Visual Arts Briefs

The Society of Illustrators (SOI), 128 East 63rd Street, is hosting “Blow Up: Hanuka, Shimizu, Weber,” a new exhibition spotlighting the work of three SVA alumni: Tomer Hanuka (BFA 2000 Illustration), Yuko Shimizu (MFA 2003 Illustration as Visual Essay) and Sam Weber (MFA 2005 Illustration as Visual Essay). On view September 1 – October 16, the show brings together the artists’ different backgrounds (Hanuka is from Israel, Shimizu comes from Japan and Weber is Canadian) into what the SOI is calling a “visual melting pot of contemporary image making.”

Hanuka’s works were developed during research for an upcoming graphic novel, The Divine, which is scheduled to be published by First Second Books later this year; Shimizu contributes images that use traditional wood-cut print techniques to address contemporary political and social issues; and Weber’s pieces are based on Western portraiture but quickly veer into anxious and mysterious moods. SOI is hosting an opening reception on Friday, September 10, 6:30pm, with a suggested donation of $10; contact kb@societyillustrators.org by Friday, September 3, to RSVP.

Image: Sam Weber, The Crow Proce, 2010.

For his upcoming solo exhibition at Jonathan Levine Gallery, alumnus Esao Andrews (BFA 2000 Illustration) is displaying intricate, figurative paintings of surreal and hybridized characters. The exhibition “Solid Void” runs September 11 – October 9, at 529 West 20th Street, 9th floor. Click here to read about the artist and his work in Juxtapoz.

Russian police detective Arkady Renko investigates the death of a prostitute found in a trailer parked in Moscow’s Komsomol Square in Martin Cruz Smith’s latest novel, Three Stations (Simon & Schuster, 2010). Alumnus and BFA Illustration and Cartooning Department faculty member Stephen Savage (MFA 1996 Illustration as Visual Essay) illustrated the cover of the Sunday, August 15, New York Times Book Review to accompany a review of the thriller.

See Savage’s original illustration below, and click here to view the Book Review cover.

In the Greek language, arithmos is the word for “number”; for recent graduate Jonathan Beer (BFA 2010 Illustration), “Arithmos 6″ is the title of a one-night-only exhibition he’s organized that features work in a variety of media by six SVA alumni.

On Thursday, August 19, 6 – 11pm, “Arithmos 6″ will be on view at Theater Lab’s Studio C, 137 West 14th Street, featuring work by Beer, Ben Adcroft (BFA 2010 Fine Arts), Kyle Fetzer (BFA 2010 Graphic Design), Billy Norrby (BFA 2010 Illustration), JoAnne Ruggeri (BFA 1981 Illustration) and Rukiye Sahin (BFA 2010 Graphic Design).

Image: Jonathan Beer, Pontifex II, 2010.

We asked SVA students and faculty to send in work they were creating over the summer. This is one in an occasional series of Summer Session posts.

Incoming BFA Illustration and Cartooning Department student Molly Ostertag sent in a new ink-and-Photoshop work she completed over the summer: “This is an illustration of Ramanujan, a self-taught Indian mathematical genius who believed that his family’s goddess wrote equations on his tongue.”

Image: Molly Ostertag, Ramanujan, 2010.

The Hookah Girl is a two-part graphic novel by artist and alumnus Marguerite Dabaie (BFA 2007 Cartooning) that features autobiographical stories about growing up Palestinian-American. Dabaie spoke to Fen Magazine about the book and the effectiveness of art as a means to raise cultural awareness. The New York Daily News included the graphic novel in a list of the best comics from this year’s MoCCA Festival.

We asked SVA students and faculty to send in work they were creating over the summer. This is one in an occasional series of Summer Session posts.

BFA Illustration and Cartooning Department student Jonny Ruzzo sent in several illustrations he’s worked on during the summer, along with commentary on each piece and, in one instance, a video of the artist creating the drawing.

This Wind is Choking Me: “This was a submission I did for an exhibition and book called Drawgasmic, showing work from 1,000 young up-and-coming illustrators.”

Dirty Fingers: “I always love drawing the figure, and it’s fun to have the line work down so you can really experiment with filling in the blank space between the lines.”

I Can’t Stop Growing: “I like to use colored pencils because I can start with a light color and work my way up with darker colors. This way I don’t have to worry about making mistakes or erasing, and I find the effect of the different colors visually pleasing.”

• Paper Foldables is a new venture from alumnus Bryan Green (BFA 2000 Cartooning) that offers distinctive papercraft toys. Green has been creating customized foldable promotional items for companies such as CAPCOM (maker of the Street Fighter video-game series [.zip]), FREEwilliamsburg.com, the Independent Film Channel and more. Visitors to paperfoldables.com can also download and print out free folding action toys from the Thorium Wars video game.
• MFA Design Department faculty member Maira Kalman has partnered with Target and the Baby Buggy charity group to design an exclusive line of baby clothes and accessories. Available on a limited basis through Saturday, October 16, Target will donate 10% of all purchases of Kalman-designed items to families in need.
• Never Forget, Never Forgive: The new self-published graphic novel by alumnus Rami Efal (BFA 2005 Cartooning) follows in the footsteps of filmmaker Akira Kurosawa by using samurai characters and a feudal-Japan setting to tell a story inspired by Efal’s upbringing in Israel and Holocaust-survivor parents. The artist spoke at length about the book in an interview on Newsarama.com. Never Forget, Never Forgive is available from Efal through neverforgetneverforgive.info.

Image: Bryan Green, Pearl Harbor Foldables, 2010.

Noted street artist KAWS—aka, SVA alumnus Brian Donnelly (BFA 1996 Illustration)—lately has been expanding his oeuvre to include product and apparel design, and now he’s opening his first major solo museum exhibition. “KAWS” is on view at The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum in Ridgefield, Connecticut, through January 2, 2011. The show brings together paintings, sculpture, drawings and more works (including some never before shown to the public) that feature the artist’s signature graphic style and sharp wit. Members of the SVA community who want to see the exhibition in July and August can take advantage of a special discount offer from the museum: half-off admission for all SVA students, alumni, faculty and staff who present a valid SVA ID.

In a recent feature about KAWS in The Jersey Journal, Julie Bills, from the Gering and López Gallery that represents Donnelly, says, “KAWS does not so much blur the line between art and commerce as he marries the two…[he] collapses the distinction between high and low art, making art accessible on the streets and in clothing stores, as well as in the gallery and the museum.”

Image: KAWS, The Wall (detail), 2010. Courtesy of the artist.

The National Cartoonists Society, the largest organization of professional cartoonists, recognized several members of the SVA community during the 64th Annual Reuben Awards ceremony. Alumnus Ray Alma (BFA 1987 Cartooning) received an award in the Magazine Feature/Magazine Illustration category. Faculty members David Mazzucchelli and Steve Brodner received awards for Graphic Novels and Advertising Illustrations, respectively.