THE ART OF TIKI: A look back at the Oct. 6 – 29th 2017 Exhibition

One of the biggest tiki events of 2017 was the release of Sven Kirsten and Otto van Stroheim’s book THE ART OF TIKI. To celebrate and launch the book, there was an Art of Tiki exhibition held in the La Luz de Jesus Gallery in the famed Wacko/Soap Plant store in Hollywood, California. Although this event is long over, I thought this little tidbit of photos from the show would act as a nice historical record for those who could not attend.

For those who have never been before, Wacko/Soap Plant is this amazing place located at the end of Hollywood Blvd, where it becomes Sunset. Wacko has been around for years. I remember when it used to be on Melrose Ave. in the ’80’s and they had these fun house mirrors set up on the walkway leading to the entrance. Very appropriate.

The store itself is the magically insane wonderland of cool stuff. It is truly WACKO! My accompanying friend Christa, who had never been before, was amused and enchanted. She dug it a lot.

In addition to fun, zany stuff, there is also a large selection of books. Christa was surprised and impressed by that as well.

But the main attraction was in the La Luz de Jesus Gallery in the far corner of the store: The Art of Tiki.

This show ran from Oct. 6 through the 29th–less than a month! I had to see it. I was unable to attend the huge soiree they had opening night. (Everybody who is anybody in the tiki world –in the nearby vicinity, at least–was there… Since I’m NOT anybody in the tiki world, I missed the opening but still managed to catch the show. Ha!) The exhibit was divided into two sections. This outer section contains pieces from the Jordan Reichek collection. These pieces were once part of Polynesian restaurants and tiki bars of the past. To tikiphiles, these are amazing historical artifacts; relics from legendary places that we can only imagine what they were like.

The entire collection was sold to…  Well, it can all be explained better by Critiki’s Humuhumu right HERE.

The inner section of the gallery contained contemporary art pieces with a tiki theme.

One of my favorite tiki artists, SHAG, was, of course, included.

His pieces were listed for $15,000 each.

But there were a lot of other cool pieces on display, many of which were sold and waiting for the exhibit to close before being taken away. How many did I buy? ZERO.

But it was an awesome exhibit.

The exhibit lives on in this nifty book (which goes way beyond what you see in the photos above). (You can read more about it or purchase it HERE.)

WACKO/Soap Plant/La Luz de Jesus Gallery

4633 Hollywood Blvd.

Los Angeles, CA 90027

Visit their website: HERE.