The Vancouver Art Gallery is bringing various forms of popular art together in one exhibition titled KRAZY! The Delirious World of Anime + Comics + Video Games + Art. On view from May 17 to Sept. 7, the exhibit aims to reveal the uniqueness of each medium, while uncovering their histories, interrelations and future trajectories. The installation is co-curated by such influential artists and producers as Maus author Art Spiegelman, The Sims creator Will Wright, comic artist Seth and animated feature film director Tim Johnson (Antz, Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas, Over the Hedge).
‘Despite the pervasive presence of these media, little has been done to assess the ties that bind them,’ notes Kathleen Bartels, director of the Vancouver Art Gallery. ‘By offering an interdisciplinary account in a major survey exhibition for the first time, we will illuminate their importance as a sustained cultural force.’
One of the largest exhibitions ever organized by the gallery, KRAZY! will occupy two entire floors of gallery space and is designed in collaboration with Tokyo-based architectural firm Atelier Bow-Wow. Divided into seven sections by medium, the exhibition will include a mini-theatre for viewing animation, immersive video spaces and environments for reading manga, graphic novels and comics. In all, the installation will offer more than 600 works of art, including original sketches, concept drawings, sketchbooks, storyboards, production drawings, films, video games, animation cels, 3D models, sculptures, books and more.
Specific pieces include George Herriman’s last three drawings for Krazy Kat; Lotte Reiniger’s 1927 The Adventures of Prince Achmed, the first feature-length animated film; sneak preview of Will Wright’s new video game, Spore; and a selection of drawings from Yuichi Yokoyama’s latest manga, New Engineering. Also included are works by Moyoco Anno, Lynda Barry, Marcel Broodthaers, Chester Brown, Cao Fei, Milt Gross, Pierre Huyghe, Ichiro Itano, 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, Iwatani Toru, Chris Ware and Masaaki Yuasa. Conceived and developed by Vancouver Art Gallery senior curator Bruce Grenville, the KRAZY! will travel to a New York City arts institution in March of 2009.
