Book of Esther comic exhibit in Baltimore

The exhibit opened today. See "New-age depiction of Esther's age-old story: Exhibit at Jewish Museum focuses on graphic novel's retelling," By Edward Gunts, Baltimore Sun March 8, 2009 for JT Waldman's graphic novel story.

Here's the basic information - "Drawing on Tradition: The Book of Esther," runs through July 26 at the Jewish Museum of Maryland, 15 Lloyd St. Admission is $8 for adults, $5 for students and free for members. Call 410-732-6400 or go to jewishmuseummd.org.

Impera et Divide exhibit in Charlottesville, VA UPDATED

Just some quick notes and photos as Sara Duke is doing the formal writeup for the International Journal of Comic Art.

Sara and I took a meandering trip down, stopping at antique stores and trying to stump each other with obscure comics knowledge. As previously noted here, the exhibit is in the non-profit Second Street Gallery, Charlottesville, Virginia.

It has six artists - Frédéric Coché (France), Aerim Lee (South Korea), André Lemos (Portugal), Ilan Manouach (Greece), Andrei Molotiu (US) and Fabio Zimbres (Brazil) and was curated by Pedro Moura (Portugal) and Charlottesville's Warren Craghead III. Although Pedro declared that the art was all just 'comics,' these really are art comics. A companion book, Divide et Impera, by Pedro gives a good overview of the artists and their artwork. Pedro, Warren and Andre were at the show, and it was a pleasure to meet with them and talk about the exhibit. Andre did a special mini-comic/zine just for the exhibit and probably on the plane flight over. I bought a copy of this, the exhibit companion book, and many of the other publications for sale for Michigan State University's Comic Art Collection should one like to see them in the future.

The exhibit suffered somewhat from being trimmed significantly at the last moment due to a smaller gallery size than expected. The version shown in Amador in Portugal was much larger and included Craghead's work which was left out of this version. Of the artists, I was only familiar with Zimbres previously (and Molotiu's academic writing on comics). I'll leave it to Sara to get into the details, but I was especially taken with Cloche's aquatint comics - essentially he engraves a plate and prints 10 of them (according to Pedro) and then cleans the plate. He sells the engravings while reproductions of the art make up his books, 3 of which were on display from Warren's collection. Sara was taken with the work of Ms. Lee, which was eyepopping in color. Much of the artwork is for sale.

Due to the smaller size of the show, many pieces couldn't be displayed, but Pedro took us back to look through them. If you're interested, I would imagine arrangements can be made with the gallery. One could probably buy the book from them through the mail as well, and perhaps the other publications.

There's a blog by Craghead at http://imperaetdivide.blogspot.com/ which has pictures as well.

Here's my photographs, largely taken as a mnemonic device for writing a review:

Frédéric Coché (France)

Ilan Manouach (Greece)

Fabio Zimbres (Brazil)

Andrei Molotiu (US)

André Lemos (Portugal)

Frédéric Coché (France) books

Aerim Lee (South Korea)

Aerim Lee (South Korea)

Comic Art Indigene very Quick Review

Comic Art Indigene had a press preview at the National Museum of the American Indian last night and I got to stop by.

Assumption: Tony Chavarria was a comics fan before becoming a Curator of Ethnology. Hypothesis: He combined his two interests into one exhibit. Conclusion: This exhibit is cool - it takes a few minutes for you to see how everything relates to comic art, but it's worth it.

A real review will follow this, but I wanted to get something up quick.

With apologies to John Judy for stealing his trademark title phrase.

Comic Art Indigene opens on Friday at American Indian museum

Here's the press info:

Comic Art Indigène
March 6, 2009–May 31, 2009
NMAI on the National Mall, Washington, DC

Storytelling has long been a part of Native American culture. Comic Art Indigène examines how storytelling has been used through comics and comic-inspired art to express the contemporary Native American experience. Under the larger definition of narrative art, comic art is more related to Native American art traditions than one might expect. The earliest surviving example of such narrative art is rock art. The historic examples used in the exhibition, such as photographs of rock art, ledger art, and ceramics, are meant to link Native American art traditions with contemporary voices.

Experimental comics exhibit in Charlottesville

Pedro Moura sent a note to the comix-scholar's list about a new exhibit he's worked on. Quoted with permission:

Next March the 6th, a show is opening at the Second Street Gallery, Charlottesville, Virginia, called Impera et Divide, which will host six artists who're working on the verge of what one might call experimental comics, or simply a very contemporary strand of comics. The artists are Frédéric Coché (France), Aerim Lee (South Korea), André Lemos (Portugal), Ilan Manouach (Greece), Andrei Molotiu (US) and Fabio Zimbres (Brazil). This show was curated by Charlottesville's own Warren Craghead III (of How to be everywhere fame) and yours truly.

To put it in a nutshell, this is a very heterogeneous group of people, but they're all can be seen as working in a fine line of experimental comics. I try to clear that up in an obstruse, tangled text (hey, English's not my language) to be published in a book I've edited and published with the artists' work. It is not a catalogue, but a companion publication. It's being printed as we speak, so I hope to have a few copies by the time I leave to the US. It's called Divide et Impera and it also has work from Craghead.

Here's the link to the gallery: http://www.secondstreetgallery.org/
And a blog put up by Craghead: http://imperaetdivide.blogspot.com/

The show will be held until April the 25th.

Mar 6: Comic Art Indigène exhibit opens

On March 6th, the Comic Art Indigène exhibit opens at the National Museum of the American Indian. I'd be interested in putting together a group to visit this if anyone wants to...

OT: What about this year's Angouleme festival anyway?

My buddy's got all the details on his blog - "Comix Influx Blog: Angoulême 2009" by Stephen Betts on 11th February 2009. Check it out, and then stay to note the Comix Influx project. Stephen and co. are translating European graphic novels into English, and then providing the text for you to read along with your copy. These aren't scanlations and you have to have the original comic already, but this is a neat way you can get ahead of Fantagraphics, Drawn and Quarterly or NBM and be the hippest person on your block.

Feb 21: John Malloy exhibit at National Harbor

John Malloy has written in about his first solo exhibition at National Harbor in Maryland, south of DC.

Here's the PR:

Art Whino Announces: One Out Of A Hundred - The Art of John Malloy

"One Out of a Hundred" centers around John Malloy's personal series of mixed-media works that explore drug side effects as a metaphor for consumer and media-driven culture's long-term effects on the human spirit. The originals for each piece include pen & ink, oil paint, and other media, and will be exhibited along with large-format, limited edition signed prints of the series. Limited edition prints of Malloy's comics "Queasy" [Image Comics], "Channel One", and rock-interview comics for the award-winning Lemon Magazine will also be on display, in addition to illustrations for the band Minus The Bear, I Heart Comix, and other magazines and publications. Over 40 Limited Edition Prints and over 50 Works of Original Art, including illustration, fine art, and comics will be on display in the exhibit and for sale.

Saturday, February 21st, from 6pm – Midnight

Location:
173 Waterfront St.
National Harbor, MD 20745
Music by Rank and File

Show end date: March 12th

The event is FREE and open to the public.

John Malloy:
ImageBorn in rural northern Pennsylvania to a cemetery caretaker and a coal-miner's daughter, John Malloy began drawing at very young age. He later earned a background in painting with one of the world's most eminent trompe l'oeil artists, and has since been self taught in fine art, illustration, comics, and design. His first graphic novel, "Amnesia" [2001] combined pen & ink, painted, and digital media, and he is presently working on two new graphic novels, as well as an autobiographical comic for Image Comics' PopGun Anthology titled, "Queasy"

David Hagen exhibit coming to Arlington in March

I've fallen behind on checking out David's blog, but he posted the information on his exhibit recently. Here's the main info, but click through the link to check out the type of artwork he'll be displaying: The show will be from the beginning of March through the end of April with a reception on Friday, March 27 from 6pm to 9pm. All invited. Refreshments served! Century21 gallery space, 1711 Wilson Blvd., Arlington, VA 22209.

David, at this moment, I am wearing a sweatshirt with your ComicsDC logo art on it. Bring the original along and I'll buy that from you.

KAL online exhibit

E-transom news from Kal:

I would like to invite you to visit a unique new Kal exhibition. The Show takes place entirely ONLINE at the virtual Forward Thinking Museum. The FTM is an online venture of Joy of Giving Something, Inc. (JGS), a not-for-profit philanthropic corporation dedicated to encouraging aesthetic reflection about present realities and future possibilities.

Visit the show here: http://www.forwardthinkingmuseum.com/index.php?gallery=141

The Forward Thinking museum houses multiple floors of artist’s works (primarily photograhers). The Kal exhibition currently contains 18 cartoons that will be changed and updated on a monthly basis. The exhibition will expand in the future to include animation. Admission is free!

Comic Art Indigene exhibit coming to Washington

Curator Tony Chavarria sent me a note yesterday regarding the Comic Art Indigene exhibit that had been out west:

During its production, we had interest in the show as a traveling exhibition so we designed it to serve in that function. Its first stop will be at the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington DC this March. The opening will be on March 6th and unfortunately that is all the information I have at the moment. Regrettably there is no information on NMAI's website either although this should change as the date comes closer.

When I have more details I will send them on and hope you might have a chance to see the exhibition.

So, this is the first comics exhibit for 2009 that I know of (Herblock should be at LoC later in the year) - I'll be sure to check it out. If anyone wants to do a group visit, chime in on the comments.

Cartoon mascot exhibit at Johns Hopkins library

Reproduced in full, from Johns Hopkins' website:

New exhibit at MSE Library captures birth of the Blue Jay
JHU Gazette, January 26 2009


Grauer's Blue Jay: A Hopkins Tradition, an exhibit of Blue Jay memorabilia from journalist, author and editorial cartoonist Neil A. Grauer, opens at the MSE Library on Wednesday, Jan. 28, and runs through May 25.

Since the 1920s, the mascot of The Johns Hopkins University has been the feisty Blue Jay — sporting black-and-blue plumage to match the school's athletic colors.

For more than 40 years, the most popular portrayal of that mascot has been the cartoon Blue Jay created in 1966 by Grauer during his student years as a cartoonist for the university's student newspaper, The Johns Hopkins News-Letter.

The exhibit is drawn from the Grauer Blue Jay Collection, a 1996 gift from Grauer to the Sheridan Libraries of more than 50 items. On display are his original sketch of the Blue Jay, drawn on the back of a 3x5 index card; numerous other original drawings; and lacrosse caps, T-shirts, posters, cups, an umbrella and a travel bag, all printed with the Blue Jay logo.

Several items from Grauer's personal collection are also exhibited, including a pair of Nike limited edition sneakers created for members of the 2007 NCAA Division I Men's Lacrosse championship team.

Grauer has drawn the Blue Jay for numerous JHU athletic teams, the Alumni Association and the Pep Band, and still draws the Blue Jay on request. A 1969 graduate of the School of Arts and Sciences, he is now a senior writer in the Editorial Services Division of the Johns Hopkins Medicine Office of Marketing and Communications.

The exhibit is located on M-Level of the Eisenhower Library and may be viewed whenever the library is open.

Dame Darcy exhibit reviewed in Examiner

Surprisingly (to me at least), Dame Darcy's exhibit is reviewed quite positively in today's Examiner - "There’s nothing like Dame Darcy," By Chris Klimek, Washington Examiner 1/21/09.

Baltimore's Closed Caption Comics in NYC

Baltimore's Closed Caption Comics has a show at a gallery in New York City through early February.

March 5: Book of Esther comic art exhibit

Sayeth Edward Gunts in the Baltimore Sun:

5. Biblical art: From March 5 to July 26, the Jewish Museum of Maryland (jewishmuseummd.org), 15 Lloyd St.,will present Drawing on Tradition: The Book of Esther as Graphic Novel. It's a retelling of the Book of Esther in comic-strip form by artist J.T. Waldman.

Dame Darcy exhibit in DC

The Post reported yesterday that Dame Darcy was in town for exhibit opening, and I missed it. The exhibit continues though: Also at the gallery is "Gasoline," featuring works by Dame Darcy, creator of the comic "Meat Cake." The show features work from Darcy's "Gasoline" graphic novel. The shows open tonight with a reception that includes a performance. (After the opening, an after-party is slated for Comet Ping Pong). Free. 7-10 p.m. (Dame Darcy will perform music at 9). The show runs through Feb. 7. Civilian Art Projects, 406 Seventh St. NW. 202-347-0022 or http://www.civilianartprojects.com.

Warren Craghead exhibit in Charlottesville

Gallery owner Rob Jones sent in the following PR about his Warren Craghead show in Charlottesville:

The Dot and The Line
Drawings by Warren Craghead and Brian Mallman
Migration: A Gallery
Charlottesville, Virginia
www.MigrationGallery.com

This show's opening is past, but it will remain up until the end of January.

Here are a couple of reviews:

http://artpark.typepad.com/artblog/2008/12/drawings-by-warren-craghead-and-brian-mallman.html

http://artpark.typepad.com/artblog/2009/01/the-dot-and-the-line.html (- this link leads to a post with a free downloadable Craghead book - Mike).

Rob Jones
www.artPark.typepad.com
fresh air art blogging

2006 Disneyland: The First 50 Years exhibit

A small exhibit was at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American Art in 2006, in conjunction with the donation of some artifacts from the theme park. I'm ambivalent about these exhibits (or postage stamps) that help advertise an ongoing concern, but there's no denying that Disney(land) is part of American popular culture.

2006 Smithsonian lunchbox exhibit

In 2006 the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History had an exhibit of lunchboxes, many of which featured comic and cartoon characters, outside of its cafeteria. I've loaded the pictures on my Flickr site, but here's a few to whet your appetite.


Tom Corbett, Space Cadet - a tv show, but soon a Dell comic book too.


How many Peanuts lunchboxes have there been?


It looks like late-period Caniff, but Steve Canyon is still cool.


Walter Lantz's Woody Woodpecker is essentially forgotten now, but was big in its day.

More pics at the flickr link above...

Crumb exhibit is excellent. But...

(Photos by Aaron Igler, from the ICA website)

We drove up today, had excellent cheesesteaks (is that one word?) at University City's Abner's Cheesesteaks, and then walked around the UPenn campus to the Institute of Contemporary Art for the last day of the R. Crumb's Underground exhibit. They didn't allow us to take pictures, but there's some on their website. The exhibit was originally curated by Todd Hignite and "coordinated at the ICA by Associate Curator Jenelle Porter."

The exhibit, which closed today, was fantastic... or at least the artwork was. The exhibit proper I was less happy with. Pieces were arranged in orders that weren't apparent - neither historical, nor by purpose, nor by media. Judging from the 4-page handout, which says, "Rather than a chronological retrospective, this career-spanning exhibition is organized around specific underlying themes and ideologies" which it then lists as 'Young Crumb,' 'Crumb Draws Crumb,' 'Counterculture,' 'Collaboration,' and 'Old-Time Tunes.' However none of the sections of art in the two cavernous rooms were labeled with these headings, nor were the brief descriptive paragraphs on the section in the brochure included in the actual exhibit. The pieces, except for those published in comic books, were frequently only labeled with the title and media so one could not necessarily place them in context. I happened to recognize two of his New Yorker strips done with his wife Aline, but many other viewers less familiar with his work wouldn't have known where "Fashion Week in New York" and "Cheering Global Villagism" were done for, facts that are relevant in terms of the lessening of some of Crumb's more scatalogical tendencies in the two strips. Interestingly, the artwork was uncolored which was something of a surprise to me as it appears in color in the magazine - my companion and I wondered if Crumb supervised the coloring or if it was done on a computer without him. Crumb's color New Yorker cover of Eustace Tilley as a young punk was included in the show, again without its publication information.
Entrance to exhibit
In spite of these cavils, the exhibit was filled with fantastic pieces, many loaned by Eric Sack. Included were napkins from restaurants that Crumb drew on, which have been the subject of several of his recent books, an Oog & Blik comics publisher's folder he drew a self-portrait on, the back cover of Zap Comix 0, "Early Jazz Greats" watercolor on paper paintings for a card set, his Patton strip which was also in the Masters of American Comics exhibit, Little Wonder Hot Book (1969) - a minicomic with Spain and S. Clay Wilson, original Mr. Natural pages from 1968-1969, the metal printing plate from Zap Comix 0, "Angel Food McSpade" and "Meatball" strips from Zap, and pages of jam comix and posters. A small case of published versions of his art included Zap Comix 1, 0 and 2, Help, Gothic Blimpworks, an American Greeting Card "Season's Greetings" from 1965, and 3 specimens of the unpublished comic he created with his brothers (as seen in the Crumb film).

More art highlights included a complete Fritz the Cat story from 1965, a 1987 Christmas card by Crumb, his wife and daughter, a CBNDI Belgian comics museum poster original and a sketchbook circa the 1960s. One wall had original artwork for comic book covers including Arcade #3 with a pasted-in Zippy by Bill Griffith and the book, R. Crumb's Head Comix. Crumb's work was generally only slightly larger than the published version and he seems to usually work 1 1/2x up. His style evolved somewhat during the 1960s, but by the end of the decade he'd settled into essentially the same one that he uses today although it's obvious that he takes more time and effort on his art now. Much of the material in the show came from a fine art gallery that presumably sells the artwork for him.

The exhibit was a fantastic overview of Crumb's career, even if sadly lacking in information on him. This trend towards treating comics artists solely as fine artists seriously misinterprets the essentially commercial component of comic book publishing, even in the undergrounds that Crumb worked in. However, anyone who likes his work would be well-advised to see the next site it travels to. The exhibit, as stated, was accompanied at the ICA by a four-page brochure and a poster was available for purchase.