At the last minute on Thursday I contacted Nichole at Kid Robot to see about giving away ice cream for the launch of the LA Dunny’s that night. After a couple calls to Gallery 1988 everything was set to go. The gallery is on the corner of La Brea and Melrose and there wasn’t a place to park out front so I just pulled Bessy up on the extra-wide sidewalk.
After grabbing some grub from the Hot Wings Cafe across the street Branden rolled up, camera in hand. It didn’t occur to me at the time how many of the top artists in LA were gonna be there. To avoid name dropping throughout the article I’ll just list the artists who created Dunny’s and were attendance; Joe Ledbetter, Gary Baseman, Tim Biskup, Coop, Michael Michael Motorcycle , Thomas Han, Buff Monster, Nic Cowan, Shepard Fairey, and I’m sure I’m forgetting a couple more. I’ve never seen so many top notch artists in one place together.
For those of you unfamiliar with the concept of Dunny’s, here’s a little breakdown. Kid Robot created a blank character/figure that each artist paints to make them their own. I think there were 16 in the LA Dunny series. The trick is that when you buy one, you never know which you’ll get. They randomly come in a sealed box. On the outside of the box are the odds of getting each particular one. Most are two for every 25. Some, like the mystery Coop one are supposedly 1 in 400. This genius marketing ploy encouraged numerous attendees to plop down $135 a case to try to build a complete set. Thankfully my friend Steve-O was there and I was able to swoop on some of his double’s from his set. Which worked out perfect cuz I ended up with most of the one’s I wanted.
Branden and I hung around til the very end and convinced most of the artist that walked by the truck that they wanted ice cream. The last to pass was Joe Ledbetter and he personalized my Yellow Bunny Dunny. My mini collection was now complete. If you’re interested, I know you can track down these little buggers around town. I’d recommend trying Giant Robot, Kid Robot, or Melt Down.
Since it was still early Branden and I made our way over to Little Joy for the Arthur Magazine/Little Record shindig going down. I’m still wondering what ever happened to Chris the birthday boy that night. Anyone got pics?
