Marc Bell in NYC

BLOO CHIP
Adam Baumgold Gallery, New York
May 6-July 1, 2005

"Adam Baumgold Gallery presents an exhibition of works by Marc Bell, "Bloo Chip," from May 6 through July 1, 2005. In his second solo exhibition, Marc Bell seamlessly combines his decade plus comics activities with his lifelong devotion to, as he calls it, "Fine Ahtwerks." The result is over eighty drawings, watercolors, paintings and mixed media constructions of a fully formed visual world of tubular creatures, inexplicable landscapes, and nonsense words that imply narrative as quickly as they distract from it. One of the works in the exhibition is the long, scroll-like ink drawing on EKG paper "Supernatural Hot Rug and Not Used II," 2004 - a composition teeming with Bell's manically animated people and quasi animals amidst text rife with free-associations. In the mixed media construction "(Hide Behind Bloo Chip) Kid," 2005, a complex melange of people, creatures, forms and buildings constructed from cardboard, we see his work has roots in masterful renderings, typography, and old-fashioned gags, but then grows into assemblages that bring his images into real space, and funny, seat-of-the pants comic narratives that give his characters an inner life. Marc Bell, 33, lives in Vancouver, B.C. He has self published his own books and comics for over a decade, yielding dozens of titles including Mojo Action Companion Unit, Gooma, Knoze Clippah! He has also serialized his comic strips weekly in The Montreal Mirror and The Halifax Coast, and monthly in Vice Magazine. His first comic strip collection, Shrimpy and Paul and Friends was released in 2003 from Highwater Books. In 2004, Bell's book The Stacks was released by Drawn and Quarterly and Fantographics published Marc Bell's Worn Tuff Elbow. Bell's work has been included in several anthology books such as Ganzfeld 3 & 4, Kramer's Ergot 4,5 & 6 and Made magazine. He will be included in the exhibition Paper, Scissors, Rock at the Contemporary Art Gallery Museum in Vancouver. All of these activities have charted Bell's ever-growing imagination. His artistic universe is at once foreign and familiar, and a riotous, enlightening, and constantly surprising experience.
The gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday 11-5:30 P.M. For additional information, please contact Adam Baumgold at (212)861-7338."
Adam Baumgold Gallery preview