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Retroband
Born
Aaron Moreno Jr.

(1981-07-13) July 13, 1981 (age 43)
San Antonio, Texas, U.S.
Other namesstncl.07
Known forArt toys, Public art, Stenciling
Notable workMEATS (2015–present)
MovementLowbrow art, Pop art
Spouse
Anna Belinda Moreno née Carreno
​
​
(m. 2003)​
Children2
AwardsDesigner Toy Awards–Break Through Artist (2014 winner),[1] Designer Toy Awards–Artist of the Year (2015 & 2017 finalist)[2]
Websiteretrobandtoys.com

Retroband is the artistic alias of Aaron Moreno (born July 13, 1981), an American lowbrow and pop art painter and sculptor.[3]

Early life

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Aaron Moreno Jr. was born and currently lives in San Antonio, Texas.[4] Has a pre-pubescent love of Garbage Pail Kids and obsession with horror movies.[5] He was exposed to the cult cinema during childhood through his mother working at a video store and his aunt living across the street from a drive-in theater.[6] Introduced to punk music circa age 15, eventually participating in the scene as a local musician. Studied art at San Antonio College for Fine Arts circa age 20, though he had a long-standing appreciation for the subject.[7] In addition to his collegiate training, Moreno attributes his skill to his graffiti background. A long-time fan of stickers, Moreno began painting stickers with his artistic alias or crew name on them. He revisited this tactic early in his Retroband years. Loves all things zombie, the 1978 version of Dawn of the Dead being a particular favorite. Especially fond of toys from the '80s and '90s.[5] On October 6th of 2003, he married Anna Belinda Carreno.[8] He held a government job around the time he started using the Retroband alias, though he quickly committed to his newfound art career full-time.[6]

Career

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stncl.07 (pre-2013)

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A conceptual artist who specializes in multi-layered acrylic and aerosol paintings that are photo-realistic in nature, Moreno's art has been exhibited all throughout the United States, from California to New York, including Art Whino Gallery's "STENCIL" (November 2008), Goodfoot Lounge's "Vinyl Killers 7" (October 2009), and Studio 2091's "Obsolete" (October 2013), and he was involved in the Italian "International Poster Show" (May 2006) exhibition.[9] He was also part of "Old Skoolin’ for the Children," a traveling concert and art exhibition by Art Whino Gallery & Whaler's Creation, whose four-city display locations included Art Basel Miami in 2009.[10] Some of his works are inspired by his childhood memories of family, like how his This Way installation for the "Cut and Paste" exhibit in 2012 was inspired by memories of walking downtown with his grandmother.[11]

In 2007, Moreno formed an artist collective titled Third Vision Collective (3VC), whose members were based out of San Antonio, Austin, and Uvalde, Texas, including Gabriel "Safari" Hernandez.[12] In March 2011, Moreno and David "Shek" Vega co-founded and opened Gravelmouth, a working studio space that doubled as an exhibition area for "street cultured art."[13] In the summer of 2012, Moreno worked at the 1906 gallery as an art educator for at-risk students.[11]

Retroband (2013–present)

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Action Figures as Art

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Began Retroband to take a break from his painting career, the idea of creating artistic action figures spurred by his 8-year-old son asking Moreno what toys he had growing up.[14] Prior to this, Moreno had no experience sculpting, but he quickly learned he had an aptitude for the medium.[6] In 2013, Moreno and his son were enjoying a shared love of action figures, leading the artist to wish the characters from horror comics and cult movies he enjoyed in youth had toy renditions.[15] This led to Retroband's slogan, eight simple words that would sum up Moreno's direction: "Making Toys I wish I Had Growing Up."[16] Handmade with retro style, Moreno's pieces from this period were reminiscent of Kenner's Star Wars action figure line but were modeled after characters from horror films.[17] Packaged in classic-feeling backing cards, featuring full-color art on the front and back of each, many figures were accompanied with special accessories associated with the character, like a severed head as a cake included with "Father" from Creepshow.[17]

Moreno intended this direction as a tribute to films he passionately loves, explaining the thought-process as "Which film do I want to thank for existing?"[16] Moreno's first editions along these lines were the alien slug from Night of the Creeps and the killer roaches from Creepshow, though he concedes these were more like prop replicas than action figures.[18] But it was his edition based on Night of the Creeps, his first project along these lines, that Moreno attributes with career-changing, the piece becoming "somewhat viral" upon release.[6] The Retroband name has been mistaken as a company or brand, but Moreno has clarified this misconception, stating that "I'm really an artist […] not a company."[18]

Describes early Retroband work as "Design married Art but is having an affair with Bootleg." In general, the process of his figure creation is: select character/s, sculpt them with CX5, mold and cast the sculpt in resin, paint the cast pieces, and complete with authentic-looking packaging.[19] Illustrations on Retroband's action figure release packagings was primarily created by Gabriel "Safari" Hernandez and Cody Schibi.[20] Early on, Moreno would kit-bash parts from vintage action figures to form the base for his creations but began shifting to pieces that were 85%-95% original sculpts with the "Father" (from Creepshow) edition in 2013.[16]

In the three years following his beginning in this direction, Moreno created dozens of resin figures detailing characters from films like C.H.U.D., Creepshow, Critters, Dressed to Kill, Halloween III: Season of the Witch, Motel Hell, Salem's Lot, and Silent Night, Deadly Night, each handmade in an edition up to 50 pieces and most selling out online in minutes.[21] Action figures of this sort are typically molded and painted by the artist, but frequently the sculpts are constructed from repurposed parts, making them inherently bootleg. While copyrighted material is employed in these works, Moreno has yet to receive any cease-and-desist letters.[22] Circa 2014, Moreno's studio was located in the Blue Star Arts Complex. By mid-2014, Moreno had issued 20 figure designs under his Retroband alias, having averaged at least one edition per month thus far in his career.[23] As early as the end of 2013, Moreno was planning to begin issuing original designs as well as officially licensed projects.[16] Additionally, he collaborated with Alex Pardee on two limited edition retro figures: the Bunnywith Vintage Packaging, which premiered at a Gallery 1988 exhibit on October 19th, 2013, and the G.I. Joe-inspired Snake Eyes, which was issued by ZeroFriends on April 20th, 2014.[5]

In May 2014, celebrating the first anniversary of his Retroband alias, Moreno issued an officially authorized rendition of George A. Romero as a 3¾-inch tall action figure at the Alamo Drafthouse/Texas Frightmare Weekend screening of Dawn of the Dead.[24] Limited to a handmade edition of 50 pieces, Moreno presented a special zombified version to the director himself. Around the same time, Moreno was contracted by Adult Swim to create a handmade rendition of Hank Waffles from King Star King in action figure form, which was expected to be unveiled in 2014's Comic-Con International: San Diego.[18] In 2015, Columbia Pictures hired Moreno to make four editions inspired by the 1981 film Heavy Metal, depicting the characters "Taarna," "Harry Canyon," and two renditions of "B-17 Gunner."[18] That same year, Moreno partnered with Unbox Industries to produce a licensed, vinyl-cast action figure of the 2000 A.D. character Zombo.[citation needed] As Moreno continued to be commissioned by the TV and film businesses, several requesting more than one project, and even suggesting the artist relocate to Los Angeles so he can be closer to their operational bases.[6]

Notable collectors of his work include horror writer Clive Barker, Toy Hunter TV star Jordan Hembrough, actor Elijah Wood, and The Goldbergs TV series creator Adam F. Goldberg.[18] Goldberg included a copy of Moreno's handmade Creepshow action figure "Jordy" in a 2018 episode of his The Goldbergs TV show.[25]

Retroband Kids

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For March 2014's "The Crawling Dead" exhibition at Los Angeles, California's Toy Art Gallery, Moreno created a unique piece titled "Toxic Timmy."[citation needed] Mixing the aesthetics of Garbage Pail Kids and The Toxic Avenger, the work was a hand-painted sculpture mounted upon a hand-painted wooden board.[citation needed] Using this piece as inspiration, Moreno crafted a miniature version that marked the debut of his new thematic series, titled Retroband Kids. Issued in an edition of 50 copies during 2014's San Diego Comic-Con, this new rendition was a 2-inch tall, hand-painted resin figure packaged on a standard-sized trading card featuring new art on its back by Gabriel "Worthy Enemies" Hernandez.[26] This new Retroband Kids series would continue with "Slimy Sean" as issued at 2014's MondoCon, "Caught’n Cody" as issued at 2014's DesignerCon, and "Creepy Kevin" as issued by the artist online.[27]

MEATS

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Moreno's first wholly original character creation was named MEATS. Though aspects of it were inspired by various nostalgic sources, Moreno merged these elements into one cohesive character which he describes as an "underdog."[6] In October 2015, at the second MondoCon, Moreno and Unbox Industries revealed the MEATS figure in prototype form.[citation needed] MEATS initially had a companion figure, the monstrous boar GRISTLE, which had been designed by Moreno, sculpted by Zectron, and produced in vinyl by Unbox Industries.[citation needed]

Since its debut, Moreno has produced a number of hand-painted MEATS editions loosely inspired by cult media properties, including They Live and The Toxic Avenger.[citation needed]

In September 2019, Moreno had a solo exhibition at New York City's Bottleneck Gallery titled I can't stop the Monster I created, which featured both hand-painted and unpainted versions of his MEATS form as well as debuting his MEATS by Retroband monograph art book.[28]

TOMB and SUFFER

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Deadly Delivery

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While the name Deadly Delivery was initially used by Moreno in 2015 for his Basket Case-inspired "Oh Brother" limited edition piece, it shifted into a collaborative line of works by Moreno and another artist, known as Zectron, in 2016.[29] All pieces in the Deadly Delivery line are intended to be hand-cast resin works that are less than 2-inches in height and inspired by classic horror and sci-fi media.[29] As a sub-line within Deadly Delivery, Black Market Mysteries was introduced to reproduce long-lost, impossible-to-find mini-figures.[29]

[edit]

Though Moreno had intended to open the gallery space for a while, it was his experience curating The Glow Show at the Freight Gallery in 2018 that finally solidified his desire.[30] On September 15th of 2019, Moreno opened the FORM Gallery in San Antonio's Southtown Arts District, a popular Second Saturday destination, which was announced to feature monthly exhibitions of art toys by the artist himself or others.[31] "Using this [space] to expand the audience for art toys, my new gallery will provide an inviting atmosphere," Moreno stated before the opening, "a place where connoisseurs can discuss works and new fans can dive deep into our world."[30]

References

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Citations

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  1. ^ Clutter (2014), p. 35; Designer Toy Awards (2014); Geek Guide (2014), p. 7.
  2. ^ Toy Break (2015); Designer Toy Awards (2017).
  3. ^ Curtis & Ralat (n.d.).
  4. ^ X Marks the Art (2012); Griffiths (2013); Guzman (2014); Campos (2003).
  5. ^ a b c Griffiths (2013).
  6. ^ a b c d e f Castoreno (2017).
  7. ^ X Marks the Art (2012); Griffiths (2013).
  8. ^ Campos (2003); Moreno (2018a).
  9. ^ Schiller (2006); Koleszar (2008); PDX Pipeline (2009); X Marks the Art (2012); Cool Cleveland (2013).
  10. ^ Art Whino (2009a); Art Whino (2009b).
  11. ^ a b X Marks the Art (2012).
  12. ^ X Marks the Art (2012); Pardee (2013).
  13. ^ Guerra (2011); X Marks the Art (2012).
  14. ^ Griffiths (2013); Juzwiak (2018).
  15. ^ Guzman (2014); Castoreno (2017); Juzwiak (2018).
  16. ^ a b c d Pardee (2013).
  17. ^ a b Mondo (2014).
  18. ^ a b c d e Guzman (2014).
  19. ^ Griffiths (2013); Guzman (2014); Nelson (2019).
  20. ^ Griffiths (2013); Pardee (2013).
  21. ^ Dirty Horror (2014); Guzman (2014); Juzwiak (2018).
  22. ^ Juzwiak (2018).
  23. ^ Pardee (2013); Guzman (2014).
  24. ^ Guzman (2014); Mondo (2014).
  25. ^ Moreno (2018b).
  26. ^ DKE Toys (2014a).
  27. ^ DKE Toys (2014b).
  28. ^ Hammond (2019).
  29. ^ a b c Curtis (2016).
  30. ^ a b Nelson (2019).
  31. ^ Aguirre (2019); Moreno (2019); Nelson (2019).

Sources

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Books

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  • Curtis, Nick (September 21, 2019). MEATS by Retroband. Newburgh, NY: CoART Publications. ISBN 9780578452968.

Interviews & critical articles

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Broadcast recordings

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Social Media Postings

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Press releases & non-critical articles

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  • "Cut and Paste, 2012-2013". X Marks the Art. San Antonio, TX: Public Art San Antonio. 2012. Archived from the original on December 16, 2014. Retrieved October 19, 2019. {{cite web}}: |archive-date= / |archive-url= timestamp mismatch; December 17, 2014 suggested (help)
  • "Winners 2014". Designer Toy Awards. n.d. Archived from the original on July 8, 2021. Retrieved July 29, 2021. {{cite web}}: |archive-date= / |archive-url= timestamp mismatch; July 8, 2017 suggested (help)
  • "Winners 2017". Designer Toy Awards. n.d. Archived from the original on July 1, 2017. Retrieved July 29, 2021.
  • Campos, Teresa B. (October 6, 2003), Marriage License, County of Bexar, State of Texas (published September 30, 2003), p. 1, retrieved July 21, 2021
  • "Stencil Show". Koleszar. October 31, 2008. Archived from the original on April 1, 2017. Retrieved October 18, 2019.
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Category:1981 births Category:Living people Category:Artists from Texas Category:American contemporary artists Category:American graffiti artists Category:Street artists Category:Pop artists

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