Anders Nilsen, Kevin Huizenga and Paul Hornschemeier are three young comic authors, accomunated by many collaborations that bounds them to the principal American indipendent publishers and magazines.
The three authors realize stories and atmospheres far different the ones from the others: from minimal and daily events to literary versions, from philosophical allegories to excursuses in fantastical dimensions, always paying much attention to comic language experimentations.
The exhibition means to present and compare the work of the three authors, underlining some common thematics, as the attention on inner and outdoor landscapes, experimentations with comic language, relations with philosophy and religion.
Anders Nilsen. born in1973 in New Hampshire, lives and works in Chicago. After a beginning as a painter, in 1999 he matriculates at the Art Institute of Chicago. A year later he discontinues the school, and starts self-publishing Big Questions, a long run series that since number 7 has been published by Drawn and Quarterly. In the last years, thanks to Big Questions, Nilsen gained more than one nominee at Ignatz Awards. Drawn and Quarterly also published the books Dogs & Water, Monologues for the coming plagues and Don’t go where I can’t follow.
With Jeffrey Brown, John Hankiewicz and Paul Hornschemeier he gave birth to the artists collective The Holy Consumption, based in Chicago.
Kevin Huizenga was born in 1977 in Harvey, and spent most of his childhood in South Holland, near Chicago. He moved to St. Louis in 2000 where he lives and works.
He began drawing comics in high school, xeroxing his first issue (with friends) in 1993. Since that time he's made approximately 30 more. In 2001 the Comics Journal named him "Minimalism Cartoonist of the Year" and called #14 of his "Supermonster" mini-comic series "one of the best comics of any kind released in 2001”. In 2003 he gained a nominee as “Promising New Talent” at Ignatz Awards.
In 2001 he also started the Catastrophe Shop, an online shop for self-published mini-comics. Drawn and Quarterly published four numbers of the Or Else series and the book Curses.
Paul Hornschemeier was born in 1977 in Cincinnati. After a degree in philosophy, he moves to Chicago, where he lives and works. During his years in college he starts drawing comics, self-publishing Sequential, a series composed by 7 numbers and more than 280 pages. After his move to Chicago, he starts Forlorn Funnies, a project that constitutes the base to Mother, come home, selected by Time as one of the best graphic novels of 2004, and nominated at Eisner, Ignatz and Harvey Awards. Hornschemeier’s work has been praised by mainstream media including “Los Angeles Times”, “Entertainment Weekly”, “Time Magazine” and “Rolling Stone”.
He’s also part of The Holy Consumption, and he’s now working on the sequel of Forlorn Funnies and on many different music and illustration projects for clients as Cnn and Life Magazine.
The exhibition means to present and compare the work of the three authors underlining some common temathics among Hornschemeier, Huizenga and Nilsen, and also show the artistic path undertaken by each of them.