INSTAGRAM HIT
Brothers Shelby and Sandy making their gallery debut in Santa Fe
One hundred fifty thousand Instagram followers can’t be wrong. Internet darlings and brothers Shelby and Sandy are taking their pop art-meets-Chuck Jones spin to Santa Fe in their gallery debut today.
The pair grew up on cartoons and decided to combine that love with vibrant colors, pirates and desertscapes on canvas. Chuck Jones Gallery owner Craig Kausen (Jones’ grandson) approached the duo about combining forces in his Costa Mesa, Calif., gallery.
“It was serendipitous,” 33-year-old Shelby Murphy said in a telephone interview from Los Angeles.
The two brothers became professional artists about three years ago, painting canvases featuring Disney, Looney Tunes and Nickelodeon characters. They marketed their work on Instagram, the source of nearly 100 percent of their sales. They’re in the collection of stars such as Mariah Carey, Drake, Zac Efron and Hollywood stylist and designer Rachel Zoe.
The two curated their Instagram account to resemble an online gallery, and word spread. Think Mickey Mouse and SpongeBob; the Coyote and the Roadrunner.
“We were doing the Looney Tunes characters,” said Sandy, 25. “When Craig saw it, he was excited and said, ‘Let’s do this officially.’ ”
They protected themselves legally by producing single images — no T-shirts or prints or mass reproductions, he added.
The two finish each other’s sentences, crediting their mother with taking them to museum and gallery shows in and around Orange County. They work in a converted warehouse space in downtown Los Angeles.
They eventually want to produce their own original characters.
“Craig put his arm around us and said, ‘You guys are the future,’” Sandy said.
“It was a poignant moment,” Shelby said. Deals with both Nike and Louis Vuitton are in the works.