Ben Katchor’s Opera Reviewed in the New York Times

Events, Illustration Faculty, Illustration Industry, News, Performances, Reviews, , , ,

slug bearers shot

The Slug Bearers of Kayrol Island (Or, the Friends of Dr. Rushower), an opera created by Associate Professor of Illustration Ben Katchor and Mark Mulcahy, received an enthusiastic review by New York Times’ critic Ben Brantley yesterday. Here’s an excerpt:

“The Slug Bearers” may deal with subjects common to contemporary satire: fiendish industrial autocrats (in this case, the cackling George Klatter, played by a Lex Luthor-like Stephen Lee Anderson); shortsighted do-gooders; the limited attention span of news gatherers; and the (literal) insubstantiality of a technology-driven culture.

But Mr. Katchor is not an attack artist, and “The Slug Bearers” is neither sendup nor angry social rebuke.

Instead, like much of this artist’s work, it is propelled by a brooding and amused awareness of the strange, individual quirks and appetites that both keep people apart and occasionally bring them together.

This sensibility is conveyed with real enchantment by the set and projection designs of Jim Findlay and Jeff Sugg (subtly enhanced by Russell H. Champa’s lighting), which bring to eye-teasing life Mr. Katchor’s drawings of lonely town (as in New York City) and polluted country (as in the tropical isle of Kayrol). Projections on scrims are used to create some delightful trompe l’oeil moments involving walking amid street traffic, riding elevators and even answering the phone.

These are never mere sight gags, though, but part of a thoroughgoing mise-en-scène that melts boundaries between the real and representational. At the same time there’s a strong, melancholy suggestion that the people who inhabit this flat but fluid landscape can never fully step into the world they live in. (And I mean the characters, not the performers.)

Read the complete review here, listen to a narrated slideshow about the opera’s development here, and as an extra bonus, we present you with a small preview of the show:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1l7p7XBHc4&rel=1&border=1]

The Slug Bearers of Kayrol Island (Or, the Friends of Dr. Rushower)
An Opera by Ben Katchor and Mark Mulcahy
Vineyard Theater
108 E. 15th St (btw Union Square and Irving Pl.)
New York, NY
212-353-0303

[image by Carol Rosegg]

Upcoming: Illustration Alum William Buzzell show at Giant Robot NY

Events, Exhibitions, Illustration Alumni, Illustration Industry, News, , , ,
buzzell at giant robot

Illustration Alum William Buzzell presents his first solo show in New York –“Class Action,”–opening this weekend at Giant Robot New York. Here’s the official press release:

Working almost entirely with found wood or metal and common latex house paint, Buzzell’s pieces are characterized by a surface of intricate brushwork and often feature three-dimensional elements. William Buzzell dips into the mundane, the practical world and a deep well of popular culture, often using maps, logos, charts, text, and familiar cartoon characters or TV icons to fill every inch of his paintings. A native of Providence, RI, much of Buzzell’s early work was installed on the streets of his hometown and New York under the alias Rotgut.

William’s work was also recently featured in the Illustration Department’s show “Expatriates,” curated by Jordin Isip. Congratulations, William and our thanks to the fine folks at Giant Robot for the information.

William Buzzell’s Class Action
Giant Robot New York
February 16 – March 12, 2008
Reception: Saturday, 6:30 p.m. – 10:00 p.m.
437 East 9th Street
New York, New York 10009
(212) 674-GRNY

Quick Hit: Internships Opportunities at The Jim Henson Company

Illustration Industry, Internships, News,

henson

Internships at The Jim Henson Company

This exciting email just came into the Illustration Inbox:

We are looking for enthusiastic individuals who are willing to
dedicate themselves to enhancing our company environment. We seek
students who are organized, mature, and have a great sense of humor. You
must have a positive attitude, desire to learn, and willingness to be
flexible. This is a fun, relaxed place to work with a lot of creative
energy and a good mix of hard work. You will see how our company
functions from behind the scenes, and play a large role in contributing
to our goals.

Please do not feel that you need to be a puppeteer, a puppet maker, or
an arts and crafts buff to be considered for an internship. In fact, our
internships are primarily in an office atmosphere located in our Los
Angeles or New York offices. However, we welcome applicants with a
special interest in the Company and its projects.

Students must provide proof of college credit for the internship, and
assume responsibility for transportation, living arrangements, etc.

Please note:
* We do NOT teach puppeteering, puppet making, mold making, sculpting,
animatronic construction or foam latex construction.

Feel free to be creative with your application (although this is not
necessary), but please maintain professionalism.

Frequently Asked Internship Questions

POSITIONS OFFERED:

There are additional opportunities here in NY.

BUSINESS AND LEGAL AFFAIRS INTERNSHIP – LA LOCATION ONLY
ARCHIVES DEPARTMENT INTERNSHIP – NEW YORK LOCATION ONLY
CREATIVE AFFAIRS INTERNSHIP – LA LOCATION ONLY
DESIGN DEPARTMENT INTERNSHIP – LA LOCATION ONLY
MEDIA LIBRARY INTERNSHIP – LA LOCATION ONLY
PUBLIC RELATIONS & MARKETING INTERNSHIP – LA LOCATION ONLY
CREATURE SHOP (JR PROGRAMMER INTERNSHIP) – LA LOCATION ONLY
CREATURE SHOP (JR SYSTEMS ADMINISTRATOR) – LA LOCATION ONLY
CREATURE SHOP (CG MODELER) – LA LOCATION ONLY

Martin Mazorra on Printmaking Panel at MoMA

Events, Illustration Faculty, Illustration Industry, , , ,

cannonball & 1026

Illustrative Printmaking instructor Martin Mazorra tipped us off to the following event this coming Thursday. Here’s the official scoop:

Join PopRally for a special night with Martin Mazorra and Mike Houston, printmakers and founders of Cannonball Press, along with artists from Space 1026, a unique creative community located in downtown Philadelphia.

Cannonball Press is a Brooklyn-based organization that produces affordable black and white prints by a number of artists (including Sean Star Wars, David Rees, David Ellis, Maya Hayuk, and Swoon.) In addition to their own art, Mazorra and Houston also work together to create large format woodcut prints. Space 1026 was founded over a decade ago by a handful of artists and tricksters who organize rowdy public events and outrageous installations at their building and at other institutions. At the heart of Space 1026 is a communal screenprinting workshop where the madness comes to life.

Following presentations by the artists, Gretchen Wagner, Curatorial Assistant in MoMA’s Department of Prints & Illustrated Books, moderates a discussion about the artists’ work, printmaking, collaborations, and more. A cocktail reception follows the event.

Tickets are $5 and are available at the Museum information and Film desks.

You must be twenty-one or older to attend this event.

PopRally presents: An Evening with Cannonball Press and Space 1026
Thursday, February 14, 2008
7:00–10:00 p.m.
MoMA @ The Lewis B. and Dorothy Cullman Education and Research Building
4 West 54 St.

[image by Martin Mazorra & Mike Houston; Space 1026]

Illustration Faculty Nathan Bond in “Body of Work” Exhibition

Exhibitions, Illustration Faculty, Illustration Industry, News, , ,
body-of-work.jpg

Illustration Adjunct Faculty Nathan Bond has work included in Manifest Gallery‘s show entitled “Body of Work” which is on view through February 22nd.

The human form has been a central subject of artwork since well before it was called ‘art’. From Lascaux to Willendorf, to Matthew Barney and Jenny Saville, artists have found ways to provide forms of self-reflection to society.

Body of Work invited artists to submit works in any medium or genre that investigate or incorporate the human form in some way. A range of types of entries were strongly encouraged. Manifest received over 450 entries representing this spectrum, from purely academic examples of anatomical figure drawing, to conceptual and less-obvious interpretations.

Over 130 artists from 34 states and 9 countries submitted entries to this exhibit. The final selection includes 17 works by 12 artists from eight states and the United Kingdom. Works of painting, sculpture, collage, drawing, and printmaking promise to make Body of Work an exceptional exhibit marking the first exhibit of Manifest’s fourth year in operation.

For more information about the show, visit the Manifest Gallery website.  Congratulations on your inclusion, Nathan!

Body of Work
Manifest Gallery
2727Woodburn Avenue
East Walnut Hills
Cincinnati, Ohio 45206

Quick Hit: The Work of John Howard

General Info, Illustration Industry, , ,

bugmen

Bugmen, John Howard

Born in London, John Howard graduated Camberwell School of Art, BA Fine Art (painting).In the ’70s he joined the artists co-op, SPACE at St. Katherines Dock travelling extensively throughout Europe and exhibiting in London, Amsterdam and Berlin . The first one-man show in New York at Belgis Friedel prompted a move and by 1984 a parallel career in illustration had developed. Recipient of many awards including 4 silver, a bronze and a gold medals from the NY and LA Society of Illustrators, his work is included the permanent collections of the Smithsonian, the Library of Congress and the NY MTA. Two years ago he joined the faculties of Pratt and Parsons Universities and for the last ten years has been represented in NY by the Newborn Group (illustration), and Kim Foster Gallery (painting and sculpture).

See more images of his work here.

Last Chance: Saul Steinberg Tables @ PaceWildenstein

Exhibitions, , , ,
steinberg @ pace
Paris Table by Saul Steinberg

You only have two days left to see an exhibition of sculpture by legendary illustrator Saul Steinberg at the PaceWildenstein Gallery in New York City. Here’s more information from the official press release:

Saul Steinberg: Tables and Other Sculpture, the first exhibition devoted exclusively to Steinberg’s wood assemblages from the 1970s and 1980s, at 32 East 57th Street, New York City, from January 11 through February 9, 2008.Saul Steinberg: Tables and Other Sculpture features the artist’s rarely exhibited mixed-media “Table” constructions as well as wall reliefs. This is the eighth exhibition devoted to the artist’s work at PaceWildenstein.

By the early 1960s, Steinberg had decided to pare down his wide-ranging endeavors—book and magazine features, stage sets, fabric designs, and holiday cards, among others—and concentrate on his work for The New Yorker and on art for gallery and museum exhibitions. Within a decade, he had begun sculpting or, by his own account, “whittling,” facsimiles of the ordinary objects in his studio—pen and pencils, paint brushes, sketchbooks, a pocket calendar, even his own painter’s palette—at a 1:1 scale. Many of these trompe-l’oeil objects were then incorporated into his first “drawing tables”—three-dimensional renderings of the draftsman’s life in art, filled with his drawing tools, sketchbooks, and replications of works completed or in progress. The sculptural assemblages range from Bonbon Fazul (Table Series) (1971) and The Pyramid Table (1974) to later examples, including interiors such as the Art Deco bedroom at Hotel Metropole (1987) and U.S. Post Office (1984), Steinberg’s wry take on public architecture. The massive, oppressively official structure in the latter rises up from a drawing Steinberg made in 1977 entitled Federal Bldg., Cincinnati, Ohio. In 1981, another drawing renamed the same structure US Post Office, Cincinnati.

The show closes on Saturday so catch it if you can!  Get more information and see more images here.

Saul Steinberg: Tables and Other Sculpture
PaceWildenstein
32 E.57th St. 2nd floor, New York, NY 10022
Telephone: 1.212.421.3292
Hours: Tues. -Fri. 9:30am-6pm, Sat. 10am-6pm
E-mail PaceWildenstein

Illustration Alum & Faculty featured in Society of Illustrators Exhibition

Exhibitions, Illustration Alumni, Illustration Faculty, Illustration Industry, News, , , , , ,
nora for society of illustrators
Gold Medal Winner Nora Krug (Associate Professor, Illustration)

Congratulations go out to Nora Krug on being awarded the Gold Medal by the Society of Illustrators for her illustration work, which is included, along with works by Parsons faculty Steven Guarnaccia and George Bates (who is also an alum) in the Society’s Sequential Category.

 

august wilson by george
George Bates (Illustration Alum and Adjunct Faculty)

 

Here’s the official announcement from the Society:

January 30—February 16, 2008: Kicking off the 50th Anniversary of the ILLUSTRATORS ANNUAL is the Sequential Category of the Annual Exhibition. This juried competition features the best sequential illustrations of the year. This category includes any multi-image project for which a sequence of images is necessary to fully convey an idea or story. Examples include: comic books, art journalism, graphic novels, pre-production art and animation.

steven @ society

Steven Guarnaccia (Illustration Department Chair)


Society of Illustrators
128 East 63rd Street (between Park and Lexington Avenues)
New York, NY 10065
Tel: (212) 838-2560
Fax: (212) 838-2561
E-Mail: info@societyillustrators.org

Illustration Adjunct Faculty Deroy Peraza gets his shot in the Spraygraphic Spotlight

Illustration Faculty, Illustration Industry, Interviews, , , , , ,
marquez-hyperakt

Deroy Peraza, an Illustration alum and faculty member, discussed his business Hyperakt and artistic process with Spraygraphic’s Sprayblog back in January. Here’s an excerpt:

SG: Describe your working process when creating a new work.

DP: There’s two answers to that. The creative process and the pragmatic process. The trick is getting the two to get along.
On the creative side, there are always some vague ideas floating around in my head that are waiting to get matched with the right project. They are usually inspired by something I saw, read or heard somewhere, and tend to be unfinished fragments that don’t really mean anything until they are activated by a concept. But all of that is bullshit without answering some very basic, practical questions first:
1. What does it need to do?
2. Who needs to get it?
3. Why?
Whether the work is personal or commercial, print or interactive, 2d or 3d, the same questions apply. I need to be able to define what I’m trying to do concisely in one statement before creating anything. Otherwise, I feel lost. Like most things in my life, the process of creating any work is one of structured chaos.

SG: What kind of things do you do when you get blocked or find it hard to create something?

DP: Ask for help. One of the great things of working in a collaborative environment, with people I like and respect, is that I can ask them for help. Everybody gets stuck sometimes. Whether your brain forgot to power up that day or whether you’ve been working on something for so long that you’ve been blinded to reality, there’s nothing like a little perspective from your peers for a reality check. At Hyperakt, we don’t really have the luxury of letting a project sit around waiting for brilliant ideas, so we tag team on them when we get stuck. We’ll just trade projects and hit reset. Its a practice that is not easy to learn. It requires putting the ego aside, and trusting your baby to someone else. Both are hard. Other than that, there’s the usual. I dig for inspiration in our library or on the web. I go for a walk. I try to travel as much as possible. I’m also very competitive, so nothing fires me up more than seeing good work from the competition.

Read the rest of Deroy’s interview here!