Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Steve Martin Tribute Show at Gallery 1988

I am so excited and delighted to be apart of the upcoming Steve Martin Tribute art show In Gallery 1988 Venice, CA. The show entitled 'Excuuuuuse Meeeeeeeee", will have its opening reception Friday June 8th at 7 - 10pm, make sure you get down early as Im sure there will be a lot of Steve Martin fans who will want to get In first.
Still on my toy making buzz I decided to make a limited edition set of duo action figures paying tribute to one of the very first Steve Martin movies I saw back when I was about 6 or 7. For me Planes, Trains & Automobiles Is one of those movies that when I watch It instantly transports me back. I can remember my old sitting room and It was one of those movies that I was allowed stay up late with my family and watch.  Being a classic John Huges  movie Its brings you right back to the era of the Breakfast Club & Home Alone which acted as a survival guide when I was little. There are so many Steve Martin classics and roles he needs to be hailed for but this one for me Is me meeting him for the first time.
Around the same time and most likely as I was watching the movie on the floor of my siting room I would have been playing with all my M.A.S.K toys. The cartoon was really big around then & I loved everything about It. I was really over influential as a kid and when I watched movies like Planes, Trains & Automobiles I would pretend what ever toys I had were the guys In the movie. I was the only one in the school yard tpretend flying a toy tractor around and calling it the Delorean.
So for my piece for the show I wanted to merge this over imaginative childhood condition to create a piece that sums up Steve Martin for me In that long lost era of 1987.


The M.A.S.K cartoon and the movie Planes. Trains & Automobiles have a lot of similarities which I only noticed or made up recently. Both are about loads of different vehicles helping folk get from A to B sometimes blowing up.  Both have big trucks in them. Both have two leading males. Two with light hair and similar haircuts, the obnoxious fat bad guy with mustache. Both have accessories. In MASK they have badass helmets & suits, In PTTA they have hats, large trunks, briefcases, and of course shower curtain rings as thats what John Candy sells In the movie.
On the back of the pack I previewed 3 other figures based on background characters from the film. The Taxi Racer Bacon plays homage to Kevin Bacons badass cameo at the start of the movie where he racers Steve Martin through Manhattan rush hour traffic to steal a cab. The frustrating Marathon Car Rental lady that Steve Martin shares one of his all time greatest scenes with In what I think his whole career. He says Fuck! more times than said In Deadwood. The last character is a SPOILER ALERT if ya haven't seen the movie so look away. She Is John Del Griffith's (John Candy)  late wife Marie In glow In the dark ghost form. I loved with the old MASK figures when you would get a duplicate figure that was transparent like a hologram or ghost, So she kinda pays tribute to those In a very nerdy way.
I really like how toys are presented and especially from back In the 80s. They were framed art pieces of my childhood. To this day I think I go to toy shops the same way I would an art gallery.  I like this concept for producing more 3D based illustration and housing it within something so nostalgic and personal. I'm using the toy package as a frame for figurative Illustration more so than actual toys.
There are a limited edition set of 3 duo figure packs for sale at the show all on a toy display hook from a Toy Shop so If your there please treat them as you would In a toy shop as a kid. Pick them up and stand there studying ever detail till your Ma comes along and so you can puppy dog eye her into buying It for you. 
If your interested In owning one please contact the gallery.    


The opening Is next Friday the 8th at this address.


Gallery1988 Venice
214 Pier Ave
Santa Monica, CA  90405
(424) 238-5988


 I won't be there as Its so far away so If anyone takes any pictures I'd love to see them and Ill throw them up on the blog. 


Hope you like the pieces, would love some feedback, helps with direction! THANK YOU . 











2 comments:

amanda doublin said...

i desperately want these!

Mick Minogue said...

They'll be for sale In Gallery 88 from next friday when the show opens Amanda, if they don't sell on the night they put them on their site for sale so fingers crossed! Thanks for the comment!