The show, “Souls Gone Mad” opened at Rotofugi this past weekend to a big crowd, with amazing artwork from the Coarse duo Mark and Sven.
N3rd Link members John and Mawuli were on hand for the opening reception and here are our experiences at the exhibit.
Mark, Sven and Kirby (the owner of Rotofugi) spent up to the last minute of the opening setting up the exhibit. But that did not stop them from having the show start right at 7pm on Saturday.
If you haven’t been to the new Rotofugi store it’s a great place for an exhibit. One portion of the shop is dedicated for art shows and the other is the premier destination for vinyl toy collectors (Rotofugi has been voted Best Toy store at the DTA’s 2 years straight.)
Once the show opened it was a dash to grab a price list and then find the corresponding piece that matched it. There were fiberglass pieces, sculpted resin and photographs available for purchase. Overall I felt that the prices for originals was very reasonable. The majority of the art work was less than $3k including one offs and editions of 3. Of course Rotofugi had a show exclusive resin piece entitled Dark Sorrows. If you saw the promo photos you already know what it looks like. The figure is limited to 100 pieces and retails for $680 and has an estimated delivery date of Feb-Mar 2013.
For those that don’t have the cash for an OG or the exclusive figure there was a lithograph of Dark Sorrow for $20 and a lithograph poster set ($48) which may look familiar to Coarse fans.
There were also some freebie show cards and sticker set as well as coins specifically minted for the “Soul Shaker” pony style ride.
Mark and Sven did a signing for all attendees. I had them sign my poster set and Mawuli had the back of his iPhone sketched on.
Probably the coolest experience at the show happened right before the gallery closed. With the gallery pretty much empty we were able to walk around with Sven and he answered our questions about future releases and inspiration behind some of the show pieces. Here are some of notes I took:
- Coarse x ThreeA collab; Supposedly the figure is completed but still needs to be painted and approved by ThreeA. Mark has not had time to give it the attention it needs. So it looks like the ball is in Coarse’s court but I wouldn’t hold your breath that it will be released anytime soon.
- About Ruth; Ruth is Coarse’s first female figure they created. There has been speculation why there hasn’t been a female figure up until now, but Mark mentioned that the story and scope of this show allowed them to incorporate a female character.
- The Void; This is a character that is looking for an identity. This is why he is always wearing or carrying around masks with him.
- Dark Sorrows exclusive piece; The mask doesn’t come off is made of resin and limited to 100 pieces.
- Locks; It appears Coarse is working on a production piece of this character, so there is a good chance that we will see one sooner rather than later.
- Soul Shaker; The inspiration for this piece comes from the mythology of the term Nightmare. A “mara” or “mare” is a demon that can be known to ride horses and way back when, dreamers described the feeling of something riding or putting pressure on their chests while they sleep which causes bad dreams…Look it up if you want lol.
Overall the show was awesome. Got to meet some really cool people from the Kidrobot boards. Was able to talk with Sven and Mark who were really great to talk with. As always Kirby is a great host and did a great job setting this all up.
If you are in the Chicago area go check this show out!! It runs through December 2.
That’s all for now. Feel free to look through some of our pictures.
