Post-It Show 7. Opens tonight!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – Art show opening

Post-It Show 7 at Giant Robot 2

December 10 – December 29, 2011
Reception: Saturday, December 10, 6:30 – 10:00 p.m.

GR2
2062 Sawtelle Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90025
gr2.net
(310) 445-9276

Giant Robot is proud to present Post-It Show 7 at Giant Robot 2. Curated by artists Mark Todd and Esther Pearl Watson in conjunction with Giant Robot, the show is slated to feature roughly 2,000 works by noted contributors for only $20. These pieces will be on standard-sized 3″ x 3″ Post-It notes. (Larger sizes of 4″ x 4″ and 6″ x 6″ will cost a bit more.) The pieces will be cash-and-carry, making it a great chance to find one-of-a-kind yet affordable holiday gifts.

Thus far, the ever-expanding list of contributors includes the following:

Trevor Alixopolous, Erin Althea, Esao Andrews, APAK!, Nick Arciaga, Andrice Arp, T. Edward Bak, Scott Bakal, Dan Barry, Gary Baseman, Michelle Borok, Aaron Brown, Calef Brown, You Jung Byun, Lilli Carre, Christine Castro, Martin Cendreda, Helen Chau, Ching Ching Cheng, James Chong, Joey Chou, Chris Cilla, Angie Clayton, Tim Cochran, Allison Cole, Eleanor Davis, Bob Dob, Seth Drenner, Theo Ellsworth, Ines Estrada, Edie Fake, Evah Fan, Korin Faught, Jesse Fillingham, Michael Fleming, Cam Floyd, Renee French, Nina Frenkel, Shannon Freshwater, Future Colors of America, Nicholas Gazin, Susie Ghahremani, Gabe Gonzales, Kio Griffith, Katherine Guillen, Peter Hamlin, Pam Henderson, John Hendrix, Tim Hensley, Jaime Hernandez, Ryan Heshka, Len Higa, Andrew Holder, Jason Holley, David Horvath, Mina Horvath, Patrick Hruby, Rama Hughes, Ryan Hungerford, Tony Huynh, Mark Ingram, Mari Inukai, Jordin Isip, Rich Jacobs, Yellena James, Levon Jihanian, Hellen Jo, JUURI, Jared Konopitski, Allison Krumwiede, Maple Lam, Travis Lampe, Jeremiah LaTorre, Mashanda Lazarus, Daniel Lim, Christopher Lyles, Liz Mamont, Jed McGowan, Jeff McMillan, James McShane, Monkmus, Brendan Monroe, Rick Morris, Jesse Moynihan, Munkao, Mark Murphy, Gary Musgrave, Eric Nakamura, Shihori Nakayama, Kiyoshi Nakazawa, Tom Neely, Tru Nguyen, Anders Nilsen, Mare Odomo, Saejean Oh, Saelee Oh, Ming Ong, Martin Ontiveros, Pacolli, John Pham, Dave Plunkert, Jason Polan, Mimi Pond, Carlos Ramos, Jesse Reklaw, Martha Rich, Andy Ristaino, Julie Robertson, Edward Robin Coronel, Ron Russell, Johnny Ryan, Matthew Salata, Souther Salazar, Brooks Salzwadel, Emilio Santoyo, Scrappers, Ann Shen, David Smith, Owen Smith, Jeff Soto, Dave Stolte, Scott Teplin, Jeremy Tinder, Jesse Tise, Mark Todd, Jen Tong, Shark Toof, Anna Topuriya, Edwin Ushiro, Sara Varon, Jon Vermilyea, Chris Von Szombathy, Liz Walsh, Pen Ward, Esther Pearl Watson, Steven Weissman, Megan Whitmarsh, Kent Williams, Christine Wu, Jeni Yang, Jamie Zollars

Giant Robot was born as a Los Angeles-based magazine about Asian, Asian-American, and new hybrid culture in 1994, but has evolved into a full-service pop culture provider with shops and galleries in Los Angeles and San Francisco, as well as an online equivalent.

An opening reception featuring many of the artists will take place from 6:30 – 10:00 on Saturday, December 10. For more information about the show, GR2, or Giant Robot magazine, please contact:

Eric Nakamura
Giant Robot Owner/Publisher
eric@giantrobot.com
(310) 479-7311

SARMOTI! Finished!

Siegfried and Roy for Post-It 7

 

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Magic in progress

I redid the top text and switched to red lead mechanical pencil since my regular was smearing too much.

I’m working with Yarka/St Petersburg semi-moist pan watercolors rather than my usual acrylics. It is nice since I messed up painting Siegfried’s face and could just it off and start again.

I need to add shading to the doves and tiger (more watercolor) and draw in tiger stripes (Higgins Neutral Gray waterproof ink or more watercolor). After that is done I’ll break out the silver leaf and decorate the duo’s vests (and prolly do the lining in silver instead of the more opaque lavender). I also need to clean up the bottom section of text too.

Updated: I scrubbed the purple vests since they weren’t working and finished up the tiger. The final shall be unveiled in the next post.

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Post-Its are magical!

It is almost time for the seventh annual Giant Robot Post-It art show and I’m contributing again this year.

I tend to work with a different theme or technique for each show; what the theme is depends on what I am interested in at the time or what random thing I get inspired by.

Post-It 3 — A technique year: screen printed birds and leaves or geometric shapes which I then embroidered or sequined. I had been working with embroidery and sequins in my art a lot that year.

Post-It 4 — Animals: for this show I wanted to work more on my drawing so I did some with color pencils and some with line drawings.

Post-It 5 — Foods I ate in NY: my boyfriend and I had just come back from our first trip to New York and had a lot of delicious food, from halal street meat carts and corner pizza dives to fancy joints like Babbo and Annisa.

Post-It 6 — Bunnies: Aimed for simplified bunny line drawings on fields of pattern plants. What can I say..I like bunnies.

This year I had two ideas.

The first idea I had for this year was a series based on crows after seeing a trio of crows harrying a hawk above me as I walked to work. The hawk was twice as big as them but they were persistent about chasing the hawk to and fro. The black crows and white barred belly of the raptor made a nice contrast against the deep blue of the sky. I like drawing birds and this is right in my usual aesthetic so I decided to wait in case a better idea popped up.

Now I am not sure where the second idea came from. For some reason I started thinking of magic tricks which naturally led to the idea of magicians. Perhaps it is from catching a bit of The Prestige on the television before heading to work a few mornings before.

I originally thought of drawing classic magic tricks like pulling a rabbit out of a hat, or Chung Ling Soo/Ching Ling Foo’s goldfish bowl trick. Some tricks are just as famous as the magicians who performed them so I thought of drawing them too; from Harry Houdini, Soo and Foo, Penn and Teller, David Copperfield, to the current batch of showmen like Criss Angel

Eventually one set of magicians jumped out at me: Siegfried and Roy: Masters of the Impossible. They’ve made a huge mark on popular culture and they seem like pretty nice guys to boot and they have become my muse for the next Post-It show. It is also a challenge for me since I generally don’t draw people in my work but the flamboyance and zeal these characters had in their magic shows is irresistible. Also it will be an opportunity to do some leafing and add some bling to these Post-Its.

Currently I am working on one big piece. When I finish I may undertake some smaller single sticky notes but I’ll be happy if this one turns out as fabulously as I hope it does.

Just the rough layout for now.

Yes, I spelled Siegfried wrong in my layout. I need to refine the poses and add in more details before I go to the painting/coloring and then the leafing stage. I haven’t decided if I’ll do gold or silver yet, but it depends on the color of the rest of the outfits. Text will prolly be redone later too.
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When I get the press release I’ll post more details for the show, but I can tell you that it will start on December 10th, 2011 and most Post-Its will be $20.

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Robot = Automata Nightingale

The Nightingale's Doppleganger Sings a Song of Clockwork

This is the piece I submitted to the GR2 Robots Benefit show.

It is acrylic and marker on watercolor paper and was inspired by Hans Christian Andersen’s story The Nightingale (read it online here). A musical duel/duet doesn’t happen in the actual story but I liked the contrast between the drab bird with its lively song and the glittering jeweled one with its mechanical song.

I rather like the tiny fox and octopus.

To see more work from Robots. Also check out #27; my old roommate Jarrett Quon painted a piece he called Bully.

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Oh yeah, I’m in an art show right now.

I’ve done a rubbish job of promoting myself. I had grand plans to post several times a week and all those plans went by the wayside this past summer since I had moving and a trip to plan/wedding to attend.

Well before it is too late here goes nothing.

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I’ve got a piece on display at GR2 till October 12th. The show has been up about two weeks but there is still time to see it if you happen to be on Sawtelle. Come by and see it and grab a bite to eat or some Hawaiian shave ice.

No worries if you can’t make it before the show comes down. I’ll add a link to the gallery so you can see it online too.

art on card is by Seonna Hong

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – Art Exhibition at GR2

Robots
A Benefit for GR2

September 24 – October 12, 2011

GR2
2062 Sawtelle Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90025
gr2.net
(310) 445-9276

Giant Robot will host a “special” art exhibition for the benefit of Giant Robot 2 – the gallery space.

Giant Robot 1 retail space began art exhibitions including Ai Yamaguchi and kozyndan. The space was limiting and art as we know it today was a limited world that was just beginning to bubble.

Opening in 2003, Giant Robot 2 or “GR2″ has hosted exhibitions by well known, soon to be well known and new young artists. The first exhibition in the space was by renown artist David Choe. Following exhibitions included Saelee Oh, Deth P. Sun, kozyndan, Barry McGee, Souther Salazar, Eishi Takaoka, Masakatsu Sashie, and many others who exhibit at many locations around the world. We’ve since worked with new waves of artists who’ve also moved forward at a rapid pace as well. Then yet another wave, and so forth. Giant Robot 2 has often and free exhibited young artists at an expense. In the end, who pays for the promotion, rent, staffing, etc? We do.

We’re not like many other establishments who force artists into contracts. We try and nurture artists so they can have their freedom. At times it works well. Our track record is powerful. But again, how does this get paid for? The hindering economy leaves us with less options, and a benefit show featuring our artist friends will carry us for a healthy amount of time and we hope to have your support. The goal for GR2 is for the space to be self sustaining as an art space in 2012 and on. We’ll release more news on our plans, soon.

Artists include:

Apak, Andrice Arp, Gary Baseman, Robert Bellm, Jill Bliss, Aaron Brown, Buff Monster, Jon Burgerman, Youjung Byun, Ako Castuera, Sean Chao, Louise Chen, Shawn Cheng, James Chong, Luke Chueh, Josh Cochran, Eleanor Davis, Evah Fan, Ulises Farinas, Jesse Fillingham, Jordan Fu, Matt Furie, Susie Ghahremani, Katherine Guillen, Clement Hanami, Nao Harada, Seonna Hong, David Horvath, Martin Hsu, Mari Inukai, Yellena James, James Jean, Hellen Jo, Kaori Kasai, James Kochalka, kozyndan, Le Merde, Tessar Lo, Barry Mcgee, Miso, Junko Mizuno, Tru Nguyen, Saelee Oh, Saejean Oh, Bryan Lee O’Malley, Ming Ong, Martin Ontiveros, John Pham, Sidney Pink, Ferris Plock, Jarrett Quon, Albert Reyes, Grant Reynolds, Dr. Romanelli, Luke Rook, Souther Salazar, Rob Sato, Scrappers, Ryan Jacob Smith, Space Invader, Deth P. Sun, Daria Tessler, Mark Todd, Kelly Tunstall, Aiyana Udesen, Edwin Ushiro, Esther P. Watson, Jing Wei, Yoskay Yamamoto, Jeni Yang and more!

Giant Robot was born as a Los Angeles-based magazine about Asian, Asian-American, and new hybrid culture in 1994, but has evolved into a full-service pop culture provider with shops and galleries in Los Angeles as well as an online equivalent.

GR2 Robots Benefit Show Press Release

Yay for bear costumes!

Since I had a random picture of me in my bearsuit here is a quick followup.

One year I did a series of 12 portraits of me and my bearsuit. Each one had a different style and touch. These are my favorites from the series and made it past the re-gessoing of the other boards.

5″x7″
acrylic on panel

Bonus: I also found this doodle I did of my costume.

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Wilkommen, Bienvenue, Welcome…

Welcome to my site!

My name is Tru Nguyen and I like to make stuff; painted stuff, tasty stuff, wearable stuff, useful stuff, etc.

That is a bit of a trite answer but I can’t really sum up the kind of person I am in a neat little paragraph.

100 Bunny Army will become a cache of my projects (new and old) and a place for my random ideas and inklings.

As a young cub in the bosom of university.

And here is a random picture of me in college. A very random picture.

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