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Last September, San Francisco-based award-winning artist/illustrator Eric Joyner's
work was featured in a segment about the “Duck Stamp” on HBO’s Emmy and Peabody-award-winning show, Last Week Tonight, hosted by John Oliver. In the segment (click here to watch), Oliver shared a history of the stamp, explained that it has raised more than $1.1 billion for habitat conservation, and then revealed that he and his production team were responsible for the entries of fivesatirical paintings into last year’s Federal Duck Stamp contest, one being Joyner’s “masterpiece,” titled "Duck Hunt" (concept sketch seen below).
The winning painting of the annual art competition is made into that year’s Federal Migratory Bird Hunting and Conservation Stamp, also called the “Duck Stamp.” Oliver then auctioned off the five submissions on eBay and donated the proceeds (nearly $100,000) to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The final auction price for Joyner’s painting was $33,200.
Joyner, who is renowned around the world for his “robots and donuts” scenes, has created an irresistible body of work. Joyner’s art, which has been licensed from the likes of Disney, Warner Brothers, and the hit HBO show Silicon Valley, depicts the tenuous conflict between children’s toys and adulthood as a portrait of another reality. His work is characterized by his playful and surrealistic style that creates harmony between the mix of cartoon characters, especially Japanese tin robots and colorful donuts inserted in all kinds of landscapes from the Age of Dinosaurs to the bottom of the ocean.
Featuring 24 new works, Someday World marks Joyner’s largest show to date at CHG. Regarding his new series, Joyner shares, “I started this series 18 months ago, at the start of the pandemic, with no particular focus except to entertain myself and pass the time. It was a time of extreme isolation for me and for a lot of others. Not socializing gave me a lot more time to work and reflect on remembered human behaviors and how I might show them in the various tin robots and other plastic toys that I have. In addition, more time than usual was put into the execution of the paintings. I am very happy how they turned out and look forward to seeing everyone, someday soon.”
Someday World opened Saturday, February 19th in the Main Gallery, alongside a five-artist exhibition featuring Jesús Aguado, Leegan Koo, Kari Tirrell, Yasuhito Kawasaki, and Sun-Mi in Gallery 2, and a solo show from Ryan Heshka, entitled Vile-O-Vision, in Gallery 3.
CHG will be requiring proof of COVID-19 vaccination as a condition of entry into the gallery, plus guest temperatures will be checked and masks will be required. 200 people at a time will be allowed into the gallery’s 12,000 square foot space, which will be monitored by CHG’s staff. After the opening, CHG returns to their regular visiting hours (Thursday through Saturday from 12:00 pm – 6:00 pm)