Upcoming Comics Exhibition," From TELEOS to the Beyond"
Dithers Humor with the Existential and the Mundane
SILVER SPRING, MD— DWIGHTMESS Cartooning & Comic Arts, a new gallery devoted to experimental and cutting-edge independent comics and illustration, is proud to announce its next exhibition, From Telos to the Beyond, a conceptual group show exploring material spirituality and existentialism through comics, featuring the original comics art of Sam Sharpe, Everett Bass, Bob Kubbers and Peach S. Goodrich.
Combining the uncanny and the profane, the arcane and the contemporary, From Telos to Beyond represents a cartoonists' inclination for testing out possible habitable cosmic systems through the particularized and unshared realities of their art. Humanity's inclination to obsessively name its purpose through art is a feature of popular Western cosmogony, and is put into illuminatingly weird action by these artists through the language of sequential storytelling.
Sam Sharpe and Peach S. Goodrich are collaborators on Viewotron, an anthology of recurring stories that match comedic riffs with philosophical narrative rhymes that could only happen in comics. Populated with talking animal college students, goal-less explorers, space monsters, debunked deities, and unexamined consciences, the publication's weird humor reminds us that no one is safe from the stresses in our lives that can embolden one to self-sabotage.
Combined with Sharpe and Goodrich, the perfect draftsmanship and storytelling of comics artist Bob Lubbers (1922-2017) reveals a mastery of and seamless relationship to the comics medium that would seem, to contemporary eyes, eerie to maintain and distinctive in its compositions. His bold creativity, on display in comic strips such as 'Lil Abner, Tarzan, The Saint, and Secret Agent X9 should have afforded him more recognition. According to comics journalist Paul Gravett, Lubbers is 'not the celebrated cartoonist he should be.' Additionally, in these strange & obscure, possibly unpublished comic strips titled Buck Danes, Everett Bass, an artist surmised to have worked in the 1940's, engages a singular, running commentary about making ends meet through its characters that mirrors the political realism of Harold Gray's renowned and long-running comic strip, Little Orphan Annie. That the comic may well represent a failed attempt to capitalize on Gray's success by featuring familiar working-class themes and a relatable drawing style, it ultimately still succeeds at replicating Gray's comic universe, but for purposes too fascinatingly odd to be understood.
Additional Info: Copies of "Viewotron" will be available during the exhibition; Subscribe to our newsletter "The GRAFFO Broadsheet" to follow along as DWIGHTMESS and Sam Sharpe discuss his comic, "That First Summer After College We All Stayed in the City and Founded Religions." A virtual/IRL artist discussion event will take place in early December with Sam Sharpe along with the release of a 'zine of forgotten artist Everett Bass' comic-strips. We hope you'll join us on one of the gallery's first deep dives into the architecture of comics-making and its capabilities for sparking discussion and reflection!
"From Teleos to the Beyond" | November 10 - December 31, 2023
Sam Sharpe | Everette Bass | Bob Lubbers | Peach S Goodrich
DWIGHTMESS Cartooning & Comic Arts
805 Silver Spring Ave, Silver Spring, MD 20910 [entrance on Ripley Street]
Opening Reception: Friday, Nov. 10, 7-9pm; Light refreshments & beverages served; Sam Sharpe to be present virtually, Peach S Goodrich will attend.
Gallery Hours: By Event & Appointment. Contact adam@dwightmess.com to schedule a viewing.
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