Gary Panter “General Atmosphere: Early Jimbo Drawings and Recent Work”
Fredericks & Freiser Gallery
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Fredericks & Freiser presents General Atmosphere: Early Jimbo Drawings and Recent Work an exhibition by Gary Panter. Widely recognized as one of the major figures working at the intersection of art and graphics, Panter has held a staunch presence in our culture since the late 1970s. His polyglot talent includes drawing, painting, writing, music, art direction for the beloved Pee Wee’s Playhouse, and, as contributor to the legendary Slash and Raw magazines, a pioneering force in the Punk graphic aesthetic. His work is radical and wry, occupying a space between formal ingenuity and draftsmanship, biting satire and boundless empathy.
For his fifth exhibition with the Gallery, the artist presents a series of new drawings alongside a selection of works from the 1970s to the 90s mostly based on his iconic character Jimbo. Panter’s new work consists of colorful, action-packed drawings made with ink and watercolor. These pieces chronicle the multiple iterations and various adventures of iconic cartoon characters, as well as his signature cast of punk, hillbilly heroes and villains (cowboys, robots, cavemen, dinosaurs, etc). Typical of Gary Panter, something very strange is going on. Not only is the melding of linear cartooning and washy abstraction historically pointed and wittily absurd, but it embodies the uncanny disconnect between our stories and ourselves.
The early drawings feature his iconic “Punk-everyman” character Jimbo, who the artist created in 1974 as an alter-ego and a guide through the ethical, cultural, and metaphysical ideas of his zines and graphic novels. Panter’s earlier work is pure noir meets apocalypse. The work is marked by the jagged linearity that is at the heart of his broad influence. As Matt Groening wrote in his essay for “Masters of American Comics” (Hammer, MoCA), “and because he’s so sweet, I can admit here that yes, I’ve copped a thing or two from Gary. Check out Jimbo’s spiky hairline and then take a look at Bart Simpson’s picket-fence-topped noggin. Eerie, isn’t it?” Or as artist Mike Kelley wrote in the introduction to Panter’s titular monograph, “I find it hard to believe that Mr. Basqiuat’s word clusters and broken-line approach did not borrow heavily from the genius of Gary Panter. Enough Said.”
Gary Panter has been the subject of numerous solo exhibitions, including the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum and the Columbus College of Art and Design. He was included in Disparities and Deformations: Our Grotesque, The Fifth International Site Santa Fe Biennial curated by Robert Storr, Masters of the American Comics at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (traveling) and What Nerve! Alternative Figures in American Art 1960 to the Present curated by Dan Nadel at the Rhode Island School of Design Museum. He is the subject of a comprehensive monograph: Gary Panter (PictureBox), as well as the author of numerous graphic novels.
Media
Schedule
from November 08, 2022 to November 05, 2022