Saturday 9 January 2010

Grordbort's Exhibition in Chengdu, China




This is my first post about the Exceptional Exhibition that we put on in Chengdu, China at the Sichuan Provincial Museum
Chengdu is the first city in the world to see this exhibition, that in it's Grordbort's form will continue to tour the world over the next several years.
I would have written about it sooner, but it was a crazy whirlwind of action just putting the thing together, and shipping it to China, all in a ridiculously short amount of time.

The exhibition, entitled this time round, the Exceptional Exhibition: Weta Workshop presents the World of Dr. Grordbort holds around 150 of my Grordbort's paintings and roughly 30 sculptural and model made pieces - the Rayguns themselves as well as mounted Venusian heads, Venusian bugs by Jamie Beswarick some incredible Grordbort character sculptures by Max Patte.

Many of the Grordbort's illustrative pieces are over 3 metres in length and almost 2 metres high.




On top of this, and just for the purposes of this first exhibition, we took a multitude of Lord of the Rings, Kong and Narnia props as well as, for the first time in China, Richard Taylors 5 Oscar awards.

In the rush to put it all together, I only took Iphone photos (very blurry unfortunately), and very few of them, so here are a few of the photos taken by Jacek Irzykowski at the event.
It gives you an idea of the exhibition, but barely scratches the surface.


Richard and I did several talks to universities and schools while in Chengdu and that was a really great experience. We were treated like kings where ever we went. Red carpet, bouquets, the works.
I really found Chengdu to be an incredibly welcoming place and everyone we met was incredibly warm to us.
There seems to me to be a massive and burgeoning enthusiasm there in the younger generations for science fiction and fantasy and that was really cool to see.


The exhibition will continue to tour the world, and perhaps grow a little with a few more Grordbort's pieces as it goes and is set to go to India, Switzerland, and France amongst many others.
I would personally love to bring it to the US and back to New Zealand where I have had such great support from fans as Grordbort's has grown.



Massive thanks go to Sarah Morris and Andrew Gillespie for their tireless efforts bringing this all together in such short order.
And on the IDF and Greenleaf side (who worked relentlessly over in Chengdu to make this all happen) a monumental thanks to Xiaomei Liu, Gavin Crombie and their team, pushed on by the brilliant Hai Dong Liu.

All proceeds from the exhibition in Chendgu go towards the Sichuan Earthquake Relief effort.

14 comments:

andrew domo said...

wow...congratulations Greg! Everything looks amazing!

James said...

Greg,

You have to get this to come to the Winnipeg Art Gallery. Canada wants this exhibition.

Please, please, please bring this to Canada. I'm trapped in the middle of the country, I need this man.

Hazzaaaaaahhhhh!!!!!

Ryan Rasmussen said...

What an amazing adventure, and such a great idea to reach out cross-culturally through art. Those sculptures are--if I may be so bold--totally rad. I do hope you bring the whole thing back to NZ--I'm looking forward to taking it all in locally!

jbachdesign said...

Wow, that looks incredible! I will have to pick up the book. China must have been amazing. Please bring your show to LA!!...for the children

AlexTuis said...

I really do appreciate these statues with the big Robot in the Background!
Amazing look, really!
You should make a movie with this world!

Harry Allard said...

Can you upload more pictures of those alien insects? They look freakin badass. Also, if you need any images I have from the biggest insect collection in the world for inspiration, give me a shout, I volunteer at london's natural history museum haha. The exhibition looks rad, might I add

Greg Broadmore said...

Thanks everyone.

James, I would love to bring it to Canada - that would be our aim if we take it to the US.
Yes, the sculptures are some of may favourite pieces. The insects (not really insects, but it's the closest generic term...) were all done by Jamie Beswarick, and the first one is available as a limited edition Art piece from Weta :http://www.wetanz.com/pillock/from/brand

Max Patte did the character pieces, he's an exceptional fine art sculptor (as well as a film sculptor) and the Elite Forces piece (based on the Elite forces image from Victory) is my personal favourite, although the busts come close...

Harry, I'll try and upload more images of the Venusian bugs as we get them, but in the meantime, check out the link above.

I may take you up on that offer too... I am a big geek for Natural History museums, and seeing something of the collection from the London museum would be beyond outstanding.

Hadrian said...

Come to Singapore!

Sorry, that's all I got.

And $2 in change.

Once again, thanks for sharing your work with us, as well as the work of Jamie Beswarick and Max Patte. It really does look exceptional, and hopefully you will bring it somewhere close enough for me to swim to. I can do about 50 meters. With floats.

Thanks Greg,

Best Regards,
Hadrian

jamie holmes said...

Hell yes! I love steam punk.
Great blog.

Evil Warlock Studios said...

Always been a big fan of the Dr. Grordbort's line. I know Greg is an incredible artist because he managed to disquise my fat neck on the operator's license for my Unnatural Selector! lol Eagerly awaiting my simpletonicus indigum. I am wondering if some of the paintings may become available on canvass instead of paper? I'd love to get that Venusian Landscape and get it framed for my Dr. Grordbort's Gentleman's lair!

Greg Broadmore said...

Love to bring the exhibition to Singapore Hadrian, that would be great.

Hopefully we can bring it to many locations all over the world and we're already receiving many incredible offers to exhibit from across Asia. Very exciting.

We'll see what happens.

So good to hear from an Unnatural Selector owner Evil Warlock - please accept a virtual hug from me. Easy now, don't hold for too long, it's getting creepy.

Prints of the exhibition works are a natural idea and we may well pursue something along those lines.
Fingers crossed.

Thanks again everyone.

sirfrancisdrake said...

i really want to buy a version of that Elite forces sculpt, fucking badass

kanishk said...

i'm really enjoying your work.
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Anonymous said...

Greg!

Your stuff reminds me of the Frazetta, ERB, Dave Stevens’ ”Rocketeer” and all the pulp I enjoyed as a kid. What am I saying I still love it!!

Great work man! If you ever make it to Texas, please post it on your blog. Your work brings me back to a time I’ve spent hours reading about.

Bruce Pluto