OKOKUME

Swab Barcelona, International Contemporary Art Fair presents the new edition of Swab Toyz by FLS. The proposal is build on the idea of delivering white 8 ” Bunny Qee s to designers and artists that will make your own version of this toy. Some of these customized Toys can be seen during the month of June in La Comercial, located in the Born. The Toys will be auctioned during the month of June. 100% of the benefits from the sale of Toys will go to the Foundation Fighting Against AIDS (FLS) under the direction of Dr. Bonaventura Clotet, a non-profit organization that aims to care, research and teach in the field of AIDS. Thanks to the collaboration of Sotheby’s, have been presented a live auction on June 19th in The Palauet, where a selection of 20 Toys were auctioned. The rest of Toys will be auctioned online between 20 and 30 June in the online store. This initiative is curated by Juan Redon and counts on the collaboration of Lapolab that has given for free all the white 8 ” Bunny Qee s to be customized. Okokume, Laura Mas Hernandez alter ego, is an illustrating artist from Mataró (Barcelona). Since she was very young, she has covered a wide range of artistic techniques, as oil, coal or mud among other materials. ​ She is considered herself part of the Lowbrow movement (surrealist pop) and films as Studio Ghibli (Hayao Miyazaki) have helped her to find an affinity to the naïf art style. Okokume has been influenced by other films as Akira (Katsuhiro Ôtomo), creating unconsciously characters with great similarities to the “elder kids” in the film. Turquoise faces with whitish hair along with bodies in decomposition. According to the artist, bodies reach their immortality in a natural process: the passage to death. The work of many artists like Tara McPherson, Yoskay Yamamoto and Tomer Hanuka, have inspired her to find the way to her current style. ​ Okokume works particularly with acrylic paints but she always plays with mixed techniques. She likes to experiment with all kind of materials that arrives to her hands and she could be called self-taught because she puts into practice everything she discovers. Her work is captured on various platforms, such as art toys, sculptures, paintings, sheets, wood, walls and others.