Group Show: "Tiki Art Now!"

What is Tiki?
The American Heritage Dictionary defines a Tiki as “a wooden or stone image of a Polynesian God.“

While fans of Tiki Style might border on religious fanaticism in their love for all things Tiki and their obsession for collecting mugs and menus, the Tikis they worship are wholly American artistic creations.
Tiki Style was forged in the business of bars and restaurants and celebrated in backyard Luaus and at theme parks like Disneyland and Tiki Gardens (a roadside attraction in Florida that flourished throughout the 60s and 70s). As these ersatz Shangri-las competed to outdo each other with the latest tropical-inspired styles, the neighborhood Tiki bar’s popularity surged. The bamboo bars that existed throughout Los Angeles and other major metropolitan areas in the 1920s and 30s offered standard cocktails and sometimes featured Hawaiian music played by a local band. But when Don the Beachcomber struck gold with his over the top version of the South Seas bar others in Hollywood and across the US followed suit. While Donn Beach’s exotically renamed Chinese food and potent rumbased drinks like the Zombie were not Polynesian, they were a fine example of American entrepreneurial skill.
With the help of South Seas mania in the form of Norwegian adventurer Thor Heyerdahl’s Kon Tiki voyage (1947), Ex–GI James Michener’s #1 best seller and Pulitzer Prize winner “Tales of the South Pacific” (1949), and the US government’s advertising campaign for Hawaii Statehood in 1959, the stage was set for Tiki – American style. In the 1940s and 50s Polynesian carvings and other artifacts were replicated from the few reputable art books available on Primitive Art and South Seas Art.
As Tiki fever spread across the country and the need for Tiki art increased, these second generation artifacts were interpreted by a new group of artisans and became third generation carvings. By the 1960s carvers and décor manufactures were pushing the boundarie of Tiki Style and creating objects that had little or no basis in Polynesian arts. Thus an American folk art movement was casually born out of backyards and small manufacturers’ shops. [Contrary to the popular folklore history of any good Tiki bar, the artifacts found within were not imported from the South Seas but created right here in America.]  

Today, the umbrella term Tiki is used to describe the entire gamut of Pan Polynesian arts that were applied in restaurants and bars from the late 1930s to the mid 1970s. I prefer to call it Tiki Style and refer to it as a bona fide art movement. “Book of Tiki” author Sven Kirsten dubbed it “Polynesian Pop.” Whatever you call it, it’s back and it’s getting bigger.

Otto von Stroheim
Show Curator
Resurrection of the Tiki Scene
I have witnessed the Tiki scene grow from an unorganized, scattered band of thrift shop combers scavenging the last remains of the once-numerous Tiki restaurants to and internationally and commercially recognized movement. In the mid-1980s the number of Tiki devotees in California could not have numbered more than a few hundred. Back then Tiki was not a buzz word, a genre, or even a category to be collected. It was not even a sub-category of Hawaiiana. Trying to explain to flea market and antique mall dealers that you were looking for Tiki mugs might have taken several minutes – even if the dealer specialized in restaurant ware or Hawaiiana! In the late 80s and early 90s in Los Angeles an enthusiastic nucleus of collectors and preservationists hungry for Tiki lore didn’t extend much beyond Sven Kirsten’s living room slide lectures or my own annual backyard Tiki parties. With the launch of Tiki News magazine in 1995 and the publishing of Sven’s tome “The Book of Tiki,” there has been a growing resurgence in this once-forgotten genre. Now, in the year 2004, Tiki devotees number in the tens of thousands.
The Coming of a New Art God
While Tikis appeared regularly in cartoonist’s panels and underground art, no one had recognized Tiki Style as a movement or gathered these homages into one themed show. With Tiki News I began covering and promoting artists who were creating new Tiki imagery. In 1995 and 1996 I threw a series of exhibits featuring the work of the Tiki News cover artists, some of whom are part of “Tiki Art Now!”. In 1996 I co-curated “20th Century Tiki” at La Luz de Jesus Gallery. It was the first Tiki art show ever and spawned many others around the country. The success of that show and the publicity it generated sparked the new Tiki art movement. At that show, Mark Ryden exhibited a career-defining piece, “Exotica”; The Tiki Tones played to an unbelievably packed house; and Shag emerged as one of the top Tiki artists. Since 1997 when I curated and produced an informal Tiki art show in a San Francisco restaurant/nightclub I had been dreaming of bringing a huge group show to Northern California. After years of watching the Tiki art scene grow I am proud to announce “Tiki Art Now!” – Modern Art from a Primitive Time.
- Otto von Stroheim
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Group Show - "Tiki Art Now"