GR Biennale 2 @ JANM

Little late in getting this post up. It has just been really busy for me at the moment, with work and happenings around town. But anyways... I went to the opening of the Giant Robot Biennale 2: 15 Years Art Exhibition and Celebration. Got there really early, about 4:30pm, and decided to walk around J-Town a bit. Had not been around there for a long while and some of the stores and eateries I used to go to have changed. Even the area I used to work at during my college days has been developed into a parking lot for the Metrorail. So as I walked through the Village I bump into Justin, Bianca and his mom. I met them at SDCC this past year. I guess I should say Justin and his mom only, since Bianca wasn't there. Made a quick stop at the Yogurtland nearby to pickup a Tokidoki character spoon. 2 are out now: Mozzarella and Latte. 2 others come out Nov. 23: Donutella and Captain Coco.

After the stop, we went to stand in line at JANM for the opening at 6pm. There were only a few people in line there at the time, but the line didn't get too much longer until close to the time of the opening. Doors opened and we were let into the museum to view all the great art work for the show. They even laid out the red carpet for this opening with a Giant Robot backdrop that featured 62 issues of GR.

The main artists like David Choe, James Jean, Souther Salazar, Jeff Soto, Jack Long, etc. were in the upstairs part of the gallery. While the collaboration of Le Merde, David Horvath and Dehara was in the downstairs one, along with 50+ other artists. We started in the bottom gallery since it seemed that is where everyone was heading. There was a long line to get into that part of the gallery as the night progressed. Lighting was dimmer than I expected it to be in this area.

The figures that Le Merde, David and Dehara made were just amazing. The 3 Le Merde customs of My Friend Dave, Kaiju Ice-Bat and Kaiju Babo were... how can I put this... Gorgeous! Sun-Min's first resin, Sun-Min's Monster, were great to see! The eyes on some of them are a little cross-eyed. Loved seeing the colored blank My Friend Dave customs with handpainted details on them. Dehara's pieces always look great too. The collaboration figures they did were awesome you can totally tell which ones each artist worked on and the different heads they come with are a very cool addition. Sun-Min also had these half gourd-like sculpts hanging on the back wall too with her signature painted flowers. Those were pretty interesting to see.

There were so many pieces to look at in the bottom gallery that we almost forgot about the other one upstairs. But we had to make a stop at the food and beverage table in the main hall area, at least before the stage presentation started. There was some wraps, chips and salsa provided by Wahoo's and beverages provided by Honest Tea... delicious and satisfying. George Takei started off the presentation by introducing Eric on stage. Eric in turn introduced some GR staff (Martin and Michelle went on stage), then many of the artists taking part in the show. He even gave each of them a certificate from the City of L.A. After the ceremony, we decided to view the silent auction area, see the other gallery, plus meet and mingle with the artists. Got to talk with David and his sister Kerry, Eric Nakamura, Martin Wong, Jack Long, James Jean and a couple other people.

After the show we decided to try and get some noodles to eat nearby, but most of the places that I knew there were either too crowded or closed. Even Chinatown, although close by, was pretty deserted. So we grabbed a bite at the Denny's that I knew of down the street from where I used to work. Justin had 2 prints he purchased from the Three Apples show that he did not want to take a chance with on the flight back, so he wanted to know if I could ship them to him. I told him that I could, so I went back to their hotel to get them.

All in all, it was a very interesting night. Going to have to go back to view the show again. Just to spend more time to admire the pieces and take some better pics when it isn't as crowded. It was a little difficult in trying to get pics of the larger pieces. You are bound to get a few people not paying attention in your shots.