[top image: lindsey balbierz; bottom image: sae-am lee]
Larry Roibal (’82) recently had his piece “Sunday Morning” accepted for the Communication Arts Illustration Competition. Larry’s unique style was also highlighted by the fine folks over at Drawn a couple of weeks ago. See more of Larry’s work at his website. Congrats!
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Alum Chris Roth has been creating like crazy, including tons of animations for CBS (like this!), a Spiderman stained-glass window in honor of legendary artist Stan Lee, and this great spot for Channel Frederator (the first piece is his!):
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDNEGAJfHiU&hl=en]
See more of Chris’s work at his website. Keep up the great work, Chris!
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Alum Angie Mason recently had her work included in the Fusion 5 Festival, which is an amazing new art festival put together by Strychnin Gallery Owner Yasha Young and Hotel 3.14’s creative director Dani Morla.
The artists included in this event were:
Bijou (France), Diva (Spain), David Hochbaum (USA),
Angie Mason (USA),Till Krautkraemer (USA),
Manuel Cortez & Philipp Baben (Germany), Brian Horton (USA),
Chichi Menendez (Australia), Natalie Shau (Lithuania),
Chris von Steiner (France), Mark Verhaagen (Netherlands)
David Stoupakis (USA), Daniel van Nes (Netherlands),
BORIS + NATASCHA (Germany & Australia), Mkan (France),
Virginie Ropars (France), Ansgar Noeth (Germany),
Matthew Bone (USA), Mimi S. (Germany),
Kristen Ferrell (USA), Oksana Badrak (GUS),
Mijn Schatje (France)
Angie also posted images up also at her flickr site and had this to say about her experience:
It was a great event where each artist was given a room/suite that matched their art (no two rooms are a like at this very unique hotel) and the artists had to fill the space with their work making the room their own and then have it viewed during the opening party exhibits and public openings. There was wonderful music and art and press and an ever flowing amount of absolute vodka since they were one of the main sponsors.
Thanks for sharing the news, Angie!
The Illustrated Letter:
Four Decades of Letters to the Editor Spots
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Thursday, April 24, 2008
7:00-9:00 PM
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The New York Times
620 8th Avenue, 7th Floor
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RSVP Required to
galleryseven@nytimes.com
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A great exhibition–Lots of Things Like This–organized by Dave Eggers and currently on view at apexart through May 10th, features a huge range of exceptional artists. Here’s an excerpt from an Eggers-penned essay discussing the show’s concept:
This show, titled Lots of Things Like This, came about when apexart asked for an idea for a show. The first thought that occurred to us was an exhibit that would highlight work that included these three elements:
1. An image
2. Some words (usually referring to the image)
3. A sense of humorThe show never got much more complicated than that. We started with the artists we knew we had to include: Raymond Pettibon, Tucker Nichols, Maira Kalman and David Shrigley. All four of them had found a place in the fine art world, even though in many cases their work was both narrative and funny, a combination that’s historically been rare in galleries and museums. For the most part, artists who use text in their work don’t write punchlines – the text is usually abstract or oblique, open to interpretation. But the rise of comics-based art, and of Pettibon in particular, had opened the doors to new hybrids of words and images, thank god.
In any case, being loathe to draw conclusions about the artists’ motivations or methods, because, again, so many of these people are dead, we’re instead going to list some questions that occurred to us and might occur to you and might help the show blow your mind completely:
Why is it that so many of these artists aren’t so great at spelling? And why is it that when they screw up one of their words, instead of starting over, they just cross the word out and write it again? Many people would choose to start over.
Why is it important to many of the artists that the drawings appear casual, even rushed? Is the loose draftsmanship part of its appeal, in that it seems more intimate and disarming? Is absurdity more appealing when it comes across as humble?
What is the line between a doodle, a cartoon, a gag, a work of fine art, and will there ever be a time when someone doesn’t insist on writing a similar kind of silly and rhetorical sentence in an art catalog?
Read the whole essay here and make sure to catch this unique show before it comes down.
Lots of Things Like This
organized by Dave Eggers
April 2 – May 10, 2008
291 Church Street
(between Walker and White)
New York, NY 10013 USA
Illustration Adjunct Dan Weise runs Open Space gallery in Beacon, NY (just a short trip north of the city) and he has an exciting new show up that features another Parsons faculty–Jordin Isip. Here’s the official description:
The average family brings home 1,000 plastic bags every year. It is time for us to switch from a disposable society to one which reduces, reuses and recycles. This show will help spread the message that we care about our planet and do not want to just consume until there is nothing left. We are certain that we will all make a difference. The proceeds from the sales of the show will go to the Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, a New York based organization committed to enviromental advocacy and education.
Tons of fantastic artists are involved in this show and it benefits a good cause so hop on the Metro North line and go visit!
TOTE / BAG
April 12th – May 3rd
Open Space Beacon
510 Main Street
Beacon NY 12508
Artists: Boris Achour, Pierre Bismuth, Wim Delvoye, Gerard Deschamps, Erro, Pierre Huyghe, Bernard Joisten, Pierre Joseph, William Kentridge, Koo Jeong-A, Suzanne Lafont, Bertrand Lavier, François Letaillieur, Mac Adams, David Mach, Petra Mrzyk & Jean François Moriceau, Raymond Pettibon, Alain Sechas, Jim Shaw, Sandy Skoglund, Fabien Verschaere, Wang Du
On display on MNAC Animations / Fictions presents a curatorial research within the Fonds National d’Art Contemporain in Paris spotlighting different ways in which comic strips and cartoons have been used by international contemporary artists. Cartoons and comic strips have appeared in citational form initially in the Pop Art before becoming, at a later stage (from the 1990s onwards) and in a context removed from animation, an explicit source of inspiration.
The featured artists express highly sophisticated concepts in an easily understandable language. Borrowing childhood iconography or creating images referring ironically to Disney, Hannah&Barbera or mangas, beyond their connotations of an all-pervasive subculture, mass culture and media in today’s globalized world, the chosen works act as powerful vectors for sometimes dramatic events. They reveal an adult awareness of the gravity of the present day through a child’s wide-eyed gaze. Very different in their form and message, they also highlight how contemporary figuration draws on its close ties with the various genres of the popular culture, switching towards a different area.
Emphasizing the feedback reality-fiction, focusing on social, political and psychological issues, the works presented become the re-looked reflection of an aggressive reality difficult to endure.
A new Cahiers du Fonds National d’Art Contemporain dedicated to the exhibition will be published.
See more images from the show here!
Parsons Illustration Alums David Horvath and Sun-Min Kim have new works in a show going up at Giant Robot 2 later this month. Here’s more info taken from the official press release:
Giant Robot is proud to host Deharavath, a group art show featuring the work of Yukinori Dehara, David Horvath, and Sun-Min Kim… David Horvath and Sun-Min Kim are best known for creating of UglyDolls, the indie plush dolls that have gained a rabid worldwide following and sparked a movement of cool handmade toys. For this show, the duo is making one-of-a-kind framed prints, drawings, paintings, and handmade plush surprises. Horvath and Kim promise that everything will be all new, including a special Ice Bat kaiju figure made in conjunction with Dehara.
GR2
2062 Sawtelle Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90025
gr2.net
(310) 445-9276
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ClvF3u_JGoU&hl=en]
Check out this great video–narrated by art critic Julia Morton–featuring Illustration Adjunct Faculty Tara McPherson and her exhibition “Lost Constellations” on view through March 22nd at Jonathan Levine Gallery.
You can also catch Tara (and her artwork) at Flatstock 16 in Austin, Texas this week. Flatstock brings poster artists from around the world for the bi-annual convention sponsored by the American Poster Institute, dedicated to the promotion of music poster art and design worldwide. Tara will be manning a table at the following times:
Thursday, March 13 (1:00PM – 6:00PM)
Friday, March 14 (11:00AM – 6:00PM)
Saturday, March 15 (11:00 – 6:00PM)
You’ve heard the sordid tales of deluxe poster prints sold to you (the fans) by the artists themselves, now come see for yourself. FLATSTOCK 16 is free for everyone so come one come all!
Chicago’s Green Lantern Gallery is hosting an exhibition of works by Parsons Illustration Alum Andy Kehoe and his brother Ben. The official press release reads:
Though the days are shorter, it is still a bitter cold outside. It is impossible to recall the heat of summer and sweaty green things. The body seems to have lost its memory. The mind conjures only phantoms of light and comfort. Yet there is also the anguish of spring and in spring there is a rebirth. Life takes on new shapes, adapting to the apprehension of growth. There is anticipation in life.
We are born in violence. The passage is both catastrophic and forgettable. In this show, violence is depicted through ornate designs of medieval horror, friendship, monsters and the sometimes contemporary wink. There is a new splash of color that takes up the page as we enter the worlds of Andy and Benjamin Kehoe—a compelling place with rich metaphors and soft jokes. It is better in this world. In this world the fantasy offers some respite from the otherwise urban gray of winter decreptitude. They prepare us for the summer, refurbishing the idea of color.
Andy has posted a preview of the show here. If you’re in the Chicago area, make sure to check it out!
The Safest Place in the World
Andy and Ben Kehoe
February 29th-March 29th, 2008
Green Lantern Gallery
1511 N. Milwaukee Ave., 2nd Floor
Chicago, IL
Parsons Illustration Adjunct Faculty Tara McPherson is currently showing new works at her first solo show for the Jonathan Levine Gallery, here in New York. Here’s the official press release:
For the artist’s first solo show at the gallery, Lost Constellations features a new series of oil paintings and resin-cast sculptures, incorporated into a site-specific installation. The sculptures are a new experience for the artist, who has never before worked in this medium, three-dimensionally in full-scale proportions.
The painted portraits in Lost Constellations depict adventurous super-heroines from an alternate universe, crossing dimensional planes of time and space. McPherson considers the idea of parallel existence through the use of multiple views or angles on a subject, inspired by the Einstein cross (a phenomenon caused by gravitational lensing) while her series of bodily transfigurations convey principles on the physical manifestation of thought. A reoccurring cast of female characters appear in various states of action-fighting battles and growing toward self-discovery. Using her signature bold and graphic style, Tara’s imagery explores love, loss and loneliness through variations on strength, vulnerability and female empowerment. Concepts of non-verbal communication and the evolution of spoken language are explored as well, along with an interpretation on the circle of life- represented through transitional properties of water particles: gas, liquid and solid.
One of the first women to gain recognition in a genre (and greater Art world) dominated by Male artists, Tara McPherson is a role model for younger female artists in the movement. A multi-faceted artist, she has successful careers in both Fine Art and Illustration. Her process remains the same in commissioned illustrations as in her personal work. Tara only does what she enjoys, never compromising her talent or individual sense of creative expression. Fine Art allows McPherson to develop a deeper, more intimate narrative for her subjects. Through layers of paint and symbolism, ideas that take pages of storyboard to convey in illustration projects can be condensed into a singular panel for one of her original pieces of artwork.
Congratulations, Tara!
