Giant Robot NEWS · Giant Robot store · gr time · GR2 · Apr 27, 2012

Giant Robot Time: 4.27.12

FEAT. AKO CASTUERA

SUN, APRIL 29, 3-5PM

They Are Us – Ako Castuera will be at Giant Robot 2 to explain and even demo her work. You might get a chance to try some drawing and painting yourself!

I AM FINE

EISHI TAKAOKA SOLO EXHIBITION

MAY 5 – MAY 30, 2012

RECEPTION: SAT, MAY 5, 6:30-10PM

Eishi Takaoka’s work is coming back. Although the sculptures of Eishi Takaoka all portray the same serene expression, their outwardly calm façade belies a world of bottled-up emotions. With nowhere to go, these intense feelings manifest themselves in outlandish formations that sprout out of the top of each figure’s head. The uniquely sculpted heads of Takaoka are rooted in a personal fantasy world that is fueled by the emotional ups and downs of daily life in lower-middle class Japan. He instills his frustration with life in Kagoshima and feelings of isolation into each of the pieces, which are comprised of carved wood painted with raw mineral pigments placed atop empty glass medicine bottles.

Takaoka’s pieces have been seen in group shows in Tokyo and New York, one-person exhibitions at Giant Robot New York and GR2 in Los Angeles, and on the cover of novelist Haruki Murakami’s Kafka on the Shore.

For this exhibition, Takaoka will create 34 sculptures at Giant Robot 2 in Los Angeles. He is currently attending school in his hometown of Kagoshima, Japan and will not be in Los Angeles for the opening.

THEY ARE US

NEW WORK BY AKO CASTUERA

APRIL 7 – MAY 2, 2012

Ako Castuera often shows at Giant Robot in group exhibitions. This will be her first solo effort at Giant Robot. Castuera’s work involves a look into the past which has brought us into the present. Along with her sweeping watercolor hills and valleys are dinosaurs and prehistoric animals. Castuera relays their significance as a dreaming point as well as their contribution in our ecosystem.

Also in this exhibition will be sculptural work also depicting prehistoric animals captured in a modernistic style. Castuera’s work is colorful, dreamy and captures a concept that explains who we are and where we came from.


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