Art of Tiki gallery showing & book signing

http://laluzdejesus.com/tiki-21/

21st Anniversary Art of Tiki Show
Exhibition: Oct 6-29
Book release & signing party
Friday, October 6, 8-11 PM

With Otto Von Stroheim, Sven Kirsten
& over 30 of Today’s Top Tiki Artists

The Art of Tiki is a passionate study of the Tiki idol as an art form. For the first time, contemporary Tiki art is united and presented equally with what inspired it, original mid-century Polynesian pop. Author Sven Kirsten combines his first-hand experiences in exploring the birth of Tiki style with his intimate knowledge of the Tiki Revival, painting a vivid, visually arresting portrait of a unique, always new art genre.

I was at a prevue party for this event last Saturday. There will be some incredible tiki’s and tiki art for sale=not to mention the stellar artists that will be present.
Let’s go support them and have great time too.

Won't be able to make it up there tomorrow night, but will he going to the La Luz this month to see it all. Hope I can buy a copy of Sven's new book there too. This exhibition looks amazing.
Cheers!
:drink:

Why are there not more posts about this show? Half a million dollars in tiki sales. Has everyone on TC moved over to FB?

Facebook is completely blowing up with posts and pictures of this show. I'd much rather see that content here where it could be discussed, coveted and forever accessible instead of buried and forgotten in a couple days on FB. It's a damn shame the way things have shifted. In addition to the art show there is a massive sale of vintage carved tikis from the likes of Barney West, Andres Bumatay and more with provenance from Trader Vics, Kona Kai and other historically significant locales. The entirety of the collection was purchased before the show, mostly from one unnamed source. More info here:

http://laluzdejesus.com/the-art-of-tiki-no-false-idols/

Here are a few photos I stole...

(Sven for scale, not for sale)

How this was not a major topic on this site this past week is baffling to me.

How this was not a major topic on this site this past week is baffling to me.

On 2017-10-06 20:06, bamalamalu wrote:

How this was not a major topic on this site this past week is baffling to me.
I think there's just nobody here anymore. It's sad.

It is sad. Where are all the people involved in this show? The artists and the organizers, specifically Sven? Why has he not promoted this here?

And after hearing that it was supposedly one person that bought pretty much everything i had to add up the total to satisfy my own curiosity, and provided i added everything up correctly the total i ended up with was $459,150. Whoever that person is they certainly have very deep pockets.

[ Edited by: swizzle 2017-10-07 02:16 ]

"Whoever that person is they certainly have very deep pockets"

Could be the same eBay deep pocket that used to snap everything up there.

"It is sad. Where are all the people involved in this show? The artists and the organizers"

You will see them here when they have a book to sell and want you to buy it.

On 2017-10-07 06:41, tikiskip wrote:

"It is sad. Where are all the people involved in this show? The artists and the organizers"

You will see them here when they have a book to sell and want you to buy it.

I don't necessarily agree with that. Sven still posts here pretty regularly on all sorts of topics and the art show was promoting the new book by him and Otto. I don't believe his intentions are monetarily motivated.

Oh, and for non-FB users, Spike from the Hula Girls posted a great video panning the room last night on Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/thehulagirls/

"I don't necessarily agree with that. Sven still posts here pretty regularly"

Not aimed at Sven, BUT take a tiki book, now look at the author, Now look at the posting of that author on TC right before that book came out and right after that book came out.

They post more at that time, it's a fact that can be proven by historic events.
And that's what I said, It's like actors you don't hear from till they got a book out.

I'm being Descriptive not pejorative.

California will always have a somewhat stronger tiki "scene"
But the weaker California tiki "scene" may not be enough to get tiki to keep going growing in other locals and this would hurt interests in new tiki projects in the future,Like new tiki books.
Or new Trader Vic's that are closing at a fast pace it looks like.

At any rate I don't know what the up side to not posting news of this event to tikicentral would be.

Much of the stuff was sold so it's not like keeping it a secret would help one get stuff with less bidders.

I had a conversation with Bora Boris at the Pre party for this event about 9 days ago. I mentioned the lack of traffic on TC re this event. He said it was all about Facebook. Seeing the huge turnout on Friday night convinced me that Boris is right. Boris also is confident that Tiki Central will survive. Fwiw.
Cheers

Should add that Sven and Otto do still add to TC good info type stuff.
It's a shame that some of the people I know could add lots of info really
but for one reason or another don't.
You will see them post when they have a sale coming up.

I guess it's better to have added and quit adding than to be that guy who ONLY posts on TC to say "hey buy my stuff and line my pocket"

Well I don't think TC will die any time soon.
Beanie Babies are still around too.

But if you think of tiki as a brand it's better to support the media stuff to sell that brand.
Facebook just won't do that.

Much of the tiki type stuff we like needs more than just a few hard core fans divided in their support of this thing tiki.

Stuff like new books, new and old tiki restaurants, How many here would like to go to Sea and Jungle the Oceanic Arts type store that was around in the hey day of tiki.
Did lack of a wider interest kill this place who knows.

A few hard core fans divided in their support of tiki won't build a new one I can tell you that.

GROG still like tiki, just working too much to be as involved.

GROG miss opening of art show and book signing (because GROG was working late), but hopefully they'll have another small get together before the art show closes. GROG try and hit up show before then.

GROG working at Warner Bros. The last show I was on was small but still had two other artists into tiki. The current show GROG is on has two other artists who have home tiki bars (one of them built by Bamboo Ben).
None of them are TCers, though, so they don't post on here.

Now off to work, and on a Sunday no less. (TV production schedules suck!)

On 2017-10-08 12:25, GROG wrote:
.
.
.
Now off to work, and on a Sunday no less. (TV production schedules suck!)

You know what they always tell animation artists...

"If you don't come to work on Saturday, don't bother coming to work on Sunday!"

[ Edited by: King Bushwich the 33rd 2017-10-08 12:38 ]

Here's a small collection of photos from last Friday. It was too busy to get many quality photos, so I'm going to try and get back to the gallery before the show closes. It's really impressive in person, even with the crowd. So if you're in the general area before the show closes I really recommend going to see it.

Thanks,

kevin

I was blessed to have time and access to shoot much of the show the day before and posted about 130 shots in their own ART OF TIKI photo album on facebook. I went back the following day for the exhibit and signing and took about 20 more photos of the fun people there, many of the ARTISTS, adding those at the bottom of the first group in the SAME photo album. PLEASE ENJOY THEM ALL and pretend you were there in case you weren't. In fact, improve on it by fixing yourself a great tropical drink before looking! https://www.facebook.com/jim.marshall.9275/media_set?set=a.10155817446094283.1073741854.629934282&type=3 By the way, it's funny, the Tiki Central's spellcheck is saying "TIKI" isn't a word. It wants to replace it with SKI or WIKI!

T.V. Show Eye on L.A. visits the Art of Tiki (starts about 6:20)

Eye on L.A.-Must see art exhibits

Mea culpa for not posting about this seminal event on this forum, I was so busy with the whole book/exhibit promotion on other channels. I was sure I had opened a thread about the whole thing early on, but now I can't find it.

I even have a nod to TC in the book: The only piece of paper ephemera that exists of Tiki Central, a business card from its earliest Yahoo days :) :

Thanks for the info bigbro, and congrats on the book & what looks like a fantastic show!

Want to trade business cards? :)

The auction had many fantastic pieces, including some we did not realize were still in existence.

And, we did not know about Jordan Reichek until this show. Is he / was he on TC? Why is his home bar not in the home bars forum? It really makes you wonder about the Tiki that is still out there and off people's radar ...

heylownine thank you so much for the photos. I wish I lived closer so I could see it in person.

I've ordered a copy of the book through Amazon but it's not yet shipped. Sven I love all your books and I hope one day you will do another one.

Cheers, Wendy

Just visited this fantastic exhibit and art show. It was the middle of the day and the rooms were empty so I was able to take these pictures. it was an amazing experience to walk into the first room and see all these vintage tikis all over the room. I dont think I have ever seen so many tikis in one place, I did not want to leave this room. Here are some pictures.
Will post more pictures later.

Here's a little "Behind the Scenes" look of producing the book, clickable for non-Facebookers, too:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10155835625828205.1073742455.614108204&type=1&l=de77ceac84

I am so happy to see the kona kai bird again! I remember when I first discovered all the artifacts out in pa years ago my jaw dropped! I salvaged what I could from the Kona kai. I sold the bird and a few other items but several jems from there still remain in my collection in jersey today.

[ Edited by: Tikinomad 2017-11-11 12:58 ]

Its been a while but here are the rest of the pictures I took.

These two images of the Gecko piece do not do any justice to how fantastic this piece was, one of my favorites. He is truly an amazing artist.


here are the rest,

I feel fortunate to have been able to see this one of a kind beautiful artwork in person.

FYI, right now Thriftbooks has new copies of The Art of Tiki book on sale for $29.99 plus free shipping, which is cheaper than Amazon. (Plus I had a $5 coupon, so I’m very happy.) If anyone still needs their own copy, this might be a good place to look.

https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/the-art-of-tiki_sven-kirsten/13873497/#isbn=0867198672