Giant Robot Store and GR2 News
For Immediate Release. Yes, please release it. Sunday July 20th, 2014 2 – 3:30pm. Edwin Ushiro will do a talk about his process of creating work and perhaps tell stories about some of the pieces shown in Gathering Whispers, his solo exhibition at GR2. We’ll show images and hopefully, you’ll ask some questions. Here are some moments from Edwin Ushiro’s opening. (link) Here’s a HiFructose write up. (link). Thanks much. GR2 – 2062 Sawtelle Blvd LA, CA 90025. 310 445 9276 eric@giantrobot.com
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It’s near impossible to capture the love, friendship, and togetherness of Edwin Ushiro’s solo exhibition, Gathering Whispers in a short review like this. The images on the walls tell stories of situations that he’s dreamed and witnessed. Some are nostalgic, and others are symbolic. Yet, they capture a feeling of living in a place that’s lush and living as compared to Southern California. The energy of Ushiro’s work are vibrant. They capture each emotions. The reception was more of the same. Ushiro’s family got together from Hawaii, East Bay California, and from Southern Califronia. Friends from everywhere came out and unlike many exhibitions, many didn’t want to leave. Ushiro is a magnetic person. He’s sweet, funny, and insanely talented. Exhibitions aren’t always yelling for attention. Some travel slightly under the radar, filling people will contemplation.
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I stopped by the studio of Edwin Ushiro and took a look at a few pieces he had just completed. It’s hard to explain the feelings I get when I see them, but it’s nostalgia from my childhood and the minute feelings we experience in crucial moments. Somehow, Ushiro captures these like none other. It’s in the body language and facial expressions. His Gathering Whispers exhibitions begins this saturday at GR2.
Giant Robot is proud to present Gathering Whispers – a solo exhibition by Edwin Ushiro. July 12th – July 20th, 2014 Opening Reception with the Artist: July 12, 2014, 6:30-10:00 PM Giant Robot 2 2062 Sawtelle Boulevard Los Angeles CA 90025 Edwin Ushiro’s work contains a sense of nostalgia even for a person who didn’t grow up in Maui. The subjects of his works will range from beautiful, warm, and comfortable. One piece will include a not-so-obvious homage to Super Sentai (like Power Rangers). Kids will be jumping out of a pick-up truck as if they’re embarking on a battle against a kaiju. A piece about a bridge built by Okinawan craftspersons encapsulates ideas of change as it has been a subject of demolition to widen a road for more traffic. Another piece features sparklers which scares off bad spirits. While we travail through our daily activities, Ushiro’s calming nature comes through in his work and you’ll be enchanted by its ethereal look. His pieces have a look that’s all its own. It spans from drawings taken to digital manipulation, and then back to hand painting for finishing. It’s a laborious process that’s all his own. Come celebrate Gathering Whispers at Giant Robot 2. For more information about Edwin Ushiro, Giant Robot or anything else, please contact: Eric Nakamura eric@giantrobot.com 310-445-9276 Twitter Instagram Facebook About Edwin Ushiro Edwin Ushiro’s work resonates with the echoes of his boyhood in the “slow town” of Wailuku on the Hawaiian island of Maui. In his paintings, he recalls the sun-struck days of youth, when the world was fresh and magical, but also explores the eerie folklore indigenous to dark country roads and the boundless depths of the childhood imagination. While structuring his work around the narrative tradition of “talk story” native to the Hawaiian islands, he interweaves the uncanny obake tales of his Japanese heritage. Working in a unique mixed media technique which involves laboring in ink and acrylic over sheets of Lucite printed with assemblages of his more traditional drawings and paintings, he creates reflections on the past that are luminous and nostalgic, like cherished memories burnished by the passage of time. After earning a BFA with Honors in Illustration from Art Center College of Design, he worked in the entertainment industry as a storyboard artist, concept designer and visual consultant. More recently, he has exhibited in venues worldwide, including Villa Bottini in Italy, the Museum of Kyoto, the Portsmouth Museum of Art and the Japanese American National Museum. On August 13, Edwin will present new artwork in the HI Society exhibition at the Honolulu Museum of Art. A published monograph of his work will be released in 2014. He lives and works in Los Angeles. About Giant Robot Giant Robot was born as a Los Angeles-based magazine about Asian, Asian-American, and new hybrid culture in 1994. Over the past 20 years, the Giant Robot brand has expanded to include retail stores and galleries in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New York, a restaurant, museum and...
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In a small crowded area in downtown LA, Takashi Murakami said, “It’s like when I first saw Giant Robot magazine in New York.” It’s been years since I’ve spoken with Murakami who in between our last meetings, has gone from superstar to megastar, from world wide artist and now filmmaker. I’m not sure which is greater, but he’s the bigger one. Takashi Murakami was the subject of a Q and A at the Orpheum Theater in Los Angeles. The brightly lit marquee spelled out his name as if he were a movie or a band. A line of many recognizable art fans formed outside an hour early. Over 1400 tickets were sold to see him speak with Pico Iyer, an author of ten books who has lived in Japan for decades. It’s part of the Broad series of talks which features interviews with artists and is a powerful set up for their own up-and-coming museum in downtown LA across from MOCA. Pre-talk, I got to go to the upstairs vip area. Mark Ryden, Eli Broad, Murakami, Tim Blum and a crew of artists I’ve had the pleasure to work with, hang out. Takashi appeared with his mini convoy. Translator, photographer, and perhaps assistant. It was nice to catch up with Takashi, and it went into a blur. It was a conversation about our lives. It was nice to see him continue his hustle and still be chill. He’s obviously hit that mark where he can be an otaku and a goofy guy wearing a plush pink hat. He can say what he feels, do what he wants, and still be part of art history. He’s wise enough to know that he doesn’t have to care so much. Do people need to love him, do people still think he’s a heel, does it matter? No. I don’t think so. Joanne Heyler Curator of the Broad Hug photos-don’t like them, but this one works, maybe because it’s blurry. These days, he makes giant art pieces including one that’s 100 meters long. His studio is still gigantic, he still has tons of minions, and he’s still hard working. He’s splitting art time with cinema, which is obvious after seeing his short pieces like the Inochi interstitials and his Louis Vuitton animation. The talk spanned his personal history, his work with the art establishment in Japan, Fukushima and his own giving back to art. It barely scraped the surface on topics that can be extrapolated into hour long conversations. He mentions that his helpers basically say “fuck you” when a project is done and they’re disgruntled and leaving his “factory”. He mentions that his job is to say “no” and not be satisfied which is basically buying him time to perhaps say “yes” after everything is done and each possible avenue is explored. It’s that drive that makes him Murakami. Most won’t understand, and that’s for the better. Talks like this often go too fast, and the fella who held up the 5 minutes...
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