exhibit

NeoIntegrity: Comics Edition @ MoCCA

Plug, Publicity

What would you say if I told you that you had the chance to see original artwork by the likes of Peter Arno, Robert Crumb, Jack Kirby, Moebius, Art Spiegelman, Chris Ware, Lauren Weinstein, Gahan Wilson, and Basil Wolverton — all in one place, at one time? And what if I mentioned that the same show featured artwork by Alex Ross, Alison Bechdel, Ben Katchor, Carol Tyler, Charles Burns, Charles Addams, Charles M. Schulz, Craig Thompson, Daniel Clowes, Dave Cooper, Geof Darrow, Gilbert Hernandez, Harvey Kurtzman, Henry Darger, Howard Cruse, Hugo Pratt, Ivan Brunetti, Jaime Hernandez, James Sturm, Jason Little, Jeff Smith, Jim Woodring, Joe Matt, Jules Feiffer, Julie Doucet, KAZ, Keith Knight, Leela Corman, Maurice Sendak, Nick Bertozzi, Theodor Geisel (Dr. Seuss), Tim Burton, Tom Hart, Tomer + Asaf Hanuka, Tony Millionaire, Peter Bagge, Peter Kuper, R. Sikoryak, Ralph Bakshi, Raymond Pettibone, Rick Parker, Seth, Shel Silverstein, Walt Kelly, Will Eisner, and Winsor McCay? You’d be like, “Get out of town! Nobody could mount such an incredible show!” Well, you’ll be shocked to learn that the show exists! And it’s on exhibit right now! So get down to the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art (MoCCA) right now, until May 30, to check it out. (And I hope you won’t be deterred by the fact that the show also features some pieces by some hack named Josh Neufeld…)

By the way, that’s just a small sampling of the more than 200 artists taking part in Neointegrity: Comics Edition, curated by artist Keith Mayerson. Produced like a 19th Century salon, the show stuffs more than 500 framed pieces of art into MoCCA’s intimate gallery space. Here’s some material from the press release: “Originally conceived as a utopic attempt to begin an art movement, the first installment of the NeoIntegrity show was held in the summer of 2007 at Derek Eller Gallery in New York City. That show incorporated over 180 fine artists, with some cartoonists and illustrators mixed in to breach questions of high and low, rarified and pluralistic. NeoIntegrity: Comics Edition takes the proposal a step further, showing the relatability of creators harnessing the iconographic vehicle to express themselves and to tell stories for a culture to understand itself in order for it to become a better place.”

Sadly, having just returned from overseas, I missed the opening last Friday, but here are a couple of shots stolen from the SVA Continuing Education blog, which gives a sense of the show. I can’t wait to visit the space in person and soak in all that incredible graphic expression.

NeoIntegrity: Comics Edition
NeoIntegrity: Comics Edition

"How Many Billboards?"

Illustration

My mother, Martha Rosler, was invited by L.A.’s MAK Center to create a billboard as part of their “How Many Billboards” project. My mom suggested that we do a collaboration, and our billboard is up! It’s on Sunset Blvd, just west of Cahuenga, on the north side of the street, facing east. Here’s a shot. I’m off to L.A. tomorrow (weather willing) to take part in the opening festivities, etc…

"How Many Projects?"

"Infinite Canvas" Show at MoCCA

Publicity

A couple of pieces of my original art are on display at the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art’s current exhibit (through Jan. 24, 2008), “The Infinite Canvas: The Art of Web Comics.” My stuff is in a special section of the show dedicated to ACT-I-VATE. The show has already been covered by Wired.com and the blog of Budget Travel magazine. Exhibit hours are Friday through Monday, 12 p.m. to 5 p.m.; tickets $5, kids 12 and under enter free. Moccany.org.

tonight: "floodwall," followed by ACT-I-VATE party

Uncategorized

The Lower Manhattan Cultural Council is hosting a really cool exhibit by New Orleans artist Jana Napoli:

“Moved to action by the tragedy of Hurricane Katrina, Napoli collected hundreds of drawers from the flooded and abandoned neighborhoods in the days and months that followed.

“In this site-specific installation, the drawers sit upright along a 230-foot-long platform, which spans the length of Liberty Street Bridge — standing like empty luggage without their passengers and flowing like a levee, broken in places. Beneath the drawers, placed in intervals along the platform, moving-message LED signs silently repeat the words of the people who have parted with these drawers. Their words reminisce and mourn:

“‘I thought New Orleans would be a good place to go for rain and history, and it was.’ . . . ‘Having to throw your furniture out in front of your house — your life is sort of taken from you and sort of dumped out in your front yard.’ . . . ‘New Orleans was here before America was here and we are a part of America.'”

The show will be up ’til Feb. 9. There’s a free reception and walk-through (with the artist) tonight, from 6:30-8:30 p.m (again, at the Liberty Street Bridge of the World Financial Center). I’ll be there, and then hit up the ACT-I-VATE party at the Village Pourhouse.

Rocketship Blasts Off

Publicity

You are cordially invited to the opening reception of Cartoon Brooklyn, to be held at Rocketship, a brand-new comics store in Cobble Hill. The reception is July 29th, from seven ’til ten in the evening. Cartoon Brooklyn is an exhibition featuring the comic art of Jessica Abel, Dean Haspiel, Matt Madden, and Josh Neufeld. Drinks will be served in the Rocketship garden. Rocketship is located at 208 Smith Street, between Butler and Baltic, in Brooklyn. The closest train is the Bergen Street stop on the F or G. For more information, please call proprietors Alex Cox or Mary Gibbons at 718.797.1348.

“Comics As Art II”

Publicity, Travel, Work

Fresh from its success of last year, Bob Cronin’s “Comics As Art” is back for 2004. Hosted once again by the Zeitgeist Gallery in Cambridge, this is a rare opportunity to see a sampling of original comic art and ephemera from some of the medium’s most notable figures — and me! — much of it on loan from private collections and rarely seen in public. Some select pieces will be available for purchase.

I’ll be showing an American Splendor process piece and a couple of other Harvey Pekar pieces, as well as small illustration pieces. Also featured in the show are my buddies Dean Haspiel, Nick Bertozzi and Jason Little. The show benefits the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art and is and co-spnsored by Lucky Bunny Visual Communications and the excellent comics speciality store, Million Year Picnic.

Here are the details: Exhibition runs from February 24th – March 3rd; opening reception February 28th, from 2 – 5 pm. (Look for me there!) The Zeitgeist Gallery, 1353 Cambridge Street, Cambridge, MA. Gallery Hours: 1pm – 7pm, Tuesday – Sunday

 

Comic Release show continues triumphal tour

Publicity

Since completing runs at the Regina Miller Gouger Gallery in Pittsburgh and the New Orleans Contemporary Arts Center, it’s scheduled for stops at the University of North Texas, the University of Arizona Museum of Art, and Western Washington University. The show could also zip through Austin, Texas; Montreal, Canada; and Portland, Oregon before it’s all over. Maybe I’ll even get to see it some day! Anyway, the catalog , which arrived at my door recently, is a real work of beauty. Nearly 200 pages, it’s hardcover and gorgeously designed. It has reproductions of every piece in the show (including my collaboration with Nick Flynn, “Cartoon Physics Part I“) and essays by curator/show organizer Vicky A. Clark and critic/goddess Ana Merino, among others. You can see the cover and more details at Amazon. (See my note of February 1, 2003, for further details.)

“Comics as Art” exhibit in Cambridge

Comics, Publicity, Travel
Josh and organizer Bob Cronin

Another show of some of my original art! Comics aficionado and all-around good guy Robert Cronin is displaying some of the original pages he’s collected over the years, in a show called “Comics as Art: Original Comics and Other Ephemera,” on display at The Zeitgeist Gallery, 1353 Cambridge Street, Cambridge, MA, from March 4th – 23rd. The show benefits the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art and is and co-sponsored by the excellent speciality store, Million Year Picnic. Other artists in the exhibition include R. Crumb, Dan Clowes, Peter Bagge, Ariel Bordeaux, Greg Cook, Jordan Crane, Jack Davis, Bill Griffith, Jaime Hernandez, Megan Kelso, Dave Lasky, Pat Moriarity, Tony Millionaire, Art Spiegelman, Robert Williams, and Jim Woodring, so if you’re in the area, you don’t want to miss this show! My pieces are all pages from Harvey Pekar’s American Splendor. The opening reception is March 8th from 3 – 6 pm, and they’re asking for a suggested donation of $5 if you want to go. Gallery Hours: 1pm – 7pm, Tuesday – Sunday

“Comic Release” show in Pittsburgh

Publicity

The original artwork for my collaborative piece, “Cartoon Physics, Part One,” (from a poem by Nick Flynn), is currently on view, as part of the exhibition, “Comic Release: Negotiating Identity for a New Generation” (curated by Vicky A. Clark and Barbara Bloemink with Ana Merino and Rick Gribenas), at the Regina Gouger Miller Gallery, in the Purnell Center of the Arts at Carnegie Mellon University. The show will be up until March 21, before it moves on to the New Orleans Contemporary Arts Center, the University of North Texas, and Western Washington University. All this after the piece was exhibited in Athens, Greece, as part of the 2002 International Comics Festival!