By Emily Croll
TCNJ Art Gallery Presents Exhibition of Early Drawings by
Renowned Contemporary Artist Raymond Pettibon
The Art Gallery at the College of New Jersey is pleased to present Raymond Pettibon: Early Drawings, an exhibition of more than 40 works by the renowned graphic artist whose works juxtapose images and texts from both “high” and “low” cultures.
TCNJ will present never before exhibited drawings by Pettibon from the 1980s, including his signature images of baseball players, surfers, and trains. The artist’s subject matter ranges from film, music, and popular culture to religion, violence, and social unrest. As scholar Robert Storr has noted regarding Pettibon’s iconography: “Nothing is fixed, everything is fluid. Just when you think that a given image signifies one thing, its aspect or surroundings shift and suggest another.” Along with a wide array of visual imagery, Pettibon’s drawings feature short, often ambiguous, texts derived from literary sources as diverse as Henry James and Mickey Spilane.
Pettibon first gained notoriety in the early 1980s for his album cover designs for punk-rock bands, including Black Flag, which was founded by his brother, guitarist and songwriter Greg Ginn. Since that time, Pettibon has gained an international following and exhibited widely in the United States and Europe, including one-person shows at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles.
TCNJ’s exhibition will be on view from January 25 to February 29, 2012 in the Arts and Interactive Multimedia Building (AIMM) at TCNJ. Gallery hours are Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday from 12:00 to 7:00 p.m. and Sunday from 1:00 to 3:00 p.m. Admission is free and open to the public. Exhibitions at TCNJ are funded in part by the Mercer County Cultural and Heritage Commission through funding from the Mercer County Board of Chosen Freeholders and the New Jersey State Council on the Arts/Department of State, a partner agency of the National Endowment for the Arts.
For more information about exhibitions and programs at the TCNJ Art Gallery, visit http://tcnjartgallery.pages.tcnj.edu/ or call 609-771-2633.
Image caption:
No Title (Vavoom . . . with the support), 1987
Black ink on paper
22 ½ x17 ½ in.
Collection of Mr. and Mrs. James Holmes
