Second Friday of each month we will be open from 6 to 9pm for the Downtown Mesa Second Friday event - a fun filled street party featuring live music, food art and more! We host our Gallery opening reception this night each month unless otherwise noted. Occasionally, we close to store to attend conventions.
In-Store Events:
We are part of Downtown Mesa's Second Friday's. We open a new Gallery show on the second Friday of every month (excluding holidays). See individual listings below for more details.
Artist Submissions: Interested in being a part of a Gallery Show at Lulubell? Email jpegs of your work and a brief bio to: amy@lulubelltoys.com. Parties will be contacted as appropriate.
December:
Skin Deep - Opening Reception Friday, December 9th from 6 to 9pm
Please join us for our Grand Opening in Mesa & our first Gallery Opening, all in one night! Lulubell Toy Bodega has made beautiful downtown Mesa it's permanent home, and is hosting "Skin Deep" to celebrate!
Scott Wilkowski has been busy putting skulls, skeletons and creepy creatures inside your favorite designer toys. For Skin Deep, he infects Buff Monster's "Buff Monster", Luke Chueh's "Possessed", Frank Kozik's "Labbit", October Toys "Gwin", Suckadelic's "Sucklord" and Scott Tolleson's "Otis & Otto".
Each of the six hand-cast resin editions are done in two colorways each.
Skin Deep is curated by DKE Toys. Dov and Sarah Jo have produced several art shows together including: The Vader Project, Spoonful of Star Wars, STUFFED: a plush food show and The Custom Yoka Show.
Scott Wilkowski: Scott Wilkowski is a Wisconsin-based artist and sculptor. He perfected the process he used to produce Skin Deep for The Custom Yoka Show, which premiered at Designer Con in 2009. His piece was the first to sell and was so popular it became a special edition with new pieces showing and selling out at each of the seven stops on The Custom Yoka Show US gallery tour. The pieces he created as a collaboration with designer toy creator JAMUNGO for San Diego Comic-Con in 2010 and 2011 were also instant sell-outs. Scott works as a professional sculptor and has done sculpting work for Sideshow Collectibles, McFarlane Toys, Disney and Sanrio. www.scottwilkowski.com
January:
Huck Gee book release & in-store signing, Friday, January 13th from 6 to 8pm
Huck Gee is releasing his first full length book, and Lulubell is hosting a release and book signing with Huck on January 13th, 2012! His new book will be available, with a special book-tour exclusive cover, for $35 and Huck will be signing in-store from 6 to 8pm!
About Huck Gee: A UK native, Huck Gee is a contemporary artist, illustrator, toy maker, and designer best known by toy enthusiasts for his iconic “Skullhead” character and “Gold Life” art creations. Heavily influenced by Japanese and Hong Kong pop art, Gee calls his style “Bastardized Asian Pop Culture”.
The demand for Huck’s Custom Toy Art and illustrations has grown quite immense, with small runs of hand crafted Art Toys and original prints selling out in seconds online and shipping to art collectors worldwide. Huck’s works have been exhibited in galleries worldwide and in 2007 his “Hello My Name Is” 8” Dunny was accepted into the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in NYC. In addition, Huck has also consigned several pieces for one of the world’s leading fine art auction houses: Christie’s Auction House.
He’s released numerous limited production toys through Kidrobot including some of the most exclusive and sought after Dunnys to date, figures for The Standard, DJ Qbert, and a series of figures for Barney’s New York which came dressed in the 2005 spring collections of five of the world’s most famous fashion designers: Marc Jacobs, Dries Van Noten, Jil Sander, Rick Owens, and Duckie Brown. His extraordinary skills with customizing vinyl toys earned him the title of Best Customizer in the 2009 Kidrobot Artist Awards.
Most recently Huck collaborated with Ken Block and DC Shoes for Ken’s Monster World Rally Team WRC logo entitled “Blockhead”. Coinciding with this project were several limited edition shoe and clothing runs.
February:
Grody Shogun (Luke Rook) and Velocitron (Ricky Wilson) are having a joint show at Toy Art Gallery in Hollywood, CA from February 4th to February 29th. As a special event for the opening reception, both Luke and Ricky will be available via video chat to paint custom figures live. At the end of the show, the remaining toys will be available online from TAG.
