This weekend: discover MUNNY dolls

By Brianne Pfannenstiel

Thursday, October 9, 2008

Lawrence artists Gabriel Dorsey and JOUVELT decided to see what would happen when they gave several artists identical blank canvases and told them to create something with it. But this isn’t your average 8x12 inch canvas—it’s a MUNNY doll.

MUNNY dolls are the creation of Kidrobot, a company that creates and sells designer toys. The dolls are vinyl creatures with small bodies and oversized heads that are left completely blank, allowing buyers to customize them any way they want using crayons, markers, paints, clay or fabric. The dolls have developed a cult following since they debuted around 2006, and have since stampeded their way onto Web sites and online forums and into art galleries across the country, becoming increasingly known as a work of pop art rather than as a child’s toy.

The trend has now made its way to the Lawrence Arts Center, 940 New Hampshire St., for a gallery display of several Lawrence artists’ take on the MUNNY doll. One hundred toy designs by 65 different artists from Lawrence and surrounding areas are on display at the Arts Center this weekend and until Saturday, Oct. 11. Many of the finished toys are on sale at the gallery, and range in price from $30 to $407.

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