KRAZY! - Vancouver

KRAZY! The Delirious
World of Anime + Comics +
Video Games + Art
May 17 - September 7, 2008


Vancouver Art Gallery
750 Hornby Street
Vancouver, BC
Canada V6Z 2H7
tel: 604.662.4719/ fax: 604.682.1086

http://www.vanartgallery.bc.ca

For the first time, the Vancouver Art Gallery will bring the worlds of anime, comics, cartoons, video games, manga, graphic novels and contemporary art together in one exhibition. Offering an innovative and dynamic survey, KRAZY! The Delirious World of Anime + Comics + Video Games + Art reveals the uniqueness of each medium, while uncovering their histories, interrelations and future trajectories. On view from May 17 to September 7, 2008, the exhibition is co-curated by some of the art forms’ most influential artists and cultural producers, including Pulitzer Prize-winning author Art Spiegelman, The Sims video game creator Will Wright, comic artist Seth and DreamWorks animated feature film director Tim Johnson. Conceived and developed by Vancouver Art Gallery senior curator Bruce Grenville, the exhibition will travel to a New York City arts institution in March 2009.

“The Vancouver Art Gallery is committed to furthering new and dynamic representations of visual culture,” said Kathleen Bartels, director of the Vancouver Art Gallery. “With the exhibition KRAZY!, we have created a tremendous opportunity to present some of the most highly engaging and relevant art forms of our time.”

One of the largest exhibitions ever organized by the Gallery, KRAZY! will occupy two floors of gallery space and is designed in collaboration with Tokyo-based architectural firm Atelier Bow-Wow—a design team renowned for their understanding of informal culture and ability to enhance communal visual experiences. Divided into seven sections defined by medium, the exhibition takes viewers through ever-changing gallery environments, including a mini-theatre for viewing animated cartoons and anime, immersive video spaces and innovative reading environments for visitors to experience a deluge of manga, graphic novels and comics. The exhibition comprises more than 600 artworks, including original sketches, concept drawings, sketchbooks, storyboards, production drawings, films, video games, animation cels, three dimensional models, sculptures, books, manga and much more.

The artists and works in the exhibition were selected by a group of co-curators, including Bruce Grenville, the exhibition’s coordinating curator and curator of the visual arts section; Tim Johnson, curator of animated cartoons; Kiyoshi Kusumi, curator of manga and anime; Seth, curator of comics and graphic novels; Art Spiegelman, curator of comics and graphic novels; Toshiya Ueno, curator of manga and anime; and Will Wright, curator of video games. To give the overall selection historical context, curators selected precursors in their respective fields, artists who had established their given genres and artists who are leading the way to the future.

KRAZY! is a rare opportunity to see artworks that have shaped the history of contemporary visual culture, including Art Spiegelman’s drawings for the first three-page version of his Pulitzer prize-winning Maus; George Herriman’s last three drawings for Krazy Kat; Lotte Reiniger’s 1927 The Adventures of Prince Achmed, the first feature-length animated cartoon; a sneak preview of Will Wright’s groundbreaking video game Spore; and an extraordinary selection of drawings from Yuichi Yokoyama’s latest manga, New Engineering. The exhibition also includes works by Moyoco Anno, Lynda Barry, Marcel Broodthaers, Chester Brown, Milt Gross, Pierre Huyghe, Ichiro Itano, Tim Johnson, Yoko Kanno, Harvey Kurtzman, John Lasseter, Roy Lichtenstein, Christian Marclay, Winsor McCay, Sid Meier, Shigeru Miyamoto, Mamoru Nagano, Claes Oldenburg, Mamoru Oshii, Nick Park, Raymond Pettibon, Seth, Iwatani Toru, Chris Ware, among others.