FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Diana Cwerenz, Executive Director
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Shame of the City: Deconstructing & Reconstructing Comic Narratives is group exhibition of 23 unique works of art made by 23 artists, each a deconstruction of a single page of the 1984 comic book “The Invincible Iron Man,” volume 01, issue 178, published in 1984. The exhibition, curated by Joseph A. Lupo, includes a variety of mediums, including drawing, collage, digital and traditional prints.
Shame of the City: Deconstructing & Reconstructing Comic Narratives
Curated by Joseph A. Lupo
At Future Tenant, 819 Penn Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15222
Opening reception on December 13, 6-9 pm
On display from December 13, 2013-January 12, 2014
Free admission
(November 11, 2013) Future Tenant presents Shame of the City: Deconstructing & Reconstructing Comic Narrative, a group visual art exhibition. Curator Joseph A. Lupo is interested in how artists and writers communicate through comics. Comics rely on text and image to establish a storyline. By eliminating or combining aspects of both characteristics, one can begin to deconstruct the visual and narrative of a comic. According to Lupo, his attention is “to reveal the hidden design in the construction of comic books and to question how presentation affects the way we interpret narrative.” The meaning of this work emerges from a unique dialogue between the artwork and viewer.
The issue of “The Invincible Iron Man” that Lupo has chosen to deconstruct is unique because the super hero Iron Man never directly appears. Each of the nationally recognized artists featured in this exhibition were provided with a copy of a single page from the comic book. Some of the participating artists are professional comic book artists, while others make comic inspired artwork, or are interested in collage. Each artist was encouraged to cut up/deconstruct/collage/reassemble parts of the comic to create a new comic image. The guidelines were loose; the only stipulation was that the final image be composed mostly of the original comic imagery. The resulting artwork will be displayed in the sequence of the page numbers each artist was given, promoting the idea that an underlying narrative still exists.
The artists were selected by Joseph A. Lupo, Associate Professor of Art at West Virginia University. Lupo has exhibited his artwork and lectured extensively, and has participated in numerous artist residency programs. He currently serves on the Board of Directors for Artists Image Resource, a nonprofit press and gallery located on Pittsburgh’s North Side.
Exhibiting artists: Jennifer Anderson, Randy Bolton, Peter Bugg, Dylan Collins, Matt DiClemente, Tim Dooley, Amze Emmons,Tate Foley, Joseph Galbreath, Andrew Kozlowski, Michael Krueger, Adam Leestma, Jasen Lex, Joseph Lupo, Daniel Maw, Nathan Meltz, Ryan Miller, Luke Novel, Ed Piskor, Jim Rug, Geo Sipp, Brian Stuparyk, and Jason Urban.
GALLERY HOURS: Thursday and Sunday from 1 to 6pm, Friday and Saturday from 1 to 8pm. The gallery will be closed December 26-27, but will have extended hours on December 31, 6-11pm for Highmark First Night. Additional gallery hours will be announced at www.facebook.com/futuretenant and @futuretenant on Twitter.
Future Tenant is a nonprofit art space located in downtown Pittsburgh at 819 Penn Avenue dedicated to showcasing the work of emerging artists through exhibitions that offer a cutting edge perspective on the Pittsburgh art scene. For more information about this show and other Future Tenant programming, please visit www.futuretenant.org