Comic Release: Negotiating Identity for a New Generation
June 27 – August 15, 2004
Opening reception, Saturday, June 26, 7–9 p.m.

Curated by Vicky A. Clark and Barbara Bloemink for the Regina Miller Gouger Gallery, Carnegie Mellon University. Organized by Pamela Auchincloss / Arts Management, New York

Cartoon and comic book imagery appear everywhere. Since the 1950s, in the United States these images have been considered primarily a form of entertainment for children. Their lowbrow status has allowed them to thrive outside of the critical, aesthetic and commercial criteria of the art world. Today cartoon-based imagery and programs are regular fare on television and in the movies from Hollywood to Japan. As comics and cartoons inundate the mainstream, they provide a vehicle for the critique of politics, culture and society both locally and globally. Internationally, cartoon imagery is playing an increasing role in contemporary art. Whether through obvious appropriation or distorted likenesses made for the purpose of satirizing its subjects, cartoon-like graphics are a visual language adopted by artists across the globe. The cartoon sensibility liberates pictorial space and offers freedom to render anything that can be imagined as if it actually existed. It allows artists to explore identity in new ways with a new language. Artists included in this exhibition are Layla Ali, Enrique Chagoya, Marcel Dzama, Inka Essenhigh, Barry McGee, Yoshitomo Nara and Zak Smith.