Beyond Beyond Exhibition runs June 23 through Sept. 29 at ASU Art Museum in Tempe, Arizona

Beyond Beyond
Exhibition runs June 23 through Sept. 29
https://asuevents.asu.edu/content/beyond-beyond

"Beyond Beyond" is a solo exhibition of Ai Kijima, a contemporary artist whose riotous collages of figures, patterns and colors are made from meticulously pieced and fused textiles.
In her work from the early 2000s, she used scraps of bed sheets, curtains, clothing and dish towels collected from thrift stores to create artworks that depict a variety of characters ranging from American cartoons to Japanese anime. Born and raised in Tokyo, Japan, Kijima is fascinated by the patterns and imagery of fabrics from around the globe.
"Beyond Beyond" reflects Kijima’s interest in how the melding of traditional craft and popular imagery reflects a culture’s history, preoccupations and social politics.

Supported by the Windgate Charitable Foundation as part of the Windgate Contemporary Craft Initiative at ASU Art Museum.

ASU Art Museum
Mill Avenue and 10th Street
51 E 10th St.
Tempe, AZ 85281

"Unexpected Realities: Comics, Culture and Society in Contemporary Art" installation views at Figureworks, Brooklyn

"Unexpected Realities: Comics, Culture and Society in Contemporary Art"

 Figureworks, Brooklyn, NYC

March 2 - April 15, 2018

Peter Kernz, Ai Kijima, Susan Newmark, Mark Newport, Aaron Noble, Donald Perlis, K. Saito

curation and text by Bruce Weber

Figureworks is located at 168 North 6th St., Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY 11211, one block from the Bedford Avenue “L” train. The gallery is open to the public Saturday and Sunday from 1-6 PM and is dedicated to exhibiting contemporary and 20th century fine art of the human form.

For more information please call 718-486-7021 or visit us online at www.figureworks.com

"Unexpected Realities: Comics, Culture and Society in Contemporary Art" at Figureworks, Brooklyn

I am thrilled to have been included by curator Bruce Weber in the exhibition "Unexpected Realities: Comics, Culture and Society in Contemporary Art" at Figureworks, Brooklyn, NYC, March 2 - April 15, 2018. Two small works will be in the exhibition.

 

Stronger Faster

23 1/2 x 19 1/2"

Honey

20x15 1/2"

"Unexpected Realities: Comics, Culture and Society in Contemporary Art" with artists Peter Kernz, Ai Kijima, Susan Newmark, Mark Newport, Aaron Noble, Donald Perlis, K. Saito

curation and text by Bruce Weber

March 2 - April 15, 2018
Opening reception March 2, 6-9pm


Figureworks is pleased to present Unexpected Realities: Comics, Culture and Society in Contemporary Art. Curated by Bruce Weber, this exhibition features the work of seven artists who engage in fascinating ways with the iconography of comic book superheroes and touch on our fixation and embrace of pop culture.

Brooklyn-based artist K. Saito is devoted to drawing, but also creates mobiles, animated short films and videos. His superheroes are simply rendered with a minimum of detail and with a sense of gleeful spontaneity that tickles the underbelly of the crowded and dramatic action-based world of the comic book superhero.

Ai Kijima initially learned the crafts of sewing, knitting and crocheting from her grandmother in Kyoto. She joins together the images she discovers on bedsheets, pillowcases, clothes and related materials at thrift stores and secondhand markets. These quilted fabric pieces are filled with a dizzying array of images drawn from pop culture, many of which feature superheroes derived from comic books.

Michigan-based Mark Newport has long identified with the genre of comic book superheroes and drawn on this imagery to create knitted costumes, prints and videos which portray him performing in his garb. A skilled knitter, he fashions outfits for superhero characters that hang on coat hangers where they sag, with a mix of comedy and poignancy, under their own weight.

Susan Newmark’s mixed media works integrate collage, paint, photo imagery, found objects and fragments from popular culture to explore narratives and storytelling, place, memory, nature, and the human body. A pair of works in this exhibition are appropriated from Japanese comics, and her Wonder Woman piece is from a new series exploring different ethnicities.

Peter Kernz’s character-based drawings were inspired by viewing the film “JFK” and reading “High Treason: The Assassination of JFK and the Case for Conspiracy” by Harrison Edward Livingstone. In his drawings, Kernz explores the dark atmosphere of the case. He states, “For 7 years I gathered my material in literature and each night I took my weapons of choice: gouache, India Ink, a range of drawing pencils, and a projector.”

Los Angeles-based artist Aaron Noble creates large scale site-specific wall paintings along with related drawings, prints and works on canvas. The superhero comics of the 1960s and 1970s were his aesthetic training ground, and through them he became dramatically engaged in exaggerating and abstracting the human form.

Don Perlis’ paintings of Times Square are filled with a variety of colorful and disturbing characters who act in perverse and violent ways. Many of them are garbed in the costumes of comic book superheroes, who, ironically, uphold the stereotypical image of New York as a sinister and menacing place.

Curator Bruce Weber is also a poet and historian of American art. He has been a curator at various museums, most recently serving as Curator of Paintings and Sculpture at the Museum of the City of New York. He has published extensively on the subject of American art.

Figureworks is located at 168 North 6th St., Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY 11211, one block from the Bedford Avenue “L” train. The gallery is open to the public Saturday and Sunday from 1-6 PM and is dedicated to exhibiting contemporary and 20th century fine art of the human form.

For more information please call 718-486-7021 or visit us online at www.figureworks.com