This Friday, August 27th, should be a great time at the NEW Rotofugi Gallery. That’s right, Rotofugi is kicking off the schedule of shows at their sweet new location with Playboy Redux: Contemporary Artists Interpret the Iconic Playboy Bunny. It should be a great time and will feature an overabundance of amazing artists, including the one and only Steve Seeley!

From Rotofugi:

Playboy Redux
Contemporary Artists Interpret the Iconic Playboy Bunny

August 27 – September 12, 2010
Opening Reception
Friday, August 27, 2010, 7-10PM
At our new gallery location: 2780 N Lincoln Ave, Chicago
About The Exhibit

Playboy Enterprises in collaboration with The Warhol Museum (Pittsburgh) invited over 20 contemporary and street artists to reinterpret the iconic Playboy Bunny in celebration of the opening of the first Playboy Club in Chicago 50 years ago in 1960. Known at that time for her satin bunny suit, cotton tail and rabbit ears, the Playboy Bunny served cocktails and glamour in equal doses. Many luminaries once worked as Bunnies, including Deborah Harry, Gloria Steinem and Lauren Hutton. For Playboy Redux: Contemporary Artists Interpret the Iconic Playboy Bunny, artists were asked to create a new look for the Bunny, a veritable makeover to create the Bunny of the future. The selected artists have presented a number of new takes on this iconic image, and works ranges range in medium including photography, painting, sculpture, drawing and video.

Playboy Redux was originally shown at The Warhol Museum in March-June, 2010. Rotofugi Gallery is proud to now exhibit and sell these works along with some new additions.

This project is part of Playboy’s year-long 50th Anniversary celebration of the Playboy Cluband Playboy Bunny. The exhibit is curated by Aaron Baker, Ned West and Rotofugi Gallery.
Participating Artists

Featuring Josh ‘Shag’ Agle, Jennybird Alcantara, Scott Anderson, Glenn Barr, Gary Baseman, Tim Biskup, R. Black, Ain Cocke, Brian Ewing, Brendan Fernandes, Rod Filbrandt, Jeremy Fish, Mike Giant, Ludovica Gioscia, Ken Keirns, Jeremiah Ketner, Jeremy Kost, Frank Kozik, Travis Lampe, Bob Masse, Tara McPherson, Hiroki Otsuka, Lisa Petrucci, Mark ‘Atomos’ Pilon, Bonni Reid, Isabel Samaras, Seth Scriver, Andrew Schoultz, Steve Seeley, Jeremy Tinder, Michelle Valigura, Saya Woolfalk and O Zhang.

For all of the latest on all things Rotofugi, please check out their site here.

And, be sure to go here to get on their official gallery preview list.

This weekend, The Vader Project is doing a huge preview event in Los Angeles for their upcoming auction of all 100 pieces from the traveling exhibit. The artists involved in the Vader Project are:

Josh Agle (Shag) Troy Alders   Kii Arens Attaboy Anthony Ausgang Axis Aye Jay
Gary Baseman Andrew Bell Tim Biskup Mark Bodnar BXH HIKARU Andrew Brandou
Buff Monster Mister Cartoon Chino Mr. Clement Robbie Conal CRASH Steven Daily
Dalek Dehara DGPH Cam de Leon Devilrobots Yoko d’Holbachie Bob Dob
Tristan Eaton & Azk One – Thunderdog Studios Marc Ecko Eelus Ron English
FERG David Flores Brian Flynn – Hybrid Design Paul Frank Gargamel Huck Gee
Fawn Gehweiler Mike Giant Girls Drawin Girls Dan Goodsell Gris Grimly
Joe Hahn   Haze XXL Jesse Hernandez Derek Hess Itokin Park Jeremyville kaNO
Mori Katsura- RealxHead Sun-MinKim & David Horvath Jim Koch
Frank Kozik David S. Krys – DSK Designs Peter Kuper Wade Lageose – Lageose Design
Joe Ledbetter Simone Legno – Tokidoki Mad Mad Barbarians Madtwiinz Marka27 Mars-1
Bill McMullen Melvins Mori Chack Brian Morris Nanospore Niagara
Mitch O’Connell olive47 Martin Ontiveros Estevan Oriol Alex Pardee The Pizz
Plasticgod PlaysKewl Dave Pressler Ragnar Jermaine Rogers
Erick Scarecrow Secret Base J. Otto Seibold Sket-One Shawn Smith Winston Smith
Jeff Soto Damon Soule Bwana Spoons Jophen Stein Suckadelic T9G Gary Taxali
Cameron Tiede Touma UrbanMedium Usugrow Michelle Valigura VanBeater
Amanda Visell

On Saturday, over 20 of the participating artists will be in L.A. for a signing at 2pm. The helmets will be on display at 6812 Melrose Ave. in Los Angeles and will be open to the public for viewing from noon – 6pm until June 20th.

…But wait, there’s more! Our main man, The Sucklord, along with The Chrystal Pharaoh, will be DJing the Opening Night Party from 6-10 pm!

For more info on the Vader Project, as well as a chance to order an official catalog, check out their official site here.

Courtesy of Kid Robot, set yours up here.

Congrats to our pal Shawn for the inclusion of his design the 2009 Dunny series from Kid Robot.  Awesomeness!

From Kid Robot:

DUNNY SERIES 2009

Get ready for Dunny editions of Devilrobot’s To-Fu Head Son and Mori Chack’s Gloomy Bear, plus a new bunch of wild figures equipped with the necessary accessories to wreak havoc on your collection. Keep an eye out for 2 chases that slipped into the line-up, plus Golden Tickets redeemable for an elusive 3-inch Dunny by the NYC-based artist, Pon.

Join us for our Dunny Series 2009 Trading & Pre-Release Parties on September 9 at all Kidrobot stores and select retailers. Celebrate the release of the series, meet fellow collectors, get your trade on, and win awesome prizes!

Dropping September 10, these 3-inch figures will be available at Kidrobot stores, kidrobot.com, and select retailers for $7.95 each.

Artists in this series include Amanda Visell, Andrew Bell, Amy Ruppel, Brandt Peters, Dalek, Devilrobots, Gary Taxali, Mori Chack, Huck Gee, Jeremyville, Kozik, Kronk, Luke Chueh, Mad, Pon, MR. Shane Jessup, Shawnimal, SupaKitch, Travis Cain, and Thomas Han.

Direct Link to Youtube Video

Last month, Hell came to Chicago, courtesy of Frank Kozik and Rotofugi.  Nerd City was at the show and had the chance to have a brief chat with Mr. Kozik, himself.

Your recent Hell Comes to Chicago show at Rotofugi was a shift back to more 2-D/ painting-type work from the extensive amount of toy design that you had been doing for quite a while before that. What is the transition between these two mediums like for you, artistically?

Not much…I always draw and paint analog, and do all the packaging layouts for the toys, so it is always a mix.

How do you feel about the emerging philosophy that the designer toy is a small piece of art?

Personally I feel its quite important..basically ‘underground’ pop sculpture..before this its always been either 2d , film, audio or live performance. the sculpture thing is novel.

Political icons like Mao and Ho Chi Minh appear throughout your work. What is your fascination with these figures and what do you feel they represent?

Just look at it as my ’self help’ manual. all those dudes went from zero to a hundred in record time.

Punk imagery is another recurring theme in your work and you obviously spent years making music posters/ prints. How does music continue to influence your art and what are you listening to at the moment?

Music has almost no effect on the current toy design. I mostly listen to nothing at work. I like no noise.

What’s on the horizon for you, artistically?

More of the same, forever.

Thanks, Frank!

Tonight is the opening of the show that Max and I have been looking forward to for nearly a year.  One of our all time fav.’s, Frank Kozik, will be showing a set of all new paintings and other goodies statring tonight.  The opening is from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. and Frank will be doing a signing from 7 until 8:30.

I shouldn’t have to tell you that you need to be there.  The openings at Rotofugi are always a great time and this promises to be one of the events of the year.  Our friend, Revise CMW, will be djing and, of course, Nerd City will be there in full force.

So excited!

Frank Kozik is set to release a new set of figures, called the Big Mongers. The toys range from 3 1/2 to 6 inches, and will come in two styles, plain and smorkin’. The smorkin’ figures have a giant cigarette in their mouths and will be totally interchangeable with the mouth accessories that come with the 5″ Smorkin’ Labbits.

I think I need Magistrate Wu.  They’re available on June 18th from Kidrobot.

Nerd City favorite Frank Kozik has a new toy out from Toy2r, Toyer Z.

From Qee4All.com:

Hovering somewhere outside our known universe stands the protector – TOYER Z. This new figure from Frank Kozik takes the classic TOY2R mascot, the TOYER, and transforms it into a figure that looks back to the age of classic giant robot defenders. This one comes in the form of a 10 inch vinyl figure as shown at this year’s Toy Fair.

Of course every great defender has a nemesis and the same is true for TOYER Z. Waiting in the dark is the sinister TOYER ENEMY, counting the days until he drops from the sky to battle our hero. For now, the skies are safe and TOYER Z stands…waiting.

For ordering information – contact info@toy2rusa.com or EMPIRE DISTRIBUTION.

The Vader Project has a new home.  Once again, the coolest artists from around the world are contributing customized, life-sized Darth Vader helmets.  This time, the show is taking up residence at The Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh.

Shawnimal’s Vader:

From The Warhol:

The Vader Project

Date:

Feb 28, 2009 daily until May 3, 2009

Time:
All Day

Cost:
Free with Admission

This exhibition includes 100 works by contemporary international artists utilizing 1:1 scale authentic prop replicas of the Darth Vader helmet used in the Star Wars films. Each helmet was a blank canvas for the artist to paint, design, and customize. These iconic helmets of the notorious movie villain were created by some of the biggest names in today’s pop surrealist and underground art scene including Shag, Peter Kuper, Attaboy, Gary Baseman, Tim Biskup, Dalek, Paul Frank, Ron English, Jeff Soto, Frank Kozik, Wade Lageose, Joe Ledbetter, Alex Pardee, Suckadelic, Cameron Tiede, Michelle Valigura, Sunich, Mister Cartoon, Marc Ecko, Amanda Visell, and many more. The Vader Project was curated by Dov Kelemer and Sarah Jo Marks of DKE Toys, one of the largest designer vinyl and art-toy distributors in the world.

In addition to The Warhol’s grouping of these iconic helmets, approximately 15 works will be on view at The Carnegie Science Center during the duration of the exhibition.

Image: Alex Pardee, K.I.A. (detail), 2007

© 2009 Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All rights reserved.

This Nov. 27, from Kid Robot, $300 will get you 20″ of murderous, bloody, banana-wielding bunny.  From the mind of Frank Kozik, this large scale Dunny is limited to 500 pieces.  There would be no better way to express your thankfulness for such a bountiful autumn harvest than to buy one of these (just like the Pilgrims used to!).