Aaron here today with Eleanor Davis; Ley Lines 2018; Czap/Sorese; Gary Panter
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New York Comics & Picture-Story Symposium: Featuring Eleanor Davis
It’s widely accepted that art serves an important function in society. But the concept falls under such an absurdly large umbrella and can manifest in so many different ways. Art can be self indulgent, goofy, serious, altruistic, evil, or expressive, or any number of other things. But how can it truly make lasting, positive change?
In Why Art?, acclaimed graphic novelist Eleanor Davis (How To Be Happy) unpacks some of these concepts in ways both critical and positive, in an attempt to illuminate the highest possible potential an artwork might hope to achieve. A work of art unto itself, Davis leavens her exploration with a sense of humor and a thirst for challenging preconceptions of art worthy of Magritte, drawing the reader in as a willing accomplice in her quest.
Tuesday, March 6, 2018 at 7:00 pm
Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Auditorium (Room N101)
Sheila C. Johnson Design Center
66 Fifth Avenue New York, NY 10003
Davis will also be presenting and signing her new book at Desert Island Comics at 7:15pm on Wednesday, March 7.
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New Ley Lines Subscription for 2018
Recently announced. Work by/about:
- Jia Sung on Belkis Ayón/“Madame White Snake” (February 2018)
- Oliver East on Boredom (“Langweile”) (May 2018)
- L Nichols on Ludwig van Beethoven (August 2018)
- Whit Taylor on Mona Lisa (November 2018)
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Jeremy Sorese Interviews Kevin Czap
[SORESE] Your work, not only in Futchi Perf but in several other works (such as your Ley Lines book ‘The Letting Go’ and your story ‘The Last Time You Saw Cleveland’) often decentralizes the narrative away from a singular main character in lieu of something more universal, while still feeling intimate and personal.
How did this second person narration come about?
[CZAP] I started doing that years ago by trying to avoid using “I” as much as possible in my own diary, in an effort to minimize myself somehow. Not the healthiest time in my life, but there was something I liked about using it in comics to address the reader and pull them in. Encouraging them to empathize with what’s going on in the comic by having them assume the point of view character. It also acknowledges that there’s someone reading the comic, so there’s an “outside” of the book, aka the real world we all live in. I also think some of that original minimization is going on, because I really am writing “you” in place of “I.”
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Gary Panter
He Demon
March 1 – April 14, 2018Fredericks & Freiser is pleased to announce “He Demon,” an exhibition of new paintings by Gary Panter. Widely recognized as one of the most influential figures of the Los Angeles punk aesthetic, Panter’s “punk, nuclear, hillbilly” sensibility has been a presence in the art world since the late 1970’s.
In “He Demon” Panter replaces his typically manic compositions of archetypal figures and vibrant abstractions with scenes of psychological menace.
“I locate the narrative singularity of Gary Panter’s work largely within the relationship between discrete narrative layers of abstract composition and figurative scenarios … The story is even further complicated by the fact that Panter’s polyglot visual vocabulary also encompasses the semiotic resonance of his pictographic content (and of his high art references, many of which are quotations of established stylistic motifs).”—Doug Harvey
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Joanie and Jordie – 3-6-18 – by Caleb Orecchio