Friday the 13th in January 2006 was far from unlucky for New York Citys animation community. On that date, Too Art for TV, the first gallery show of art created by New York animators opened at the Stay Gold Gallery in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.
An overflow crowd filled the gallery and all but blocked the sidewalk outside, earning attention from passing police cars. Inside, works from 24 artists, all staff or freelancers working in New Yorks animation industry lined the walls or played back on a TV monitor. Paintings, drawings, personal animation projects and comic art were all on display. Styles ranged from Liz Artinians folk-art inspired paintings and Peedee Shindells unnerving biological renderings of fantasy creatures, to Marina Dominis impressionistic landscapes and Christy Karacas intensely detailed pen and ink murals of feline armies decimated by giant mechanical war robots.
Artinian, a designer who has worked on DOUG, TEENAGE NINJA TURTLES and VENTURE BROTHERS, curated the show to encourage a sense of community in the NY animation scene. I had no idea thered be this much interest, she said of the massive opening night turnout. Theres a need for this type of thing, for these artists to feel more like artists and have a place to make things of their own to show what theyre trying to do outside the industry. You need to draw very well to work in animation, and most of us can think as well and have ideas of our own. We are a community. We have friends and want to see what theyre doing.
Artinian sees the show as a dry run for an annual or biennial event highlighting art produced by New York animators. Figurative work is cool again in the art world, cartoon work. Pop surrealism is like a movement now. We love our pop culture, STAR WARS, we love to draw. Its a great time to be doing to be doing something like this. Theres so much interest in it now, Im going to have an incredible amount of work to choose from; the next show will blow peoples minds.
Too Art for TV runs through Feb. 13. The Stay Gold Gallery is located at 451 Grand Street in Brooklyn NY and can be reached at 718-599-7778. The gallerys website is www.staygoldgallery.com.
Written by Joe Strike
