Curators: Elizabeth Heskin & Marcy Brafman

“A meet cute is a convention of screwball comedies and their heirs….the contrived encounter of two romantic partners in unusual or comic circumstances.” Wikipedia.com 2007”

Dual Installation @ HESKIN CONTEMPORARY SOHO 94 Prince Street WED-SAT 12-6 HESKIN CONTEMPORARY 443 W 37TH ST BY APPT

This exhibition was inspired by a visit to the seminal exhibition “Little Big Boy/the Art of Japan’s Exploding Subculture” at the Japan Society, NYC in the spring of 2005. The seed concept was that these artists with their embrace of kawai (obsessive cuteness), manga, (pop/hi-lo culture graphic novels), media life, the use of cuteness and pop iconography to cloak and confront the unspeakable were doing something that had a counterpart in current Western practice. It was clear that in this age of instantaneous communication, the time-honored cross influence of east and west had a new bent.

So in this particular meet cute east collides with west, and cute with the darkness underlying our existence.

The artists surveyed in this show, although seemingly varied in their technique and approach to image making, share similar concerns. They are products of a digital media buzzing age where the conventions of the graphic novel, the transmission of east/west cross cultural influences, popular culture and global street life, graffiti as gesture and signature, cartoons and holy shrines, racism and cultural taboos, logos and madonnas, Velazquez and comic book illustration intersect and are equally significant. Where the spiritual meets the sidewalk online, on screen, and in vivid brick and mortar.

Artists: Michael Bevilacqua, Marcy Brafman, Iona Rozeal Brown, San-Ah-Choi, Paul Clay, Nancy Drew, Inka Essenhigh, Jeff Feld, Joel Gibb, Mahomi Kunikata, Chang-Jin Lee, Yoshitomo Nara, Leah Oates, Asuka Ohsawa, Lee Quinones, Gae Savannah, Lisa Stefanelli, Ginna Triplett