Naughty Dog 30 Year Anniversary Gallery Show Recap and Future Plans

Saturday, September 27 was opening night for our A Tribute to Naughty Dog: 30 Year Anniversary show at Gallery Nucleus. We expected to have a good turnout but the response was truly unbelievable.

That was the line nearly an hour before the show started. Once inside it was even crazier:

We can’t express enough how awesome all our fans are and we thank everyone who visited the gallery or joined the conversation online via #NDMemories or #ND30. We asked one of the opening night attendees, a PlayStation MVP, SanchoWest, to tell us about his experience there. Here’s what he had to say:

“Art meets Art. In many ways, this sentence totally nails what Naughty Dog’s 30 Year Anniversary Art Show at Gallery Nucleus is all about. The video games we experience everyday are, in fact, interactive, artistic expressions. The visual concept art from these games hanging next to fan art within an art gallery just made a lot of sense. I wondered - why don’t other developers do this? Naughty Dog is constantly showing us that the root of great games is art.

When I was at the exhibit, it was like seeing old friends again. Remembering the time spent with Nathan Drake, going through the jungles, trekking across the desert and scaling the mountains for lost loot to remembering the pain, anguish and despair I felt with Ellie in The Last of Us. A particular art piece stood out to me called “A Portrait of a Happy-Go-Lucky Girl” and it featured a woman infected by the Cordyceps virus. The artist, Matthew Woodson, captured her last human moments before turning into a “Clicker”. It was haunting and sorrowful. While a very powerful image, I never thought a game could inspire such wonderful art. But, give credit to Naughty Dog for welcoming this medium and championing it.

I assumed that I was going to see impactful pieces and relive gaming memories. One thing I did not expect came from a The Last of Us installation. It was very simple. It was a looping video of various The Last of Us Game environments, similar to a screensaver. This is where I found myself lost; lost in the attention to detail. I was entranced with a post-apocalyptic world filled with empty buildings. Vegetation invaded concrete jungles. Buildings looked worn and tired. It was surreal and very unexpected because these feelings came from taking a brief moment to stop and reflect on images I had seen a million times while playing The Last of Us.

Overall, the event was very inspiring and showed, in the abundance of fans pouring into Gallery Nucleus, and in the elated faces of the Dogs, 30 years well spent. I’m really looking forward to Naughty Dog’s future. Their recent events, like One Night Live and 30 Year Art Gallery, along with the new Naughty Dog Online store, are creating a stronger bond between us fans and the Dogs. Do yourself a favor and visit this exhibit, and experience some lasting, memorable art.”

The show runs until October 12. If you want to buy some amazing fan art act now. Select pieces are still available online. Also, for a limited time, Gallery Nucleus is the only place you can get our The Art of Naughty Dog Limited Edition book as well as other cool Naughty Dog merchandise.

On October 4, from 1-5pm PST, Naughty Dog artists will hold a Concept Art Workshop at the gallery for a limited audience. The following weekend, on October 12, a 3D Character Modeling Workshop featuring a character modeling demo from our artists and a 3D Printing Demo by 3D Systems will be happening from 1-5pm PST. These events are first come, first serve, so show up to the gallery early to get a seat.

Hope to see you at the gallery or hear your stories about the show and our anniversary during the next few weeks. Share your thoughts with #NDMemories and/or #ND30. We’ll be re-tweeting and sharing our favorites. Onto the next 30 years!