Well, I am a big fan of painter Andrew Brandou. I'm not sure he gets the love he deserves because he hasn't released a toy - but somehow I think he will because he's buds with the Span possee, and was responsible for some of their seminal Meltdown artwork.

Anyway, he has some great influences including Richard Scarry, and his latest batch of painting under his Howdypardner guise are (in my opinion) his best yet! Scratch the surface, and something quite dark hides beneath the at-first-glance cute exterior. This show is based on the Manson murders, and his last show containined even darker subject matter.

The show opens tomorrow (June 24th 6PM) at the Jonathan Levine Gallery in NY, so I won't be there....but if I was in NY I know I would be. You can check out great pics of the show at http://jonathanlevinegallery.com/?metho ... C8ED739196



A special reason to turn up early is that the first 100 people will receive a blind bagged Sniper Bunny AK47 adorned with the Span Logo. No idea what size this baby is, but it looks suspiciously like a Nate Cabrera work...but who knows ... I don't. www.spanofsunset.com has some pics of the give-away on their blog section.

Anyway, even if u aren't into AK47's, Andrew's work is awesome, and it looks like some big scale pieces will be up. The gold leaf on some of these is a new direction, and rocks very hard indeed.

Look, I rock two originals on my wall at home, so u know it must be ....errr....Muton approved...or something....so that's good, right? If anyone goes along, please post and let us know what you think.

Cool stuff...also wish I was in NYC to see the show...

Me too. And any art influenced by the likes of Richard Scary can only be good in my books!

Very cool.

This art reminds me of Baseman and Biskup - ooops ! Not a bad thing but kinda like more of a similar style. I like it though.

Glad u like it....but I don't see that much similarity myself.

"I give mc's the runs drippin
when I throw my clip in the AK, I slay from far away
Everybody hit the D-E-C-K"

I'm a def going to check it out and try and go early. Thanks Carl for the heads up.

I have liked this guys work for awhile and would be a good show to go see. He has some great talent. I can some what see the Baseman refference (in these peices at least_ and definitely the Richard Scary influences too.

You know, it was vinyl coming out from artists who got me into this toy caper in the first place a few years back. Biskup and Jarvis among my first pieces. Back then I would be keen to see new releases if not buy them and also thought about who else out there it would be nice to see some toys from.
Now though, I see it as a double edged sword. It's cool to see some nice artwork and design made 3D, but it seems the actual art gets forgotten about and some artists are falling into the trap of making their art follow the toy rather than the other way round and becoming stale and same same. Also the over saturation of new realeases - especially platform stuff of various kinds - are making these guys toy designers over actual artists now.
It's a little sad to see that a toy is needed for recognition maybe.
Just me being jaded and cynical!

nah, I can see your point. I guess it's the industry's (toy) way of trying to catch on the next hot artist. Also, artists riding the wave of success and sort of losing the creative edge. There aren't too many artists these days that I'm into if they have their own "toy" out. Actually, I find myself liking artists that haven't put any toys out or don't plan too.

That's where I'm at now. I enjoy work that is it's own thing, it's own story. Not something representing the latest toy release.
One artist with toys that is progressing I think is Mars-1. He has progressed in his work out of sight and his toys are seperate yet linked to his work. But it ain't everyone's cup of tea.

Uh-oh guys, turns out I was dead right about the toy for Andrew - I swear I had no knowledge of it before starting this thread, but it looks like SNIPER BUNNY is available as a toy for pre-order through the gallery, and as suspected, Nate Cabrera is responsible for his AK47.

He looks like he comes right out of a Richard Scarry book, and is plush and gun-totingly cute, and maybe not for most Skullbrainers...but I like what I see. Check him out at: http://jonathanlevinegallery.com/?metho ... rtistidx=1

I don't know. Isn't there enough cute animals with weapons out there? What would have been nice is maybe l life sized skull similar to the ones in his painting maybe in antiqued gold leaf.
I think Nate needs to go to sniper school. What sniper uses an AK for his choice of weapon? wearing a where's Waldo getup? That's like a surgeon using a chainsaw. Another thing that would have been cool is a bunny in a ghille suit.