above from left: sauerkids, travis lampe
I recently visited Chicago and was ecstatic to walk through the doors of Rotofugi, a mecca for all things vinyl and pop art. I tried my hardest to keep my cool as I strolled in and was met with three walls of art toys. My jaw dropped and I’m sure a bit of drool rolled out of my mouth but thankfully no one noticed. With my wide open, doe eyes I got to take in Shawn Smith, Frank Kozik, Amanda Visell, Kei Sewada – it was like Christmas and I was six yeas old. I managed to strike up a conversation with the owners, Kirby and Whitney Kerr, and once I started talking about my experiences in the vinyl art toy scene while in NZ, I’m pretty sure they caught on to my exuberant giddiness. Knowing I was an avid toy collector and art enthusiast, they offered to open up the gallery space for me to have a look in at the Chema Skandal exhibition. I really fell in love with most of the pieces and nearly bought one (until I remembered just how poor I’d be after my travels). Although I didn’t pick anything up from the exhibition, I was really surprised with how affordable the art was and had I been someone with a steady income, I wouldn’t have passed up the opportunity to get my hands on some of the artwork.
I did pick up a few toys and also bought two cards (pictured above). The cards are part of the letterpressed.com artist series. Each card is limited to a run of 500. The one on the left is by Sauerkids – an artist duo based in the Netherlands who are graphic designers by day , using Sauerkids as a creative outlet. The one on the right is by Travis Lampe – a Chicago-based artist who you might know best for his Tear Drips blind box series. Even though these are cards, they’ll soon enough make their way into frames and then up onto my wall.
Can’t wait to get back to Rotofugi again!
xo
TS