“I’m Shark Toof, Who The Hell Are You?” Show at Inner State Gallery Covered

This past Friday night saw the opening of Los Angeles artist Shark Toof's first ever solo show in Detroit at Inner State Gallery. Titled “I’m Shark Toof, Who The Hell Are You?”, it's entirely new body of work that is an expansive examination of Toof’s continually evolving style that explores a harmonious mix of his signature shark icon with pop culture and comic book inspirations. The show featured all new paintings, hand-painted multiples, stencil works and prints that blend Toof’s signature street aesthetic alongside his refined fine art gallery works.

“This new body of work is a blend of my graffiti roots which is where I really developed my own unique voice. At the same time there’s also an aspect of this work that is just not taking yourself too seriously, kind of vandalizing your own icons,” Shark Toof said while preparing in Detroit.

Taking up residency in Detroit at the Inner State Gallery/1xRUN studio and artist loft, Toof has worked with several local artists to re-imagine his past icons onto unique new mediums. With the idea of keeping accessible hand-painted multiples, prints and originals at the core of this exhibition there will be no shortage of cleverly woven icons in a collaborative explosion of Toof’s visual landscape.

“I like Detroit because it is very do-it yourself and I am a very do-it yourself artist so it is a great fit,” Shark Toof said.

The most impressive pieces were the massive Migration Sharks that took up an entire wall themselves. 

To purchase pieces from the show head over to 1xRUN.com 

To see all the pictures from the show click the Coverage of Gallery Openings Tab at the top of this page.