Philly Comics Now: The Art of Graphic Storytelling Opening Brunch

Free and open to the public. 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.

Philly Comics Now: The Art of Graphic Storytelling will be on display 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

Host or Publisher Antoinette Westphal College of Media Arts & Design