Things To Do In Los Angeles: Bros and Bros Art: Super Mario Bros and Shaw Bros at Q2

Monday, June 29, 2015

Bros and Bros Art: Super Mario Bros and Shaw Bros at Q2

The Splatoon soundtrack echoed then switched to a song from Garnet from Steven Universe as the BROS VS BROS- Mushroom Kingdom (Super Mario Bros.) & Shaw Brothers Cinema Tribute Art Show got underway at Little Tokyo's Q2 Gallery. On one side, you had your favorite mustachioed red and green plumbers and a pink princess. On the other side you had hard kicks and people hurting after martial art major impacts.

Returning artists included one of our up-and coming-favs, Jean Liang with a three-piece long green pipe. Phillip Light had doodled Princesses and a NES over-world map.

Artist Tara Billinger, with red hair like Misty, was wearing a recent buy from the Pokemon Pop Up Shop at Japan LA, she told us she was second in line for the opening of the short-term Poke-Shop. In her Pokemon duds she told us about her love of Birdo. "Birdo" being the subject and the name of her work. "She's the girl character I always pick, but she's not a girl, but, I always pick her. I just don't want to be Peach, " that's Tara on her piece. "My invitation got lost in the mail and then they said, 'Oh, It's do in four days, and I was, 'What art show?, " she added. Her piece also presents the plumber we all ove being thrashed by Birdo's eggs and initially Tara wanted the title to be, "Do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do, but I couldn't write that all." She meant the death jingle Mario gets in his games.

Someone who did care for Princess Peach was Henry-John De Leon. He did a wonderful Mad Max Fury Road meets Mario Bros mash up, simply titled "Mad Mario". It was inspired by the YouTube video that blended the game and film. The detail includes a Princes Peach Furiosa with a crown crew-cut on her head, a green pipe gas-tanker, a bob-omb back up car, and a pink cruiser front for Peach, all while being chased by some koopa roadsters. "I was holding back a lot, but I totally wanted to make it PC, maybe I'll make a darker version next time, " De Leon.

After being told to go see Five Fingers of Death, as one of his pieces was about it, Max Ulichney talked about his Mario Kart-inspired piece "Grand Prix Mario" with a sleek 60's design. "It's Mario and Peach in a sort of Steve McQueen era of Mario Kart, " Max told us. He taledk like a comedian and has mus laughing the whole way though our conversation. "One of the.. the B-Dasher in Mario Kart was inspired by Honda's early F-1 efforts, so I recognized they were make reference to that..., " I interrupt him, asking him how much he knows, he's been giving tidbits and insight to his art before recoding our conversation, he smiles and tells me he's a car fan. "Probably no one will get the reference, but in front of the car is a shell logo, on the original F-1 car there is a Shell gas logo, so I have shell logo there."