Welcome to our first Guest Expert feature! Here we have Toy Art scholar, collector and curator Steve Agin putting words to the visual magic that is the Grass Hut Gang. The fraternal kinship and individual strengths of Bwana Spoons, Justin "Scrappers" Morrison, Martin Ontiveros and Le Merde are discussed. There really is no other working art collective like these guys in America right now. Sampling of words (both real and imagined): "breathtaking," "inexhaustible," "optimystic," "synesthesia" and "ukulele." Click in and prepare to be learn something.
Continue reading...Friday, March 13, 2009
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Amanda Visell, Michelle Valigura and Joe Ledbetter will be involved in a group show entitled The Squirrels Made Me Do It at the Grass Hut in Portland next month. Amanda blogged that she’s excited to see Bwana Spoons and refers to her painting below as “doing a little something different for my bearded peeps in [...]
Continue reading...Tuesday, January 13, 2009
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The Grass Hut/ Gargamel Gang event went off this weekend, and somewhat shockingly, there are still a bunch of customs and exclusives available in their webshop. Act now to get customs by Chanmen, Kiyoka Ikeda, Naoya Ikeda and Koji Harmon and the three exclusives: Zombie Ojo Rojo, Dolly the Dolphin and a Tokoki Sejin.
Continue reading...Tuesday, January 13, 2009
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Now you can grab one of Martin Ontiveros' Ojo Rojo pink and black shirts for $15 or a print for $20. Entitled "Hell Ain't a Bad Place to Be," the print depicts Ojo Rojo as Angus Young. The 9"x10" two-color screenprints are a limited edition of 45 and come signed and numbered by Martin.
Continue reading...Monday, January 5, 2009
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As the Grass Hut/ Gargamel Gang event creeps closer, Bwana Spoons is sending out some custom sneak peeks. The Martin Ontiveros/Gargamel Zombie Ojo Rojo figure above is one of three exclusive pieces they will have on hand. But there will be copious customs. Bwana sent us the two below, but he’s dividing up the previews [...]
Continue reading...Tuesday, December 9, 2008
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Bwana Spoons’ email read: “Gar-gamel gang is co-ming to town. That was supposed to sound like the christmas song.” No offense to Santa Clause, but the Gargamel gang is real. And if the current prices of gas stay where they are, you might be able to travel from somewhere in the US and actually [...]
Continue reading...Tuesday, November 25, 2008
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To many, November 27th is Black Friday (consumerists). To others, it is Buy Nothing Day (anti-consumerists). The Grass Hut Corp? Well, they’re having their cake and eating it to. They are celebrating with the Buy Nothing Day Sale. Yeah, counter-intuitive, but hey, a sale’s a sale! But there is one hitch. You have to buy everything [...]
Continue reading...Wednesday, November 5, 2008
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It’s a family affair this Friday at Grass Hut Corp in Portland, Oregon. Opening on November 7th is the Family Forest Creations show by Evan B. Harris who worked together with his father Robert Harris to created the pieces. The show will feature a variety of paintings and sculptures by this Oregon-based father and son [...]
Continue reading...Friday, October 24, 2008
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From a Grass Hut in Portland, OR to an auction house in New York, NY, the faces of western kaiju have beards. The Phillips de Pury auction will present a generous selection of Grass Hut pieces, including figures by Martin Ontiveros, Bwana Spoons and Scrappers x Gargamel, Mike Le Merde. The toys are a [...]
Continue reading...Friday, September 26, 2008
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On October 3rd, a nice friendly collaboration takes place in the Hut On An Island. Hut on An Island is a great meeting of the artist minds of the folks of Grass Hut and the Islands Fold Artists. The show opens on Friday the 3rd at 6 pm and includes such artists as Bwana Spoons, [...]
Continue reading...Wednesday, September 10, 2008
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If you’re a fan of Souther Salazar, Tim Biskup, Seonna Hong, or APAK, you won’t want to miss this special event. Grass Hut in Portland is selling some Secret Hidden Gems. Over the years, they’ve collected some special pieces of art and here is your chance to buy one of them. You don’t have [...]
Continue reading...Thursday, August 21, 2008
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Grass Hut has filled out their shop with some customs and SDCC ‘08 exclusives from Le Merde, Bwana Spoons, Martin Ontiveros, Tim Biskup and Gargamel. The Bwana/Max Toy Co. Edward the Gator polkadot colorway is awesome. Now if only I could find that elusive Black Metal Steven the Bat… Prices range from $15 for [...]
Continue reading...Friday, August 1, 2008
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Okay, I took a pic of this behemoth at the Grass Hut booth at the San Diego Comic Con but I’m easily distracted and forgot to ask the boys what it was all about. The picture has been on my desktop all week like a mysterious purple enigma. But lucky for my Vinyl Pulse [...]
Continue reading...Friday, August 1, 2008
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I get such a (immodest) kick out of some of the titles I write. Take the one above for example. It sounds like code. It makes me feel like I’m a character in a Tom Robbins novel evading the CIA with flowery language. You have to be part of the secret society of designer toy/art [...]
Continue reading...Saturday, July 26, 2008
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Day one of the comic con for me was spent ogling the toys. Twenty four hours, after my drool had been wiped clean from the many glass enclosures, I could actually take a moment to talk to some of the geniuses behind all this great work and be envious of the peeps in line for [...]
Continue reading...Monday, July 21, 2008
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ToyTokyo has been cool about giving us slices of their sweet roster of SDCC exclusives, but for a couple of snaps of the kaiju, I had to go straight to the sources. Blobpus delivered on a full photo of the Blobpus DX & Dokugan Dayglo Green Version (above) and Intheyellow supplied a glimpse of the [...]
Continue reading...Friday, July 18, 2008
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Hey you Bwana Spoons fans. Get your wallet ready (and your patience for lines) and get some hot new Bwana Spoons deliciousness at next week’s SDCC! Phase one of your Bwana Spoons mission will be to head to the Grass Hut booth where the blind-box Jelly Factory resin series will be unveiled. They’ll only be fifty [...]
Continue reading...Thursday, July 3, 2008
This story just keeps getting sweeter. Grass Hut has made available the entire collection of paintings and drawings by Tim and Tigerlily Biskup for their TnT show. At the tender age of 5, the show marks Tigerlily’s gallery debut. Says Tim: “We’ve been drawing and painting together since [Tigerlily] was able to hold [...]
Continue reading...Tuesday, July 1, 2008
The best part of writing about toys isn’t always the toys themselves. Often, the toy is just one platform within a rich mediascape in which designers make their marks. These days, urban and pop artists design skate desks, clothing and housewares. I recently blogged about Infectious car art and Pop Clings wall decals and noticed [...]
Continue reading...Friday, June 27, 2008
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This Fourth of July, Portland’s Grass Hut asks the question: What is America? Potential answers courtesy of Scrappers: Hotdogs & Prairie dogs. Oil Wars & Star Wars. Cowboys & Indians. Rebels & Retards. I’d like to add my own: “Aggravation and Litigation.” But rather than figure it out it in words, Grass Hut has put together over [...]
Continue reading...Thursday, June 26, 2008
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Summer day camp for me was pretty abysmal. I recognized that my parents deserved some time alone, but I couldn’t reconcile how that meant I had to go drink bug juice, play tetherball and make macaronicrafts with kids who were less than friendly. I thought, I’ll save you the price of a bottle of Banana [...]
Continue reading...Wednesday, June 25, 2008
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How cool/cute is this? Tim Biskup and Tigerlily Biskup are doing a father/daughter show at the Grass Hut Gallery in Portland, OR. They’ll be hanging little paintings and drawings at a micro-mini show cleverly entitled TNT. This isn’t the first collab between Tim and Tigerlily. The pair previously each had a customized mini Circus [...]
Continue reading...Monday, June 23, 2008
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A new Ojo Rojo designed by Martin Ontiveros, sculped by Kiyoka Ikeda and produced by Gargamel drops on June 29th. This time, the 140mm. (5.5 inch) Ojo Rojo is glow-in-the-dark. Who exactly is Ojo Rojo? In a Grass Hut interview earlier this year, Martin said: I guess you could say he’s a bit of an alter-ego. [...]
Continue reading...Friday, June 6, 2008
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Giant Robot is proud to present Mossy & Glossy, a group show featuring new works by Pacific Northwest artists (and Grass Hut alums): Justin “Scrappers” Morrison, Candi “Snaggs” Hibert, and Mike “Le Merde” Kelly. The art of Scrappers reflects the outdoorsy environment of Portland, OR and his new pieces will preview his upcoming book about a [...]
Continue reading...Friday, May 30, 2008
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It would appear that Bwana Spoons is cleaning house. The sale, which begins at this very moment I am typing, 12PM PST May 30th (and thus I must quicken my speed) is comprised of, according to Bwana: “piles of old and new paint encrusted jewels, and a nice new load of goodies.” Some [...]
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Tuesday, April 7, 2009
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