Ming Toy Gallery Celebrates 10th Anniversary

June 10th, 2025

Ming Toy Gallery’s newest exhibition, Head Shot by JJ Carroll, will be among the first of a string of celebrations for the gallery’s 10th anniversary. Opened in 2015, the gallery was originally named The Little Gallery. In 2023, the gallery moved to the Benson area and unveiled their new name, Ming Toy Gallery. Head Shot will kick off with an opening reception June 6 at Ming Toy Gallery.

“The exhibition is essentially a hodgepodge of fun things that I’ve worked on,” Carroll said.

Carroll’s interest in art inspired him to pursue a career in illustration. While still attending high school, he visited a college fair at the Kansas City Art Institute where he presented his portfolio for review.

“A lot of schools such as Rhode Island School Design, Savannah School of Art and Parsons School of Design were all just reviewing young artists books,” Carroll said. “That took me to a summer program between my junior and senior year in high school at Parsons for about six weeks in New York City, and from there I ended up attending.”

After graduating from The Parsons School of Design with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1994, Carroll worked a few different jobs before landing an animation role working with the television channel Nickelodeon. Carroll worked alongside other young artists and freelancers on the Nickelodeon television show KaBlam! For 5 years

After working in New York for around 10 years, Carroll returned to Omaha in 2004. He later opened his business CHOICE Custom Framing & Gallery in 2012. Carroll has continued his artistic endeavors across the globe through individual artworks and exhibitions.

Teresa Gleason, co-owner of Ming Toy Gallery alongside Tim McMahan, approached Carroll to produce new artwork for the gallery’s anniversary. Head Shot, Carroll’s first exhibition in six years, features both drawn illustrations and mixed media.

“A lot of inspiration came from a recent trip to Japan in order to collect toys,” Carroll said.

The exhibition’s name, Head Shot, was inspired by the contrast of the overarching theme of toys present in many of the artworks and Carroll’s choice of music he listened to while drawing them, largely hardcore punk music. Carroll’s new artwork conveys a carefree and bright atmosphere for the exhibition.

“It’s drawing at its soul,” Carroll said.

The Head Shot exhibition will run between June 6 to June 28 at Ming Toy Gallery, located at 6066 Maple Street. Ming Toy Gallery is open Wednesday through Saturday.

For more information about the Head Shot Exhibition or Ming Toy Gallery, you can visit mingtoygallery.com.