The Oakland Museum of California began talks about a small exhibition with Giant Robot in 2012. After multiple meetings, the exhibition grew exponentially and was placed into the largest space at the Museum in 2014. I'm often partial to the Giant Robot Biennale exhibitions, the OMCA's SuperAwesome: Art and Giant Robot is by far the largest and most in depth examination of Giant Robot, from zines, Asian and Asian American popular culture, products, to contemporary art which encapsulates the Giant Robot culture. For the first time, we worked with an institution to create an exhibition catalog. The exhibition was co-curated with Carin Adams from OMCA.

SuperAwesome: Art and Giant Robot

Coinciding with the 20th anniversary of groundbreaking alternative art and culture magazine Giant Robot, OMCA features the major exhibition, SuperAwesome: Art and Giant Robot featuring works by 15 contemporary artists who have been a part of the magazine's social and cultural evolution. Co-curated by Giant Robot visionary Eric Nakamura and OMCA’s Associate Curator of Art & Material Culture Carin Adams, SuperAwesome presents new or recent works by California and international-based artists affiliated with the influential magazine that brought Asian, trans-Pacific popular culture to mainstream audiences in the United States.

Artworks in the exhibition represent a range of mediums, including mural art, sculpture, illustration, portraiture, large-scale installations, graphic novels, photography, and more. Featured artists include:

Ako Castuera
Sean Chao
David Choe
Luke Chueh
Hamburger Eyes
Andrew Hem
James Jeankozyndan
Masakatsu Sashie
Shizu Saldamando
Rob Sato
Amy Sol
Deth P Sun
Adrian Tomine

Over the past 20 years, the Giant Robot brand has expanded to include retail stores and galleries in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New York, a restaurant, museum and gallery exhibitions, and a popular website. It has also become an important outlet for a generation of emerging artists, several of whom have achieved mainstream success—such as Adrian Tomine, whose work has graced many New Yorker covers, and James Jean, whose is best known for his work for Prada, ESPN, and Atlantic Records.

SuperAwesome connects to OMCA’s other spring exhibition Vinyl: The Sound and Culture of Records through programs and in-gallery experiences celebrating how a range of communities comes together to create shared popular culture.

SuperAwesome: Art and Giant Robot is made possible in part by generous support from Deluxe Corporation Foundation.

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