Over this past long weekend I visited This is Not A Toy exhibit at Design Exchange in downtown Toronto. This Is Not A Toy is an exhibit of contemporary art and collectible designs all brought together by curators John Wee Tom, Sara Nickleson and Pharrell Williams. Yes, THAT Pharrell! I’ve been talking about going to this exhibit since last December when I found out about it and I was very excited to see all the beautiful “adult toys” that I have learned to love from a long time ago under one roof. The exhibit is a collection of works from many famous artists in this genre. Amongst them are: KAWS, Takashi Murakami, Coarse, Huck Gee, DOMA, Misaki Kawai, Frank Kozik, Kidrobot, Yoshitomo Nara and MediCom Toy. Even though the exhibit came across as small in space but there was so many little works of art packed in this space. Walls after walls of Dunny series, glass displays filled with pieces after pieces of vinyl designs. There were a lot of things to look at, I walked around the exhibit a few times and each time I found new pieces that I had have missed before.

I could not resist it, had to line up with the KAWS and pose for the picture….

So the little X-rated figure below was about 10cm in size and I took the close-up shot because I was impressed by how much detail work goes in to the design of these little toy AND also I thought my guy readers would get a kick out it! hahaha

SUPERSIZE!!!!

“Lying in the intersection of fine art, marketing, pop culture, product and graphic design, designer toys are highly collectible pieces of miniature sculpture for a pop-Pop world.” – DX

How pretty are these Japanese inspired Dunny toys. She is beautiful!

I was super excited to see my one & only Dunny toy part of this massive collection of Dunny series. Mine is the faceless Dunny, smack in the middle of the picture….

Looking down or up Ringo Stars nose…

I’m a big fan of owls and this little owl with its big eyes captured my heart. Luckily she is available for sale in Magic Pony store but since I am on my 30 Day of no shopping diet + not wanting to spend $160 I just took a picture of this cutie pie.

Checkout more pictures from my visit to the exhibit here and if pictures are just not enough This Is Not A Toy exhibit is on till May 19th and tickets are available at the doors or at dx.org. While you are there and you are inspired by these magical creatures make sure to visit the Magic Pony pop-up shop in the lobby of Design Exchange to pick up couple of pieces to start your own collection.

Solmaz