DRINKIN' SMOKIN' & WEST COASTIN'

DRINKIN’ SMOKIN’ & WEST COASTIN’
A GROUP LOVE/HATE LETTER TO LA (WITH RAY YOUNG CHU)

In a much covered story, Think Tank’s co-op and alternative arts venue was forced to close in 2017 following Oakland’s Ghost Ship Fire. With much effort, we converted the building into an events rental venue and built an infrastructure in which we were able to rent the gallery to ourselves. Our first exhibition and event series within this new model was a massive homecoming exhibit, called Drinkin’ Smokin’ & West Coastin – A Group Love/Hate Letter to LA.

We teamed up with sneaker brand Vans, local staple Roscoe’s Chicken and Waffles, Weedmaps, Mezcal El Silencio, and Lagunitas Brewing Co. to once again take over the venue for a monthlong series of art and events.

DS&WC featured dozens of events and hundreds of artworks in a major group show focused around the musical aesthetic that informed a generation’s taste in the arts: nostalgic West Coast hip hop. If you could hang the sounds of Angeleno favorite 93.5 KDAY on gallery walls, this would have been the show. The aesthetic period of influence tapped an era rife with turmoil and creativity, and artists were tasked with capturing their take on LA “from the ’84 Olympics to the Kings/Lakers rivalry of the early aughts,” including the traumas and triumphs within those moments, including the LA Riots which took place 25 years prior.

Production Designer Danny Heidner and Art Director Dino Nama captured the archetypal LA stereotype – traffic – in every layer of the show, which was full of largescale immersive installations. Creative signage, travel brochure art catalogs,a police chase racetrack by Ash Santos, and even a guerilla flyer campaign mimicking parking tickets place on car windshields transported audiences into the messaging.

Our reimagined DMV (it was a dive bar) came complete with racing arcades and a lounge hosted by Playboy, and Bloody Gums Collective’s artist Ray Young Chu rounded out the experience with a satirical 1992 Ktown liquor store called “Ray-Mart.”