Illustrating a Point

Curated by Mark Bradley-Shoup

August 1st - September 20th, 2025

Opening Reception August 1st, 6-8PM

STATEMENT -
Illustrating a Point is an attempt to examine the influence of animation, cartoons, and
comics by curating artists who employ a more playful and illustrative approach to image making and
cover subject matter ranging from environmental degradation, social injustice, racial inequality, body
image, absurdity, and playfulness. The selected artists span from recent UTC Alumni who are early in
their careers to well established artists, all of whom approach the picture plane in myriad fashion.

There has been a palpable shift in how illustration and cartoon-based work have been perceived within the context of “high art”. One could easily argue that the introduction of Pop Art, featuring the works of Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, and Claes Oldenburg, was perhaps a catalyst for this shift. Comics, illustrations, or cartoons were seen as the fodder for children on Saturday mornings or for simple minded adults thumbing their way through the Sunday newspaper. Illustrating a Point is an attempt to chronicle this growing trend. The illustrated image ventures toward the iconic over the realistic, aiming for the universal over the specific. When we observe a photo or a realistic drawing of a face or a figure, we see it as the image of another. However, when we see more simplified depictions, more cartoonish, we are able to assign a more universal or iconic form. The cartoon basically becomes a vacuum where we are able to suspend our belief and fill up this vessel with our own interpretation in order to assign meaning. At its most basic, the cartoon amplifies the message over the messenger.

Over the course of the last fifty years or more, we have seen the likes of R. Crumb, Raymond Pettibon, and Daniel Clowes celebrated for their perseverance and discipline, has paved the way for comic-based work to be taken as not only a legitimate art form, but one that is more relevant than ever. With the groundwork having been laid, a new wave emerges. Over seventy percent of the participating artists are well recognized and established within their field and have multiple museum exhibitions, gallery representation, and/or working within the academic field.

PARTICIPATING ARTISTS -
Bill Thelen (NC), Juan Logan (NC), Fend (TN)* Jeremy Seth Taylor & Allyson Mellberg Taylor (VA), Brady Haston (TN), Amy Cutler (NY), Sarah Emerson (GA), Will Sutton (TN)*, Amy Pleasant (AL), Pete Schulte(AL), Olivia Tawzer (TN)*, Mary Laube (TN), Michael Scoggins (NY), Ed Templeton (CA), Jules Jackson (TN)*

* UTC Art Department Alumni