Visual Arts Committee Presents:

Madonna Comix

Opening Reception
Thursday, April 4th 2019
5:30pm-7pm
Lobby Gallery & Madrona Room

In conjunction with the Orcas Island Lit Fest at the Orcas Center in April, an exhibition of Madonna Comix will have an opening reception at the Center on Thursday, April 4, from 5 to 7:30 pm. Madonna Comix, a collaboration between artist Dianne Kornberg and poet Celia Bland, will be on view in the Center’s lobby through the end of the month.

The images in Madonna Comix are based on poems in which the Madonna represents multiple experiences of being a woman. Curator and art historian, Prudence Roberts, writes, “When Dianne showed me her early versions of Madonna Comix last year, I was completely stunned by their beauty and intensity. I had never seen anything quite like them before. These images combine snippets of Little Lulu comics, lines from Celia Bland’s poems, and Dianne’s own negatives, freeform drawing and saturated washes of color. The prints are dark and irreverent, funny and sacred, and as full of mystery and miracle as the life of Mary, the mother of Jesus.”

Madonna Comix was published as a large format book in 2014 by Media f8. It will be available for purchase at the opening reception and during the Orcas Island Lit Fest.

Kornberg, an island resident and Professor Emerita at Pacific Northwest College of Art, has had more than thirty solo exhibitions in the US and abroad. Her work is in multiple museum and public collections, and is the subject of four books. Bland is a Faculty Associate at the Writing and Thinking Institute at Bard College and is the author of three books.

In the Madrona Room Island artists will be showing work in the “Orcas Community Artists” exhibition during April. In keeping with the literary events of the month, artwork related to books is encouraged. Work for this show will be accepted on Wednesday, April 3 between 10:00 am and 2:00 pm.