Biennale Take Down -Souther Salazar and Albert Reyes

That's Souther sitting in the cubby hole next to his pieces. While it's slightly sad that the show is over, and it's on to the next, it's also great to see people stop in to take down their work, or in Souther's situation, to photograph it all. It's sort of like the party that wanted to keep on going. We need to figure out how to get that done for next time.

It's amazing what you can do with scraps of wood, Sculpey, and nails.

Souther Salazar Interview

Perhaps the most gracious person in the show was Albert Reyes. He took down his work in a matter of minutes and off he went into the smog. He's holding up Winona Rider. She's quite great in my opinion. But what is the Matt Furie text in the background mean?

Giant Robot Biennale Closing Party

The actual show closes this sunday, so you have a few days left to see it. But above are cupcakes by bigmanbakes. He's a huge dude and bakes tiny cupcakes. He's in downtown LA. That's how the night started, staring at these cupcakes. It was raining, but 600 people made it out which is a decent crowd. Imagine, some of the openings don't bring in 600, so this worked out well for a closing night. At three months, this was a fun show, a lot of people came through, it was super nice to meet folks who were either inspired by or do art. I got a lot of congrats, and I'm glad people had a good time. The Japanese American National Museum will be open through sunday.

That's The Binges / GR Table. Honest Tea also set up and gave away some drinks. See the hand at the bottom right? That's a beer, but there was no beer there. Hmmm...

Half of The Binges.

Albert Reyes drawing.

James Jean, Gary Baseman, and Denise Gray. Gary texted a congrats. That was nice.

DJ Puffs. I want one of those speakers she has on the right.

The Choe, Bobby and Enna.

Raina, Albert and John Pham. Albert got a camera finally.

Ali and Me. Someone should make a movie called that.

Ben Clark photo.

Monica and Souther. I finally made it upstairs and lo and behold, Souther was there.

Uh oh forgot her name, and Aaron Brown.

Aw how am I supposed to remember? Amir and Calvin are on the right.

That's me, Jessica (Perfect Day in Hawaii Jessica), and Chris.

Ako, Rob and James drawing while The Binges played.

The Binges rocked it. The lead singer came late, after the first instrumental, and they played on until after 9pm - closing time.

Kat, gets a drawing by Rob Sato. Her collection must be large. That's Pryor in the middle.

Anna Serrano and her friend. Anna has a piece in the show.

Deth P Sun only the brave

Deth P Sun work is looking good online and in the shop. The piece above is awesome, and glows in the dark! The below is the big collection of 5x5s. This looks awesome in person. I say one day he does an entire wall.

Deth P Sun at GR2 Saturday

I'll be at Deth P Sun's art opening at GR2 tomorrow. It should be fun. He got a little write up on Flavorpill which is always nice. Thanks Flavorpill. I know there's a lot going on, so I hope to see you there. gr2.net Also check out flavorpill's post.

Also know that tomorrow is FREE TARGET saturday at JANM. So during the day you can see the Biennale for free.

Dirty Hands - Biennale show

Dirty Hands played last night. I saw Harry Kim do a lot better in his Q and A then ever. He even stands better at the mic that before. He even signed some posters and that was public event number 2 for the Biennale. More to come.

Dirty Hands documentary playing this thursday in LA

Common down on thursday! Museum is free 5-8p the movie is $8. Fun filled.

Daniel Dae Kim JANM

Daniel Dae Kim chillin' on a Honda. It's the special Mike Shinoda version. I'd say he should get this monster. I gave him a tour of the grounds of JANM and the Biennale while visiting the mainland from his day job on Lost. Check out the photo below... is he taller than me?
Read the Chiptunes blog post on the www.giantrobot.com/biennale.

Biennale LEDAVHARA monday

Finally, this is how it's supposed to look. I'll head back this weekend to check it all out again. Anyone want to come?

As for LEDAVHARA? It's going up on monday online.

Smiling Good

Look out for these in 2010. That's Aki from Good Smile. A cool dude who made it across the ocean from the pacific to be there. Glad we got to hang out. It's fun thinking with him. That's Enna on the right. A GS staffer.



She had some heels on! 90210, Lipstick Jungle, and now Witches of Eastwick star, Lindsay Price came though. I'm a fan.

Bangals and Dave's.

THURSDAY at store opening David Horvath's Biennale Dave's on sale in all stores LA, SF and NYC and online 12 noon PST.
FRIDAY Le Merde Biennale Bangals on sale in all stores LA, SF and NYC and online 12 noon PST.

Keep checking back on the art pieces. It's most likely Monday for the Ledavhara originals.


I shouldn't have to explain any of this, but there's a strong segment who are very clueless as to how a museum show works, and for good reason, how often does anyone get to do anything at a museum? Not often. So let me try to explain.

I saw a someone addressing JANM not being able to sell the art because it's not for profit. I know there were some of you who were miffed that you couldn't buy the original pieces right out of the case. Sorry! Here's an explanation: imagine if you went to MOCA and saw a price tag on a Picasso, a Renoir, or a Basquiat? Can a museum use their advantage of getting public funds and enjoying the tax benefits of being a non-profit and using their gigantic walls to bring up the value of art in order to sell it and even a higher price? That would be unfair.

So, why is it that Giant Robot can sell it? 1) We're not a non-profit. 2) The art that's there displayed does not belong to the museum, it's not part of a permanent collection. 3) At the Takashi Murakami show at MOCA, some of the art was property of Blum and Poe. It's for sale. 4) Sign up list? What's the difference between a list and taking people's business cards? We did blast the information that art would be available at a later date. Join our list.

Can a museum have a gift shop? I don't know the ins and outs exactly, but the gift shop is also part of their business. Even if it's not for profit, museums can have gift shops. Even if it's non-profit, people who work there still need to be paid. The gift shop had Dave's and Bangals for sale.

That said, I do hope you check out the show, etc. It was a lot of work-more than just producing a new toy. This is about pushing the medium and such in a much higher institution than a store website or even a gallery. This show is up three months and will do a lot for vinyl figures. If I were the typical business person, this would only be a toy sale and only online! This is much more than that and it's something that Giant Robot helped put together. So let's be calm and enjoy what's there. Ask questions if you have them.

Biennale photos.

That's Martin and I standing in front of the wall of magazines. 62 issues doesn't quite look like 62 when they're hung this way. Actually it's short one, you can figure it out. But by the time you see it in person again, it'll be right. Yet, it's a powerful wall and I'm glad it's there at JANM. It makes me laugh how many people trip out of the suits. This being a museum opening, and I suppose people expect us to dress in street clothes, so the idea is the flip it and go clean.

That's me, ex-Secretary of Transportation and the namesake of the San Jose Airport, Norman Mineta, David Choe, and Albert Reyes. I gave a short tour for Norman Mineta who's a big part of the museum and does support GR. It was great to have him here. I wonder where is Secret Service agents were at? That means they were doing a great job.

Gary and Goh stalk the grounds.
It was big smiles for both of them.

That's Deth P. Sun. It was great that he made it down. Late of course, but that's Deth, he can be an enigma. He even waited in line to get to see his work.

That was a gift from Mari Inukai.

GR Staffers. Keyla, Luana, myself, Serina, Sasha, and Seth. Quite a crew. Aaron Brown and Dario B were there as well.

That's me and Marc Gerald.

Chris Bettig and kozy from kozyndan. She was dressed nice.

Jim Lee. Have any ideas on what was the Brand New? Heavies?

Whoa... Horvath, a chika (I swear she's for real), Sam, and Le Merde.

James and Wen.
Big smiles.

Rob 62 Sato wearing his map bag.

The band.

David Choe's mom and Dave. Proud parents and supportive too.

The artists who were in the foto.

That's us on stage.

Michelle Borok

Rama Hughes Christine Castro

Cate and Clement.

Amy Hill.

James and Dan (kozyndan)

Joe Hahn in back and Anthony Batt (buzznet.com)

interviews.

Stella Lai runs to the red