Category Archives: News

Illustration & Design Within Reach Collaborate!

Events, Exhibitions, Illustration Faculty, Illustration Industry, News, , , , , ,

bellini chair specs

Students in Kenna Kay’s Beyond Editorial class have teamed up with Design Within Reach to produce their own renditions of a design icon–the Bellini Chair. Here’s the official announcement about Design Within Reach’s celebratory reception, which takes place next week:

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Parson’s design students deserve a sitting ovation!

Once again, Parsons’ students have raised the bar with their well-tapped imaginations and fearless style. Incorporating materials of their choosing, students from Parsons’ Illustration department will exhibit their own inspired interpretations of the simple yet virtuous Bellini Chair by Heller. Using the Bellini as a blank canvas, students started with an idea on paper and finished the project fabricating a full-scale prototype. The students will join us for a reception at the West 14th Studio to share with you the fruits of their labor.

The “re-imagined” chairs will be critiqued by an esteemed panel of judges, including Alan Heller of Heller and floor covering designer Sandy Chilewich. Chairs will be exhibited in Studio through the month of January. Refreshments will be served.

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Congratulations to all the students involved and thanks to Design Within Reach (and especially Bradford Shellhammer) for approaching the Illustration Department with the offer to participate in this fantastic project!

Re-Imagining the chair
Wednesday, December 12, 7-9pm
DWR West 14th Studio
408 West 14th Street
New York, NY 10014
Phone: 212.242.9449
Directions

Illustration Faculty and Alumni in two shows on opposite sides of the country

Events, Exhibitions, Illustration Alumni, Illustration Faculty, News, , , , , , , ,

green show logo

Green Group Exhibition
curated by Mark Murphy
November 17 – December 22, 2007

Out in sunny Santa Monica, California, Illustration adjunct faculty Jordin Isip and Illustration alums AJ Fosik & William Buzzell are part of the Mark Murphy-curated show Green, which opened this month at the Robert Berman Gallery.

Here’s an excerpt of the show’s description as well as some information about Jordin’s work (as seen below): Curator and publisher, Mark Murphy has invited 40 artists to share their inspired vision about the delicate and often aggressive intermingling of human beings with nature…At first glance, Jordin Isip’s “Know” painting looks as if he utilized thread or colored string in the central figure. Jordin reports, “It’s not thread, these “tangles,” (as I call them), are made of tiny pieces of cut paper, glued together using tweezers, with a semi-steady hand and half-bottle of patience. Sometimes it’s therapeutic—like meditation, other times—just frustrating, maddening…” Jordin is a great promoter of a huge range of artistic talent.

isip-know.jpg

By Chance Alone by Jordin Isip

See images from the opening evening of Green here and read more about the exhibition here (as well as see more images). All the way across the country…these same three gentleman are included in another Mark Murphy-curated group show called Know which opens December 6th amidst the tumult of Art Basel in Miami. Here’s the overview of the show, along with information about the William Buzzell image below: KNOW looks to introduce the fans of art and culture to more that 50 major works, 8″ x 8″ in size with various social and political themes. Curator and publisher, Mark Murphy will be on hand to introduce you to the artists who are featured in “Know” and who actively celebrate the fine art of visual story telling…William Buzzell is a Philadelphia based artist who is constantly influenced by social issues and history. Will’s latest painting, “Self Portrait as a Townie,” is an acrylic and ink painting on wood that invites close inspection and is love for library books. Will has been exhibiting since 2001 and is an emerging visual artist who continually evolves, while provoking the viewer to look deeper.

self portrait as a townie
Self Portrait as a Townie, by William Buzzell

KNOW : Art Exhibition
Curated by Mark Murphy
Art Now Fair : Art Basel Miami
Murphy Design : Booth No. 215
December 6 – 9 : 2007
Thursday – Saturday : 10 am – 8 pm :
Sunday : 10 am – 6 pm

Go here to see images from & information about all the artists involved in this exciting show.

Congrats to our faculty and alums going coast-to-coast!

Upcoming show at Giant Robot: Adrian Tomine

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tomine at giant robot

Illustrations and art by Adrian Tomine will be shown in a new show at Giant Robot, which opens on December 8th with a book signing. Adrian’s most recent work, Shortcomings, has garnered critical praise from all over. Here’s an excerpt from the New York Times book review:

Tomine has always been attracted to love gone wrong among the hesitant young men and women of the bourgeois-bohemian set, but he gets his subject across in the unsentimental style of an anthropologist’s report. Unlike the more playful graphic novelists who influenced him, Daniel Clowes (“Ghost World,” “David Boring”) and the Hernandez brothers (“Love and Rockets”), Tomine isn’t given to flights of surrealism, rude jests or grotesque images. He is a mild observer, an invisible reporter, a scientist of the heart. His drawing style is plain and exact. The dialogue appearing inside his cartoon balloons is pitch-perfect and succinct. He’s daring in his restraint.

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Read the full text of the review here, head over to Giant Robot website to see a little sneak peek of the art that Adrian will be showing, and if you can’t make it to the show, pick up your own copy of Shortcomings through Drawn & Quarterly.

Adrian Tomine
Shortcomings and Goings
Opening: Saturday, December 8th @ 6:30 p.m.
Giant Robot
437 East 9th Street

Illustration Alum & Children’s Book Artist Kae Nishimura visits the department

Illustration Alumni, Illustration Dept. Events, News, , , , ,

kae nishmura

Illustration alum and talented artist Kae Nishimura will be visiting Parsons this coming Monday. After graduation, Kae went on to publish works like I Am Dodo: Not a True Story and her most recent book, Bunny Lune. Here’s an excerpt from a review of her work:

Join Bunny Lune, an imaginative young rabbit, as he learns how to travel to the moon in Kae Nishimura’s delightful children’s story, “Bunny Lune.” …Adults and children alike will love this hilarious tale of adventure and self-discovery. Illustrated by Nishimura herself, the story is chock-full of wacky characters populating an even wackier storyline. Children of a multicultural bent will especially enjoy the images of rabbits dressed up in traditional Japanese kimonos and drinking green tea. “Bunny Lune” is a must-read bedtime story for all who dream of flying to the moon.

—Paul Kim, Northwest Asian Weekly

Kae will be speaking about her books and her artistic process in an informal talk during Pat Cummings‘ Children’s Book class. All are welcome to attend and here her speak.

Kae Nishimura
December 3rd at 1:30 p.m.
2 W. 13th, Room 1104

Giant Robot announces an exhibition with Illustration Alum Jill Bliss

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

jill bliss @ giant robot

 

Jill Bliss and Saelee Oh at GR2
Los Angeles, CA
December 8 – January 9

Giant Robot presents Hidden Habitats, an art show featuring the work of Jill Bliss and Salee Oh. Jill graduated from the Illustration department and has since given presentations to our students as an alum & visiting artist. Here is an excerpt from the official press release:

Jill Bliss grew up on a family farm in Northern California where everything was hand-built or cultivated-the food, the house, the farm machinery, and even the family computers. Since graduating from the Parsons School of Design & the California College of the Arts, her professional background has included fashion design, illustration, and design theory. Whether designing limited-edition paper goods or fine art pieces, all of her work reveals a fondness for combining fabric, paper, and other found materials.

For this show, the artists will make individual and collaborative drawings, paper cut-outs, sewn soft sculptures, and other pieces that expand on the theme of their third collaborative calendar, Hidden Habitats. The artwork depicts houses, shelters, buildings, and dwellings incorporating and blending into nature. These dwellings are sometimes human-sized, but more often than not sized for real and imagined animals, reptiles, or bugs.

In this body of work, both artists explore the underlying structures of nature, the inherent beauty and interdependence of these structures, and human nature’s interpretation of and dependence upon them. The original drawings, many of which have been altered or expanded upon since the making of the calendar, will also provide insight into the artists’ digital and hand-drawn collaborative process.

For more information about the exhibition, visit the Giant Robot site.

GR2
2062 Sawtelle Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90025
gr2.net
(310) 445-9276

Illustration Faculty in the new Blab! Magazine

Illustration Faculty, News, Publications, , , ,

guarnaccia in blab!

Monte Beauchamp’s annual collection of comics, illustrations and graphic design is on the stands and it features two members of the Illustration Department’s finest–our very own chair, Steven Guarnaccia and full-time faculty member, Nora Krug–along with a host of other fantastic illustrators and designers.

From the official press release:

Blab! Vol. 18 delivers like nobody’s business, with a decided focus on the comic arts. Underneath the covers by Ryan Heshka are a slew of all-new comic stories: Mark Zingarelli reveals the “Chick’s Club Taboo”; Euro-comics sensation Paco Alcazar tells a Lynchian superhero tale called “Obedience”; Peter Kuper dishes on the bullies that dogged him as a youth in “Bully for You!”; “Sirens of Silence” is cover artist Heshka’s wordless depiction of a post-global disaster existence; Sue Coe presents the true tale of Coney Island’s “Topsy the Elephant”; underground legend Skip Williamson serves up “Daddy Was a Lady,” a portrait of legendary drag queen Rae Burton; Steven Guarnaccia returns with the story behind the man who created Miniature Golf in “Moe Greene’s Hole in One”; Mark Frauenfelder of boingboing.com fame contributes the comic strip “Juicemaker’s Dream.” This volume introduces amazing new talent to the pages of BLAB!: Travis Louie, Nora Krug, Mark Zingarelli, Travis Lamp and MORE!

krug in blab!

You can see other sample pages from the new issue here, and you can buy the new issue (as well as back issues) from the lovely folks over at Fantagraphics.

Congratulations to Steven and Nora!

The Art of William Steig at the Jewish Museum

Events, Exhibitions, General Info, News, , , ,

steig donkeys

 

From The New Yorker to Shrek:
The Art of William Steig
November 4, 2007 – March 16, 2008
The Jewish Museum
New York, NY

Hailed as the “King of Cartoons,” William Steig had a long and acclaimed career as both a brilliant cartoonist and an award-winning, beloved author of children’s literature, including his 1990 picture book Shrek! (“fear” in Yiddish) which has been turned into a series of popular animated films. Born in Brooklyn, New York, on November 14, 1907, to Eastern European Jewish immigrants, Steig grew up in the Bronx and began illustrating for The New Yorker in 1930. His prolific association with the magazine is the longest by far of any of its cartoonists, with over 1,600 drawings as well as over 120 covers published during a period of 73 years. Scheduled for the centennial of the artist’s birth, this exhibition pays tribute to Steig’s incredible creativity by featuring a wide selection of original drawings for both his New Yorker cartoons and his children’s books such as Sylvester and the Magic Pebble, Doctor De Soto, Amos & Boris, Brave Irene, Gorky Rises, Dominic, When Everybody Wore a Hat, and of course Shrek! as well as his less known mid-life “symbolic drawings.” This in-depth presentation also sheds light on Steig’s life as it relates to his work and will be complemented by a range of public and educational programs for both adults and children.

The Jewish Museum
1109 Fifth Avenue at 92nd Street
New York, New York 10128
Phone: 212.423.3200

Admission for students is $7.50 and free for all on Saturdays from 11:00 a.m. to 5:45 p.m.

For an online exhibition component as well as other information, visit the Jewish Museum’s website here.

See a list of Steig-related events taking place in November here.

(artwork from Sylvester and the Magic Pebble (1969) by William Steig)

Bookish: An Exhibition of Contemporary Handmade Books

Events, Exhibitions, Illustration Dept. Events, News, , , , , , ,

bookish sign

Bookish: Contemporary Handmade Books
Curated by the Illustration Department, Parsons the New School for Design

Adam & Sophie Gimbel Design Library
The New School Libraries
2 West 13th Street 2nd Fl.
New York NY 10011

In these digital days, there remains nothing quite like a handmade
book. Silkscreened covers, staples, construction paper, thread, markers,
and, of course, drawings all add up to a singular object. The handmade
books on display here are steeped in drawing and narrative. The last 10
years have seen a burst in handmade books that evolve out of communities
of illustrators, cartoonists and fine artists. Perhaps seeking a more
personal and intimate way of displaying their work, these creators have
produced a large body of work across addressing multiple visual and
literary themes. They all share a commitment to image-based drawing and
crafting books that don’t just contain art: they are art.

The present exhibition is organized by community. Providence, Rhode
Island has been the home to a variety of zine and poster making activity
for the past decade. Led by artists including Brian Chippendale, Mat
Brinkman, Paper Rad, and Brian Ralph, Providence art tends to emphasize
psychedelic and adventure-based narratives. To the north, the Canadian
cities of Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver have long housed a productive
group of artists who mail their work to one another. Julie Doucet, Marc
Bell, Mark Connery, Peter Thompson and many others specialize in
wordplay, single image narratives, and finely wrought doodles. And in
Marseille, France, Le Dernier Cri, a book arts publishing house, has
been unleashing extreme, often grotesque imagery in silkscreen form for
over a decade by artists such as Blexbolex, Caroline Sury, and Moulinex.
The influence of these three centers of handmade books can be felt
around the globe. The final section of this exhibition presents a
sampling of this influence on a group of disparate and diverse works.

Handmade books satisfy artists and viewers alike with an immediacy like nothing else.

Don’t miss this special exhibition curated by the Illustration Department!