Fenwick Gallery and Special Collections Research Center at Fenwick Library on George Mason University’s Fairfax campus are pleased to host “Our Comics, Ourselves,” an exhibition highlighting themes of identity, expression, and representation in comic books and graphic novels. The exhibition will run from August 21, 2017 through October 6, 2017, with an opening reception and curator’s talk on Friday, September 15.
Organizing materials by the cases.
“Our Comics, Ourselves” features comic books, graphic novels, DIY comics, and various comics paraphernalia primarily from the United States, from 1945 to present. The works range from autobiographical to sheer fantasy, and explore feminism, abortion, racism, cultural identity, social activism, labor unions, veterans of war, sexual abuse, student debt, immigration, public health, civil rights, gender and sexual identity, and more. “Our Comics, Ourselves” presents the graphic stories that describe the complexity and diversity of our collective experience, and examines the social and historical contexts within which they emerged.
Placing materials in the Special Collections Research Center cases.
This exhibition is organized and made possible by Jan Descartes and Monica McKelvey Johnson of Interference Archive in NYC, and supported by many Mason faculty partners and departments, including the University Libraries, the School of Art, Women and Gender Studies, and African and African American Studies.
More information will be available on the Fenwick Gallery website, http://fenwickgallery.gmu.edu, or you may contact Stephanie Grimm, Art and Art History Librarian at George Mason University, at sgrimm4@gmu.edu.
ABOUT THE EXHIBITION: This exhibition is organized by Stephanie Grimm, Art and Art History Librarian at Mason; Christopher Kardambikis, Assistant Professor of Printmaking, School of Art at Mason; Angela Hattery, Professor and Director, Women & Gender Studies at Mason; Mika’il Petin, Professor, African and African American Studies at Mason; Jan Descartes, Interference Archive (NYC); and Monica Johnson, Interference Archive (NYC).
