September 24, 2024

Philly Comics Now: The Art of Graphic Storytelling

October 12, 2024 – December 15, 2024 at Pearlstein Gallery, Drexel University

Curated by Partners and Son (Tom Marquet and Gina Dawson) in conjunction with Pearlstein Gallery (Mark Stockton)

Pearlstein Gallery is thrilled to announce Philly Comics Now: The Art of Graphic Storytelling which will transform the gallery in October. This epic exhibition features over sixty contemporary Philadelphia-based artists exploring the diverse possibilities of independent comics. Large-scale prints, a black-light room installation, a monstrous reading room, and multiple newly conceived, collaborative print projects will be shown in conjunction with the tools and materials of comics, including thumbnails, hand-drawn sketches, and artist notes. Curated in conjunction with Partners and Son (Tom Marquet and Gina Dawson) and focused around creative workshops by Jessica Abel and Matt Madden, Philly Comics Now unleashes the incredible underground energy of comics into the cavernous Pearlstein Gallery.

Set against freshly conceived works, archival materials will highlight Philadelphia’s depth and breadth of alternative comic history. During the course of the exhibition, a portion of the gallery will metamorphose into a wild and colorful, interactive reading room with an immersive installation by Soso Capaldi.

Additional special projects are created in collaboration with local printers including:

• A trippy black light installation featuring Rodger Binyone, Anuj Shrestha, Pat Aulisio and Ian Harker
• A nested exhibition of Charles Burns’s speculative Kommix covers
• A wall installation of Lale Westvind’s wordless publication GRIP
• A mural of Meghan Turbitt’s illustrated Overheard at 30th Street Station
• A selection of horror-inspired prints by Tia Roxae

Coinciding with the Philly Comics Expo [PCX] on October 12, we will host a preview afternoon reception Sunday, October 13, 2024 10am-1pm, when artists will be on-hand to discuss their print projects over bagels and coffee. Free and open to the public, but please RSVP HERE. Throughout the run of the exhibition, there will be a full calendar of programming centered around Rankin Visiting Scholars Jessica Abel and Matt Madden, including a Keynote Lecture, a 24-Hour Comic Workshop, a Zine Fest:Tabling Event, Comic Book Club, and a DIY Printers panel.

“As an art form with so few dollars at stake and even less prestige, the comics scene here has little to feed itself aside the momentum from the desire to create.” Sally Madden, Exhibiting Artist and co-editor of The Comics Journal website

A full list of exhibiting artists and organizer bios are included on the following page. Press packet available upon request. Programming available for student groups and tours.

Exhibition features work by: Jessica Abel, Steve Arnold, Pat Aulisio, Rachel Avallone, Jadzia Axelrod, Kelechi Azuakoemu, Frances Cordelia Beaver, Corey Bechelli, Rodger Binyone, Tara Booth, Box Brown, Nick Bunch, Charles Burns, Soso Capaldi, Caroline Cash, Tracy Chawahan, Dirty Diamonds, Molly Dwyer, Matt Eammons, Eileen Echikson, Alaina Ewins, Olivia Fredricks, Rachel Leah Gallo, Pris Genet, Dre Grigoropol, Lance Hansen, Beth Heinly, Pat Higgins, WOLF, Derick Jones, Alina Josan, Hannah Kaplan, Alli Katz, Kyle Kerezsi, Oli Knowles, Christine Larsen, Cindy Lozito, Matt Madden, Sally Madden, Jaz Malone, Salvatore Marrone, Jay McQuirns, Paige Mehrer, Em Frank, Quinn Milton, Benji Nate, Nebila Oguz, Ben Passmore, Marissa Paternoster, Josh Pettinger, Colin Pezzano, Nicole Rodrigues, Tia Roxae, Matt Shaver, Anuj Shrestha, Audra Stang, Marta Syrup, Bread Tarleton, Steve Teare, Steve Thueson, Meghan Turbitt, Jean Wei, Lale Westvind, Ana Woulfe, Andrew Jeffrey Wright, Bryn Zigler

Collaborating Partners include: Partners and Son, DMR Graphics, YouWraps, Fireball, Drexel Libraries, Philly Soapbox, Pet Riso, Risolve, Who Press'd, Second at Best, Keepsake Studio, WKDU and Free Library Art Department.

Organizer Bios:

Partners and Son is a South Philadelphia comic shop and art gallery founded by Gina Dawson and Tom Marquet in 2019. Partners and Son has become a hub of the Philly comics scene, with rotating exhibitions and frequent public programs that showcase a wide range of contemporary art and alternative publishing. Tom and Gina founded Philly Comics Expo [PCX] in 2020, a yearly tabling event with indie cartoonists and publishers from Philly and all over the US.

Jessica Abel is a graphic novelist, author, business coach for creatives, and the founder of Autonomous Creative. Abel rejects the notion that creative fields are necessarily precarious and instead works to put the tools of making real money in less time—without creative compromise—into the hands of the artists, writers, and entrepreneurs who need them. Since 1992, Abel has published with indie houses, commercial publishers, magazines, newspapers, and as a self-publisher. Among her works is Out on the Wire: The Storytelling Secrets of the New Masters of Radio (Penguin Random House), and the graphic novel La Perdida (Penguin Random House, winner of the 2002 “Best New Series” Harvey Award). She has been teaching at the university level for 25 years and is currently chair of the Illustration Program at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. Her work has been reviewed and quoted in The Guardian, Time Magazine, The Los Angeles Times, NPR, The New York Times Book Review, and Entertainment Weekly.

Matt Madden started self-publishing minicomics while living in Ann Arbor MI in the early 90s. In 1996 Madden began writing reviews for The Comics Journal and other publications—more recently he reviewed comics and graphic novels for Bookforum. His first graphic novel, Black Candy, was published by Black Eye Books in 1998; his second, Odds Off, was published by Highwater Books in 2001. He also translates from French and Spanish. In 2002 he was named foreign correspondent of the French avant-garde comics group, OuBaPo (the Workshop for Potential Comics). His book 99 Ways to Tell a Story: Exercises in Style (Penguin), a comics adaptation of Raymond Queneau's Exercises in Style, which has numerous foreign editions including Japan, France, Italy, and Spain, further cementing his position as a leading figure in experimental comics. Madden is based in Philadelphia with his wife, Jessica Abel, and their two children. Together they wrote the comics textbook, Drawing Words & Writing Pictures, published by First Second. The couple are also co-series editors of The Best American Comics from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Their follow-up to DW&WP, Mastering Comics, was published by First Second in the spring of 2012