Giant Robot Store and GR2 News
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – Art Show Rob Sato at GRSF February 13, 2010 – March 9, 2010 Reception: Saturday, February 13, 6:30 pm – 10:00 pm GRSF 618 Shrader Street San Francisco, CA 94117 gr-sf.com 415-876-4773 Giant Robot is proud to present Junk History, a solo show featuring new works by Rob Sato. Los Angeles-based artist Rob Sato produces rich, detailed imagery, mixing scenes of stark horror, quiet beauty, and humor. His heavily yet subtly narrative paintings tend to walk in a tense space between the observed and imagined world, and the massive amount of back story evident in every image rewards long, hard looks. “Junk History will feature both the largest and the smallest paintings I’ve ever worked on. I’m working furiously to finish a few huge pieces by show time, there will be some prints of past favorites, and I’ve kept making a bunch of these tiny paintings that somewhat ape the look of slide film,” says Sato. “What comes out is an unexpected mass of paper machines which seem to work pretty well despite being a bit clunky and bound together with spit and string. Some of them crash pretty hard, but those only get shown if they crash hilariously.” 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. A reception for the artist will be held from 6:30 – 10:00 on Saturday, February 13. For more information about Sato, GRSF, or Giant Robot magazine, please contact: Eric Nakamura Giant Robot Owner/Publisher eric@giantrobot.com (310) 479-7311
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[nggallery id=70] FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Art show opening Eleanor Davis and Katherine Guillen at GR2 January 16. 2010 – February 10, 2010 Reception: Saturday, January 16, 6:30 -10:00 GR2 2062 Sawtelle Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90025 gr2.net (310) 445-9276 Giant Robot is proud to present Diplopia, a joint art show featuring Eleanor Davis and Katherine Guillen. Eleanor Davis is a cartoonist who makes work for both adults and children. The award-winning Atlanta, GA-based artist grew up on children’s comics, entered the Sequential Arts program at the Savannah College of Art and Design, and makes painstakingly crafted, whimsical, and non-condescending comics for young readers. Her most recent studio artwork involves pen and ink with watercolor with some gouache. Like the panels of her stories, it is bold yet full of mystery, with recurring themes that include “humanity in the face of destruction, people laughing and crying, etc.” Los Angeles-based artist Katherine Guillen creates paintings and prints that explore the tenuous connections between the urban and natural environments. Her most recent work–which resembles landscapes but is more symbolic than picturesque–investigates the way structures work as language on the landscape and how we use architecture to order nature and defy mortality. She says, “I am fascinated by the human desire to create, build, and idealize, which is both our redemption and our failing.” In addition to making gouache and mixed media paintings on paper, she will be showing some papier-mâché pieces. For this show, the longtime friends are also creating a number of large collaborative panels. 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. A reception for the Davis and Guillen will take place from 6:30 – 10:00 on Saturday, January 16.
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[nggallery id=49] FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – Group Art Show Albert Reyes, Matt Furie, and Aiyana Udesen at GRSF, August 29, 2009 – September 16, 2009 Reception: Saturday, August 29, 6:30 pm – 10:00 pm GRSF 618 Shrader Street San Francisco, CA 94117 gr-sf.com 415-876-4773 Giant Robot is proud to present Future Colors of America, an art show featuring new works by three longtime friends, Albert Reyes, Matt Furie, and Aiyana Udesen. Albert Reyes is a Los Angeles-based San Francisco Art Institute graduate who has developed a style equally influenced by graffiti, comics, and fine art. Among other media, he draws and prints on the inside covers of old books and mixes traditional Mexican imagery, popular culture icons, and political suggestion. He was the cover artist and main interview in Giant Robot 52. Matt Furie is an Ohio-born, San Francisco-based artist whose richly detailed and hyper colored illustrations and paintings reflect the creative cross breeding of The Neverending Story, unrestrained imagination of The Muppet Show, and humor of ALF. His corruption by popular culture is further complicated–or perhaps enriched–by the energy of BMX culture and anarchy of street art. Aiyana Udesen was born in Hawaii, went to school at the San Francisco Art Institute with Reyes, and lives in San Francisco, where she gained attention for her “how-to-draw” series of zines, many of which have married her interests in celebrities, animals, and realistic-yet-stylish illustration. Her fine art in both colored pencil and paints share a minimal palate that doesn’t distract from the linework yet channels the flair of the ’80s without the excess. A reception for all three artists (including a rare San Francisco appearance by Reyes) will be held from 6:30 – 10:00 on Saturday, August 29. For more information about the Reyes, Furie, Udesen, GRSF, or Giant Robot magazine, please contact: Eric Nakamura Giant Robot Owner/Publisher eric@giantrobot.com (310) 479-7311
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Junk in the Trunk art show opening Group show and yard sale at GR2 August 15 – September 23, 2009 Reception: Saturday, August 15, 6:30 -10:00 Yard sale: Sunday, August 16, 11:30 – 4:00 GR2 2062 Sawtelle Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90025 gr2.net (310) 445-9276 Giant Robot is proud to present Junk in the Trunk at GR2. One person’s junk is another’s treasure, and this art show is what’s in the middle. We’ve asked some of our favorite creative forces to contribute new, old, and random pieces of art that need new homes. All we specified was that they be well made and moderately priced. Participating artists are scheduled to include (but are not limited to) the following: Apak! Charlie Becker Christopher Bettig Michelle Borok Aaron Brown Ryan Bubnis Christine Castro Alex Chiu Allison Cole Eleanor Davis Jordan Fu Katherine Guillen Clement Hanami David Horvath Rama Hughes Mari Inukai Anne Ishii Kaori Kasai Ben King Tessar Lo Philip Lumbang Keyla Marquez Eric Nakamura Kiyoshi Nakazawa Tru Nguyen Albert Reyes Sonia Romero Brian Rush Emilio Santoyo Ashkahn Shahparnia Ryan J. Smith Daria Tessler Jeremy Tinder Lilly Todd Christiaan van Bremen Christine Vincent Chris von Szombathy Steven Weissman The next day, Sunday, Giant Robot will be hosting its first-ever yard sale, which will be loaded with DVDs, CDs, VHS tapes, books, toys, clothing, and other artifacts, extras, and mementos from Giant Robot’s past. Longtime magazine readers and store customers should expect to see some familiar pieces and nice surprises, and yard sale aficionados won’t be disappointed. A reception for the art show will feature many of the artists and take place from 6:30 – 10:00 on Saturday, August 15. The yard sale will take place from 11:30 to 4:00 Sunday, August 16.
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[nggallery id=51] FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – Art Show Opening Jon Burgerman August 15 – September 16, 2009 Reception: Saturday, August 15, 2009 at 6:30 p.m. 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 Giant Robot is proud to host My American Summer, an art show featuring new work by Jon Burgerman. Working across a variety of media that includes drawing, painting, print, animation, large-scale murals, and toy design, the U.K. artist has built a strong reputation through his unique and colorful artworks of swooping, intertwining lines, and hyper-emotional characters. A sense of British self-deprecation, dry humor, and modern-day anxiety imbues his work, which retains a hand-made, hand-drawn quality. In 2008 his art was showcased in Pens Are My Friends, a 300-page monograph published by IdN. My American Summer will feature works that have been made during Burgerman’s nearly three-month visit to America (in Los Angeles and, mainly, New York City). Most are drawings on paper, while others are unique, three-dimensional versions of his observations on his Brooklyn Hipsters, hand-made by plush expert, The Felt Mistress. The work plays with notions of being a tourist, cliched outsider observations, and how some cultural differences are now homogenized in most major cities. A reception for the artist will be held from 6:30 to 10:00 on Saturday, August 15. For more information about Burgerman, GRNY, or Giant Robot magazine, please contact: Eric Nakamura Giant Robot Owner/Publisher eric@giantrobot.com (310) 479-7311
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