400% Frosty Blown Away Bearbrick

Since being founded in Miami Beach in 2007, Avant Gallery has remained as committed as ever to being an exciting presence for established as well as early to mid-career contemporary artists. Avant currently operates from multiple venues: its flagship in Downtown Miami at the Epic Hotel, which also incorporates a culinary experience with the integrated LaMuse Café; at the Four Seasons Jumeirah Resort in Dubai, which features a curated salon exhibition encompassing 50,000+ square feet, conceptualized as Artmosphere®; and as of March 2019, a New York City cornerstone flagship gallery space and part of the world’s largest mixed-use development, The Shops at Hudson Yards. Los Angeles based artist Josh Mayhem's lifelong habit of collecting children's playthings has fueled his passion for transforming said toys into objects d'art. Among his best-known pieces are those constituting his “Blown Away” series, in which mass-produced forms are covered in strands of resin and layers of acrylic paint to create gravity-defying drips that give the impression of the work being deconstructed by a strong wind. The popularity of this aesthetic has led to Mayhem winning the Custom of the Year (Fan) award at the 2019 Designer Toys Awards, multiple releases with the many of the worlds top designer toy artists and producers, participating in TRASHed: Art of Recycling at Coachella Festival, and solo exhibitions at Clutter Gallery in Beacon NY, Bruce Lurie Gallery in Los Angeles CA (as well as an artist residency) , PIQ Grand Central Terminal in NYC, and The Crown Collection Gallery in both Denver and Los Angeles. In the process of creating his coveted sculptural works, Josh Mayhem uses gallery-quality canvases as drop cloths. As each becomes decorated with an accumulation of colorful drips, patterns begin to emerge in the artist's mind. Augmenting each one with coatings of synthetic resin and additional paint splashes, these works Bearbrick (rendered Be@rbrick) is a collectible toy designed and produced by the Japanese company MediCom Toy Incorporated. The name is derived from the fact that the figure is a cartoon-style representation of a bear and that it is a variation of MediCom's Kubrick design. The at sign in the place of the letter a is a visual device that is a part of the Bearbrick brand, and as such, a trademark of MediCom Toy. The first figure was released 27 May 2001 as a free gift to visitors of the World Character Convention 12 in Tokyo. Since then Bearbricks have been released in several different sizes using a variety of materials, including wood, felt, and glow-in-the-dark plastic. The standard size is seven centimeters high, and these figures are referred to as 100% Bearbricks. Other Bearbricks are named for their size relative to the standard: 50% are four centimeters high, 70% are five centimeters high, 400% are 28 centimeters high, and 1000% are 70 centimeters high. A 200% size chogokin Bearbrick has also been produced standing 14 centimeters tall. A 150% size "Bearbrick Light" has also been produced in 2012, standing 10.5 centimeters tall with a key chain on its head.