Postcards From the Edge of the Universe

40 artists team up to bring you season's greetings from Cybertron.

by Tanja M. Laden

November 14, 2015, 1:00pm

Images courtesy the artists

The exibit Postcards From Space depicts fictional intergalactic destinations that have cropped up in mainstream media, including video games, comics, books, films, and TV shows. Organized by Jon M. Gibson and Amanda White—co-owners of the production company iam8bit that has created work for everyone from Nintendo, PlayStation, and Activision to HBO, MTV, Universal, and Disney—Postcards From Space shows the original work of 40 different artists.

In the show, we see make-believe interplanetary metropolises, including those found in Star Wars, Star Trek, Doctor Who, Spaceballs, Starship Troopers, Avatar, Transformers, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Super Mario Galaxy, Dragonball Z, Superman comics, Guardians of the Galaxy, and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. At the same time, artist Edison Yang's enormous map displays where all the destinations are located in relation to each other across the universe.

Doaly, "Krypton" (Superman), courtesy iam8bit

iam8bit is much more than a company, it espouses a type of indefinable aesthetic that bridges the gap between high and low-brow. It consistently delivers unique art projects that redefine the new frontier of Pop art, such as its latest quirky show at its Echo Park-based gallery.

Postcards are offered at the extremely reasonable rate of $5 apiece, leaving the choice up to the consumer whether to frame them or just stick 'em in the mail like they're ostensibly supposed to. Either way, the project unites the visually familiar set of principles underlying and guiding the artwork of the 20th century postcard with an inherently progressive sci-fi theme. The result is a project that's at once vintage and futuristic—in other words, a typical iam8bit enterprise.