A few years ago, Gallery 1988 in Los Angeles hosted their first "I Am 8-Bit" art show, featuring works of art by up-and-coming artists (many of them from the LA art scene) inspired by video games.  This show was covered extensively on the video game blogs and later in a book, and out of the show I found my great fondness for the works of two particular artists - Joe Ledbetter and Luke Chueh.

From his I Am 8-Bit bio:

The piece of art that first grabbed my attention for Luke Chueh was his Dig Dug piece for I Am 8-Bit.  While I couldn't afford the original work, they did release a limited print of this piece for the 2007 8-Bit show, which I bought.

While exploring his work at that point, I came across another painting of his titled "Possessed".  Featuring a white bear with a sorrowed look (as most of Chueh's work does), this bear was in a grim state - blood on his claws and a small bear demon over his shoulder controlling him.  I loved the work but figured at the time that it was too dark for my fiancee's tastes, so I passed on it.

Fast forward to recent times.  My enjoyment of both collectibles/toys and art found a fused outlet this year in my belated discovery of the urban vinyl art scene.  In vinyl art, both famouse and rising pop artists design and create limited runs of vinyl sculptures - sometimes simply an existing creation decorated with their design, while at other times entire sculptures based on the artists work are developed and sold in limited runs.

It was with much excitement that I learned that Munky King was producing a vinyl statue based on Luke Chueh's Possessed painting.  To better accomodate its suitability in three dimensions, a new version of Possessed was produced - now title Possessed Revisited - which was used on the box cover.

The sculpt of the piece is great - like a Luke Chueh painting rendered in 3D.  The haunted look of the bear perfectly captures Chueh's work, and little details like the shading around the eyes and the almost dusty appearance of the white at certain points on the figure give it added depty and shading.  As a final touch, the red blood on the bears claws was applied with a broad, almost painterly fashion, matching it closely to the painting style it came from.

While certainly dark in tone, the little bear demon controlling the main bear with an Atari joystick adds a touch of humor that Chueh is know for.