January 16, 2025

Live Kawaii Die Sugoi

Naoshi / Gina Cannella / Frank Forte / Diana Nugit-Laufer / Alexa Simpson / Renée Tay

このアート展は、あなたを超キュートで超クールな気分にさせる。This exhibition Live Kawaii Die Sugoi will be showcasing artwork from 6 local artists ranging from the super cute to the super cool. This exhibit opens Friday, March 7 with an opening reception from 7 to 11pm. The exhibition runs until March 30th.

Alexa Simpson

Arizona artist Alexa Simpson explores the horror and fascination of sex and death. The liberating narrative many women have of sexual promiscuity in a live fast die young perspective is seen throughout her works.

Simpson paints in a comic-lowbrow style emulating pulp underground comics filled with danger, salacious love stories that really pushes our “dying sugoi” curation. There is a sense of エログロ (Ero Guro), a genre of Japanese art that explores this twisted sexuality that is corrupted by extravagence, within Simpson’s work. However it is the light of honesty on female sexuality that allows the horror of the real to bring comfort to those who have experienced such uncanny humanity.

Diana Nugit-Laufer

Diana Nugit-Laufer has always had a strong love for collecting vintage kitsch, especially bird chotskies. Her passion for vintage would bring her to Los Angeles with the neighborhoods filled with homes built in the 1920s, and to which she has made her home permanently and the craftsman architecture and design shows up again and again within her assemblage dioramas. These playful dioramas are filled with whimsical nostalgia, folk art and natural inspiration.

Frank Forte

As a seasoned cartoonist and storyboard artist, Frank Forte is immersed in the idea of capturing the squish and squash of classic animation on a canvas. Frank’s paintings are an assemblage of inspiration from what he grew up watching on TV and reading in comic books.

Gina Cannella

Temecula based artist Gina Cannella is an avid collector of mid-century Japanese kitsch ephemera which inspires her psychedelic paintings. Everything Cannella makes is filled with stars, flowers, hearts and cutie patooties. Every character has this Lisa-Frank like sweet expression, many juxtaposed with a cvnty attitude. Cannella’s paintings often include the adorable ephemera she collects.

Naoshi

Naoshi is an internationally acclaimed Japanese illustrator whose distinctive characters and original style are recognized around the world. She uses shiny colorful sand, called Sunae in Japan, to create surreal people living in the real world. In her effort to familiarize more people with Sunae outside of Japan, she has participated in a wide range of projects including gallery exhibitions, commercial work, and children’s workshops. Naoshi is a Tokyo based artist currently living in Los Angeles.

Renée Tay

Born, raised and currently living and working in San Diego, Renée Tay creates a curious intersection between her fascination with folk art and found toys. Tay collects hundreds of vintage and used toys, cuts them up, assembles them and repaints them with many coats to create a singular narrative that reads visually like folk ceramic with an ironic twist. Viewers who aren’t too busy to look closer will realize that her works aren’t made of fragile porcelain but decades of nostalgic plastic. Tay reminds us of the art of play through her process and practice of searching for and up-cycling vintage toys and collectibles.

Renée Tay has a growing series of Vintage Toy Assemblage Sculptures that include Naughty Teapots, Slumber Monsters, Kewpie Devils, Robots with Cats, Whale Tea Party, Sea Fairies, Armchairs and more.