Contemporary Art Center Exhibition: "Meanwhile...." Mark Staff Brandl

Contemporary Art Center Press Release:

 

"Meanwhile...." July 11-August 27 Gallery 3R Mark Staff Brandl with Gary Scoles and Thomas Emil Homerin

The trio creates a comic book installation on site from scratch, eventually enveloping the entire room. Visitors are invited to watch the process and interact with the creators. Their activities are documented in video and photos, also becoming part of the completed exhibition.

Opening Reception: Saturday, July 16, 6:30-8:30 pm

When Mark Staff Brandl of Switzerland was invited to exhibit at the Contemporary Art Center, he realized this would be an opportunity to fulfill a long-held desire to reunite his friends Gary Scoles of Pekin and Emil Homerin of Rochester, New York into an active creative team in order to realize one of his Panels Painting-Installations, utilizing as a springboard the steady stream of comic-related ephemeral sketches and doodles he and Scoles consistently produce. Starting on July 11, the team will convene in Gallery 3R to create the work on site.

The three met in 1965, at the age of 10, in fifth grade at Douglas Primary School in Pekin, Illinois. They became fast friends, spending almost every Saturday and Saturday night together for years, through high school, creating original superhero comic books. Mark and Gary were the artists and letterers, Emil the author and editor. All created their own characters, yet each helped to contribute to and develop the others' ideas. Emil bore the brunt of making narrative sense of them all. Although their lives took them in various directions after high school, the three have remained in contact, sending comics, art and related materials to one another and collaborating on projects.

The installation will commence with a batch of collected comic-art-oriented doodles on various scraps and sizes of paper that Brandl and Scoles will have done and collected over the year prior to the exhibition. These have no planned continuity nor are even consciously link-ed or guided in any way. They will be laid out as well as mounted on the walls and serve as the basis for the event and installation. Then Homerin will concoct a narrative from these, telling the artists what to add, complete, extend, or change. Visitors will be invited to come to the Art Center, watch the process and interact with the creators. After a week, an installation-comic will envelop the whole room. The activities will be documented in a video, photos, perhaps even sections of "meta-comic" where sequences about the creation of the work will become part of the completed exhibition.

The opening reception on Saturday, July 16, 6:30-8:30 pm will also honor Minnesota artist Sally J. Bright in the Preston Jackson Gallery. Food & drink will be provided. Music provided by Paul Adams. Admission is free but a donation is requested.

This exhibit is partially supported by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council, a state agency.

Hi-res photos are available.

Mark Staff Brandl: www.markstaffbrandl.com/

SPX 2010

What: SPX 2010

Where: Bethesda North Marriott Hotel & Conference Center

When: Open to the public Saturday and Sunday, September 11 and 12, 2010.

Times:
Saturday: 11:00 am – 7:00 pm
Sunday: noon – 6:00 pm

Admission:
One day memberships: $10.00
Weekend memberships: $15.00
Collected at the door the day of the show

Why: If you did not participate in the past, whether as a fan or an exhibitor, you missed a lot—don’t be left out in 2010. 2009 was another terrific year for the show. Attendance was over 3,000 attendees and exhibitors, along with dozens of printers, distributors, retailers, and other industry professionals.

There were over 450 people registered as exhibitors and we sold over 170 exhibitor tables. SPX has a unique format of only selling exhibitor space to independent publishers and not to retailers. This provides a very intimate and friendly atmosphere for our creators and fans to mingle. At the same time, there’s a wide array of programming for all to enjoy.

For more information on how you can register as an exhibitor, go to the Exhibitor Registration page.

About the Show

SPX 2010 will be held the weekend of September 10 and 11, 2010 at the Marriott Bethesda North Hotel & Conference Center in Bethesda, MD, just one mile outside the nation’s capital, Washington DC. In its fifteenth year SPX now serves as the preeminent showcase for the exhibition of independent comic books and the discovery of new creative talent.

SPX will bring together over 400 artists and publishers to meet their readers, booksellers, distributors, and each other. SPX will be open to the public September 10th from 11am Saturday, and run through 7pm that evening. The celebration continues Sunday from noon to 6pm. In addition, expect great programming all weekend long for you to enjoy!

SPX 2010 marks the fourteenth annual presentation of The Ignatz Awards for outstanding achievement in comics and cartooning. The Ignatz, named after George Herriman’s brick-wielding mouse, recognizes outstanding work that challenges popular notions of what comics can achieve, both as an artform and as a means of personal expression. The Ignatz is a festival prize, the first such of the United States comic book industry. Winners will be determined by ballot during SPX and presented at the gala Ignatz Awards ceremony.

As with every year profits from SPX will go to support the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, protecting the First Amendment rights of comic book readers and professionals.

Brandl Art "Inadvertently" Stolen from Museum

No Shit. A painting installation disappears in an opening in Colorado Museum. 26 of 31 paintings taken by visitors.

The cat is out of the bag, they have gone to the press, so now I can discuss and indeed complain about the events.

As you may know my art is an integral part of the traveling exhibition "Out of Sequence." It was in the Krannert Art Museum first, and the second venue is the Belmar Laboratory of Art and Ideas, a museum near Denver, Colorado. Link: http://www.belmarlab.org/

This is a great place, with many cutting edge shows. The opening for "Out of Sequence" was apparently enormous, more than 900 people and so on. I was not present. I wish I had been, because after the opening, they noticed that somehow 26 of my 31 paintings displayed in an installation/object had disappeared. Why no one noticed during the opening is beyond me.

Granted, my art is popular-looking, and my posters are regularly stolen and reappear framed elsewhere. I have grown to accept this as a compliment. But I have exhibited my small "Cover" paintings in circular spin racks in many venues, cities, even various countries, in museums, galleries, Kunsthallen and more, and never lost a single one.

Here, the director suggested, the people appear to have thought the works were gratis, to be taken. Although why someone would not notice that they are originals, with their clearly hand-painted qualities, surface facture and other haptic qualities --- and signature on the back --- I cannot fathom. Since they became aware of their lack of security in this instance, Belmar has put out a call for my art to please be returned, and had some success. Of the 26 works stolen, or accidentally relocated, only 14 are still stolen, thus 12 were recovered up till now.

I'm hoping for more. This is not about money. They are insured (although at their low end), so I would get paid, but I want the works. They are promised to other shows and indeed many to collectors. I am worried that if someone could think they were for free, they might simply discard them later. I put in a LOT of work on each one and they are a unit, in which many make reference to one another. Many of the Chicago and Illinois readers saw them either in Krannert Art Museum or in the Sharkpit.

I have made a limited edition print with a group of Covers in one image, signed and numbered it, and the Belmar will give one for every cover returned.

Here's the executive director Adam Lerner's email he sent out to those invited to the opening:

Dear Friends,

We gave away lots of free things to the 900 of you who came to The Lab's opening last night (7 gallons of dill pickles, a few dozen rocks, etc.), so we really don't blame those of you who mistakenly thought we were giving away those beautifully painted cards sitting in the magazine rack. But we need them back. Seriously, if you, or anyone you know, took home one of the paintings from Mark Brandl's magazine rack installation, we would be grateful if you could return it as soon as possible. It's very embarrassing to us and very unfortunate for the artist.

Contact the Lab at 303-934-1777 if you've got one or more of the cards. But don't worry about the pickles. They're all yours.

As Jillian Allison, Development Assistant wrote to me:

As of today we have sent out an email blast to our mailing list. There are postings on the website of a local free weekly paper, Westword and I am working with the writer to keep their information up to date. A small story also ran in the Denver Post-the daily paper. We are also using Facebook and Myspace-our pages and those of people involved in the exhibition-to post bulletins and get the word out. I will continue to look into other avenues for publicity.

Some of the places that have helpfully written about my dilemma: Attention Denver: DON'T STEAL THE FUCKING ART
By Andy Bosselman
http://nyac.connexion.org/rssitem.cfm?src=1&feedtype=1&q=&p=0&id=120110

Those cards weren't giveaways, Belmar attendees
By Michael Roberts in Word on the Street
http://blogs.westword.com/latestword/2009/01/those_cards_werent_giveaways_b.php

The Belmar Blog is here: http://belmarblab.blogspot.com/

The Belmar facebook is here.

The Belmar MySpace is here.

If you can help in any way, please do so. I'm alternately hopeful and in shock. I have requested that my friend and podcaster in Chicago, the illustrious artist and lawyer Richard Holland keep up with the events, in case I need his legal services. Thanks Richard.