On Saturday, September 14, AKARTS Comics hosted its Hip-Hop Fusion: Immersive Comic Art Exhibition at the Urban Art Collective. The exhibition featured various pieces of art inspired by hip-hop and anime. From 6-10pm, people could come in for free, look at all the artworks and purchase some for themselves. The artists behind this exhibition were Andy Akangh, Michaela Van Beinum and Florencia Alba.
AKARTS Comics, founded by Akangh, is a streetwear and home goods brand inspired by a fusion of hip-hop and anime. Akangh explains, “I love reimagining rappers we take as is and thinking what they would be like more closely to the superheroes we know today through Marvel or DC or Dark Horse Comics, and yes, anime!” He references shows like Dragon Ball and Vagabond as some of his biggest inspirations.
Urban Art Collective. Photo provided.
Traditionally, AKARTS Comics creates 2D art, necessitating a change in the process during the making of this exhibition. “I wanted to respect traditional mediums but give them a fresh, playful update. My vision was to explore texture, movement, and world-building, which led me to collaborate with Florencia Alba on a paper installation and Michaela Van Beinum on projection mapping.” Akangh describes. The direction of the exhibition pushed the artist out of his comfort zone. He points out that, “I had to unlearn certain aspects of my creative workflow. For instance, details that show up one way on canvas can appear very differently on paper or scale differently in a projection.” This led him to develop skills in working with lenticular prints, strategic lighting and framing.
See any familiar artists? Photo provided.
The main room of the exhibition featured the new work of AKARTS. These included 3D prints of rappers, plus an art installation of a giant book, featuring the Notorious B.I.G. Equally captivating were the portraits of rappers reimagined as samurais, lined with bamboo frames. The exhibition covered a large era of hip-hop, anime and comics, spanning from the 90s until the modern day. This meant that people of all ages were delighted to see their favourite rapper featured in the artwork.
Getting creative! Photo provided.
Deeper inside the Urban Art Collective, people could also purchase buttons, prints and shirts that featured their favourite art from the exhibition. The shop featured some prints from older artworks of AKARTS and some unique products, like an AKARTS colouring book. It allows eventgoers to interact with the art by creating their own from the original sketches.
The Hip-Hop Fusion: Immersive Comic Art Exhibition attracted a big audience. The Urban Art Collective was bustling through the entire four hours as people filed in and out. Akangh had already stated his desire to continue working with lenticular prints and specialized papers before the event. It is safe to assume that the success of the event will only encourage him.
Locally made Urban Art apparel and cool $#!+. Photo provided.
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