A little over a week ago, Toy Art Gallery presented two exhibitions — ‘Mark Ryden’s YHWH Custom Group Show’ and a special one-night exhibition of Japanese artist Choco Moo’s black + white drawings. Here’s an overview of both shows with plenty of opening night pics after the jump.
The YHWH exhibit asked a diverse group of artists to re-interpret and customize Mark Ryden’s first and only vinyl art toy to-date, his interpretation of God. With minimal surface area, most of which is curved, customizing the YHWH offers unique challenges. A few artists including Mikie Graham, Scott Hove, DrilOne, and J*Ryu chose to re-make the figure with their sculptural touches, while Julie B combined her sculpting and casting skills to create two pairs of brightly-colored undulating YHWH’s twisted around one another. Many others focused on personalizing Ryden’s vision by presenting it in different color combinations, and in some cases adding patterns to the elongated shape. A few took up the gauntlet of painting or drawing across the piece including Mia, Lola, Mark Dean Veca, and David Flores.
Sean Christopher’s piece stood out through the restrained use of symbols and imagery to offer an elegant, fleshed-out interpretation of a God that is at once a supreme being (crown) with the power of creation (plants sprouting from its body), yet limited in its power to prevent suffering (blood red tears). For his own contribution to the exhibition, Mark Ryden presented a giant 6-foot wood version of the toy’s original packaging. For pricing and availability, please see the online YHWH show catalog.
In the rear of the gallery, TAG presented the black + white drawings of Japanese Artist Choco Moo who is best known for her fashion collaborations merging art and apparel. Her art is fun, humorous, sarcastic and defiant. Pieces ranged from cute, doodle style characters to more detailed interpretations of iconic pop culture ranging from Marge Simpson and The Mask to Louis Armstrong and Tupac Shakur. To see all of Choco Moo’s pieces along with pricing and availability, head on over to TAG’s online catalog of her exhibition.
