Giant Robot Store and GR2 News
Giant Robot is proud to host Incidental Nature, a group art show featuring kozyndan, Heisuke Kitazawa, and Robert Bellm at GR2. Since making their debut in Giant Robot magazine, kozyndan (aka Kazue and Dan Kitchens) and their mix of precision European illustration in the style of Moebius and anime-influenced Superflat art from Japan, filtered through Southern California sunshine, has amassed a loyal following of fans and collectors. This show will be the last of kozyndan’s wooden bunnyfish installations, which have appeared in Toronto, Melbourne, Sydney, and Auckland. Heisuke Kitazawa is a Japan-based illustrator and designer whose work graces video games, CD covers, and limited-edition self-published books. Robots and monsters, technology and biology, and blobs and angles collide, as his futuristic themes, modernist curves, and warm color palette create a glimpse into a world that combines hyper detailed science fiction with the cheerful whimsy of children’s books. His 12 digital and acrylic pieces will feature “ghosts, ducks, and emptiness.” Robert Bellm is a Seattle-based artist who paints vibrant images from nature, such as flowers and birds, along with the occasional electrical tower. He calls the mix of natural shapes with manmade forms “organic technology.†The Art Center graduate’s bold and matter-of-factly executed combination is startling yet natural to most eyes–thought provoking yet pleasing. For this show, he is preparing 20 acrylic paintings on wood panels. A reception for kozyndan, Kitazawa, and Bellm will take place from 6:30 – 10:00 on Saturday, January 19th.
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Giant Robot is proud to host Salvage, an art show by Caroline Hwang. Raised in Southern California, Hwang graduated from Art Center College of Design. Influenced by graphic arts, films, and music, Hwang turns fabric, quilting, and painting into collages that reflect the complexities of human relationships. Currently residing in Brooklyn, Hwang has been featured in Paper Magazine and Swindle Quarterly, and has contributed illustrations to The New York Times, Bust Magazine, and HOW Design. Recently, she was part of the Giant Robot-curated To The Masses group art show at the Scion Space in Los Angeles. Hwang’s latest work integrates the craft aesthetic of quilting and sewing with nautical themes such as color-block flags. As the title implies, Salvage is about searching for something lost and preventing further loss in adverse circumstance: picking up the pieces–glimmers of hope, pieces of oneself–and starting anew. The opening reception will take place from 6:00 – 10:00 on Saturday, January 12. Reception: Saturday, January 12, 6:00 pm – 10:00 pm Giant Robot is proud to host Salvage, an art show by Caroline Hwang. Raised in Southern California, Hwang graduated from Art Center College of Design. Influenced by graphic arts, films, and music, Hwang turns fabric, quilting, and painting into collages that reflect the complexities of human relationships. Currently residing in Brooklyn, Hwang has been featured in Paper Magazine and Swindle Quarterly, and has contributed illustrations to The New York Times, Bust Magazine, and HOW Design. Recently, she was part of the Giant Robot-curated To The Masses group art show at the Scion Space in Los Angeles. Hwang’s latest work integrates the craft aesthetic of quilting and sewing with nautical themes such as color-block flags. As the title implies, Salvage is about searching for something lost and preventing further loss in adverse circumstance: picking up the pieces–glimmers of hope, pieces of oneself–and starting anew. The opening reception will take place from 6:00 – 10:00 on Saturday, January 12.
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[nggallery id=92] FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – Art show opening Jill Bliss and Saelee Oh at GR2 December 8 – January 9 Reception: Saturday, December 8, 6:30 -10:00 GR2 2062 Sawtelle Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90025 gr2.net (310) 445-9276 Giant Robot is proud to present Hidden Habitats, an art show featuring the work of Jill Bliss and Salee Oh. Jill Bliss grew up on a family farm in Northern California where everything was hand-built or cultivated-the food, the house, the farm machinery, and even the family computers. Since graduating from the Parsons School of Design the California College of the Arts, her professional background has included fashion design, illustration, and design theory. Whether designing limited-edition paper goods or fine art pieces, all of her work reveals a fondness for combining fabric, paper, and other found materials. Since graduating from Art Center in 2003, Saelee Oh has manifested her modern take on storybooks and traditional women’s crafts through painting, illustration, and paper cutting. Weaving a compelling mix of fantasy, femininity, and whimsy, her work has earned support from the indie art world as well as mainstream publications such as Time Magazine and American Illustration. For this show, the artists will make individual and collaborative drawings, paper cut-outs, sewn soft sculptures, and other pieces that expand on the theme of their third collaborative calendar, Hidden Habitats. The artwork depicts houses, shelters, buildings, and dwellings incorporating and blending into nature. These dwellings are sometimes human-sized, but more often than not sized for real and imagined animals, reptiles, or bugs. In this body of work, both artists explore the underlying structures of nature, the inherent beauty and interdependence of these structures, and human nature’s interpretation of and dependence upon them. The original drawings, many of which have been altered or expanded upon since the making of the calendar, will also provide insight into the artists’ digital and hand-drawn collaborative process. A reception for Bliss and Oh will take place from 6:30 – 10:00 on Saturday, December 8.
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[nggallery id=86] FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – Group Art Show Opening Future Fictions, July 21, 2007 – August 15, 2007 Reception: Saturday, July 21, 6:30 pm – 10:00 pm 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 present Future Fictions, a group show featuring original art by Melinda Beck, Katherine Guillen, Ethan Hayes-Chute, James Kirkpatrick, and Kathleen Lolley at GRNY. Melinda Beck is a Brooklyn-based illustrator and graphic designer whose playful, blocky paintings hint at mod and sculptural influences. Her work has been commissioned by Nike, The New York Times, and ID Magazine. Katherine Guillen’s translucent-but-dark hues depict subjects such as manual labor and bullies, as well as floods and other forms of nature in an unflinching, subtly humorous manner. Ethan Hayes-Chute paints colorful, spacious, otherwordly landscapes, makes 3D pieces, and self-publishes art and comic books. In 2005, he relocated from New England to Berlin. James “Thesis” Kirkpatrick transfers the spirit of his trainyard-based character-driven art onto gallery walls by scratching into and carving up built-up layers of paper and acrylic paint. Kathleen Lolley is a Kentucky-based artist, animator, and comic-book maker whose two-dimensional characters painted on old parchment paper suggest a fanciful but complex narrative. A reception for the artists will be held from 6:30 to 10:00 on Saturday, July 21. For more information about the show, the artists, GRNY, or Giant Robot magazine, please contact GRNY at 212-674-4769 or grny@giantrobot.com.
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – Group Art Show Opening Free Ice Cream Day, June 23, 2007 – July 18, 2007 Reception: Saturday, June 23, 6:30 pm – 10:00 pm 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 present a group show featuring original art by indie-comics notables Jeffrey Brown, Allison Cole, R. Kikuo Johnson, Anders Nilsen, and Daria Tessler at GRNY. The rough and honest storytelling of Jeffrey Brown is akin to do-it-yourself zines and indie rock. The Chicago artist’s autobiographical tales brilliantly convey the awkwardness, hope, and bittersweet details of doomed romance. Allison Cole is a Providence-based illustrator, designer, and indie- and mini-comics artist who has contributed to anthologies such as Kramer’s Ergot and Blood Orange. Her storytelling is elegant and stylized yet raw and revealing. Born on Maui and schooled in Rhode Island, R. Kikuo Johnson has quickly gained a following with his rough, expressive brushwork depictions of the darker side of life on the Islands and beyond. The simple and stark yet complete illustration style of Anders Nilson perfectly depicts space and loneliness in works such as Big Questions and Dogs & Water. Recently, the Chicago artist mixed drawings with Polaroids in MOME. Daria Tessler is a Brooklyn-based illustrator and printmaker who beautifully conveys the geometry of nature and crafts with seemingly effortless linework. Among her canvases are T-shirts and stationery as well as shoes and CD covers. A reception for the artists will be held from 6:30 to 10:00 on Saturday, June 23. For more information about the show, GRNY, or Giant Robot magazine, please contact GRNY.
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