Rat Fink Revolution:

Started with a T-shirt, Now We're Here

August 29 - November 17, 2022

“Rat Fink represented the real world to me—not the real world my parents and teachers told me about, but the ‘real’ real world filled with oodles of different people with a variety of attitudes.”

-Ed Roth

Unruly. Outsider. DIY. Rat Fink emerged post-World War II as a foil to Mickey Mouse, capturing and spouting an attitude counter to mainstream culture. Ed “Big Daddy” Roth drew Rat Fink to make the first airbrushed graphic t-shirt, creating and displaying identity and community for the wearers. From t-shirts to skateboards, album covers to custom cars, pin-striping to contemporary art, Big Daddy Roth’s legacy lives on. Anytime we wear a graphic t-shirt, hang a poster, or slap a sticker on our water bottles, we join the spirit of Rat Fink using art to say something about who we are.

Ed Roth was a pioneer, blazing new trails in custom cars, cartooning, and pinstriping. He sculpted the first fiberglass car, the first trike, and created Choppers Magazine, the first customized motorcycle publication which is still in print today. The very first set of Hot Wheels cars featured Roth’s Beatnik Bandit, a futuristic hot rod with a bubble canopy.

Roth is perhaps best-known for creating Rat Fink, the anti-hero to Mickey Mouse. Sitting at L.A.’s Apollo restaurant in 1958, he drew Rat Fink on a napkin in reaction to Disney’s Fantasia, which had recently been re-released.

T-shirts had been around as underwear since the late 1800s but were not worn as outer clothing until soldiers began returning from World War II in the 1940s. The plain white tee became a symbol of rebels, donned by James Dean in Rebel Without A Cause and Marlon Brando in A Streetcar Named Desire. Roth took his car paint-gun and sprayed Rat Fink on a white shirt, becoming one of the first and most influential people to create a graphic t-shirt.

This exhibition explores the impact that impulse has had on American culture. The idea of adopting art to say something about ourselves carries on in our everyday lives. Born from tattoos, comic strips, and art, images say something about us and our “variety of attitudes,” from clothing, to graffiti, to a designed skate deck. Explore the blend of artworks and ephemera that break convention and dare to push back.

Featuring artwork by:

Ed “Big Daddy” Roth, Gregg Deal, Shepard Fairey, Donald Fodness, Keith Haring, Jann Haworth, Kevin Hennessy, Carlos Fresquez, Michael Migliorini, Takashi Murakami, Jae Mo, Jack Portice, “Pirate” Larry Roberts, Andy Warhol, André Ramos-Woodard, and many more incredible artists!