Last weekend we had the chance to make it out to Grit City Aces Club, for the first time, to take a peek at their art show Play Your Cards Right - a little pun off the retail moniker never hurts. There were some big names in the mix as far as our community of favorite fine artists are concerned. The list of artists included:

@amocatacoma @visualaaron @winsomesincerity @drrazorbeam @bicycle_binger & @carloz_cbt

We were there to see all the art and to browse the racks as well. When we walked up our good friend and Holiday window artist amocatacoma was putting the finishing touches on a 'Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas' flip to help cap off the atmosphere of the evening. So naturally we started with his work, a self-employed sign painter amocatacoma flipped his everyday business into hilarious puns that apply to everyday grocery shopping.

Winsomesincerity is a photographer we know from her work with Tacoma Apparel Co. She has an eye for detail that is captivating and her content choices are always on par and/or above. The image of the scorched car and the gentleman with the pipe and tartan were standouts. It was a great moment to see her work out - she has been working steadily over the past year to increase her exposure and it's working

. I was almost afraid we wouldn't see anything from the comic world but Drrazorbeam did not disappoint. All of his pieces were comic character renditions featuring his signature artistic twist and we're die-cut to add shape. He also had help with the color finish from good friend and fellow artist @seanmichaelstudios.

@visualaaron is someone all of Club907 has admired from a distance over the past 4 months. But his work really became polarizing after Perry asked him to step in and shoot the lookbook for our Striped Ts release in March. His collection featured several candid photos of peers and loved ones, sprinkled throughout appeared to be some of his favorites from past shoots. He was there with the same film camera in hand that was used to take all the photos (with exception of two which he was sure pointed out) it was pretty awesome that he brought his weapon of choice out for the night.

@bicycle_binger was the fine art hand to beat that evening. His biggest piece was a visually stimulating polygon color pattern piece - if you stared at it long enough you melted into the colors. But his character collage pieces were otherworldly, anime inspired and stole the show in terms of seeing such detailed technical skill up close. I'm sure there were multiple popular anime characters and I'm just not familiar.

Lastly, @carloz_cbt - he exhibition was much more my pace. Graffiti has always been a huge scene in Tacoma but it wasn't until moving to LA where graffiti artist have been able to take skill level into the fine art retail world that I began to appreciate and more importantly understand what I was appreciating in terms of hand skill. Carlos has everything - every piece was perfect and popped off the canvas in person. The framed message "Make a living of your passion" and his genius idea to tag the side of a toy cargo truck really took his display over the top. The show was overall an impressive curation by the guys of Grit City and the space was utilized so well you could still shop freely and mingle while other fully engaged in the art.

On the way out we did do a little shopping and my brother from another and roommate in LA Nelson was in town seeing what he could see. It must have been written in the stars, Nelson an avid shoe collector with dreams of opening his own sneaker boutique one day, locked eyes on a pair of red/black 01 Jordan 1s. His heart stopped but his debit card kept swiping and he left with all the art and design he could ever need from artist Tinker Hatfield. It goes without saying that we will be back to Grit City for any future art shows and it is now a mandatory destination when friends from elsewhere are in Tacoma.

Oh yeah my pal @galenemery was in the show too.

EVENT: Play Your Cards Right x GRIT CITY ACES CLUB

— ETCETERA —