Color Bringer with Bambi the Dragon

Bjorn Calleja was born on August 11, 1981 in Manila, Philippines where he was learning mad creativity lessons from Saturday morning cartoons, comic books and the three stooges at an early age. In 2004 he graduated with a bachelors degree in Fine Arts major in Advertising at the Far Eastern University in Manila and has been showing his art in several solo and group exhibitions. Art is the perfect projection of an artists perception on facts and ideologies. Growing up on both the 80s and 90s has been a major influence in my art, a time when all the cards have already been laid for us to explore and exploit. I grew up immersed on several hours of booming television programming, from monsters and sci-fi movies of the 70s and 80s, to Sesame Street, cartoons and the three stooges, superheroes, up until the time when pornography introduced itself to me. Other stuff like old fairy tale books, funny komiks, and superheroes, Illustrations from encyclopedias, the streets of Manila, and Alfred E. Neuman, all of which has also been greatly influential to my hallucinatory image factory where I develop elements to start with. My art is the result of my fascination Giant Robot Store, established in 2001 features products from around the world. Notably, fun house wares, gifts, stationeries, t shirts, comics, plush and toy figures. Giant Robot is often cited as the birthplace for Asian Pop Culture products and Uglydolls. GR2 Gallery features art exhibitions by notable artists like Katsuya Terada, Luke Chueh, David Choe, Mari Inukai, Deth P Sun, Rob Sato, Ako Castuera, Sean Chao, Yoskay Yamamoto, Uglydoll, and countless others. The Giant Robot 2 (GR2) presents: YEAR OF THE DRAGON – an art exhibition featuring Dragons! This is the official GR2 Grand Re-Opening as well as our beloved Michelle Borok’s Farewell… Michelle Borok who is coincidentally Year of the Dragon, began as a clerk at Giant Robot LA and quickly found herself managing all locations, curating exhibitions, building the brand, and needless to say, much much more. She will be moving to Mongolia. “While the Year of the Rabbit was characterized by calm and tranquility, the Year of the Dragon will be marked by excitement, unpredictability, exhilaration and intensity. The Rabbit imbues people with a sense of cautious optimism, but people respond to the spirit of the Dragon with energy, vitality and unbridled enthusiasm, often throwing all caution to the wind – which can be an unwise move: The Dragon is all about drama but if you take unnecessary risks, you may find yourself starring in your own personal tragedy.”