An exhibition presented by the Workhouse Arts Center and Spaghetti Project of Downtown Fredericksburg.
Featured Artist:
Drew Storm Graham
Shawn Huddleston
Peter Chang
Brandon Hill
Rejuvenile
Gabriel Pons (Demonstrating)
Kenny Brown (Demonstrating)
Imani K. Brown (Demonstrating)
Jack Labadie (Demonstrating)
Jeremy Gann (Demonstrating)
Sean Donlon (Demonstrating)
James Walker (Demonstrating)
Jorge Guillen (Demonstrating)
Showcasing -- April 28th, 2010- May 9th, 2010
OPEN Reception Saturday May 1st from 7:00pm- 12:00am - with Refreshments Provided.
Location of reception:
9601 Ox Road
Lorton, VA 22079
Reception in Building W-16 Second Floor
Phone 703-584-2900
Live Music Provided by:
Akris
John Kaplan
What is Urban Decay?
Urban Decay is an exhibition that will feature 14 contemporary artists showcasing work in the form of skate decks, custom vinyl toys, sculpture, fine portraiture and beyond.
Five of these artists will be customizing vinyl art toys live at the event!
Urban Decay focuses on the aesthetic of urban low-brow art; an underground visual art movement that arose in the Los Angeles, California, area in the late 1970s. Lowbrow is a widespread populist art movement with origins in the underground comic world, punk music, hot-rod street culture, graffiti and other subcultures.
This type of art is also referred to as subculture art, pop- surrealism and often has an impish, sarcastic, and gleeful sense of humor attached to it.
So what is a Vinyl Art Toy?
Vinyl Art toys or “Designer toys” are terms used to describe toys and other collectibles that are produced in limited editions, (as few as 10 or as many as 2000 pieces) and created by artists and designers.
Designer toys are made of a variety of materials; ABS plastic and vinyl are most common, although wood, metal, and resin are occasionally used.
The term also encompasses plush, cloth and latex dolls. Creators of designer toys usually have backgrounds in graphic design, illustration or self-described low brow art.
Designer toys appeared in the 1990s by artist Michael Lau, who first created urban vinyl figures in Hong Kong, and are still in production today.
Growing up as a child in Jacksonville, Florida, art was an escape from the many hardships he had to endure. Coming from a lower middle class household, TTK had to deal with drug abuse and poverty all around him. At the age of 6, he saw the movie that would change his life. "Beat Street" introduced him to b-boys, graffiti and hip hop music and culture. The main character, Ramo had a huge influence on TTK, "I saw Beat Street in '85, '86 and Ramo was like, tag-gin' up the trains and it was amazing, this is what I want to do." It also showed him the connection between music, culture and art, and how they can be fused together.
Since then TTK has won the Custom Kicks Showdown sponsored by Finish-line and Reebok, the Hartford, Connecticut division of the Funk Flex Sneaker Battle, and he was featured on the History Channel show, "The Works". He has traveled the country making appearances and displaying his work at various trade shows and has gained fans as far as South Korea, where he was also commissioned to work. He has done custom work for music artist Cormega, r&b soul singer Dwele, and Natalie aka the Floacist from the r&b group Floetry as well as special projects for Cornell University, Timberland, and clothing line Hood Prep. Summer of 2009 was his busiest yet.