Bay Area Cartoonists
Eleven Bay Area cartoonists go APE$#!T this April at the Space 743 Gallery. The artists will show works inspired by comics, ranging from paintings and drawings to printmaking and mixed media. The show will display how the aesthetic sensibilities of these local creators forged in the world of comics carry into other media.
The San Francisco Bay Area was the heart of the underground comics scene in the 1960s, and it's still beating strong today. Several generations of cartoonists have spilled ink and broken pencils here; this exhibit focuses on the most recent, a new wave of cartoonists making their mark with an eclectic mix of artistic styles and techniques. APE$#!T coincides with the Alternative Press Expo (APE), the country's largest independent and alternative comics show, which returns to the Concourse Exhibition Center in San Francisco on April 8th and 9th.
The Space 743 Gallery is located at 743 Harrison Street in San Francisco. The show runs from April 7th to June 10th, with an opening reception on Friday, April 7th from 7 to 10pm, with the artists in attendance.
Artists
Andrice Arp first started putting comics out into the world with the publication of Hi-Horse, a series she co-edits with three other artists. In addition to Hi-Horse, her comics and illustrations have appeared in various anthologies and magazines, including the Comics Journal Special Edition 2005, Kitchen Sink, Shout Magazine, and the New York Times. Currently Andrice is one of around twelve artists contributing regular comics to the quarterly anthology Mome, published by Fantagraphics Books. The third issue will be available at APE 2006. www.hi-horse.com/aa/portfolio.html
Scott Campbell is a regular contributor to the comic anthology Hickee and has appeared in a number of other books including Project:Superior and Expo2005. He also posts a new comic every morning to the Double Fine Action Comics at www.doublefine.com. He art directs and designs things for video games at Double Fine Productions. At age 6 he won a huge trophy for coloring an easter bunny purple.
Vanessa Davis is a Floridian who just moved from New York to Berkeley. Last year a collection of her diary comics, Spaniel Rage, was published by Buenaventura Press. She is also a regular contributor to Arthur magazine and The Drama. At the moment she's working on her next book and a bunch of other stuff. www.spanielrage.com
Justin Hall was raised by wolves. He was drawn to civilization by the sweet and glossy lure of comic books. He's best known for the series True Travel Tales, which chronicles his and his friends' real-life travel adventures. He's also won a Xeric Award, contributed to various anthologies such as Kitchen Sink magazine and the Houghton Mifflin Best of American Comics, done exhibits at the S.F. Cartoon Art Museum and various galleries, and put together a website (www.allthumbspress.com), which is an accomplishment for a boy who grew up eating squirrels in the forest.
Paul Madonna's strip All Over Coffee runs in the San Francisco Chronicle and on SFGate.com. A cartoonist, author, and artist, his pen-and-ink drawings are shown regularly. In 2005 he worked with 826 Valencia to produce San Francisco's celebrated first Literary Map. Other work can be found in the Believer Magazine, Equity Magazine, paulmadonna.com, and various collections. Currently he's working on a book for New World Library. He lives with his wife in San Francisco.
Mats!? is a Swedish artist in self-imposed exile in the West Coast gulag since the late '80s. Cultural schizophrenia, general alienation, and multiple creative personalities vie for precious little space in his sporadic artistic outputs. Work has appeared in various comic publications in Sweden, US, France and Spain, as well as the self-published titles: S'not for Kids, Ragu, Prego, (san fran)SICKO, Eyesores / Crokk Mort, and Clark Olofson vs. the Superior Beings. His latest book, Asiaddict, will be published by Sparkplug Comic Books in March. www.matsicko.com
"Lark Pien is a little mouse who makes art in her little mousehole, and hopes to get cheese from it. Har." -- Thien Pham (Visit www.larkpien.com for the truth.)
Jesse Reklaw was born in Berkeley, where his hippie parents sold bread from a cart on Telegraph Avenue. He has a masters in computer science and three other useless degrees. Since 1995, he has been drawing the self-syndicated, weekly comic strip Slow Wave, which is currently printed by a dozen newspapers around the country. Jesse's paintings are inspired by cartoons and random neural firings. He has been in a few group shows since 2002. www.slowwave.com
Jeff Roysdon's comic strip Campfire Stories has popped up in several magazines and alt. weeklies over the last ten years, most notably long runs in Vice Magazine and the New York Press. Jeff's paintings have been included in numerous shows in San Francisco and New York and have been widely collected. A man of many talents, Jeff is also an animator, a sign painter, a cat fancier and a very shy, flustered and inaccurate grocery store cashier. www.jeffroysdon.com
Joe Sayers is a cartoonist living in Berkeley, CA. He has self-published 19 mini-comics, one of which was excerpted in the Best American Nonrequired Reading 2005 (Houghton Mifflin). His comic strip Thingpart appears weekly in the Portland Mercury and at www.jsayers.com.
Hsiao-chen Tsai was born and raised in Taiwan. She moved to the Bay Area ten years ago to escape her mom's "lifetime mothering policy," as well as to pursue a larger audience for her drawings of goofy creatures experiencing bizarre moments. After long hours of burning out from her job performing various robot-tasks, she loves to curl up with her Double Happiness: lovely husby and sweet animal kingdom, listening to a good ol' record. She is currently working on paintings for APE$#!T, playing drums and yang qin (Chinese hammered dulcimer) with her band, and making kick-ass germ-buster soaps for her hippie friends.
APE$#!T is co-curated by Justin Hall & Jesse Reklaw
