"Come sit on my lap, little boy!" I gladly comply. © 2008 Mitch O'Connell
Tura signs a print of Bouryoku Wakusei for Alex © 2008 Mitch O'Connell
Deborah and Miss Tura Satana © 2008 Mitch O'Connell
©2008 Charlie Athanas
Dave Dorman, Mitch O'Connell, Deborah Teven and Alex Wald © 2008 Charlie Athanas
Mitch, Deborah and Alex © 2008 Charlie Athanas
The Flaming Dames get their heat on. ©2008 Rebecca Kaufman
Our friends Zakka and Rae Huo have birthed a new breed of the classic Japanese folk figure Maneki Neko (beckoning cat) and sent the first litter of blanks out to 50 lucky artists around the world to customize in their inimitable styles. I just finished mine last week and packed him off for this Friday's debut at Subtext Gallery in San Diego.
"Subtext has teamed up with Zakkamono to bring you an incredible custom vinyl show just in time for the holidays. The format will be the new Miao (Lucky Cat & Mousubi), and we have curated nearly 50 artists from around the globe to do custom versions of this great toy! Miao is the first collectible designer vinyl figure designed by Zakka. It is an updated design of the Japanese Maneki Neko/Lucky Cat (an iconic Japanese figure that brings good luck and good fortune). Miao measures 7-inches tall and comes with his BFF Mousubi, a 3-inch character designed with the elements of a musubi/onigiri (Japanese rice ball wrapped with Nori/seaweed) and a mouse."
"Participating Artists include Simone Legno/Tokidoki, Touma, Phu!, Aaron Martin (Angry Woebots), Brent Nolasco, Brian Flynn (Super7), Julie West, Mar Hernández, Matias Vigliano, Joel Nakamura, Nick Deakin, Kelly Vivanco, Rudy Fig, Slobot, Long Lé, Sandra Equihua, N.C. Winters, Bucky Lastard, Justin White, Reactor-88, Newkon,CKaweekS, Phoneticontrol, Persue, Mark Nagata, Amy Davis, Jasper Wong, Urban Medium, Paul Wee, Serge Seidlitz,Vogue, Katsuhito Ishii, Shunichiro Miki, Satoshi Tomioka, Alex Wald, Rae Huo, Estria, DOLCEQ, Malakias, Hans-Peter Schutt, Zakka, Steve Forde, Shawnimals, Hawk Ostby, Pose 2 & more."
Subtext Gallery 680 West Beech Street, No.1 San Diego, California 92101
Nov. 14th - Dec. 7th, 2008
Opening Reception: Friday, November 14th, 6-10pm
This promises to be an exciting show and event. Here's a preview of my critters, Kuromanko and Kuronezu.
