Art & Story 88 – The Big Exhibition

April 28, 2009 by Jerzy
Filed under Art & Story, Podcast, Uncategorized

[private]More and more galleries and museums are taking interest in exhibiting comics art, which seems like a great way to raise awareness for our own comics projects as well as evangelizing the art form. But this movement raises some interesting questions:

Are these gallery shows creating new lovers of the art form, or are they merely validating an existing group of people?
Should we design the shows to not only feature the work, but also educate the non-enthusiast to how the medium works, or would that be too much?
Do we lose something when we enjoy a page of comics work out of the context of its story?

comix_exhibit

We’re joined by my comics collaborator Sara Turner, who is also one half of the print and design company Cricket Press. She recently participated in a gallery exhibition, Comix, in Lexington, KY, and she shares her thoughts on promoting one’s comics through these venues. Photos of the event can be found on Sara’s Flickr page.

Mark and I also recently attended the Visual Storytelling exhibit at the Gallery Project here in Ann Arbor, and we contribute what thoughts we have based on our experience there. Photos of the event can be found on our Flickr page.

Links mentioned in this episode:

Cricket Press, Sara’s design and printing business
File 49, Sara’s first graphic novel
The Boys of the Den, Sara’s contribution to Sugary Serials
The Replacements, a comic I collaborated on with Sara
Big Illustration Party Time, possibly the finest cartooning podcast to be listened to
Kids Read Comics Convention, coming this June
Paul Storrie, a fellow comics creator I hung out with after my recent comics presentation

Don’t forget–both Mark and I will have a table at Green Brain Comics this coming Saturday for Free Comic Book Day! Come on by and let’s nerd out about comics!

And once again, our deepest thanks to all for donating to the Camera Fund! We’ll be starting the video podcasts very soon!