ACF 794: LOVE MOVEMENT Exhibition at SUPERFROG Gallery, San Francisco

LOVE AND ROBOTS COME TOGETHER IN FUN NEW POP ART EXHIBIT LOVE MOVEMENT OPENING IN DECEMBER AT SUPERFROG GALLERY

Custom Painted Designer Vinyl Toys From Over 50 International Artists Celebrating Love In A New Installation
Are On Display Through January

NEW PEOPLE‘s SUPERFROG Gallery has announced the opening of a brand new pop art exhibit – LOVE MOVEMENT – opening on Saturday, December 11th. LOVE MOVEMENT is an inventive art show utilizing vinyl toys to deliver universal messages about love.

American, Japanese, Australian and European artists were given blank versions of toys designed by recently married artists, Shin Tanaka and Nao Shimojo. The finished works will be exhibited at SUPERFROG Gallery in San Francisco with an opening reception scheduled for 7:00pm on Saturday, December 11th. Tanaka, Shimojo and over a dozen other participating artists will attend. The exhibit is free to attend and runs through January 16th. The artists are also offering an innovative way to join the LOVE MOVEMENT from afar. Using Kickstarter, a new fundraising platform for creative ideas, Tanaka hopes to gather, and then write, lovers’ names on the gallery wall. The project runs through December 10th. More details are available at: www.kickstarter.com/projects/jeremyriad/join-the-love-movement-art-toy-show

As part of the LOVE MOVEMENT’s Grand Opening on Saturday, also on display will be a special projection box, a Japanese beat-boxer performance, and live painting and paper toy-making demonstrations. In addition to the pieces from over 50 artists, SUPERFROG will also present several original canvases by Shin Tanaka, as well as custom paper and vinyl toys in exclusive color schemes that will be on display and also for sale. Other featured artists include: Ayumi Urayama, Bwana Spoons, Colin & Sas Christian, Devilrobots, Frank Kozik, Huck Gee, Jason Freeny, Jason Siu, Jermaine Rogers, Jon Burgerman, Kanna Inoue, Kaijin, Nathan Jurevicius, Noferin, NOOKA, Superdeux, TADO, Touma and more.

“Pop art and pop culture come together in this intriguing exhibit that we are proud to open in December at SUPERFROG,” says Seiji Horibuchi, founder of NEW PEOPLE. “The art of designer vinyl is elevated to a new level in these colorful depictions that will captivate visitors of all ages, and as friends and family gather together this holiday season, we invite them to explore the theme of love in this witty new installation.”

About the Designers and Curator

Shin Tanaka is a Tokyo-based artist with roots in the graffiti scene. In 2005, while searching for a new canvas beyond the street, he hit upon the idea of drawing on a toy. Using the experience of origami from his youth, he created toys out of paper. Shin’s paper toys are based on street culture and meant to be accessible to everyone. To date, over 500 artists and brands have joined his paper toy project, and fans around the world print, cut and assemble his designs. Shin has made paper sneakers for the NIKE Design Library in Portland and paper kimonos for The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities in Stockholm. In 2009, he blended elements of fashion, art and hip-hop for his first vinyl figure, T-BOY. He has also designed functional art toys for Nooka and Mugo. His work is sought after by top brands including Issey Miyake, Scion, Disney and UNIQLO and has been shown in Berlin, Paris, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Osaka and Tokyo. His website is: http://shin.co.nr.

Nao Shimojo majored in music at the Tokyo College of Music and briefly studied abroad in Vienna. Filled with inspiration, she returned to Japan and immediately reached out to TOUMA to create the mascots, Kurokuma (Black Bear) DANKE and Shirokuma (White Bear) SCHOEN. Nao opened the DANKESCHOEN online shop in 2008 and became incorporated in 2009. That year, she released the first DANKESCHOEN soft vinyl figures, which sold out immediately. In April of 2010, the DANKESCHOEN exhibition,”100% FREE,” debuted in Taiwan featuring the mascots customized by world-famous artists. Things only got bigger from there with huge DANKE and SCHOEN figures appearing in Misukoshi Department store and DANKESCHOEN participating in Asia’s largest toy shows, Taipei Toy Festival and the MANGA Festival. Nao continues to release high quality limited edition toys. You can always hear her original music compositions in the adorable animations on her website: http://danke-schoen.jp.

Jeremy Brautman is a writer and collector known as the “Toy Maven”. His writing has been featured in a variety of media, including ToyCyte, Cool Hunting, Josh Spear, Heeb and Design Bureau. Jeremy met Shin and Nao in Tokyo on his honeymoon in 2009. He was freshly married, Shin and Nao were engaged, and Japan felt like the most welcoming place in the world. Love was everywhere, and Jeremy promised he would get the two artists a show in San Francisco. Shin and Nao are now married, and LOVE MOVEMENT is that show. Jeremy’s website is: http://www.jeremyriad.com.

For more information on the LOVE MOVEMENT exhibit or the SUPERFROG Gallery, please visit: http://www.superfroggallery.com/.


About SUPERFROG Gallery

The SUPERFROG Gallery is a spacious exhibit space located on the 3rd floor of NEW PEOPLE. With a name inspired by a short story written by Haruki Murakami called “Super-Frog Saves Tokyo,” SUPERFROG provides a direct link to emerging artists that draw their inspiration from Japanese popular culture. More info at: www.SUPERFROGGallery.com.

About NEW PEOPLE

NEW PEOPLE offers the latest films, art, fashion and retail brands from Japan and is the creative vision of the J-Pop Center Project and VIZ Pictures, a distributor and producer of Japanese live action film. Located at 1746 Post St. in the heart of San Francisco’s Japantown, the 20,000 square foot structure features a striking 3-floor transparent glass façade that frames a fun and exotic new environment to engage the imagination into the 21st Century. A dedicated web site is also now available at: www.NewPeopleWorld.com.