The Art World is a Funny Place

So why isn't there a comic book about it?  Well, there is.  The Seeking Kali Collective has been publishing Kalicorp Art Mysteries since November 2011 and judging from readers reactions to our latest issue, we're achieving our desired results. 

I like to think of our comic as a slow motion blog. We publish one every other month and they combine our art lives; the art making, trying to snag exhibition space, getting press, getting grants and making a few dollars with current events and controversy in the larger art world.

Issue #4 Panel detail page 2

For instance, remember Damien Hirst's world wide exhibitions of Spot Paintings?  Issue #4 details our efforts to stop seeing spots.  Or last Fall; the controversy surrounding forged Abstract Expressionist paintings?

Issue #2 Panel detail page 1

Since  my two collaborators, Susan Shulman (Canada) and Ria Vanden Eynde (Belgium) and I live  live too far apart for hands on collaboration the fast pace of putting out a timely graphic novel suits the nature of our "virtual studios".  We can work independently on different panels or the story line itself and assemble the comic over the web.  The actual printing is done from my studio in Connecticut on an Epson 3800 with pigment inks.

Putting the story line together does present problems, we'll often wake to a request for a off the wall picture or pose to help move the story...everything stops and scavenger hunts for a wheelbarrow, limo, bicycle built for two etc ensue.

Issue #2 Panel detail page 5

During the MOCA gala fundraiser Marina Abramovic's human centerpieces raised eyebrows in the art world.

Naturally we worked it into our story line.



We use many of our friends in cameo appearances and although their artist personalities are usually not the same as portrayed in the comic, they all are significant artists and our readers can find links to their web portfolios on the back cover of each issue.


Issue #2 Panel detail page 6



Even as the information age reaches overload the Art World remains largely an impenetrable confusing mystery that Kalicorp is dedicated to shed light on. 

Issue #4 Panel detail page 12

As Ria says. "pack your bags"...we're in for a long journey.

More information on the Kalicorp Art Mysteries and other projects by the Seeking Kali Arist Collective can be found on our website, seeking kali.com (where they are also available for purchase)

Thanks also to new advertiser Bibiana Padilla Maltos for support and to artist Keith Buchholz for placing our graphic novel in the archives of The Art Institute of Chicago, The Getty, Yale and MoMA.

Kalicorp Art Mysteries is also now carried Down Under at Sticky Institute.