LA-based Giant Robot expands art show to help earthquake relief effort

Fundraisers for Japan earthquake relief have sprung up all over the Southland. This weekend, the Asian-American pop-culture franchise Giant Robot begins its own giant effort. The company works with a lot of artists and designers in Japan.

Giant Robot started 17 years ago in Los Angeles as a magazine about Asian and Asian-American pop culture. Now it owns art galleries, a restaurant and shops in L.A. and San Francisco. Its shop on Sawtelle Boulevard stocks plenty of those quirky little things you don’t need but can’t resist.

"These are little wind-up toys, this one is gonna hula-hoop around," says Giant Robot's director of retail operations Michelle Borok, demonstrating a not-so-giant robot in the shop's window.

"These are actually by a Japanese composer, and he’s kind of an engineering genius."

That composer-genius is one of many Japanese artists and designers who help Giant Robot thrive.

These are the first people Borok and her team thought about when they first heard of the earthquake and tsunami and they've been figuring out how to help ever since. A sign urging people to text donations to the Red Cross hangs in the shop’s window. But Giant Robot wants to do more.

"Japan is a proud nation and really self-reliant one, and it’s something that you know, I think the world kind of admires," Borok says. "And so it’s a strange situation because UNICEF has always taken donations from the Japanese, and they’re like the U.S. in that we don’t often reach out and say 'we need help.'"

She mentions UNICEF because even before the earthquake in Japan, Giant Robot had already planned an art exhibition to benefit the international children’s group. The "Water Works" show starts with a reception Saturday night.

It was supposed to highlight UNICEF’s efforts to provide clean drinking water to children around the world. Now, the event is expanding to a full-on fundraising weekend for UNICEF’s earthquake and tsunami relief.

"We had artwork in the show that was themed on water and so artists had created all kinds of images," Michelle Borok says. "Clean water is now an issue in Japan as well. So the focus hasn’t changed. It’s about going directly to the source where there’s an immediate need."

Many participating artists are donating proceeds from their sales to UNICEF. There’s also a raffle with a growing list of prizes including more art, merchandise and free horseback riding lessons. Giant Robot is contributing half its restaurant receipts on Saturday and part of the take at its shops and galleries throughout the weekend.

The art show's reception begins at 6:30 p.m. on Saturday at Giant Robot's GR2 location at 2062 Sawtelle Boulevard, in West Los Angeles. All are welcome.