Print Details
Full-bleed
Printed with ♥ by VGKids
Pink Edition
18-color screenprint on bright silver foil paper with metallic inks
Limited edition of 160
Rainbow Edition
18-color screenprint on rainbow holographic foil paper
Edition of 60
Lava Edition
18-color screenprint on holographic lava foil paper
Edition of 60
Gold Edition
18-color screenprint on dull gold foil paper with metallic inks
Edition of 40
Artist Statement
Recent years have seen a gut-wrenching loss of a key urchin predator, the sunflower sea star, due to sea star wasting disease specific to rising sea temperatures - leaving the kelp forests of N. California without any predators of the urchins, voracious grazers of kelp. The area covered by kelp forests off the coast of Northern California has dropped by more than 95%, with just a few isolated patches of bull kelp remaining. Species-rich kelp forests have been replaced by “urchin barrens,” where purple sea urchins cover a seafloor devoid of kelp and other algae. Deterioration of the forest threatens local species, including the tiger shark. “It’s a naturally dynamic system that has been resilient to extreme events in the past, but the die-off of sunflower stars caused the resilience of the ecosystem to plummet. the kelp forests weren’t able to withstand the effects of the heatwave/El Niño combined with an insurgence of sea urchins.”
This artwork positions the "urchin merchant" in the center as a beacon of the sea star, vying for Its rehabilitation, buffeted by an urchin character/tiger shark character (who suffer from the deterioration of the kelp forest) challenging each other for balance. The Merchant holds an opened urchin, proposing one way in which humans can aid the battle to combat the voracious urchin population."
Artist Bio
Lauren YS is a Los Angeles-based artist whose work is influenced by multiple stages of focus, both geographically and in practice. With dynamic bouts in academics, literature and writing, teaching, illustration, and animation leading up to their arrival in the urban art sphere, the influences of these phases of their own career add up to a robust style of murals and fine art.
Lauren's work is influenced by dreams, mythology, death, comics, love, sex, psychedelia, animation, and their Asian-American heritage.
Lauren has completed a residency and solo show at Nychos' Rabbit Eye Movement studio in Vienna and has since shown work and live-painted at various international art festivals and institutions. Festivals include Art Basel Miami, Pow!Wow! Hawaii, PangeaSeed SeaWalls (New Zealand), Pow!Wow! Long Beach, Wallskar Festival China. Outdoor and indoor mural locations include the Long Beach Museum of Art and the World Trade Center in New York. They have shown work in galleries nationwide and in International cities, including Vienna, New York, London, Tokyo, and Melbourne.
The Story behind The Urchin Merchant
Lauren YS
About the Artist
Lauren YS
