This Is Not A Toy Exhibition Curated By Pharrell Williams

If you’re in Toronto the next few months check out the exhibition This Is Not A Toy, guest curated by music and fashion mogul Pharrell Williams.

It’s also the first time for coveted artists, Brooklyn’s KAWS and Japan’s Takashi Murakami, to show their work in a design museum. On view from February 7 until May 19, 2014, the exhibition takes its name from the disclaimer found on packaging for objects that may be called toys, but aren’t meant for play.

(I recognize and have owned a few Japanese toys in the collection!)

Visitors absorb a multi-faceted sensory experience, as they are immersed in a vibrant world filled with music, video, and vinyl via iPad Air, iPad mini with Retina display and iMac.

Features include in-depth interviews with artists such as KAWS, Huck Gee and Frank Kozik, stop-motion videos created by fans of Kidrobot figures, and get an exclusive look at how vinyl toys are made and customized. The showstopper, The Simple Things, is a striking sculpture created by a trio of trailblazing creatives: Williams, Murakami and Jacob Arabo, a.k.a. “Jacob the Jeweler”.

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 exhibited at London’s Tate Museum, Paris’ Chateau de Versailles, Qatar’s Museum of Islamic Art, and now, Toronto’s Design Exchange.

This Is Not A Toy is on display at the Design Exchange from Friday, February 7th to Monday, May 19th, 2014.

via:http://www.mogulbaby.com/2014/02/this-is-not-a-toy-exhibition-curated-by-pharrell-williams/