On Friday evening, the Long Beach Museum of Art will present the opening of Tristan Eaton: All At Once, a 25-year look back at the Los Angeles-based artist’s frenetic career featuring overlapping disciplines including illustration, toy design, fine art painting, and street art murals. The exhibition flows in roughly chronological order chronicling Eaton’s work with an expansive layout spanning the entirety of the museum’s two floors of exhibition space.
The journey begins with a room featuring never-seen-before early sketches and drawings created in Detroit as well as a survey of his pioneering designer toy work including Dunny and Munny with Kidrobot. Transitioning to the street, the next room celebrates Eaton’s subversive street sign campaign run as the shadowy TrustoCorp.
The upper level begins with a brand new site-specific installation, The Unfair Fun Fair, featuring several carnival style games that explore the inequities of our modern society. The installation features wall-to-wall murals bursting with color, critique and celebration. Passing through the carnival leads to a room of new paintings including several featuring a striking combination of painted panels and textured MDF layers. This room also features Eaton’s large-scale Let’s Bang sculpture which features a woman with an old-fashioned revolver as her upper body and head.
The next hallway section showcases Eaton’s focus on social change through rebellion, anchored by his new Uprise sculpture featuring a raised fist with disparate symbols and scenes of protests mixed throughout. The rear room is the most personal of all with paintings from his Legacy show featuring close friends and relatives. One wall features the artist’s life size self-portrait surrounded by pieces that represent his father and their time spent working together at Thunderdog Studios. Set against the backdrop of the Pacific Ocean is the five-foot Vice Lord sculpture, a different perspective on the artist.
From his fine art paintings and his jaw-dropping murals to his sculptures, Eaton’s signature aesthetic is a key focal point of the exhibition. Instantly recognizable, Eaton’s work organically blends disparate partial elements including stylized text, symbols, and illustrations into an at once fragmented yet ultimately cohesive mosaic.
For collectors the museum gift shop features a selection of Tristan Eaton lifestyle items, the new Texture and Flow print set, the just-released Let’s Bang resin sculpture, and a tantalizing preview of the upcoming Devil Bunny vinyl art toy —the precursor to the Dunny and the inspiration for its name.
Tristan Eaton: All At Once is a must-see exhibit for collectors and fans of the artist as well as those looking for insight into one of the most thoughtful artistic voices pushing culture forward.
Tristan Eaton: All At Once
Friday, July 16, 2021 through October 3, 2021
Long Beach Museum of Art
2300 E Ocean Boulevard
Long Beach, CA 90803
(562) 439-2119
