Exhibition Review: 70 Years of Godzilla opening night reception

Godzilla stomped into mid-city L.A. this weekend. More precisely Spoke Art and Ghost X Ghost launched 70 Years of Godzilla, an exhibition of prints, paintings, and sculptures from over fifty artists, all of them officially licensed by Toho Company, owners of Godzilla. After a screening of the original Gojira (a.k.a. Godzilla, 1954) at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood on Friday, the exhibition itself began its three-week run at Hashimoto Contemporary with an opening night reception on Saturday, August 10, from 6pm to 10pm.

Sure, Godzilla is great on the big screen, but how does he fare when reduced to a static image rendered in paint, pencil, and ink? We made the trip downtown to see the show on opening night to find out, and the answer is: if you’re a fan, particularly a collector, the offerings on display are too good to pass up.

70 Years of Godzilla Reception: Hashimoto Contemporary

Located on the border of Culver City, Hashimoto Contemporary looked fairly nondescript from outside, its facade and signage obscured behind leafy trees growing on the sidewalk; fortunately, the stream of people in Godzilla t-shirts showed we were heading in the right direction. Proof we had found our destination came from a sidewalk view through the gallery’s front window, which displayed Godzilla’s almost life-sized eyes glaring out at us. This turned out to be the largest and most expensive painting in the 70 Years of Godzilla collection, Jason Edmiston’s, Less Than Zero. Entering the door to the left, we passed beneath Godzilla’s nose to find the main gallery.

The large room housing 70 Years of Godzilla proved to be a traditional gallery, square with white walls and nothing to distract attention from the art. Clearly, this was a straightforward exhibition, not an immersive installation for influencers taking selfies to prove they had been somewhere cool (though some tried). The well-attended (i.e., crowded) event had drawn a mix of Godzilla fans and art collectors, eager to view and even purchase the works on display. The overflow crowd spread through the adjacent merchandise room and spilled out onto an improvised reception area out back, where patrons could snack on grilled tacos and quesadillas while imbibing Spiked Tonics (5% alcohol by volume) with real fruit juice (e.g. Elderberry Hibiscus), which basically tasted like beer.

70 Years of Godzilla Reception: The Art

70 Years of Godzilla is focused exclusively on Godzilla (and a few of his fellow monsters) as depicted in Toho films produced in Japan; Legendary’s Monsterverse is unrepresented. Godzilla has manifested in various forms over the decades, from sinister embodiment of the nuclear age to a kid-friendly hero and back again. Along with the change in attitude, there were frequent design changes as well.

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This variety afforded a great opportunity for the artists on view in 70 Years of Godzilla: all of the monster’s phases are represented – from Zi Xu’s eerily sinister Gojia to Justin Hillgrove’s charmingly childish Goodnight Monster Island. Thus, G-fans will have little trouble finding a rendering of their favorite Godzilla design. The 1960s is represented by the evil version seen in Mosura Tai Gojira, followed by the heroic but still dangerous depiction in Godzilla vs the Sea Monster. The friendlier look from the ’70s is seen in Godzilla: Grape Gumdrop Edition. The imposing anti-hero from the 1990s shows up in Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II. The more reptilian design from the 2000s is on display in Tokyo S.O.S. Toho’s more recent attempts to present a terrifying Godzilla appear in Man is more frightening than Godzilla (depicting the monster as seen in 2016’s Shin Godzilla) and Godzilla Minus One (named after the Oscar-winning 2023 film). Oddly, the design seen in the original 1954 film is least represented, showing up only on a print displayed in the merch room.

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Bob Eggleton (whose endearing children’s book, Godzilla Likes to Roar, holds a special place on our bookshelves) had two darkly beautiful oil paintings for sale, both well outside our price range: Godzilla Minus One ($4,000) and Shin Godzilla ($5,000). Other favorites included Matt Frank’s God of Destruction, which offers a stylized interpretation of the one-off design used in 2001’s Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All Out Attack. Sam Wolfe Connelly’s Force of Nature offers an evocatively monochromatic view of the early 2000s’ other Godzilla design, seen as a spiky silhouette framed against a gray sky above dimly seen treetops. Rose Couch’s Lowest Point uses thread through canvas to create a surprisingly dynamic rendition of Godzilla thrashing knee-deep in water with what appears to be bursts of cannon-fire behind him. And Neil Davies’ From Minus to Zero captured a tremendous sense of scale, with the angry beast looming ominous in the distance behind buildings about to be destroyed.

We had expected to see more original works hanging on the walls; instead, there was an approximately 50-50 mix of originals and prints, tilted slightly in favor of the latter. This was good news for buyers without deep pockets: prints went for under $100; most of the originals topped $1,000, with two or three reaching five figures, such as Alex Gross’ delightful Invasion of Astro Monster, ($12,000) and Edmiston’s intimidating Less Than Zero ($40,000), which we had seen from the sidewalk.

Click any image to scroll through the photo gallery below; then click on the “i” icon in the lower right for information about individual paintings, including price. Article continues after the gallery…

70 Years of Godzilla Reception: Conclusion

Many exhibitions we have covered (I Like Scary Movies, Icons of Darkness, We’re Wolves) included some kind of immersive element that made it feel as if you had entered the world depicted in the subject matter. 70 Years of Godzilla is not that. Except for the opening night reception, it is not an event where you can hang out and enjoy the vibe; it is a traditional gallery show for people interested in perusing the art for sale.

We’re not plugged into the art scene well enough to judge whether the selection on display at 70 Years of Godzilla represents the best work available. The only names we recognized were Bob Eggleton and Matt Frank, whose works are familiar from book covers, comic books, and posters; some of their work is available online. For us and for Godzilla fans in general, 70 Years of Godzilla affords a chance to get out of the virtual realm and see their original paintings, along with those of other artists, in the real world, where the texture and detail have an almost palpable impact.

In that regard, we would have preferred to see more paintings and drawings rather than prints, especially prints that resembled movie poster mockups. Emulating a movie poster is a cool way to pay tribute to beloved films, and these prints are an affordable option; we just found other approaches more interesting. For example, Invasion of Astro Monsters is memorable tribute to the film of that title (known in the U.S. as Monster Zero), but it does not resemble something you would see hanging in a theatre lobby. That said, the prints of Tom Whalen’s Tokyo S.O.S. and Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster earned their inclusion in 70 Years of Godzilla with their vivid colors and artfully arranged vertical composition.

In conclusion, given a blank check,which painting would we have purchased? We love Zi Xu’s stylized Gojira, which captures the mythic, dragon-like aspect of the character; unfortunately, it was available only as a print, so it’s out of the running. Eggleton’s Godzilla Minus One ($4,000) is great, but when it comes to Godzilla, we prefer kaiju-sized canvases. At over eleven feet in length, Edmiston’s Less Than Zero ($40,000) certainly qualifies, but the intimidating acrylic canvas is so big that we would have nowhere to hang it. With a width of three feet, Invasion of Astro Monster hits our Goldilocks target; more importantly, the colorful oil painting captures the enjoyable ’60s vibe of what one fan called “the coolest Godzilla movie.” Maybe we should start a crowd-funding campaign so all of you art lovers can help us make this dream a reality.