Krazy! Will Wright, Art Spiegelman, Seth-Curated Art Show Opens In Vancouver

Visual culture gets a treat this week with the opening of KRAZY! The Delerious World of Anime + Comics + Videogames + Art. The exhibit, hosted by the Vancouver Art Gallery, is curated by a crew of influential artists, including comic artist Seth, graphic novelist Art Spiegleman and filmmaker Tim Johnson (Antz, Over the Hedge). Will Wrightt will be curating the game front, and on June 4, the Spore genius will lead a panel discussion.

In an interview with The Province, organizer Bruce Grenville described the motivation for the show:

An exhibit like this attempts to give you a framework or language and a history for all of this stuff that you see and how to approach it with an eye to appreciating that there are some extraordinary artworks in that field that, if you haven't encountered them yet, you've really missed something.

We were interested in linking to the Asia-Pacific, to the large local video-game culture and to liase with the Centre for Digital Media and reflect the level of dialogue that occurs between visual artists, anime, manga, vide- game designers, cartoon artists

According to the press release:

KRAZY! will occupy two entire 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, which include 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 list of artists represented at the show is absolutely amazing: Moyoco Anno, Lynda Barry, Marcel Broodthaers, Chester Brown, Cao Fei, Milt Gross, Pierre Huyghe, Ichiro Itano, Tim Johnson, Yoko Kanno, Satoshi Kon, Harvey Kurtzman, John Lasseter, Roy Lichtenstein, Christian Marclay, Winsor McCay, Sid Meier, Shigeru Miyamoto, Junko Mizuno, Mamoru Nagano, Claes Oldenburg, Mamoru Oshii, Katsuhiro Otomo, Nick Park, Raymond Pettibon, Seth, Iwatani Toru, Chris Ware, Masaaki Yuasa and many more.

The exhibit is at the Vancouver Art Gallery today until September 7, and a companion book published by the University of California Press is also available. The exhibit's organizers plan to bring the show to an undisclosed New York gallery sometime in 2009.

[via The Province]