To close out the hugely successful group art show and 15 year celebration of Giant Robot magazine, JANM will be open for extended hours on Thursday, January 21 to host the Giant Robot Biennale. Curated by Giant Robot co-founder and co-editor Eric Nakamura, this expanded follow-up to the 2007 exhibition Giant Robot Biennale: 50 Issues will highlight artists associated with the magazine over the past 15 years.

Featured artists include David Choe, James Jean, Souther Salazar, Theo Ellsworth, kozyndan, Stella Lai, Jack Long, Albert Reyes, Rob Sato, Jeff Soto, Deth P. Sun, Le Merde, David Horvath, and Yukinori Dehara.

Admission will be free, and many of the participating artists and key members of the Giant Robot family will be in attendance as part of this special gathering. Expect refreshments, a musical guest, The Binges and DJ Puffs, and other surprises.

Japanese American National Museum
369 East First St.
Los Angeles, CA 90012

Closing Reception: Thursday, January 21, 5:00-9:00 p.m.

For fifteen years, from its humble beginnings as a hand-made zine to today’s authority on Asian pop culture, Giant Robot has sought out, supported, and disseminated the work of promising, difference making artists.  Last Saturday’s (10.24.09) opening of the Giant Robot Biennale 2 at the Japanese American National Museum in Little Tokyo celebrated  the magazine’s longstanding love affair with new art. The exhibition features new work from  thirteen celebrated artists who rose to prominence with the magazine as well as a large group show of 50+ rising and established talents.

The opening drew a large crowd with queues forming at both the downstairs gallery for the group show and the upstairs gallery featuring the work of James Jean, David Choe (above), Jeff Soto, Souther Salazar, Jack Long and Stella Lai.   Both galleries are filled with inspiring pieces – it’s a cliche but there’s something here for even the most jaded art lover.

The lower gallery honors the diversity of the evolving art scene.  In addition to numerous paintings by a wide selection of artists, the group show highlights the art toy movement with a  sprawling and colorful display of hand-painted  Ledavhara figures named after their three prominent creators – David Horvath, Le Merde and Dehara.

The upper gallery offers a breathtaking look at many of today’s top talents in the new art movement that is often described with the blanket label of ‘pop surrealism’.  Among the work presented, the paintings of James Jean, Jeff Soto, and David Choe stand out as clear highlights.  While we’ve done our best to capture the work in a series of photographs, viewing the art  on your pc pales in comparison to the joy and sense of wonder that comes with experiencing it in person.

While  David Choe’s new futuristic femme fatale paintings are breathtaking, his installation of personal artifacts and art packing crates forming an urban art hideaway of sorts is a testament to his appeal – mixing eye catching and imagination provoking graffiti with a no apologies life ethos.

From actor George Takei’s ( Sulu on Star Trek)  glowing introduction of Giant Robot co-founder Eric Nakamura to a surprise musical performance by David Choe and James Jean, the opening of Giant Robot Biennale 2 proved to be a rousing and significant celebration of the publication’s first fifteen years. The milestone exhibition elevates the stature and awareness of this evolving art scene with the gold standard of an extended presence in a public museum.   Giant Robot Biennale 2 runs through January 24th, 2009. Not to be missed.

Japanese American National Museum
369 East First Street
Los Angeles California 90012
213.625.0414

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David Choe is hard at work creating a large wall mural for Giant Robot’s Biennale 2 which opens this Saturday, October 24th (6-10 PM) @ the Japanese American National Museum in Little Tokyo.  Here’s a look at Choe in action courtesy of GR co-founder Eric Nakamura.

Japanese American National Museum
369 East First Street
Los Angeles California 90012
213.625.0414

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Giant Robot will celebrate 15 years of covering Asian Culture with Biennale 2 opening on October 24th, 2009 at the Japanese American National Museum. The impressive featured lineup includes David Choe, James Jean, Souther Salazar, Theo Ellsworth, kozyndan, Stella Lai, Jack Long, Albert Reyes, Jeff Soto, Deth P. Sun, Le Merde, David Horvath and Yukinori Dehara.  A second hall will feature work from 50 additional artists. If you have any interest in Pop Surrealist / New Contemporary art, this show is not to be missed.

By way of preview, check out the James Jean teaser video below created and posted by GR Co-Founder Eric Nakamura.  It shows glimpses of Jean’s new Chinnamasta piece which will be featured in the show as well as another painting which we presume will also be part of Giant Robot Biennale 2.

Japanese American National Museum
369 East First Street
Los Angeles California 90012
213.625.0414

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Nuart is an annual international street art festival based in Stavanger on the West Coast of Norway. From the first week in September an international team of street artists start to leave their mark on the city’s walls and contribute to a one month long Nuart static show.

This year Nuart is dedicated to those artists either living, working or who have made an outstanding contribution to Brooklyn and New York’s Street Art scene over the past years. The amazing roster will include:

Swoon, David Choe, Ben Wolf, Judith Supine, Chris Stain, Logan Hicks, Graffiti Research Lab, Brad Downey and Skewville.

Now I do not expect many of us to attend the event in Norway, but Nuart keeps pretty updated on their blog here.

I don’t know what this is all about, but it could easily be the most awesome thing I have ever seen.  Click the link below (warning might be NSFW).

Date Farmers

Originally seen on David Choe’s blog.

David Choe opens a simultaneous series of shows in China on April 4th. DD wishes we could be there, but fortunately David’s blog gave us some sneak peeks into the work he is creating for PYO Gallery.

The show titled “Death Blossom” looks to be a fairly large body of work, as it is apparent Dave is going all out in terms of scale and scope of paintings. According to Dave’s blog:

“we got a huge painting studio where we play indoor badminton,blast howard stern and DMX and, paint, draw and create all day and night, it’s sort of the monk/jail life with better food, better brushes, daily bike rides, and less anal sex. The art world out here destroys anything going on in the western world , they create entire worlds that make you forget everything, its next level shit, and completely mind blowing.
hope all is well back home, be back soo…never?”

Looks like he is having some fun without us.

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Last Saturday I attended David Choe’s Choegal release event and signing at Giant Robot NY. It was great to see David again after running into him at the SCION Installation Five art tour during Art Basel Miami Beach. He was excited about his upcoming show in China later this year and new book coming out in 2010. Before walking away with signed Choe collectibles, I met up with friend Lis Timpone who has three new works in an international group show at Ad Hoc Art called Delineations (a collection of drawings and illustrations) opening Friday, January 16th, 7-10pm. Lis introduced me to her friend, artist Mollie Goldstrom, who is showing work in Adolescent Rage Closed Caption Comics at Cinders Gallery opening Friday, January 9th from 7-10pm. So now you know and can mark both Brooklyn-based shows in your calendar to see works by these talented emerging artists!

David carefully inspects each Choegal

David Choe greeting fans…

David Choe and Debra Anderson (how cool is David’s T-shirt?)

Artists Lis Timpone and Mollie Goldstrom

Looks like GR2 is getting a lot of love from the blog today, but all deserving. Giant Robot has both a great last minute gift show up (see Post It) – and they just hosted art superstar David Choe for a signing of his newly released “Choegal” toy from Ningyoshi toys.

The wooden toy has hand painted parts (though not by Dave) and we were able to pick up ours along with a shiny autograph from Dave. It is really a great toy – and you should probably get online, or into GR2 to order one quick as it is limited to only 1000 pieces.

Fans were picking up Choe toys, GR posters and the new Giant Robot Magazine with Choe’s cover art, all in hopes of getting a sketch. The fan above (a DD contributor) actually brought a paint set. David was nice enough to paint a little something…

…David tells us he is off to China in a few weeks to begin shooting his new project. Have fun in Beijing…stay away from the street meat! Keep reading for our pics, or discuss David’s work here:

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Looks like David Choe is up to no good once again. Tomorrow he is releasing a new EIGHTEEN color screenprint with Burlesque Design. To top that off, Choe has drawn and painted on all 76 prints so each is completely unique. Check out the production video from Burlesque and their image gallery of the process:

If that is not enough David Choe for you, we have more. David will be signing his new “Choegal” toy at GR2 on Tuesday, December 23, from 6-8pm.

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