JOYENGINE: cause sharing is cool

John Fellows and Kris Fry just had a collaborative show at the Plastic Chapel. We didn’t make it down for the show, but Matt Doubek is here and he brought down a little goodie bag from the show (1 print, 1 sticker, 1 button and a little zine). The work from the zine looks awesome, and we’re super bummed we didn’t make it down. If any of you other contributors made it and happened to take photos, please put them up!

We’re stoked to spread the love on this one… This Saturday, May 10th at the Plastic Chapel on Colfax… COLLABORATION at it’s finest!!! John Fellows and Kris Fry have teamed up to break out In Cahoots, a super-collaborative endeavor conspired and created over the past 2 months. This seriously graphically skilled duo will be droppin’ silk screen posters, lino cuts, drawings, and an all new zine for the show. The work’ll be rad for certain - stop by.

Mike Graves has been ferociously attacking the progressive art world, having recently shown in SF, with his figurative character work. And it’s both “Legit” and “Awesome.” Hence the title of Mike’s show this Saturday night, April 12th at Dee and Daves’ emporium of wonder, the Plastic Chapel. Legit and Awesome opens Saturday night at 7pm. It’s gonna be rad so go check it out.

Toys are at least equally important to grown-ups as they are kids… On Saturday March 8th the Denver creative community rallied to support their own. Dea and Dave Webb(artists, toy collectors and owners of the Plastic Chapel), and Josh and Tran Wills(Super dynamic art & design duo and owners of the Shoppe and the Fabric Lab) compiled their collective creative forces to play host to one helluvah kick frikin’ ass DIY custom toy show. The 3100 block of East Colfax, more commonly known now-a-days as “The Block” was home to a stellar plastic inspired party. With over 120 custom toy entries all 3 shops were fully stocked. Folks of all ages and all sorts were out soaking up the vinyl love and the peeps participating were all mega amp’d. There was way too many artists involved to rattle off a list of names and the subsequent expected urls, so the pics (and they could be better) we’ll have to do. You’ll know who did what upon closer inspection… The Denver art scene is booming with definitive styles now more easily recognized than ever. On behalf of those of us at the Engine, we’d like to thank those who “run the block” for really steppin’ the game up and continuing to provide the creative arena they so wholeheartedly do. Word up to that shit.

Mike Graves and Shitty Kitten have been pow-wowin’ on the weekends and paintin’ their arty lil’ asses off. Shitty seems to be pushin’ Graves out of his comfort zone, and Graves is inspiring the hell out of Markham. They’ve been collabbin’ on some toys for Plastic Chapel’s upcoming show, all sorts of wood panels and some other yet to be announced goodies. Shitty whipped out some samples when we hung last and they’re lookin’ tip-top… they’ve got a ways to go, but oughtta be awesome! Rumor has it that Lefavor is gonna be gettin’ involved with the duo real soon… We’ll be waiting with baited breath.

We had one hell of a Saturday night. It started off at Limited Addiction for the annual group show. The work was amazing, if you just checked it out online get off yer ass and get down there - it’s stunning in person. Next we headed over to The Shoppe for Josh’s birthday. En route we snagged some photos of Chris‘ Obama propaganda - awesome! The shoppe was packed, cereal and cupcakes flying everywhere. The lovely folks of Plastic Chapel let us in after hours to check out the YOK show. It was great to see a mix of his newer painting style and his classic one color illustrations. Back at The Shoppe we had a serious Tetris throw down (for the record TB blows). Later we even ended up at Sam’s - one of the founders of 303 Boards - and peeped some classic Lefavor decks. All in all, it was a pretty amazing artsy fartsy night! Enjoy the pics!

March 8th looks more and more like it’s gonna be a big night on the calendar. Not only are the Shoppe and Plastic Chapel having the custom toy show, but The Fabric Lab is showing the work of Sandra Fettingis. Not that this is any sort of unusual soirée for the Colfax crew, it’s just another great reason to get out and enjoy a handful of things in this new and flourishing artistic community. Colfax is climbing the neat neighborhood ladder and inviting everyone out to be involved and support the progress. Make sure to check out Sandra’s website and set some time aside for another spectacular evening on Colfax, Denver’s new home for art, fashion, custom vinyl and cupcakes. Check links for details and extra info on artists and locations.

Our pals at The Plastic Chapel, The Shoppe, and The Fabric Lab… perhaps better known as the “BLOCK” will be doing what they do best, teaming up, and playing host to what we’re certain is gonna be a straight up rippin’ DIY designer toy show. Yeah, we know, kick-frickin-ass! The show is gonna be March 8th at 7pm on the 3100 block of East Colfax. Entries are open to all interested parties. Registration is $5. All entries must be in by March 1st. There’s only one requirement, your “canvas” should be a toy. We happen to know some ambitious folks who’ll be designing their own, but for those not so inclined, take your pick… Munny, Qee, Be@rbrick, Trexi, Gosho, Sqwert, Teddy Trooper, etc.. the list goes on and on. There’ll be booze, tasty treats, and all sorts of great shit. Get with the program and sign up soon.

Josh Wills, our BFF from The Fabric Lab is having a solo show at Plastic Chapel down in D town on Oct. 07, 7pm - 11pm. Josh is a super rad dude (we love the whole dang Wills family!) and his work rocks, we’re all pumped for the show.

Plastic Chapel

UPSO will pull the curtain back on a new set of work for his solo opening at the house of vinyl…Plastic Chapel. UPSO designed a Series 2 Dunny (+ SDCC GID variant) and has also customized his fair share of vinyl figs. Beyond toys, UPSO has his hands in numerous art related projects including publishing the annual art magazine Faesthetic, managing a ’select’ line of shirts for “Threadless.com” and running a design studio (Studio Sans Nom) with his wife. Finally, he has shown his fine art in several shows including the recent Scion Be Square mini-art tour. I got the chance to meet him earlier today and aside from being a super rad artist, he is also a super nice guy. So if you’re in Denver, definitely go check it on out!

UPSO

Damn, a couple of sick themed shows on friday - word is Donut Dave had a Small Dog show as well. If you’re familiar with Shitty’s work you know he’s got a sick arsenal of dope ass monsters. This show (at the Plastic Chapel) took us back to their youth. It was nasty, seeing the baby Ghost Stache got me a little misty. Markham, you’re the man and you KILLED IT! I can’t believe we didn’t get any photos of the mural… we’ll have to go back.

If you didn’t make it to Markham or Jason’s shows you should really make an effort - it will be well worth your time. Oh and if anybody has photos from the Yummies show, send ‘em our way

As promised earlier in the week, we would collect as many photos as we could to show everyone how fun & fantastic the Glorification event was. I did some fixing and searching through all of my pics. Some were totally jacked but still needed to be used for their representational value and others were reshot. As I had mentioned before, I was in the Guerilla Fashion show, so I couldn’t take any shots at the INDY INK show or Ikon’s work. I will cruise back by later on and grab some fresh flicks of the pieces on display. Take a look at what I’ve collected so far and make sure to stay tuned for the Ikon vs Hack show pics.

Plastic Chapel | Ryan Riss | INDY INK | The Fabric Lab