searching for colby

A response to the closure of the seminal Colby Poster Printing Company (1948 to 2012)

Colby & the movies

The Colby Poster Printing Company had an impact on visual culture in Los Angeles.... but exactly how much of an impact? I'm on a mission to find Colby posters in their natural habitat in movies and documentaries. Here is a list of the movies I’ve watched so far:
Stay Hungry, Pumping Iron, Safe, The Limey, Hollywood Shuffle, Ingrid Goes West, Welcome to L.A., Pineapple Express, Car Wash, Beyond the Valley of the Dolls, Alpha Dog, Neon Demon, Comet, Graduate, Hurly Burly, Earthquake, Planet Of The Apes Vol 03, They Live, Starry Eyes*, Escape From L.A., Into The Night, In Time, Strange Days, Jackie Brown, Chinatown, Straight Time, Into The Night, Strange days, In Time, Exit Through the Gift Shop, Magnolia, Wassup Rockers, The Exiles, Visual Acoustics, Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song, Boogie Nights, Z Channel, Long Goodbye, Mayor Of The Sunset Strip, Shampoo, Sunset Strip, Dogtown and the Z-boys, Punch-drunk Love, Less Than Zero, Collateral, Inherent Vice, Short Cuts, To Live and Die in LA, Mur Murs/Documenteur, Heat, Reservoir Dogs*, Los Angeles Plays Itself, Red Hollywood.
*Confirmed Colby poster sighting

01:06:13 / Pineapple Express (2008) Ink & gouache on museum board / 16x12cm / ©2018 WM — 01:06:13 / **Pineapple Express** (2008)
Ink & gouache on museum board / 16x12cm / ©2018 WM

0:07:36 / Punch Drunk Love (2002) Ink & gouache on museum board / 16x12cm / ©2018 WM — 0:07:36 / **Punch Drunk Love** (2002)
Ink & gouache on museum board / 16x12cm / ©2018 WM

1:41:12 / Wassup Rockers (2005) Ink & gouache on museum board / 16x12cm / ©2018 WM — 1:41:12 / **Wassup Rockers** (2005)
Ink & gouache on museum board / 16x12cm / ©2018 WM

00:07:06 / Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (1970) Ink & gouache on museum board / 16x12cm / ©2018 WM — 00:07:06 / **Beyond the Valley of the Dolls** (1970)
Ink & gouache on museum board / 16x12cm / ©2018 WM

exhibtions

Megalo Print Studio + Gallery, Canberra AUS, 9 - 30 JUNE 2018

Bondi Pavilion, Sydney, AUS
14-20 May, 2018
For seven days, the Bondi Pavilion Gallery was converted into a project space for Waverley Studios Artist Wendy Murray.

Megalo Print Studio + Gallery, Canberra, AUS
9 - 30 JUNE 2018
While visiting The International Printing Museum, Carson, CA, USA in 2017, I stumbled across the Colby archive. This discovery set about an intense research period of documentation, interviews, archive and field research to establish the impact of Colby posters on popular culture. This exhibition documents some of that journey.