Descubriendo las historias, los creadores y la cultura detrás de los #ArTToys
Cuando las figuras de acción se fusionaron con la cultura callejera y ya no hubo vuelta atrás...
¿Fue cuando Michael Lau esculpió su primer Gardener?
¿Cuando G.I. Joe se encontró con el hip-hop en un estudio de Hong Kong?
¿Cuando las figuras dejaron de posar… y empezaron a expresarse por sí mismas?
En 1999, “The Gardeners” no eran solo juguetes.
Eran streetwear en 3D.
Latas de spray, zapatillas, capuchas gigantes—hechos vinilo.
No pidieron permiso.
Aparecieron—y lo cambiaron todo.
De nicho a Movimiento.
De figuras a cultura.
Por cierto…
❌ Si te conformas con coleccionar lo que Instagram te diga.
❌ Si crees que “edición limitada” todavía significa algo.
❌ Si te da igual la historia real detrás de los Art Toys, Fine Art Prints, pinturas y esculturas…
NO TE SUSCRIBAS A NUESTRO NEWSLETTER AQUÍ.
Sergio Pampliega Campo & Cristina A. del Chicca are members co-founders of Art Toy Gama Collective since 2014
Art Toy Files #7: Art Toys as a reflection of multiculturalism
Anatomy of a Movement. #ArTToys: Sculpting Rebellion #1
When we speak of artistic Toy Art Movement we speak of a trend that although its roots are in Tokyo and Hong Kong, nowadays it is part of something culturally much bigger in a global sense. And also more diverse and heterogeneous than in the beginning.
We speak of an era, the mid-nineties of last century, in which globalization is booming, as well as consumer culture. In which there is a clear process of hybridization of cultures, between East and West, and in which there is great mobility of cultural products because there are fewer limitations and borders, plus we have Internet. Society is increasingly multicultural, there is a strong interrelationship and interaction between countries, and at a certain moment, it seems that begins to hit the market a new type of cultural creation under the impetus of creative people who create and promote an art form that refers to new forms of design, new ways of creating a new type of artwork, mixing Art and Toys, while at the same time they promote themselves by their own means.
These are years in which names like Michael Lau in Hong Kong, or Hikaru Iwanaga and his Bounty Hunter Store in Tokyo began to sound more and more, and those who today are recognized as pioneers that began to take shape one type of culture and artistic practice very "contagious”... However, it should be noted in the same way the large number of artists from different disciplines and professional brands, which also began to present their own artistic proposals, using their own settings and influences... Artists who began to "connect" with Toys as objects to turn them into works of Art, transforming them and returning them to the viewer, the adult collector, with its own message incorporated, a reflection of their own universe. Unique or limited edition artworks, at first mainly on vinyl.
One type of culture or cultural creation the one of the Art Toys, that in its origins, it´s the result of a medley of subcultures and movements that are taking over the world for more or less years... And close to punk and neo punk philosophy, pop culture and post-rock, lowbrow or pop surrealism, urban cultures as graffiti, skateboarding, hip-hop... But also with clear references to distinguished expressions of the visual arts (although incorporating new forms of expression). And above all, a culture imbued with the ethics of self-reliance, which began in the seventies and was and is, precisely, a response to consumerist models imposed by the free market today.
To which we must add that this type of artworks, especially at the beginning, people who “discovered” it were collectors in their twenties who already were collectors of figures of such films as "Planet of the Apes" and "Star Wars" of the seventies; or collectors of action figures as Gi-Joe and characters like Godzilla and Ultraman… Fans who were also lovers of American comics and manga and anime. Fans who began to find in the shops and places that were frequented by them a kind of "toys" charged with artistic symbolism, closer to their interest as adults. Artworks that were a clear reflection of the critical eye of the artist and his influences, his life and his way of living...
Just as nowadays, when artists, designers, illustrators, painters, sculptors and graffiti artists from different parts of the world, and with as many or more cultural references and influences, create characters that reflect their lifestyles and their ways of seeing the world, real or fictional. And they do it with their own resources in a free form, without rules. Regardless of the support used either vinyl or resin, wood or other materials.
Characters and / or imaginary creatures that absorb popular culture, urban movements and social criticism, with that aura of a Toy that is no longer a Toy, because the Art Toy is not a Toy to play, but an artwork that aims to strip the viewer of any preconceived ideas, labels and stereotypes.
#MoreThanDisPlay #ArtToyGama #ArtToyFiles
#ArtToysMovement
Sergio Pampliega Campo & Cristina A. del Chicca are members co-founders of Art Toy Gama Collective since 2014
www.arttoygama.com
SHOP https://arttoygama.storenvy.com/
This text was originally written in Spanish and translated into English for us, so that the text can have grammatical errors, so we apologize
