For The Love of Munny Preview

[Our South Florida correspondent, Clay C., made his way down to the new Bear and Bird Gallery to get an advance look at the For The Love of Munny lineup.  Here’s his preview loaded with Munny pics and impressions of the show].

Munnys haven’t been ‘on the front pages’ for a while – the market has developed a love/hate relationship with platform toys as a category, and with the flood of new platforms, new artists, new ways to generate a spurious sense of exclusivity … well, Munnys have hardly been at the fore for some time now.

But, the For the Love of Munny show at Bear & Bird in Ft. Lauderdale, opening this Saturday night, February 3rd at 7PM, shows once again that the little guy’s blank (not to say bland) shape can be a stage which leaves its actors free to interpret their roles as they wish. Benefiting the Humane Society of Broward County, the show will have well over 200 custom Munnys when the doors open this Saturday night. As the accompanying photos show, the artists involved did not lack for inspiration, nor exotic ideas and materials, nor a willingness to devote the time and effort required to accomplish these spectacular results.




R to L: Jenna "Soopajdelux" Colby, Anna Powell

A custom show around one platform is a pure adventure in the participating artists’ vision – seeing the wide and wild variety of destinations that can be reached from the same starting point is dependably awe-inspiring. This show exemplifies the creativity and the sheer fun of that artistic journey. Best of all for the acquisitive among us, almost every one of these Munnys is for sale. The prices of the pieces available at the photo shoot ranged from under $100 to $2000 (with most falling in the $200-to-$400 range), and the time the artists must have devoted to the works ranged from ‘maybe 20 minutes, including the address label’ to … well, … ‘weeks and weeks’ wouldn’t surprise me at all. Happily, the prices will also be displayed at the show, so you won’t have to ask, and ask, and ask! (I hate having to do that.) Finally, fewer than 5 of the pieces will be presold before Saturday night, so as a result of this restraint you are not likely to arrive and find that your favorite was sold to someone else last week. With 1-of-400 multiple toys lately topping $1000 this show, which has easily 100+ custom works under $500, is literally a collector’s dream come true. (Any pieces not sold locally after the Saturday show will be available to online buyers by emailing Bear & Bird though their website below, and they will have a more detailed online gallery of the available pieces posted by the following Saturday, February 10th.)




R to L: Ryan Myers, Ricardo Porven

In any single-platform show, with submissions limited only by the form itself, there will be a spectrum of outcomes, and the Munnys here reflect every inspiration — from glitter and glamour, to fury and firearms. But, with a platform as ‘mature’ as Munnys, what you do not, can not expect are surprises! After years of supremely talented artists customizing this very simple form, what is there left to say? Yet, surprises are precisely what this show delivers. Check out the multiply-pierced Munny engaged (with his one-eyed lizard compadre) in a staredown with a butterfly. Consider this impossible-to-anticipate coincidence — Though the artists worked in ignorance of each other, two of the most technically accomplished pieces depict a Little Red Riding Hood … and a Big, Bad Wolf! Ponder the psychiatric diagnoses one could derive for the artist who turned a pile of once-innocent Munnys into a lovely-and-disturbing pastiche of fleshy Munny erogenous zones, all mounted on an immense blue leaf. (Of course, one can’t forget that these are artists, so there has to be at least one iconoclast – you will note there is also a pair of custom Dunnys among the Munnys, from an artist who may not have intended her work to stand out in exactly that way … )




R to L: Scott White, Johnny Robles

The wondrous surprise of the show as a whole is the frequency with which artists, all working with a single form, can nonetheless startle us with the application of their creative efforts. Like haiku, at their best platform toys are fields of creative expression where the severe restriction of form can itself reveal the breadth of possibilities, itself encourage imagination to flower within its very narrow confines, and this show illustrates that principle in the finest possible way.




R to L: Carlos Soto, Bloo Empire

Bear & Bird is located in Ft. Lauderdale, occupying the new upstairs space at Tate’s Comics. Tate’s is truly a local institution in South Florida, and this new addition of Bear & Bird can only make it a more popular destination. (Think about it – In the comic and toy business, ‘Since 1993’ is genuinely a sign of undying service and dedication to its clientele!)  Check the show site for a list of the participating artists and all the other pertinent info plus very thorough directions to the store.   Watch out next week for a report on the opening itself, and I am looking forward to seeing all the FL folks among VP’s readership there. (I’ll be the guy making an utter pest of himself with a camera – so, say hello, introduce yourself!) The front photo is of the owners of the shop — The folks who are responsible for this great show, Tate and his wife Amanda (holding two of their favorites among the Munnys), so be sure to thank them Saturday night too!

Clay C.

[Be sure to click through to the full post for scores of Munnys]




















































14 Replies to “For The Love of Munny Preview”

  1. Living in South Florida usually means we get shitted on in the vinyl scene. I’m looking forward to this show (and the opening of the gallery.) Big ups to Tate, his pops, and the staff of the store for steadily bringing the good stuff to South Floridians for the last 10+ years….

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