Dr Romanelli Pharmacy

In Hollywood on September 30, Japanese artist Masakatsu Sashie pays tribute to one of Britain’s legendary pop stars and the original glam rocker T.Rex (Marc Bolan). A life-long fan, up and coming artist Sashie is presenting an exhibition of original paintings using endorsed images of the rock star’s likeness. The works feature Sashie’s signature hovering orbs that blend autobiographical details with culture references, past and present, ranging from video games to Japan’s quintessential vending machines, in an intricate painting-style that is grounded in a pop aesthetic.

Teaming up with Darren Romanelli (Dr. Romanelli), Eric Nakamura (Giant Robot), and Rolan Bolan (T.Rex’s only son), this one night event will feature new paintings, video projections and a special musical tribute to the first in glam rock, T.Rex. A percentage of the proceeds from Twentieth Century Boy will be donated to the Light of Love Foundation, an organization established by Rolan Bolan and his mother Gloria Jones that raises funds for the Marc Bolan School of Music and Film soon to be built in Sierra Leone, West Africa.

Twentieth Century Boy is generously supported by ForYourArt and Hysteric Glamour.

September 30, 2009
7-11pm
1637 Vine Street
Hollywood, California 90028

Masakatsu Sashie
Japanese painter and professor of art, Masakatsu Sashie resides in Kanazawa, Japan, on the coast of the Eastern Japan Sea. Distanced from extreme popular culture of Tokyo, Sashie paints a unique blend of nostalgia for his hometown and the innocence of pop culture elements such as crumbling architecture, fading shop signs, 80s and 90s videogames, and Japan’s quintesscential vending machines. He often places them in an orb-like arrangement, which packages his memories neatly.

Since studying oil painting at the Kanazawa College of Art, Sashie began his career exhibiting at Takashi Murakami’s GEISAI and has had exhibitions in Tokyo, Hong Kong, Los Angeles and Miami.

T.Rex (aka Marc Bolan)
Iconic singer, songwriter, guitarist and original glam rocker Marc Bolan (a.k.a. T. Rex) inspired a generation of British musicians to adorn glitter and makeup as a progressive message of social change in the 1960s and 70s. Bolan believed he was destined to be a rock star. He teamed up with Mickey Finn, changed his name to T.Rex, and his fans soon watched singles claim the top of the British pop charts. T.Rex’s style began to influence rock giants such as David Bowie, Mick Jagger, Rod Stewart, and David Gilmour. Though his untimely death at the age of 29 shocked fans worldwide, his creation of glam rock touched a generation and his legacy continues to live on as a cornerstone of British rock history.

Light of Love Foundation
Light Of Love Foundation raises funds for the building of the Marc Bolan School Of Music & Film. This academy of music will be built in Sierra Leone, West Africa. Our goal is to replace the automatic weapons with musical instruments, these are children of the civil war who have a purpose in life. Through music this should enable children from all over the world to come, create and learn to see their world through cinematography.

For more information on Twentieth Century Boy Visit :
http://trexlosangeles.com/

Media inquiries:
Melissa Goldberg, FYAworld, 323-951-9790, mgoldberg@foryourart.com

I recently worked with Sanrio on a special Hello Kitty collaboration produced by MEDICOM TOY . The project between the companies includes three styles of DRx/Hello Kitty figures in addition to a capsule apparel collection. The inspiration for the collection stems from my fascination with medical science . Welcome to the inner exploration of Kitty’s Anatomy !   Stay tuned for more information …

The Fall Out World.

Los Angeles was hit worst of all by the ecological and economic collapses of the 21st century…competition had been high to develop the new fuels of the future.  Advances in solar  power collection stole the very sun from the skies.  Only the richest would have a clear unbent glimpse of the sun. But for a time the power was cheap and industry ran rampant as it had not for 100 years. Los Angeles skies were darkened like some neo-Dickensian London.

A young man raised in this hell, but strong of will and determined to escape, toiled from almost his youngest memories, in the giant robotic moving factories which plodded, churning along into the dessert,  laying out entire communities as they went.  Self-contained mobile cities of 4000 workers, all of them living together in a dark, unbearably hot, and terribly dangerous industrial hell.

When a catastrophe struck, and all lives aboard his giant robotic Land-Developer were endangered by a meltdown, this young man took control of the cybernetic reigns himself. Connecting himself with the machine to prevent the disaster. ( To this day, he is scarred and must still wear the wires running to his face and neck to prevent a meltdown of the mind….)

But the incident catapulted him to powerful places in his industrial culture… and then, at his first chance, he broke with his former masters determined to drive them into the ground.

20 years later, the young man has become fat and twisted… greedy with desires to conquer all.    The gates of greater Los Angeles are owned and operated by Baron industries. All transport commercial or private are in some way controlled by him, the toll-roads, bridges and tunnels, the tariffs at the gates and ports, so in this way he came to control all manufacture… all design… all resources.  Your toaster, that robot worker, that train– likely his BARON stamp was on them all.

MEANWHILE, a small underground movement grew…  A so-called Fallout Bunker against this total commercial monopoly. Artists, scientists, engineers led the charge… and found allies among the black market, the underground,  the criminals, bar-dwellers, newly arrived foreign communities, arriving as desperate workers but with their own web of supply and demand. Those were hard, but heroic times.  Its champions found every recyclable item of any kind that they could get their hands on-and turned the very refuse of mass-produced bland existence into new exciting, functional items…  while simultaneously bringing back Design as a valid function in itself… essential to the human spirit.

In an environment such as this, can the human spirit survive let a lone flourish?  Explore the possibilities starting in Fall Out Toy Works #1, on sale September 2nd.