptor and artist Yukinori Dehara, UglyDolls co-creator David Horvath, and Portland-based underground toy legend LeMerde. These pieces are not for sale at the Japanese American National Museum and are only available through giantrobot.com. These creators are all titans in their own respect, so it's really a chance of a lifetime to own one of these hand painted, super limited edition collaborative works. Don't miss out! Sales are open now!

Labels: David Horvath, Giant Robot, Giant Robot Biennale, Giant Robot Magazine, Giant Robot New York, GRNY, Le Merde, My Friend Dave, Yukinori Dehara

Couldn't make it out to Los Angeles for the Giant Robot Biennale? Yeah me neither. But now your prayers have been answered. This Thursday at 11:30 am NYC time, the exclusives from the show will be on sale at GRNY. Sales open at 12pm PACIFIC for all other Giant Robot stores and online at giantrobot.com. Le Merde's Bangal is a collaboration between the artist, GR, and legendary Japanese manufacturer Gargamel. The figure has a translucent pink body with silver spray highlights and battle scars. Bangal goes on sale at 11:30 on Friday.

According to his insert card, My Friend Dave means we may sometimes feel so lonely but we are never alone because we are ALL ONE! Because we are all parts of one whole, so is this gift to you. While Sun-Min and David created him, T9G sculpted him, and INTHEYELLOW produced him, bringing him to life is up to you. When you join in and show us what you've got, we all come alive together. Always feel brave! Like DAVE.

Words to live by. Dave comes in 2 color ways, a hot pink with purple highlights and a lime green with blue and yellow highlights. These are exclusive colorways for the GR Biennale, and I believe this is the first time this figure has been available outside of Japan. Here are the details for getting your hands on these beauties. Sales open at 11:30 am NYC time, this Thursday October 29th, no sooner. If you're not in New York City and cannot come to the store to purchase your vinyl, please place your order online via the webstore at giantrobot.com. Online sales open at 12pm PST/3pm EST. Due to the extremely limited run on these figures, there's a limit of one of each character per customer (customers can buy one of each color Dave). I know some of you will cry foul at this, but we have to play fair. I'm not immune to the kaiju curse myself, and I will do my best to accommodate everybody. A LOT of work went into this, you can read more about that via GR's Eric Nakamura here. And of course more information is available straight from David Horvath himself on his blog.

These are really great vinyls, and sure to sell out fast. Thursday is just 48 hours away!

Labels: Bangal, David Horvath, Gargamel, Giant Robot Biennale, Giant Robot Magazine, Giant Robot New York, GRNY, Le Merde, My Friend Dave, Sun Min Kim