Broken Frontier

SLG Publishing announced that the company will publish the full-color catalog of the third annual Tiki Art Now! exhibition, an art show devoted to art inspired by Polynesia exotica and mid-century pop culture. The show, with work from artists such as Shag, Bosko and Tim Biskup, will be held at the Roq la Rue Gallery in Seattle in September, with an opening party on September 15. Notable items in this show are new ceramics by Munktiki, carvings by Wayne Coombes of Mai Tiki, and rarely-seen vintage velvet paintings by Burke Tyree, Tiki Art Now! is know as the premier tiki gallery show.

Otto von Stroheim, who has curated all three Tiki Art Now! exhibits, explains in Tiki News magazine that Tiki art grew out of the Polynesian craze of the mid-twentieth century, when Tiki-themed restaurants and bars sprouted all over the U.S. The author of Book of Tiki, Sven Kirsten, named it "Polynesian Pop," but Stroheim writes, "I prefer to call it Tiki Style and recognize it as a bona fide art movement. Whatever you call it, it's back and getting bigger."

Roq la Rue Gallery is located at 2312 Second Avenue in Seattle, Washington. For more information visit www.roqlarue.com or call (206) 374-8977.

The 56-page, full-color Tiki Art Now! Volume Three, which will retail for $19.95, features images of the art in the the Tiki Art Now! show and the artists' biographies, as well as an introduction by pop culture historian Larry Reid and a foreword by Otto von Stroheim. It will be available at the gallery show opening, and then in stores and from SLG Publishing in October. The catalog will be the first book published under SLG's new Club Tiki imprint, under which the company will soon publish a collection of its popular Beach Bum Berry series of drink and food recipe books, Grog Log, Intoxica! and Taboo Table.