Pharrell Williams’, Grammy winner and THE unavoidable music star of 2013, is also up for an Oscar and performing this Sunday’s ceremonies. He’s also curated the new This Is Not a Toy exhibit featured at Canada’s Design Museum in Toronto. Together with Design Exchange, Pharrell serves as the guest curator bringing us KAWS, Takashi Murakami and Misaki Kawai all together under one roof. This Is Not A Toy transforms DX’s Exhibition Hall into a candy-coloured space evoking smiles through exuberant, imaginative works. Visitors absorb a multi-faceted sensory experience, as they are immersed in a space filled with music, video, and vinyl via iPad Air, iPad mini with Retina display and iMac. In-depth interviews with artists, watch stop-motion videos created by fans of Kidrobot, and get a look at how vinyl toys are made. The showstopper, The Simple Things, is a sculpture created by the trio of creatives: Williams, Murakami and Jacob Arabo, a.k.a. “Jacob the Jeweler” (last photo). The fiberglass, metal and steel head features a wide grin that reveals blinged-out ordinary objects, including a Pepsi can, a cupcake, and a Heinz ketchup bottle. First unveiled during Art Basel in 2009, The Simple Things has been making the rounds to London’s Tate Museum, Versailles, Qatar’s Museum of Islamic Art, and now, Toronto’s Design Exchange. Among the paintings and sculptures on view are: FriendsWithYou’s animated short film Cloudy and custom Rainbow Vortex; Misaki Kawai’s tactile, comb-able animal-shaped fur paintings; and prized items from Williams’ personal art collection, including Milo on Rocking Horse by Japanese fashion label A Bathing Ape; Be@rbrick representations of his Grammy-winning partners Daft Punk; and commissioned KAWS paintings, aptly named KAWSBOB 3 and KURFS (CROWD). Other contributing artists include Veteran neo-pop artist, Yoshitomo Nara, Huck Gee, Coarse, Frank Kozik, and Bill McMullen. The exhibit will be on display through May 19th. For more info go to the museum’s website. (via Hip Hop Wired)
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