Grab ‘Em By the Astrobat!

Having grown up on the West Coast most of my life and coming from a family of uber ‘antique’ collectors and artists, my eclectic upbringing was filled with a wide range of ’Pop’ ephemera. Many of those inspirations now show up in my work and stem from the backdrop of my childhood. The Subject of my paintings is a world of side-show icons, deviant Animalia, and ‘masked’ glorified cartoon alter egos. I utilize these icons and character cultures as antithetical counterparts to what we are lead to believe as being innocent and socially acceptable. Although misfits on the surface, a sense of relation is understood, secret from the public - we are all misfits; hiding behind animated personas, odd and beautifully unusual. Who is it that we relate to? The lonely little boy hiding in a bear suite, the evil lustful pool-hall wolf, the sexualized little girl who secretly wants more. The environment and its limited population are meant to conjure these questions, the viewers are confronted with fi Mori Katsura is the one-man army known as Real x Head. He started producing his own line of Soft Vinyl toys in 2003 and has never looked back. Known for his original character designs, inventive color-ways and unique form factors, he has released thousands of figures in hundreds of color variations. In 2008 he opened his own toy shop - Shinto Gangu - in the working class suburbs of Tokyo where he grew up. His mini one-eyed fortune cat has been a crossover hit bringing new fans into the collectively addictive world of Japanese Soft Vinyl toys. In addition to continuing to pump out his own creations and collaborating with artists in Japan and around the world, he is actively nurturing the next wave of Japanese Soft Vinyl artists. Mori Katsura is the one-man army known as Real x Head. He started producing his own line of Soft Vinyl toys in 2003 and has never looked back. Known for his original character designs, inventive color-ways and unique form factors, he has released thousands of figures in hundreds of color variations. In 2008 he opened his own toy shop - Shinto Gangu - in the working class suburbs of Tokyo where he grew up. His mini one-eyed fortune cat has been a crossover hit bringing new fans into the collectively addictive world of Japanese Soft Vinyl toys. In addition to continuing to pump out his own creations and collaborating with artists in Japan and around the world, he is actively nurturing the next wave of Japanese Soft Vinyl artists.