Ray Caesar
Now that June is here, the spring season has officially come to an end which marks the close of Kochxbos Gallery’s group show, “Spring!” The exhibit features a variety of works by artists Ciou, Harma Heikens (HF Vol. 13), Sarah Maple, Sauerkids, Bethany de Forest, Tara McPherson (HF Collected Edition 3), Tim Biskup (HF Vol. 18), Ray Caesar (HF Vol. 4, 18), and Nicoletta Ceccoli, to name a few. Despite its spring-y title, their choice of themes are surprising, and reflect more on their most recent interests as artists. Ciou’s is perhaps the most seasonally appropriate, whose latest collage works have portrayed animated flora and fauna, and fashionable nature goddesses. Mark Ryden, Tim Buskup and Gary Baseman’s collaborative “Nervous Apple Planet” also combines frenetic, spring-like symbols such as birds with much darker motifs, like a bleeding tree. One of the most dramatic pieces in the exhibit comes from Harma Heikens, “A Good Year.” Made of synthetic wood, her sculpture of a fully-rendered Good Year tire is set ablaze in reference to consumerism. It was first exhibited in her solo exhibition, “All is Fair in Love and War” at Kochxbos, covered here. Take a look at more images from “Spring!” below, on view through June 6th.
Ray Caesar
Mark Ryden, Tim Biskup, and Gary Baseman
Tara McPherson
Sarah Maple
Ciou
Harma Heikens
This last Friday, the Museum of Art and History in Lancaster, California (MOAH) celebrated over twenty years of toy art with their retrospective exhibition, "The Art of Toys". The exhibit is the first of its kind for the west coast, featuring some of the movement's most memorable pieces by artists and their manufacturers. The first modern designer toys hit the market in the 1990s, with many of their creators originating in the Lowbrow, New Contemporary, and even graffiti scenes. Recognizing the potential for the collectibility of their characters, participating artists like Tim Biskup, Mark Ryden, Nathan Jurevicius, and even Hi-Fructose's own Attaboy, began marketing their designs to collectors as limited editions.
Diabolical kitties, grimacing monsters, and nymph-like girls populate 