4″ Basquiat Munny by Julissa Lopez
In case you missed out on your chance to score a , we’ve got you covered. Local artist Julissa Lopez has a Basquiat Munny for sale, and it can be yours for a measly $300.
Lopez started painting Munny dolls after a friend introduced her to the vinyl figurines, made by Kidrobot, two years ago. With a background in makeup artistry, she got her hands on the dolls and decided to add clay to make them more life-like. She molds the clay onto the four-inch-tall vinyl figurines, then bakes them and paints over them with acrylic paint.
“I follow a lot of artists who do their own designs on these same toys, but no one really makes them look like people,” Lopez says. “And I thought it was a cool idea. I mean, who wouldn’t want a toy of themselves?” She branded her pieces “Mini Moi,” as in “mini-me.”
Some weeks ago, Lopez was invited to create her Mini Moi pieces for a pop-art exhibition of toys. “I started asking people what they thought about making a Basquiat piece, and I realized that a lot of people don’t really know who Basquiat is,” she continues. “And I thought it would be a really good idea to make a toy of him and express what pop art is with the colors.”
You can check out Lopez’s pieces at The Bao Shoppe at 3066 Steinway Street in Astoria. But hurry, because we might just buy Jean-Michel ourselves. Our Andy doll could use the company.
