Designer Toys, Art & Pop Culture
Hey friends, let's get together and do some drinking and drawing! Join us and host Blake Jones for the November edition of the Rotofugi Drink n' Draw....a fun evening of drawing, sketching and doodling whilst enjoying your favorite adult beverages, BYOB. All skill levels are welcome, and you must provide your own art supplies. 21+. Thursday, November 16, 7-9pm. Seating is limited, arrive early if you don't like sitting on the floor.
Sales for this exhibit will begin when we open at 11am on opening day, and via email to our previews list starting at 2pm (central time) that afternoon — sign up at http://previews.rotofugi.com.
The exhibit continues through December 3 and will be available for viewing 11am-7pm, seven days a week at Rotofugi, 2780 N. Lincoln Ave., Chicago.
About the Artists
Nicky Davis
Nicky Davis is a visual artist based in Houston, TX. Davis’ work may at first appear quite whimsical, but his subject matter is often how nature and humans interact and their influence on one another. His journeys of traveling by car to all 48 states of the continental US, visiting as many National Parks as possible, has become his greatest influence. His work has been included in gallery exhibitions around the globe and his murals have been featured by Red Bull, The Houston Zoo, Arts District Houston, Seagram’s Gin, Art Basel, and POW WOW WORLDWIDE.
Mumbot
Jade Kuei “MUMBOT” is a NY based artist. She graduated from the School of Visual Arts in New York City with a focus on fine art and two-dimensional animation. MUMBOT finds inspiration from her children and enjoys creating comics, zines, toys, murals, installations of her mythical and magical worlds and more. Kuei illustrates whimsical yet haunted abstractions of her own dreams and experiences.
David K. Rose
DKR (David K. Rose) is a visual artist known for his illustration work, and game production. His work has been featured in shows around the world, in the pages of numerous publications, AAA video games and multiple projects with bands. Dave currently resides in Raleigh, NC where he continues his freelance work, rocking out with his band, and continuing to work in the game industry.
Grace Lang
Grace Lang is a mixed media artist based in Brooklyn, NY where she likes to use both two and three-dimensional work to tell stories of triumph. She received a BFA in Illustration from Parsons and a BA in Literary Studies from Eugene Lang College. Her work reflects the internal struggles that plague us all, creating visual expressions of those dark little thoughts that are frightening and sort of funny. The women in her drawings are manifestations of her hopes for herself and for women everywhere.
Grimace Graphics
Grimace Graphics is a Chicago based collaborative between Jen Lang and Teia Smith. Together they have completed various cartoons, animations, illustrations and paintings that explores their love affair with the ugliness and beauty of life. These cartoons live inside Teia's head. Teia relies on Jen's ability to bring them to life on any found wood surface. Blending Jen's amazing line work with Teia's obsession with color truly brings these pieces to life.
Hope to see you there!
Hey friends, let's get together and do some drinking and drawing! Join us and host Blake Jones for the October edition of the Rotofugi Drink n' Draw....a fun evening of drawing, sketching and doodling whilst enjoying your favorite adult beverages, BYOB. All skill levels are welcome, and you must provide your own art supplies. 21+. Thursday, September 21, 7-9pm. Seating is limited, arrive early if you don't like sitting on the floor.
Just in time for Halloween, we’re bringing you a one day pop-up shop filled with the gnarliest, spookiest art we could find - that's right, Cherry Moth Cake will be back in the house!
We’re psyched to be hosting this special pop-up shop featuring the works of Baltimore-based artists Nick (@ghostfreehood) and Lindsay (@lindsaytron9000) DiFabbio, aka Cherry Moth Cake. Join us 2pm-6pm, on Saturday, October 14 to grab some awesome art, pins, prints and more!
One day only, mark your calendars now!
As if a popup by Nick and Lindsay wouldn't already have enough awesomeness, we'll also be debuting the first painted release of the Cherry Moth Cake Ghost Eye Japanese vinyl finger puppet, produced by Squibbles Ink + Rotofugi! The limited edition of 75 pieces in orange vinyl will be available during the popup first, and if any remain will be sold by Cherry Moth Cake after. Three inches tall, $16.
Log Cabin
Paintings by Susie Ghahremani (boygirlparty)
October 6-29, 2017
BYOB Opening Reception
October 6, 7-10pm
We're always excited to welcome a new artist to the gallery, but we're doubly excited about our October exhibits.
Susie Ghahremani is a San-Diego based illustrator and artist whose works we've long admired. They're whimsical and beautifully composed and hit you right in the cute spot. We expect a whole bunch of smaller affordable works for this exhbit, another thing we're always excited about because we can put more cute art in more people's hands that way!
Join us for the BYOB opening reception, Friday, October 6, 7-10pm for snacks and music by DJ Sean Doe. The artists will be in attendance.
Sales for this exhibit will begin when we open at 11am on opening day, and via email to our previews list starting at 2pm (central time) that afternoon — sign up at http://previews.rotofugi.com.
The exhibit continues through October 29 and will be available for viewing 11am-7pm, seven days a week at Rotofugi, 2780 N. Lincoln Ave., Chicago.
About the Artist
Susie Ghahremani is an award-winning illustrator, an internationally exhibiting artist, an educator, an entrepreneur, a designer and an advocate for the illustration community. She is a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) where she also teaches.
In addition to illustrating for commercial and editorial clients, Ghahremani designs and develops a whimsically illustrated stationery and gift brand titled Boygirlparty® consisting of more than 300 products, popular at independent boutiques and galleries to retailers such as ModCloth, Anthropologie, Urban Outfitters and Nordstrom. Boygirlparty® is also currently ranked among the bestsellers in Art on Etsy.com. Her uniquely illustrated and functional paper goods are what Flavorpill calls “The indie, start-up version of Hello Kitty.” BuzzFeed calls Boygirlparty “a shop you wish you knew about sooner.”
She has been the recipient of awards and recognition by the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, American Illustration, the Society of Illustrators Los Angeles and Alt*Pick, and has been profiled in several magazines including The New York Times. She served on the board of ICON the Illustration Conference and won a 2016 Mentorship Award at SCBWI’s annual Portfolio Show.
Her Treetops Journal published by Chronicle Books is an international bestseller in its genre. WHAT WILL HATCH? written by Jennifer Ward, was published by Bloomsbury USA in February 2013 to advance critical acclaim by Publisher’s Weekly and Kirkus Reviews. Her latest picture book WHAT WILL GROW? is celebrated with starred reviews from the School Library Journal, Shelf Awareness, and Publisher’s Weekly. Her forthcoming debut as author-illustrator – STACK THE CATS – publishes in May 2017 to advance acclaim from Kirkus: “a book that can expand children’s thought processes.”
Susie lives in San Diego, California with her husband and zillions of pets. Visit her online at boygirlparty.com
A Glimpse of Our World
New Character Works by Chris & Ainsley of Grumble Toy
October 6-29, 2017
BYOB Opening Reception
October 6, 7-10pm
At the end of 2007, Ainsley began to make plush toys based on some of her illustrations. The first of these was the Bonhomme of Winnipeg. In 2014, Ainsley began to create some of these characters as jointed mohair toys. All of her plush and mohair toys are one of a kind or limited editions and can be found online in the Grumble Toy shop.
Early in 2008, Chris and Ainsley released their first vinyl toy based on her illustration Wormrah. Wormrah was sculpted by the Japanese toy maker Amapro and handpainted by Chris and Ainsley. They have since collaborated with Amapro again to make their toys Manmorah, Chou-cho and Ishigon. In 2013, Chris sculpted Ainsley’s character Neko-Mimi, which was also produced into a vinyl toy in Japan.
Currently, Chris has been busy sculpting cats based off of Ainsley’s drawings. To date, they have made three of her cat characters into resin figures.