Oakland
You’ll Poke Your Eye Out
by | Feb 8, 2024 4:42 pm
Post a Comment | E-mail the Author
Posted to: Visual Art
Sarah Bass Photos
STOP MEN on offer, for all.
Stop Men Studio Open House
337 13th St.
Oakland
Feb. 1, 2024
Looking for the Stop Men Studio, I doubled, or rather tripled, up on the right block and turned around despite gridded streets and nearly a decade in town. I finally found the correct address. The flyer listed an open door and access, so I pulled the handle on a closed, dark, and quiet glass to an unremarkable lobby. A wide set of stairs led up, with music and voices wafting.
They were not for the studio I sought, but for a collective and a dance class. I passed by, continuing into the unknown, until I found a small table with masks and a wide open door to a large room filled with printed clothing.
Guest of honor, super model and mascot.
The room, a shared studio space for Xara Thustra, Monica Canilao, The Very Dirty Garden, and Lil Daddy Poke, was colorful and cheery. I’d arrived about an hour into the open house, and found its attendance sparse but friendly. Thustra’s STOP MEN prints covered racks of clothing, boots, iconic to most of the (queer, slightly grungy) arts scene around. A surprisingly chill special guest modeled an extra special piece.
Mural in progress, by MCTX.
A mural-in-progress occupied a wall, with mirrored bits reflecting back light on guests and the carpet. The piece, by MCTX (Caniliao and Thustra’s initials), is slated to be installed at the Golden State Warriors Chase Center in SF this weekend.
While the scale felt outsized inside the studio ‚I can imagine how beautiful and bright it will be once in public. A brightly-hued rainbow fan sits atop a sleigh, itself rested on sliding-door panels. Cutout leaves and branches frame its edges, with those forms repeated in the mural below. An Oakland oak tree branches from the base, its black and white lines streaked with color.
Details of mural, with Oakland’s tree.
The mural is busy, no question there, but well planned and deeply intricate. A sideways urn spills onto the Bay Bridge, a pagoda emerges from the bottom right corner, and the Golden Gate Bridge and Transamerica building occupy the far left panel, a Cubist backdrop grounding them.
The work is layered, with three-dimensional elements and the hollow hole of the unpainted mirrored shapes both deepening and flattening the experience of standing before it. I look forward to seeing how the finished work will feel in its intended home.
The best lil bud.
My favorite mural was far smaller.
Beckoning into the small back room used as a tattoo parlor by Lil Daddy Poke, the dark creature enters the room as he exits (or enters, backwards?) his painted oval home. One pointy-toed (and heeled) foot daintily steps and four sharp-as-nails fingers clutch his false frame. Purple cheeks blush above a crooked and bashful grin, his limbs and round belly highlighted in blue.
He is perfect in his simplicity and style, and deeply emotive, and I adore him.
STOP MEN stompers.
Entering an active studio, especially one inhabited by artists of various styles and genres, can feel overwhelming. But the cavernous space and gentle playfulness of the works, along with the genial vibe of the artists and their friends, made for a fun foray into the minds of some of the locals brightening our walls and bodies.
