Category Archives: Illustration Faculty

Lauren Redniss’ “Radioactive” a Finalist for LATimes Book Prizes

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Parsons Illustration Associate Professor Lauren Redniss‘ recent book Radioactive: Marie & Pierre Curie: A Tale of Love and Fallout has been chosen as a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize.  Radioactive is nominated in the Science and Technology category.  The awards will be handed out in late April.  Here is a full list of the nominees in Lauren’s category:

Science & Technology Finalists

You can see the other categories and nominees here.

Good luck and congratulations, Lauren!

Peter Hamlin & Uglydoll in Power Punch at GRSF

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Power Punch
April 2 – April 24, 2011
Reception: Saturday, April 2, 6:30 – 10:00 p.m.
GRSF
618 Shrader Street San Francisco, CA 94117
gr-sf.com
415-876-4773

Several Parsons Illustration folk–including faculty member Peter Hamlin and alumni from Uglydoll–are in Giant Robot SF’s group show which opens this weekend.  Here’s the official press release:

In conjunction with guest curators Mark Todd and Esther Pearl Watson, Giant Robot is proud to host Power Punch.

For this show, artists were given identical 8″ x 8″ panels to work from. As a result, the art itself becomes the focus–and not the material it is created on. The unified presentation will explore both the vocabulary of and connections between today’s working artists.

Artists, who were chosen not only on the merit of their own particular work but also how they relate to one another, will include the following:

APAK!, Drew Beckmeyer, Marc Burckhardt, Chris Buzelli, James Chong, Kevin Christy, Vanessa Davis, Shannon Freshwater, Matt Furie, Frieda Gossett, Peter Hamlin, Ryan Heshka, Andrew Holder, Jason Holley, Patrick Hruby, Rich Jacobs, Hellen Jo, Travis Lampe, Zohar Lazar, LeMerde, Jacob Magraw, Elizabeth Mamont, Mark A. Miller, Brendan Monroe, Christian Northeast, Martin Ontiveros, Mimi Pond, Luke Ramsey, Martha Rich, Johnny Ryan, Brooks Salzwedel, Erik Mark Sandberg, Shark Toof, Keith Shore, Jeremy Tinder, Jesse Tise, Aiyana Udesen, Uglydoll, Jon Vermilyea, Wayne White, Matt Wood, Jaime Zollars.

Giant Robot was born as a Los Angeles-based magazine about Asian, Asian-American, and new hybrid culture in 1994, but has evolved into a full-service pop culture provider with shops and galleries in Los Angeles and San Francisco, as well as an online equivalent.

An opening reception will take place on 6:30 – 10:00 on Saturday, April 2.

Quick Hit: Lauren Redniss at 192 Books tonight

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Lauren Redniss
RADIOACTIVE: MARIE & PIERRE CURIE A TALE OF LOVE AND FALLOUT
(It Books 2010)
Wednesday, March 30, 7PM

192 Books
192 Tenth Avenue at 21st Street
New York, NY 10011

In 1891, 24 year old Marie, née Marya Sklodowska, moved from Warsaw to Paris, where she found work in the laboratory of Pierre Curie, a scientist engaged in research on heat and magnetism. They fell in love. They took their honeymoon on bicycles. They expanded the periodic table, discovering two new elements with startling properties, radium and polonium. They recognized radioactivity as an atomic property, heralding the dawn of a new scientific era. They won the Nobel Prize. Newspapers mythologized the couple’s romance, beginning articles on the Curies with “Once upon a time . . . ” Then, in 1906, Pierre was killed in a freak accident. Marie continued their work alone. She won a second Nobel Prize in 1911, and fell in love again, this time with the married physicist Paul Langevin. Scandal ensued. Duels were fought.

In the century since the Curies began their work, we’ve struggled with nuclear weapons proliferation, debated the role of radiation in medical treatment, and pondered nuclear energy as a solution to climate change. In Radioactive, Lauren Redniss links these contentious questions to a love story in 19th Century Paris.

Seating is limited, please call 212.255.4022 to make reservations.
Books purchased at the reading will be signed by the author!

Upcoming Ben Katchor Events

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Tuesday, March 29, 2011 at 7pm
Reading with slideshow
Corcoran Gallery of Art
500 Seventeenth Street NW
Washington, DC
(202) 639-1700
Tickets: $15.00
https://getinvolved.corcoran.org/thepicturestoriesofbenkatchor

Saturday, April 2, 2011 at 2pm
A Checkroom Romance
libretto by Ben Katchor
music by Mark Mulcahy
with Ken Maiuri, Flora Reed, Dave Trenholm and Mark Mulcahy
The New School Arts Festival Presents: Noir
Tishman Auditorium, 66 West 12th Street
New York, NY
with Ken Maiuri, Flora Reed, Dave Trenholm and Mark Mulcahy
Free, but reservations suggested. Follow this link:
www.nsafcheckroom.eventbrite.com

April 8, 2011 at 2:30pm
First Annual STRANDICON – book signing
Strand Bookstore
Broadway at 12th Street
New York, NY
http://www.strandbooks.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/event.show/ID/5fa446a3-5c5b-45bd-b78d-4a58cbef4435

Saturday, April 9, 2011
Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art Fest 2011
Signing at Pantheon Books table and panel discussion with Parsons Illustration Associate Professor Lauren Redniss, Stephen DeStefano and Mark Newgarden at 1:30pm
Lexington Avenue Armory
68 Lexington Ave (Between 25th &26th Streets)
New York City
http://www.moccany.org/content/mocca-festival

Sunday, April 10. 2011 at 2pm
Lecture: Halftone Printing in the Yiddish Press and Other Objects of Idol Worship
Albany Institute of History and Art
125 Washington Ave.
Albany, NY
http://www.albany.edu/judaic_studies/events_katchor.shtml

Saturday, April 30, 2011 at 7pm
Reading
Drawn & Quarterly Bookstore
211 Bernard Ouest.
Montreal, Quebec
http://211blog.drawnandquarterly.com/

Tuesday, May 3, 2011, 7:30pm
Reading and discussion with Daniel Clowes
Free Library of Philadelphia
Central Library
1901 Vine Street
Philadelphia, PA 19103
(between 19th and 20th Streets on the Parkway)
http://libwww.freelibrary.org/authorevents/index.cfm?ID=28178&type=2
Free

May 6- 29, 2011
Exhibition and readings
Périscopages festival
Recontres de lat Bande Dessinée d’Autheur et de l”Édition Indépendante
Franco-American Institute
7 Quai Châteaubriand
Rennes, France 35000
http://www.periscopages.org/


Illustrations help Japan Relief Effort

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In the wake of March 11th, 2011, when Japan was hit by the most powerful earthquake in at least 100 years at 8.9 magnitude, Illustration Senior Darcy Smyth and a host of other illustrators created prints to support relief efforts. 75% of profits from these prints go to support Doctors Without Borders earthquake and disaster relief efforts for  Japan.  All prints are limited to editions of 100 and are $15. There are over 25 different artists to choose from.  Also, if you “like” Poster Cause Project on Facebook you will also receive 20% off your entire purchase.  Darcy’s print is above and you can see the rest here.

Associate Professor Nora Krug is working on a benefit work featuring student work.  We will pass along word when we have more details.  In the meantime, if you can, consider donating to the cause.  The Tsuru Project lists several ways to help efforts.  You can also donate directly to the Red Cross.

Oodles of Parsons Illustration folks in “Single Fare 2: Please Swipe Again”

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Left to right: Victoria Salvador, Garrett Pruter, Katie Turner

“Single Fare 2: Please Swipe Again”
A Show of Small Works on Used MetroCards
Exhibition: March 18 to 26, 2011

Sloan Fine Art
128 Rivington St, NYC, 10002
212.477.1140

Sloan Fine Art is pleased to host “Single Fare 2: Please Swipe Again” a very special exhibition of works on used NYC MetroCards with a portion of the proceeds to benefit Transportation Alternatives (transalt.org) and Alliance for the Arts’ NYC ARTS (NYC-ARTS.org). In May 2010, Artists Jean-Pierre Roy and Michael Kagan hosted an unusual exhibition in their Brooklyn studio. Open to all artists who wanted to participate, “Single Fare” placed one constraint on the creative process: all work had to be submitted on a used MetroCard. Inspired by the notion that the city’s subways and buses allow for a kind of creative interchange unmatched in human history, “Single Fare” sought to create a unique art event where art and artists could come together to form a monumental event made from a tiny, innocuous piece of plastic: The MetroCard! The resulting exhibition featured over 700 works of art – from artists as far away as New Zealand and as close as the studio next door.

Following the tremendous success of last year’s “Single Fare,” Roy and Kagan team up with Sloan Fine Art on the Lower East Side for “Single Fare 2: Please Swipe Again.” The themes of last year’s show ran the gamut from moments of high abstraction to delicate portraiture. Three-dimensional works, documentary photography and even a video installation helped to create one of the most cohesively diverse shows in recent memory while playfully challenging artists to show what they can do with seven square inches.

While serving as a democratizing vehicle for artists of all ages and disciplines, the Single Fare exhibition also served as a fantastic platform to introduce beginning collectors to an amazing array of work while inviting the committed collector to connect to artists that might normally fall under their radar. Partnering with Sloan Fine Art represents an exciting step forward for the Single Fare experience, allowing the exhibition to remain true to its roots while benefitting from additional exhibition days and regular gallery hours.

Several Parsons Illustration students, alumni and faculty participated in this exhibition including: Jordin Isip (f), Ana Mouyis (’09), Garrett Pruter (’10), Victoria Salvador (’11), Stephanie Tartick (’11), Katie Turner (’10), Zachary Zezima (’09).

Additionally, a handful of artists have been recruited to create Single Fare works that will be raffled off with proceeds to benefit two worthy charities – Transportation Alternatives (transalt.org), promoting New York City’s continued commitment to public and alternative forms of transportation and Alliance for the Arts’ NYC Arts (nyc-arts.org), the leading Web and free iPhone guide to arts programs and events throughout NYC. Raffle tickets will be available beginning at 5pm the night of the reception and winners will be announced at 8:30pm sharp.

Exhibition: Friday, March 18 through Saturday, March 26, 2011
Gallery Hours: Noon to 6pm (Closed Monday & Tuesday)

R. Sikoryak: Sponge Bob and Mitterand!

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Parsons Illustration Alum and Adjunct Faculty Member R. Sikoryak is full of news these days!  First off: he’ll be drawing a one page Pirate cartoon for each issue of the new bimonthly series, “SpongeBob Comics.”  The first issue is out now, and it features “The Pirates’ Code o’ Comics Collectin’.”  See above for a peek at his work!  You can find more info about the book here.

Secondly, during Bob’s visit to the Angouleme Comics Festival, he met Frédéric Mitterrand, the French Minister of Culture and Communication (and nephew of  François Mitterrand), at the museum’s Parodies Exhibit.  A number of Bob’s original pages of art are also in the gallery!  Check it out:

You can see more pix from the exhibition here.

Congrats all the amazing stuff, Bob!

Parsons Illustration will be at MoCCA Fest 2011!

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MoCCA Festival 2011!!
April 9-10, 2011
at the 69th Regiment Armory
68 Lexington Avenue New York City

MoCCA Festival is an annual two-day event that attracts thousands of fans, creators and publishers from around the globe, in celebration of comics and cartoons.

Parsons Illustration will have a table featuring all kinds of amazing student work!

The MoCCA Festival will take place over April 9-10, 2011 at the Lexington Avenue Armory located at 68 Lexington Avenue between 25th and 26th Streets. The event attracts thousands of comic art lovers and creators from around the globe to celebrate the world’s most popular art form in the heart of New York City. Since 2002 the MoCCA Festival offers a unique venue to experience comics, mini-comics, web comics, graphic novels, animation, posters, prints, original artwork and more. Each year, the Festival invites dozens of established and emerging creators, scholars, and other experts to participate in two days of lecture/discussion panels on a variety of comics and cartoon topics. For 2011, the panels and programs are being organized by Brian Heater (The Daily Crosshatch)

Special guests at MoCCA Fest 2011 include Johnnie Arnold, Peter Bagge, Nick Bertozzi, Ken Dahl, Jules Feiffer, Pascal Girard,Tom Hart, Dean Haspiel, (Parsons Illustration Associate Professor) Ben Katchor, Chip Kidd, Michael Kupperman, Robert Mankoff, Tom Neely, Joe Ollmann, Bill Plympton, Alex Robinson, (Parsons Illustration Alum and Adjunct Faculty) R. Sikoryak, Eric Skillman, Ted Stearn, Adrian Tomine, Gahan Wilson, Julia Wertz, Sarah Glidden, Jessica Abel, Lisa Hanawalt, Leslie Stein, Domitille Collardey, Meredith Gran, and Kate Beaton and more…..

Featured exhibitors include Abrams Books, Danish Consulate, Drawn & Quarterly, Evil Twin Comics, Fantagraphics, First Second Books, Kirby Museum, Mammal Magazine, NBM, New York University, Pantheon Books, Papercutz, Parsons Illustration, Picturebox, Random House Publishing Group, Royal Norwegian Consulate General, Sparkplug Comic Books, School of Visual Arts, The Center for Cartoon Studies, The Daily Show, Top Shelf Productions, Will Eisner Studios and Zip Comics and more….

Hope to see you all there!

[Poster by Peter Kuper]

Upcoming Events featuring Parsons Illustration Prof Ben Katchor

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Catch Parsons Illustration Associate Professor Ben Katchor at this upcoming events in February and March!

Friday, Feb. 25, 2011 at 4pm
Festival of New French Writing
French and American authors in conversation
David B. in discussion with Ben Katchor, moderated by Francoise Mouly
Hemmerdinger Hall, ground floor, Silver Center, New York University, 100 Washington Sq. East.

Bilbolbul Festival Internazionale di Fumetto
Bologna, Italy
March 2 – 6, 2011

Tuesday, March 15, 2011 at 7pm
The Strand bookstore,
12th Street and Broadway, NYC

Wednesday, March 16, 2011 at 7pm
Discussion with (Parsons Illustration Adjunct) Jerry Moriarty
PowerHouse Arena,
37 Main Street Brooklyn, NY 11201

Thursday, March 17, 2011 at 7pm
Reading and signing
Porter Sq. Books,
Porter Square Shopping Center
25 White Street
Cambridge, MA

Tuesday, March 29, 2011 at 7pm
Corcoran Gallery of Art
500 Seventeenth Street NW
Washington, DC
(202) 639-1700
Tickets: $15.00

Artists Against the War Panel tonight

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Artists Against the War
A panel discussion and book signing with Steve Brodner, Frances Jetter, Victor Juhasz, Peter Kuper and Wendy Popp
February 10, 2011 6:30 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.

Based on the 2008 Society of Illustrators’ exhibit, “Artists Against the War”, Artists Against the War draws from the history of graphic protest and demonstrates the many ways that illustrators — in comics, editorial cartoons, illustrations for magazine articles, and so on — have reflected on the representations and misrepresentations of war, specifically the Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The history of commercial illustration in the United States encompasses the images of artists like Charles Dana Gibson, Maxfield Parish, N.C. Wyeth, James Montgomery Flagg, Frederic Remington, and Norman Rockwell. These and many other artists helped to shape and define the American experience. After the Second World War, a divide grew between the worlds of illustration and fine art. Commercial publishers bankrolled illustrators to produce images on demand that were essential to marketing. Fine artists, meanwhile, generally struggled on their own to create unique and contemplative works of a decidedly non-mercantile nature.

Early on, some editorial illustrators, while still on paid assignments sponsored by commercial interests, managed to bridge this gap between illustration and high art—creating evocative works that told of real world events. Harper’s Weekly employed Winslow Homer as a war correspondent, sending him to the front lines of the American Civil War to sketch soldiers on the battlefield. Afterwards Homer evolved into one of America’s finest 19th-century painters. Business-related foundations aside, illustration commonly shared with fine art—up until the post WWII era—an exploration of the world through the traditions of objective realism. That relationship disappeared with the ascendancy of abstract art. The high art world is currently unable to provide thoughtful examinations that connect with the general public.

Surprisingly, the world of commercial illustration offers a model for the advancement of contemporary fine art. Endeavoring to communicate clearly, illustrators never abandoned realist aesthetics, which are the most direct way to deliver a thought or concept to a large audience. More importantly, illustration art does not wallow in the cynical disengagement and alienation that is so fashionable in today’s high art. Therein lies the potency and importance of Artists Against the Wars.

Steve Brodner will lead a panel discussion with Frances Jetter, Victor Juhasz, Peter Kuper and Wendy Popp. A book signing will follow.

Tickets
$15 non-members, $10 members, $7 students
rsvp@societyillustrators.org