8.27.2010

GRSF - No Naked Faces: Moto Nakaba + Sean Boyles + Michael C. Hsiung

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - Group Art Show Opening

Moto Nakaba, Michael C. Hsiung, Sean Boyles
September 11 - October 13, 2010
Reception: Saturday, September 11, 6:30 - 10:00 p.m.

GRSF
618 Shrader Street
San Francisco, CA 94117
gr-sf.com
415-876-4773

Giant Robot is proud to host No Naked Faces, a group art show featuring new work by Moto Nakaba, Michael C. Hsiung, and Sean Boyles.

Since being introduced to the glue gun at Hiko Mizuno College of Jewelry, Moto Nakaba has been exhibiting a variety of works, from jewelry to linework paintings to figurative art, in Tokyo galleries. Combining craftsmanship and a constantly evolving style to collaborate with Harajuku apparel brands such as TORO and Mikirihassin-Tokio, Moto made his West Coast debut with The Monster Within custom toy show with Buff Monster at GR2 earlier this year. For his follow-up at GRSF, he will deliver original figurative pieces, some as big as 11inches.

Of Chinese-American descent, Michael C. Hsiung is known for his black-and-white ink drawings depicting oddly realistic tales from a time long past. His art features imaginary characters and fantastical creatures, such as centaurs and mermen, who inhabit a landscape of ruined castles, dead animals, and withered trees. Hsiung currently lives in Los Angeles, CA, where he draws, shows work, sells prints, collects records and books, contributes art blogs, and thinks about playing Dungeons & Dragons again.

From 1995 to 1999, San Jose, CA-based artist Sean Boyles attended the California College of the Arts and Crafts and was part of the Art's Crab Shak Clan (along with Joe To, Rob Sato, Ako Castuera, David Choe, and Ryohei Takana). Currently balancing teaching studio art with making his own fine art, Boyles applies his loose style to drawings, paintings, and even photos and videos, and has the ability to make carefully composed depictions of the street appear effortless. The aesthetic is not one of hardness or posing but life lived fully.

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.

An opening reception will take place on 6:30 - 10:00 on Saturday, September 11. For more information about the artists, GRSF, or Giant Robot magazine, please contact:

Eric Nakamura
Giant Robot Owner/Publisher
eric@giantrobot.com
(310) 479-7311

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8.17.2010

GRSF ~ HOT PINK FUZZ OPENING PICS NOW UP!

Check out the opening pics below, and see the show in our online gallery!

7.28.2010

GRSF ~ HOT PINK FUZZ - MISS MUJU, MONYOMONYO, & SNAGGS 8/14-9/8/10

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - Group Art Show Opening
Miss Muju, Monyomonyo, and Snaggs
August 14 - September 8, 2010
Reception: Saturday, August 14, 6:30 - 10:00 p.m.

GRSF
618 Shrader Street
San Francisco, CA 94117
gr-sf.com
415-876-4773

Giant Robot is proud to host Hot Pink Fuzz, a group art show featuring new work by Miss Muju, Monyomonyo, and Snaggs.

Miss Muju is one half of artist team Muju, based in St Ives, Cornwall, UK, who has been making and exhibiting handmade Muju Toys since 2004 alongside her partner Mr. Muju. Mandalas are a recurring theme in her work, as is the symmetry of natural forms. "I love to work in vibrant colors and create fades of color through intricate felt patterns," she explains." For the show, Miss Muju is making one giant mandala figure and a collection of much smaller characters that are connected to the felt sculpture in color and theme.

Monyomonyo is a sewing artist based in Tokyo, Japan. She has liked to sew bags since childhood, started creating plush toys in 2005, and had her first exhibition in 2007, in Ebisu, Tokyo. In addition to making gallery work, she has made costumes for dancers, collaborated with children, and made movies. With inspiration from "traveling" and "pictures and stories of festivals, ceremonies, etc.," she is making plush toys, masks, and other surprises. This will be her first American exhibition.

Seattle-based Snaggs was inspired by stuffed Nauga Monsters from the '60s to become a felt artist. Her rainbow-colored body of work, which includes "paintings," dolls, and pillows, has a retro modern style that combines the handmade quality of craft with the sensibility of clean design. For Hot Pink Fuzz, she is creating felt cereal boxes. She says, "The packaging of anything from my youth, from cereal boxes and candy to Halloween costumes, was never serious. Half the time they didn't make any sense, yet they were still effective."

An opening reception will take place on 6:30 - 10:00on Saturday, August 14.

Eric Nakamura
Giant Robot Owner/Publisher
eric@giantrobot.com
(310) 479-7311

7.28.2010

GRSF ~ DAVID CHOE BOOK SIGNING 7/30/10

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - David Choe book signing

Raised on comic books, affected by street art, and inspired by crime, women, and music, Choe has developed a unique and restless style that is effortless yet meticulous and focused yet dirty. Since the artist contributed his first illustration to Giant Robot magazine in 1997, he has gone on to become an international fixture in the worlds of street art and indie comics, and has had hugely successful solo shows in high-end galleries in Paris, London, New York, Tokyo, and Los Angeles (not to mention all three Giant Robot locations).

In addition to signing his brand-new book, Choe will be autographing his newly released Munko figures, which are based on his whale paintings, made by Japan's Good Smile Company, and distributed by Giant Robot.

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 signing will take place from 6:00 - 8:00 on Friday, July 30. For more information about Choe, GRSF, or Giant Robot magazine, please contact:

6.22.2010

GRSF - Louise Chen, Munkao, and Eric Nyquist

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - Group Art Show Opening

Louise Chen, Munkao, and Eric Nyquist

July 10 - August 11, 2010
Reception: Saturday, July 10, 6:30
GRSF
618 Shrader Street
San Francisco, CA 94117
gr-sf.com
415-876-4773

Giant Robot is proud to host Flirting with Disaster, a group art show featuring new work by Eric Nyquist, Louise Chen, and Munkao.

Eric Nyquist is a Los Angeles-based artist who creates hyper detailed drawings of wildlife and industry. For the show, his work will be exploring cowboy culture--specifically rodeos. Celebrating the skills of cowboys and cowgirls, rodeos glorify the athleticism behind the cattle industry and have become synonymous with the American West. The pieces will contrast the ruggedness of rodeo events and characters with delicate framing and detail. He says, "It is a look at a culture that, for better or for worse, helped build America and is still trying to survive."

Louise Chen, who splits her time between Santa Cruz and Los Angeles, draws, paints, and reimagines society's destructive and wasteful tendencies. In her newest work, oil spills, air pollution, and industrial byproducts ooze with "floral emanations"; telling an ironic tale, pairing bright botanical themes with colorless and empty-but-uniquely-beautiful decay. The seemingly subsequent drawings of desolate, cratered landscapes offer a lonely view of the aftermath under large, sweeping night skies littered with stars and galaxies.

Munkao is a Malaysian painter who depicts kaiju-inspired forms in destructive settings to address relationships, love, and sex. The tone of his work is almost always humorous but the solid craftsmanship belies serious skill, effort, and direction. Common themes in his upcoming work include space, science fiction, and taikonauts. The acrylic and ink on paper works will magnify his Chinese diaspora anxiety about China’s geopolitical relationship to sci-fi dimensions.

The opening reception featuring Chen and Nyquist will begin at 6:30on Saturday, July 10. For more information about the show, contact GRSF, or Giant Robot magazine, please contact:

6.15.2010

GRSF - Aiyana Udesen and Lisa Hanawalt Photos Up! 

Aiyana Udesen and Lisa Hanawalt took over our gallery this past Saturday, filling our walls with their gorgeous art work. Check out the opening photos below, come by to see the work in person if you haven't already, and check back this week to see the whole show in our online gallery!

5.25.2010

GRSF ~ 2 Girls; 1 Show 

GRSF 618 Shrader Street
San Francisco, CA 94117
gr-sf.com
415-876-4773

Giant Robot is proud to present Two Girls; One Show, a group art show featuring new works by Aiyana Udesen and Lisa Hanawalt.

Aiyana Udesen graduated from the San Francisco Art Institute in 2003. She resides in San Francisco and works on art daily. When she is not making instructional diagrams about drawing celebrities, she can be found staring at her succulent garden, pondering the beauty in the details of nature. (She also is a founding member of an art gang called the Future Colors of America, along with Matt Furie and Albert Reyes.) For the show, Udesen promises "a bunch of '80s celebrity/small animal/crystal mash-ups,"; mostly in pencil and colored pencil, complemented by "some 'painting cats' pieces."

Lisa Hanawalt is a Bay Area artist transplanted to Brooklyn. The second issue of her comic book, I Want You, is about to be released by Buenaventura Press, and recurring themes in her work include anthropomorphic animals that are simultaneously cute and creepy, attractive and repulsive. For the show, Hanawalt is making approximately 30 drawings ranging from medium to postcard-sized and smaller, in watercolor, ink, and markers. "I'm continuing to work with the same themes I've been focused on for the last few years, and also dipping into the imagery of plane wrecks, car crashes and other modern phobias" she says. "A lot of these drawings will be in color, which is a new direction for me!"

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.