“Juan Muniz – Artist and creator of Felipe the Bunny, an anthropomorphic little character who is depicted in everyday circumstances of hope, levity and challenge. Though simplistic in style, Juan’s paintings offer deeper messages that appeal to art collectors around the world and have also been used to represent such well known organizations as the NBA, the UFC, Pepsi and Zappos”.
Born in Mexico and raised in Southern California, Juan Muniz is a toy designer, muralist and fine artist with an art career spanning over 15 years. He has shown his unique style of art...
Born in Mexico and raised in Southern California, Juan Muniz
is a toy designer, muralist and fine artist with an art career spanning over 15
years. He has shown his unique style of art – a mixture of pop art, pop
surrealism, animation and lowbrow - in galleries from prestigious locales such
as Las Vegas, Los Angeles, New York, Japan, San Francisco, and Taipei.
Muniz conceptualized a collection of original characters,
most notably Felipe the Bunny, an anthropomorphic little bunny who is depicted
in everyday circumstances of hope, joy and challenge. He
chose to name this original creation after his brother, Felipe, who passed away
at birth. Through Felipe the Bunny and the
additional cast of characters, Muniz’s work is meant to portray universal messages
about life in today’s society; from love, and compassion, to heart break, anxiety,
and depression. With child-like charm
and a bright color palette, Muniz expresses his emotions in such a way that the
viewer is drawn into his paintings with an open heart and open mind, ideally
connecting to the simplest and deepest part of us all.
Juan Muniz has also successfully taken his talents and art
career beyond the traditional art gallery using street art, apparel and toys. Universally known organizations such as the
NBA, UFC, Insomniac Inc, Hard Rock Hotel/Cafe, Cosmopolitan Hotel, Zappos, Don
Julio Tequila, Pepsi, and The Sugar Factory to name a few, have enlisted his
creative talents for branding and artistic imagery. And, personally intrigued by the fascinating
realm of vinyl toys, Juan launched himself into the designer toy world by
creating his first vinyl figure “UHOH”, which completely sold out! He quickly followed it up with the vinyl toy
“Smile”, winning the esteemed “Artist of the Year 2017” at the
Designer Toy Awards.
Today we are able to see Juan Muniz’s new originals and
recent character creations through select Signature Gallery locations. Look for an upcoming show!
“Say it simple, Mean it Deep” – Juan Muniz
Like Norman Rockwell, Seuss personally created every rough sketch, preliminary drawing, final line drawing and finished work for each page of every project he illustrated. Despite the technical and budgetary limitations of color printing during the early and mid-twentieth century, Dr. Seuss the artist was meticulous about color selection. He created specially numbered color charts and elaborate color call-outs to precisely accomplish his vision for each book. Saturated reds and blues, for example, were carefully chosen for The Cat in the Hat to attract and maintain the visual attention of a six-year-old audience. By the time Seuss’s book career took off, sharp draftsman skills were evident in drawings. His ability to move a storyline ahead via illustrations filled with tension, movement and color became a hallmark component of his work, and the surreal images that unfolded over six decades became the catalyst for a humorous and inspired learning experience.
Artist Leo Rijn, the inaugural sculptor for the Dr. Seuss Tribute Collection I, was selected to launch this project due to his prized work with some of today’s top talent in the world of film, entertainment and the visual arts (including Tim Burton, Ang Lee and Steven Spielberg). Rijn has been identified as one of today’s brightest sculpting talents because of his ability to breathe life into the written word and successfully transform two-dimensional ideas into three-dimensional works of art. Universal Studios commissioned Leo to develop and oversee the creation of numerous maquette scale models for the Monumental Dr. Seuss Sculptures at Seuss Landing in Orlando, Florida. Leo was instrumental in the art direction for many of the sculpted characters and buildings now on display at this permanent Seuss attraction. His strikingly accurate Seuss works embody a masterful and intuitive Seussian sensibility, establishing him as a leading talent in interpretive sculpting.
Seuss embarked on an ingenious project in the early 1930s as he evolved from two-dimensional artworks to three-dimensional sculptures. What was most unusual for these mixed-media sculptures was the use of real animal parts including beaks, antlers and horns from deceased Forest Park Zoo animals where Seuss’s father was superintendent. Unorthodox Collection of Taxidermy was born in a cramped New York apartment and included a menagerie of inventive creatures with names like the “Two Horned Drouberhannis,” “Andulovian Grackler,” and “Semi-Normal Green-Lidded Fawn.” Shortly after Seuss created this unique collection of artworks, Look Magazine dubbed Seuss “The World’s Most Eminent Authority on Unheard-Of Animals.” To this day, Seuss’s Unorthodox Collection of Taxidermy remains as some of the finest examples of his inventive and multi-dimensional creativity.
Illustrator by day, surrealist by night, Seuss created a body of irrepressible work that redefines this American icon as an iconographic American artist. Yet, the Secret Art often shows a side of the artist that most readers, familiar with him through his classic children’s books, have never seen. This collection, created over a period of more than 60 years, encompasses the entirety of Seuss’s multi-dimensional talent. The artistic golden thread highlighted throughout this collection is apparent in each wildly imaginative and surreal Secret Art image. The Secret Art of Dr. Seuss is an inimitable collection of artworks created at night for his own personal enjoyment. These works were rarely, if ever, exhibited during his lifetime and provide a deeper glimpse into the art and life of this celebrated American Icon.
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