Teaming up with streetwear leviathans Pizzaboyzzz a nd Future Fantasy Delight , a member of the prolific arts and entertainment collective Meow Wolf , Think Tank Gallery is proud to announce the opening of their latest installation Nothing Cheezy on July 20th, 2019. Nothing Cheezy is a pizza-fueled, self-aware, selfie-themed pop-up that lightheartedly mocks what immersive pop-up art shows have become. Taking a fun approach to reappropriating the pop-up art show model, the show puts the artists back at the forefront and will feature installations from Cheap Slasher Films, Nina Palomba, Butch Von Dreaux, TOFU, Abars, Berk Visual, Isa Beniston (Gentle Thrills), Baker’s Son, Anta52, Balloonski, Deladeso, and Utopia US as well as Meow Wolf artist Future Fantasy Delight . The work of dozens of painters, illustrators, photographers, sculptors and pizza artisans will also be included.
“We’re calling it a self-aware selfie tour,” says Think Tank Gallery’s director, Jacob Patterson. “Each artist is being given a room with explicit credit and plenty of freedom on how that room looks and functions. Some artists are creating works that are intentionally too encompassing to be captured in a picture, forcing guests to live inside the art rather than share it to social media. Other artists are creating work that is incomplete until it does my personal favorite thing: requires the audience to sacrifice themselves to the fully immersive experience, like a door that only opens once you complete a ‘Putt Putt Golfzilla’ course. Every installation is the cheesiest thing we can make so we’re all laughing the whole way through.”
No stranger to the medium, Think Tank Gallery has been building food themed art pop-ups since 2013, starting with the exploration of LA’s coffee culture Coffeegraph , followed by the breakout hit Break Bread in 2016, a labyrinth of cake and ice cream that saw over 30,000 attendees. Adding to their arsenal of fantastic collaborators, Meow Wolf ’s illustration and design label Future Fantasy Delight has joined the installation. The New-Mexico based arts collective has been a long time supporter of Think Tank through the company’s DIY Fund grants, allowing Think Tank to take on the overpriced and overhyped selfie driven pop-ups that LA has become accustomed to seeing. Beginning as a small collective of artists, nurturing the creative spirit is built into the core of Meow Wolf and Nothing Cheezy’s artist focused approach is perfectly aligned with their mission to put the artist’s work first.
“ Being a longtime lover of pizza and all things related, it's been a blast working on my Nothing Cheezy installation. The Think Tank fam asked me to create a 90s teenage boys bedroom full of empty pizza boxes and Sega Dreamcast games and beanbags. Cowabunga dude! " stated Meow Wolf artist Nico Salazar, also known as Future Fantasy Delight .