Giant Robot Store and GR2 News
Link to Lost Weekend. 1034 Valencia Street, Mission District, San Francisco.
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As you know, we closed Giant Robot SF. After a run of 8 years, it was time to strip the location down to it’s bare bones. It was a challenge, but we got it done.
That’s Mats!? He came to pick up the Stincker machine. He lives in Oakland and it seems like he seldom leaves Oakland.
That’s Goh Nakamura at Halu in Richmond.
Squeezing the lemon. Halu is a great yakitori place. At the end of a long day, it’s the perfect spot. It’s small, it’s funky with the music photos everywhere, and it feels like you walked into a spot in Japan. The food was great too.
GRSF is now closed. I sent out twitter messages with photos throughout the day and it was a beautiful one in the Bay area. It went by fast. I have to thank all involved. You know who you are! Above: That’s a hardcore Uglydoll customer with a skate deck that he just purchased.
Kimberly Chun who I met ages ago at APE. She used to make zines and now writes for publications in the bay.
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” 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, August 14. 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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[nggallery id=80] 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. 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 opening reception featuring Chen and Nyquist will begin at 6:30 on Saturday, July 10. For more information about the show, contact GRSF, or Giant Robot magazine, please contact: Eric Nakamura Giant Robot Owner/Publisher eric@giantrobot.com (310) 479-7311
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