Street Art in Review: All at Once, Tristan Eaton
The Long Beach Museum of Art has extended its exhibition featuring the works of Tristan Eaton until the end of October 2021.
All at Once is an exhibition of street artist Tristan Eaton. The works featured span over the past 25 years that encompass multiple mediums of art and design. An LA native, Eaton’s early works not only involve street art but also ‘Art Toys’ when he co-founded Kidrobot and designed the Dunny and Munny figurines which are shown in the first room of the installation.
After passing the vibrant mix of figurines and work from his Thunderdog Studios, a display of some of his guerrilla street art takes center stage. Under the guise of TrustoCorp (before going public), Eaton and his group went around multiple cities to post pieces that, through humor, poked and prodded at behaviors, current events, hypocrisy, vices, and more.
A small corridor filled with floor to ceiling 3D art is accompanied by exhibit specific 3D glasses that give the walls a bit of an interactive touch.
Walking past the 3D bit, visuals of Eaton’s murals from around the world are displayed (some shown in the top photo). Thereafter, a flight of stairs takes you to the second floor where parts of his “Uprise” collection can be found. As the artist puts it:
UPRISE is a visual history of protest and resistance. In the age of Donald Trump — a rise in racism, xenophobia, sexual discrimination, corporate greed and blatant human rights violations worldwide propelled my need to paint the voice of justice, and voice of hope for a better world. A look back on human history reveals time and again how the vulnerable rise to topple those in power, vanquishing tyrants with peaceful protest and collective resilience. This body of work is a reminder of that sublime power — a reminder that protest and resistance are both a human trait and human right. Whether Martin Luther King Jr. marching from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, or an anonymous man in Tiananmen Square, change always comes at a price and with much endurance. In these works, I hope to honor brave leaders of the past, and embolden the freedom fighters of our futures.
On the second floor, collaborations with marvel, NFL, as well as SpaceX are shown as well as portraits of those who influenced him as part of his LEGACY series. Another room is furnished with selected fine art works that really exemplify his use of textures.
A final, interactive room called the Unfair Funfair allows guests to play with games whose titles speak for themselves.
Overall, those who enjoy street art will find this exhibit not only refreshing but fun and eventful. Exclusive merchandise is sold at the exhibit and if you purchase your tickets online on a friday, they are sold at 50% off which came out to $6 each when I bought them. The museum is located right next to the beach with stairs that can take you there. The beach is equipped with a basketball court, a playground, as well as some calisthenics equipment and a food stand too.
Most of the information here was gathered from the museum’s website, pamphlet as well as Triston Eaton’s website. Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed :)
