Category Archives: Events

Last Minute: Hobnobbing Zmirkies

Exhibitions, Illustration Industry, Randomly Intriguing, , , ,

The McCaig-Welles & Rosenthal Gallery presents an exhibition of new works by the artist Roman Klonek titled “Hobnobbing Zmirkies.” In the 1970s the Kloneks moved from Poland to Germany, where he quickly became addicted to comics and cartoons. In the 1990’s he studied Graphic Arts in Duesseldorf and earned his diploma with 12 huge woodcut printings that showed the inner-workings of the human brain. In 2001 he founded the Gallery Revolver with friends in Düsseldorf/Flingern, bought a printing press and started a never ending range of woodcut printings.

Roman Klonek likes to draw heros, mostly half animal/half human, in hair-raising situations.

You may ask: How could this have happened? For heavens sake, how will this move on?

You will see snapshots full of adventure, thrill and fateful encounters captured by one of the oldest graphic techniques. Woodcut printing is based on the principle of a stamp. The reduced forms remind you of the first days of comics and cartoons. The hybrids are forced to a tragicomical chord between tradition and subculture. In general: The basic principles of the woodcut printings are rough drafts of Roman’s drawing books. These books are sort of diaries, just with drawings instead of stories. The subjects are always inspired by his personal present. So one can say the images are autobiographically encrypted.

The exhibition will be on display through September 8th, 2008, so check it out while you can!

McCaig-Welles & Rosenthal Gallery
129 Roebling Street, Suite B
Brooklyn, NY 11211

Bonus footage: Here’s a recent SoyJoy commercial animated by Roman:

[vodpod id=ExternalVideo.679516&w=425&h=350&fv=%26rel%3D0%26border%3D0%26]

[woodcuts by Roman Klonek]

Andy Kehoe included in Annual Blab! exhibition

Events, Exhibitions, Illustration Alumni, Illustration Industry, News, , ,

THE 4th ANNUAL BLAB! SHOW
September 6th-27th, 2008
OPENING RECEPTION: September 6th, 8:00-11:30 pm

COPRO/NASON GALLERY and Monte Beauchamp proudly present “THE BLAB! SHOW,” the fourth Group Art Exhibition featuring original paintings and illustrations from the forthcoming issue of BLAB! magazine – Monte Beauchamp’s periodic anthology of sequential and comic art, illustration, painting, and printmaking.

Artists include: SHAG, TRAVIS LOUIE, RYAN HESHKA, GARY BASEMAN, RON ENGLISH, LUKE CHEUH, GARY TAXALI, FRED STONEHOUSE, ANDY KEHOE (Parsons Illustration Alum!), TRAVIS LAMPE, LAURA LEVINE, MARC BURCKHARDT, CJ PYLE, MARK TODD, TOM HUCK, and MANY MORE.

Check out all the artwork for sale here.  And our congrats to Andy on his inclusion!

Display Opportunities in the Illustration Department

Current Students, Exhibitions, General Info, Illustration Faculty, News, ,

Illustration Students and Faculty Members,

You might notice how fantastic our display cases are looking these days.  That’s thanks in part to Illustration Faculty member Noel Claro, who has taken on the huge task of scheduling exhibitions and shows in the 8th floor lobby.  On display now is:

–an entire case devoted to Frankensteinia, in conjunction with the Illustration Department Summer Reading Project.  Illustration Faculty and Alum Les Kanturek curated this case with fabulous paraphenalia and publications from his own collection.  Check out his Concepts blog for entries about other Frankenstein-related information.

–a case devoted to work by our two newest faculty members: James Gallagher and Isabelle Dervaux.  James will be teaching Digital Presentation and Isabelle will be teaching Senior Thesis.

–two cases devoted to international publications picked up by our full-time faculty members Nora Krug and Ben Katchor, as well as some collected by Steven Guarnaccia, our chair.

–a case full of fascinating current works by current students Zach Zezima and Ana Mouyis.

So of course, you’re wondering: I’m an Illustration faculty member/student!  How do I get my work in those cases?  Look no further.  Instructions for the whole process are after the jump!

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Pictoplasma takes place next weekend!

Events, General Info, Illustration Alumni, Illustration Industry, Performances, , , , ,

Pictoplasma is coming to New York City for the very first time and it’s happening next weekend, Thursday, September 4th through Saturday, September 6th.  Excitingly enough, two Parsons Illustration Alums will be featured speakers–Aaron Stewart and Motomichi Nakamura.  Here’s the official description:

Characters are taking over…

Our visual culture is being taken hostage by a new wave of characters, abstract and reduced to minimal distinguishing graphic features. In the process of a truly explosive movement, they invade digital media, animation, advertising, art, fashion and street art. They playfully quote and remix such diverse phenomena as pop culture, tribal and folklore, brand logos and comics without restricting themselves to any single one of these genres. In such a way, characters speak to observers at an emotional level as well as crossing cultural boundaries.

Starting in 1999 with the world’s first extensive inventory, collection and archive of contemporary character design, the Berlin based Pictoplasma project is defining the shape and velocity of this trend. Besides giving the characters a timeless and worthy manifestation through their acclaimed publications, Pictoplasma has been bringing together a growing international community of designers, artists, critics, producers and fans at their annual conferences in Berlin.

Go here to see the day-by-day program, including Motomichi and Aaron’s talk, which happens on Friday night from 9-11:30 p.m.  Register here!

Pictoplasma NYC
Festival of Contemporary Character Design and Art
September 4th-September 6th
Skirball Center for the Performing Arts
New York University
566 LaGuardia Place at Washington Square South
New York, NY

In the Land of Retinal Delights: The Juxtapoz Factor

Exhibitions, Illustration Alumni, , , , ,

In the Land of Retinal Delights: The Juxtapoz Factor
On view through October 5th, 2008
Laguna Art Museum

In the Land of Retinal Delights: The Juxtapoz Factor is an exhibition that presents the work of 150 artists and posits that there has been a huge, but unacknowledged art movement taking place in this country for the last 40 years. Since 1994, this ground swelling of lowbrow, surrealistic, pop, figurative, narrative work has coalesced and found a voice in the pages of Juxtapoz magazine published in San Francisco. This rag has become the most widely read art magazine in the US. It is an influencing force on the aspiring artists of Generation Y and the Millennials, who are now enrolling in art schools in numbers never seen before.

Juxtapoz magazine was founded by Los Angeles-artist Robert Williams. The “Juxtapoz aesthetic or lowbrow art” is almost always figurative, and is inspired by movies, TV, advertising, black-velvet painting, psychedelic posters, pulp porn, sci-fi and horror, carnival art, comics books and all things lower- and middle-class. The Magazine has and does provide a voice and validation for a brand of artist, like Williams, who has not been accepted traditionally by the typical art-world infrastructure of collector, curator, and critic. However, since its founding, it has been the clear focal point for having been the inspiration for the creation of its own infrastructure that supports Juxtapozian art with galleries in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, and New York, collectors, followed by critical attention, followed by museum exhibitions at adventurous institutions. With it’s growing success Juxtapoz has been a major contributor to the reemergence of painting again as a valid practice for artists since the mid-1990s, running counter to forty-years of art-school canon that focused on the Conceptual practice of context, collectivization, and dematerialization of the art object.

For the last decade the art establishment (collector, curator, and critic) has argued that the idea, or construct, of an art movement is outmoded. This exhibition explores the idea of a “Juxtapoz Factor.” Is it an organized movement operating under a singular manifesto? Or is it a wave of talented overlooked artists who decided to reach out to the public and create their own canon?

Check out the full description here, along with a listing of all the fantastic artists involved.  You might notice Illustration Alum Isabel Samaras in that list.  Congrats to her!  You can also read more about the show in this write-up by Richard Chang in the OC Register, who proclaims that this show “could very well be the art show of the year.”  High praise.

Laguna Art Museum
307 Cliff Drive
Laguna Beach, CA 92651

[ images by Robert Williams (top) and Isabel Samaras (bottom) ]

Quick Hit: Street Artist Swoon goes down the Hudson

Events, Performances, Randomly Intriguing, , , , , ,

Carol Vogel did a quick write-up in the New York Times about Swoon, a street artist who works in Brooklyn and the NYC-area.  Here’s the scoop on an interesting event happening this Friday:

SWOON, the Brooklyn street artist, strikes again, this time along the Hudson River. On Friday she is opening “Swimming Cities of Switchback Sea,” a project involving a fleet of seven boats — raftlike vessels handcrafted from scrap wood and salvaged materials — that will float down the Hudson River from Troy, N.Y., to Deitch Studios in Long Island City, Queens.

Along the way the playwright Lisa D’Amour will give a performance from the decks of the rafts and from the banks of the towns along the river. Swoon is also collaborating with the circus composer Sxip Shirey, as well as a group of Bay Area artists and mechanics who call themselves Kinetic Steam Works and who are dedicated to powering kinetic artwork with steam. A band, Dark Dark Dark (accordion, cello, upright bass and banjo), will perform along the journey too.

Each of Swoon’s rafts uses alternative energy sources, including biofuels and solar power. When the journey ends in Long Island City on Sept. 7, Swoon’s “invented landscape” installations will open to the public at Deitch Studios there.

You can read Gamma Blog’s interview with Swoon here and there’s a list of other articles about her and her work here.

[art by Swoon]

Last Days: “Crocodile Tears” at Giant Robot NY

Events, Exhibitions, Illustration Alumni, Illustration Faculty, Illustration Industry, , , , , , , ,

Crocodile Tears: Small Works of Art by Over 50 Artists
GRNY, July 19 – August 13, 2008
Reception: Saturday, July 19, 6:30 p.m. – 10:00 p.m.

Giant Robot is proud to present Crocodile Tears: Small Works of Art by Over 50 Artists at the GRNY Gallery.

Following up on 2007’s hugely popular Look Behind You and Snack Isle group shows, Crocodile Tears will feature a large assortment small works that measure 5″ x 7″ or smaller. Each of the over 50 artists (editor’s note: featuring Parsons Illustration alums and faculty!) will be contributing two to five pieces in his or her own eclectic style. Mediums will range from painting to stitching to drawing to sculpture.

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Last Minute: Typhon Book Signing

Events, Illustration Alumni, Illustration Industry, Publications, , , , ,

NYC area comics aficionados are invited to a TYPHON book signing at Jim Hanley’s Universe on Wednesday, August 6th from 6-8PM!  Parsons Illustration Alum R. Sikoryak drew the cover and a story for the collection.  Congratulations, Bob!

Pick up a copy of the brand new, 192 page, full-color comics anthology TYPHON Volume One, and get it signed by these TYPHON contributors:

Gregory Benton
Victor “Bald Eagles” Cayro
Mike Edison
Glenn Head
Danny Hellman
Cliff Mott
Bruno “Hugo” Nadalin
Chris “Steak Mtn” Norris
R. Sikoryak (Illustration Alum and Current Faculty)
Doug Skinner
Matthew Thurber
Motohiko Tokuta

Wednesday, August 6, 2008
6:00pm – 8:00pm
Jim Hanley’s Universe (Manhattan)
4 West 33rd Street
New York, NY

[illustration by R. Sikoryak]

Repost and Remind: Rory Hayes & “Where Demented Wented”

Events, Publications, , , , ,

FANTAGRAPHICS BOOKS & DESERT ISLAND present:

WHERE DEMENTED WENTED:
Celebrating the Comics and Art of RORY HAYES

Join us for a book release party and panel discussion featuring:

KIM DEITCH
BILL GRIFFITH
GEOFFREY HAYES
and moderator
DAN NADEL

WHAT: Book Release Party for WHERE DEMENTED WENTED: THE ART AND COMICS OF RORY HAYES, with panel discussion and Q&A

WHO: Dan Nadel, Kim Deitch, Bill Griffith & Geoffrey Hayes

WHERE: DESERT ISLAND • 540 Metropolitan Ave., Brooklyn, NY •718.388.5087 

WHEN: Friday, August 8, 7PM (discussion begins at 8PM)

FREE ADMISSION
An exclusive, limited-edition Hayes silkscreen will be available for this event.

The controversial cartoonist Rory Hayes was a self-taught dynamo of the underground comics revolution. Attracting equal parts derision and praise (the latter from the likes of R. Crumb and Bill Griffith), Hayes emerged as comics’ great primitive, drawing horror comics in a genuinely horrifying and hallucinator manner (some have called him the Fletcher Hanks of the underground). He has influenced a generation of cartoonists, from RAW to Fort Thunder and back again.

On Friday, Aug. 8, on what would have been Hayes’ 59th birthday (Hayes died of a drug overdose in 1983), Desert Island and Fantagraphics Books will celebrate the life and art of Rory Hayes with a special evening celebrating the release of WHERE DEMENTED WENTED, the first-ever collection of Hayes’ legendary comics and art.

Editor Dan Nadel (Gary Panter, The Wilco Book) will moderate a discussion of Hayes’ work with three men who knew and worked with Hayes: Kim Deitch (creator of Waldo the Cat), Bill Griffith (creator of Zippy the Pinhead), and Geoffrey Hayes (brother of Rory and author of the recent Benny and Penny from Toon Books).

WHERE DEMENTED WENTED: THE ART AND COMIX OF RORY HAYES is the first retrospective of Hayes’ career ever published, features the best of his underground comics output alongside paintings, covers, and artifacts rarely seen by human eyes—as well as astounding, previously unprinted comics from his teenage years and movie posters for his numerous homemade films. The Art and Comix of Rory Hayes also serves as a biography and critique with a memoir of growing up with Rory by his brother, the illustrator Geoffrey Hayes, and a career-spanning essay by Edward Pouncey (a.k.a. Savage Pencil). Also included is a rare interview with Hayes himself.

This should be a great event and a fantastic book.  Check ’em both out!

Guillermo Riveros in Pensive States show!

Current Students, Events, Exhibitions, ,

The Broadway Gallery is please to announce the upcoming group show Pensive States. The exhibition, featuring the works of Sefkat Islegen, Giovanni Carlo Rocca, Daniel McKinley, Helen Joynson and Guillermo Riveros (current Illustration student!) will be held from August 1st-15th, with an opening reception on Saturday, August 2nd.

Curated by Christina Zhang, Pensive States explores a deeply contemplative corner of the visual sphere. The artists in Pensive States seek to eliminate the boundaries of memory, history and geography in order to make a state of true contemplation possible. The works span a dynamic assortment of stylistic and thematic conclusions that are linked by their reflective nature. Each artist utilizes Pensive States as a forum to display the conclusion of a journey that begins with their imagination and ends with a poetic act of expression.

Pure art springs from a meditative state of mind. As a process, it brings wakefulness and awareness to the creative and viewing processes through the integration of contemplation and meditation. Pensive States brings together artists whose work is intent on achieving a better understanding of spiritual and aesthetic enrichment by opening innovative and thought provoking new dialogues up to the viewer.

Executed through a dynamic visual language, the exhibition is structured upon the idea of pictorial clarity as the elimination of all obstacles between the artist and the idea, and between the idea and the observer. By paying close attention to the transitional works of each artist, Zhang constructs an exhibition of effortless compositions, luminous color and passionate ideas—all of which are found through each artists own experimentations with everything from Realism and Surrealism, to Portraiture and Landscape.

Guillermo Riveros has this to say about his ongoing series, called “Golden Age”:

In my work I explore, through self-portraits, the ideas and discourses surrounding the construction of sexual identities and their representations. In this new series, entitled “Golden Age,” I introduce new devices to my previous technique; the mask to accomplish the anonymity of my subjects, but the clear signal of performativity. The mask allows my characters to inhabit new bodies that serve as an extension of my conceptualized self. These characters inhabit a utopian world of faceless fantastical hybrid sexual identities. Using 60’s horror B-movies as reference for compositions, I also intend to add an additional layer of dramatics to underline the notion of performativity(visible in both the photos and the identities they reference). The use of exteriors intends to speak about a hybrid cross between “the real”/the fantasy, also displayed in the color treatment of the images.

Opening
Saturday, August 2, 2008
6:00pm – 8:00pm
The Broadway Gallery
473 Broadway, 7th floor
New York, NY

[image by Guillermo Riveros]