Other 1995 Group Shows

1995 was the year that Windows 95 launched and auctions began on eBay. Apart from that, it was a pretty tough year. And in more fun news, Josh Agle got his first art show in spring 1995.

The 1995 group art events are below listed in reverse chronological order.

Exoticon ’95
Exoticon ’95 was the first Tiki/Exotica music festival and was held on Saturday, 4th November 1995 from 6 pm to midnight at the second floor of the Park Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles, California. The event drew over 1500 people, despite a room occupancy limit of 1400, including celebrities Matt Groening (creator of The Simpsons) and Mark Mothersbaugh (lead singer and keyboardist of new wave band Devo). The event was organized by Steve Alper, Josh “Strike” Eick, and disc jockey, publisher, promoter, and author Otto von Stroheim (who began publishing his award-winning zine Tiki News along with Sven Kirsten in 1995). Exoticon featured the American neo-lounge music group Combustible Edison plus the Phantom Surfers, the Joey Altruda Sextet, Davie Allen & the Arrows, and the Wonderful World of Joey.

The Mahalo Marketplace featured music label booths from Del-Fi, Will, Vanguard, GNP Crescendo, and Dionysus. Shag produced event artwork including the program and tickets. I have no further information on this event – please feel free to post on Facebook if you have anything to share.

Tiki News #6 reported on the event:

Cacao Tiki Art Show
Cacao was a coffee house in Santa Monica during the 1990s and early 2000s The science fiction and Tiki theming was created by new owners Bobby Green and Alastair Newbery in 1993.

In 1995, Shag was asked by his friend and Tiki News founder, Otto von Stroheim, to contribute to a group art show at Cacao where he painted five new paintings and three sketches to fill one wall. The paintings were priced at $200 or $300 each – four out of five paintings and two out of the three sketches sold before the show opened. Otto von Stroheim bought one sketch that he used as the cover on Tiki News magazine issue #2. The Book of Tiki author, Sven Kirsten, bought another.

Paintings from the show:

The Tiki Bowl (acrylic on board) – also called ‘painting number one’. Purchased by Peter Moruzzi (chairman of the Palm Springs Modernism Committee) and resold through M Modern Gallery in the mid-2000s:

The painting In the Tiki Bar II was purchased by Sven Kirsten and used as the cover on issue 2 of the Tiki News zine.