I had a look at the San Francisco Art Institute's MFA Graduate exhibition at the Old Mint on Mission & 5th over the weekend (you can see the catalog on this page). Maybe it was the weathered environment of the Mint building itself, but almost every piece that attracted me seemed to be about texture. I enjoyed seeing the work of Tony Maridakis (left), Marcella S. Davis, and the video installation Winter Solstice by Andreanne Michon.
One idea that particularly captivated me was a group project, the theoretical Museum of Exhibition History. I agree that exhibitions can shape our ideas about art, but exhibitions are a thing of the moment, painfully reconstructed through catalogs, grainy documentary photos and reviews buried in archives. The thought of completely reconstructing a long-ago exhibition seems daunting. It would be an art historian's dream to jump in the time machine/Tardis/Delorean and see influential exhibitions from the past. Apparently, they reconstructed parts of the first YBCA Bay Area Now show in April at SFAI's Diego Rivera Gallery. Good luck to them, and I wish this idea would become reality some day.
I also liked The Dress Factory an installation by Momo Yao that used fabric, photos and paintings to tell the story of Yao's visit to a dress factory in China and the conditions there, and Lauren Visceglia's Dream Project which featured rough bowl shaped ceramics with crystals inside. An interesting show. Best of luck to the graduates!
Margaret Harrison's latest show at the Payne Shurvell Gallery in London
As regular readers of my blog might know, I did an extensive research project a couple of years ago on the British artist Margaret Harrison, generally about her career, but specifically tracing the path of her series of Captain America paintings. Captain America is a character she has returned to several times in key points of her career between 1971 and now, and her interpretation of the character has evolved over that time.
Margaret Harrison. What's That Long Red Limp Wrinkly Thing You're Pulling On? 2009.
The painting reproduced on the gallery invite seems to build on the themes
I’ve identified in Harrison's work previously, particularly What's That Long Red Limp Wrinkly Thing Your're Pulling On?, which was part of a series she began around 2009 that used paintings as "mirrors" to reflect or comment on the inner state of a character. In this recent work, Cap is looking in an actual mirror, but the image reflecting back at him is an ancient grotesque ala Leonardo or Caravaggio. Harrison has been an advocate of women's rights throughout her career, and it is my feeling is that this painting is a commentary on the weird way the US is
dealing with women’s rights, equal pay and abortion. The US (Cap) is self-congratulatory and proud, yet its role as a superpower is shrinking (signified by the tiny cape), and the reflection shows the face of the "ugly American" (which is probably the way people in the other first world countries see us at the moment). The US is built on the labor, creativity and strength of its female citizens, yet their rights are still in dispute, and grandstanding politicians say ugly things about rape being a gift from God.
I'm looking forward to seeing a higher-res image so I can pick out the details. I can't quite make out the dancing figure in the leg. I recognize the Wonder Women: the armored Alex Ross version from Kingdom Come, the flying one in the upper right looks like a classic George Perez, and the one inside the figure looks like a well-known cover image from the Who is Wonder Woman? storyline by Terry & Racheal Dodson (series 3, #3). The position of the "Dodson" WW inside Cap's transparent body seems to reference the invisible plane, and could refer to the strength of women building the US, and to the right to choose.
If you'd like a glimpse of my past research on Harrison, here's a slideshow (article pdf):
This is Harrison's second exhibition at Payne Shurvell, the first being I am a Fantasy (2011). She currently has work on show at Tate Liverpool, in Tracing the Century (drawings from the Tate Collection) and included in ‘Glam’ the Performance of Style also at Tate Liverpool and then touring to Germany and Austria. Her work will also be part of a group exhibition, Keep Your Timber Limber, opening at the ICA (London) this June. Related works are on show in the 2013 Northern Art Prize at the Leeds Art Gallery for which Margaret Harrison has been short-listed. The prize winner will be announced on 23 May.
Crowd at the Outpost on Free Comic Book Day. Photo by
Bill Watters of Big Wow! Comicfest (San Jose Convention Center, May 18-19)
We really enjoyed Free Comic Book Day this year. Our favorite comics store in SF, the Comic Outpost had a special event, a taco truck, and a Timey Wimey Dr Who TV Party! And free comics! Who could ask for more? I was pleased to see people of all ages, especially kids snapping up a wide range of free comics, from The Simpsons and The Mouse Guard to the latest promos from DC and Marvel (photo gallery).
2 books available on Free Comic Book Day.
I'm still making my way through my stack, and missed some issues that were gone by the time we arrived. So far my two favorites are Fantagraphics Prince Valiant and Valiant Masters (Valiant in titles coincidental).
As a child, I loved Prince Valiant in the newspapers. I was fascinated by Foster's drawings and the world he created, but had a hard time following the stories. Prince Valiant, I think, has greatly benefited from re-issues in book form. I can read and truly appreciate entire story arcs. Valiant Masters showcases 4 new characters developed by creators like Jim Shooter, Barry Windsor-Smith, Joe Quesada, David Lapham and others. Space ninja! Spy ninja! Mythical fantasy warriors! Seemed very fun and retro to me.
Here's a view of 1 hour of the crowd at Comic Outpost condensed to 24 seconds!
Video by Gary Buechler of Comic Outpost.
Tim Boxell, Gary Buechler, Kim Munson & Marc Greenberg enjoying Free Comic Book Day. Photo by Jay Jay.
Last year (2012), Neil Gaiman gave a heartfelt and inspiring speech to the graduating class of the University of the Arts, which has been passed around on Facebook almost as much as grumpy cat photos. His basic premise, which I need to be reminded of almost every day, is that shit happens, nothing is going to be perfect, but you have a unique voice, and you have to keep going and make good art anyway.
The always amazing graphic designer Chip Kidd has designed a graphic/text print version of the speech, to be released in time for graduation this year. You can see the entire book on the HarperCollins site, and an outtake is available below. As beautiful as the book is, I love to hear this in Gaiman's voice and in this short bit, which is one of the very best parts, you get both.
I have an entry in this book, Icons of the American Comic Book from Captain America to Wonder Woman (published by ABC-CLIO in March) about the history of the Bladecharacter, the development of the films, and their legacy. Blade was one of the first reoccurring African-American lead characters in comics and the success of the Blade trilogy starring Wesley Snipes kicked off the modern era of Marvel superhero films.
The book includes over 60 entries by a stellar line up of comics scholars, and I was honored to be included. Thanks to Randy Duncan & Matthew Smith for inviting me.
The photo above pretty much encapsulates the feeling of WonderCon in Anaheim. There were panels I liked and friends to check in with. We enjoyed hanging out with the Scooby Gang from the Comic Outpost. There's a big difference between having this convention at Moscone Center in the middle of downtown San Francisco and having it in Anaheim across the street from Disneyland. The convention center itself is spacious and surrounded by supporting hotels. Every chain restaurant you can imagine is in the area. We had a quick visit to Disneyland one evening, and there's no denying how Disneyland completely dominates the "Anaheim Resort" area. I don't think it helped that they scheduled the convention in direct competition with Spring Break/Easter weekend in Disneyland. Personally, spoiled by the SF Bay Area and the selection of urban delights (or not so delightful slices-of-life) nearby, Anaheim just felt really weird. I've read that the organizers are happy and considering doing WonderCon in both SF and Anaheim. As a Northern California person, we already come to So. Cal for San Diego ComicCon, and there's APE and other smaller conventions, I don't visualize making Anaheim a regular thing.
Anyway, enough ranting about Southern California and too many meals at Coco's... one of the good things about WonderCon is that the artists in Artist's Alley are generally less overwhelmed and more receptive than they are in San Diego. The organizers used a large space at the convention center called "the arena" this year, and aside from some initial confusion about how to get in there on the first day, it seemed to work out pretty well. In the arena I saw The Animation Show of Shows, 10 animated shorts curated by Ron Diamond of Acme Filmworks and AWN.com. There were many excellent films but the one that follows, The Centrifuge Brain Project, had me laughing out loud!
As usual, the Comic Arts Conference (the academic conference within the convention) had some informative panels. I found the first panel of the day about publishing, scholarship and teaching methods very useful. Since I am outside of the traditional academic path and writing/researching purely because I want to, sessions that discuss options related to publishing are very helpful. In the CAC session Comics in Higher Education, I very much appreciated Robert Weiner's (Texas Tech University) and Hannah Means-Shannon's (Georgian Court University) presentations on publishing, writing and blogging. I also thought that Christina Angel's (Metropolitan State University of Denver) method of exposing her students to classic literature through comics was interesting, for example using V's speech in V for Vendetta as a way to into MacBeth. This strategy is probably common for people that are teaching in this area, but for me, as a non-academic, it was a good presentation.
The other CAC panel that really excited me was Comics and Form. I loved Karma Waltonen's (University of California, Davis) presentation on Asterios Polyp. I will re-read it soon, and will have her comments and visual analysis in mind. John Rodzvilla's (Emerson College) presentation on Wally Wood's 22 Panels That Always Work was really thought provoking and I'm sure that I will be seeing Wood's layouts in every comic panel I look at from now on (as it should be). Rounding out this panel was Michael J. Muniz (Liberty University) talking about efforts by comics artist to break through the 4th wall, using film and film theory as a reference (like this train sequence in the 1931 Joan Crawford film Possessed, below).
There were good panels on writing, notably Barbara Randall Kesel's "how to deal with writer's block" session Where Do Ideas Come From?, Michael Lovitz and Comic Book Law School (my husband Marc will be on one of these panels at SDCC), and all kinds of spotlights on upcoming films, including Guillermo del Toro talking about his new monster epic Pacific Rim (WonderCon trailer).
All this, plus an evening at Disneyland! We did Star Tours (below) and Pirates of the Caribbean, which I hadn't been on since sometime in the 1980's. Yay (and thanks Josh & Jessica)!
Darren Waterston, Plates II, VI, and X, from the portfolio A Swarm, A Flock, A Host, 2013. Etching, aquatint, and spit-bite aquatint
On a recent visit to the Palace of Legion of Honor, I viewed Darren Waterston: A Compendium of Creatures in the small but always lovely Logan Gallery of Illustrated Books. I appreciated this modern take on the traditional bestiary with illustrations and corresponding comments/lessons. The companion publication is beautiful, and I've enjoyed reading it, but the images are a pale shadow of the pages on display at the Legion, with their sumptuous backgrounds and large scale compositions. Up into December, so there's lots of time to check it out.
