Charles Burns

CHARLES BURNS

September 5 - October 11, 2008

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Adam Baumgold Gallery presents an exhibition of drawings by Charles Burns from September 5 through October 12, 2008. This will be Charles Burns' first New York solo exhibition and will include fifty seminal drawings executed in the last 25 years that showcases Burns' masterful pen and ink drawings for his award winning comic books and other publications.

Featured in the exhibition will be covers and drawings for the serialized version of Charles Burns' epic graphic novel "Black Hole," that received the Harvey Award, as well as the drawings for the covers and pages of "Skin Deep," "Big Baby," and "El Borbah," and a rare RAW era "Dog Boy" strip. The exhibition will also have drawings and covers for The New Yorker, Esquire and numerous other magazines that include drawings of cult figures William S. Burroughs and Robert Crumb. Also included will be the cover of "Permagel" the new large scale book of Burns' art published by French publisher United Dead Artists.

Drawn in stark black and white with a distinctive line, Burns' comics range in ambiance from kitschy pop culture nostalgia to bleak horror. Themes of adolescence and sexual awakening mingle with recurrent imagery of mutation, plague, alienation and violence. Drawings from his epic graphic novel "Black Hole" examine a nightmarish world in graphic detail, tempering horror with exquisite beauty. Overlapping metaphors for AIDS and social breakdown with realistic storytelling about the "normal" disturbances of teenage life, Burns blurs, or even reverses the line between normal and aberrant.

Charles Burns' drawings first became known in the legendary comics magazine "Raw" in the 1980s. His comic stories "Big Baby" and "Dog Boy" were serialized in alternative weekly papers throughout the United States. His drawings also appeared on the covers and in the pages of Rolling Stone, The New York Times, The Believer and many other publications, as well as on the album covers of Iggy Pop and others. His drawings were the subject of a solo exhibition "Charles Burns" at the Pennsylvania Academy of Arts Museum in 1999. His work was included in the exhibition "Disparities and Deformations: Our Grotesque" at the SITE Santa Fe Biennial in 2004 curated by Robert Storr. Burns contributed to the animated feature "Fear(s) of the Dark" which will be released in October by IFC. Charles Burns lives and works in Philadelphia.

Gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday 11:00 - 5:30 P.M. A preview of the exhibition can be seen at adambaumgoldgallery.com. For additional information please contact Adam Baumgold at (212)861-7338 or abaumgold@aol.com.

"Black Hole: Before," 2000 Ink on paper 14 7/8" x 11"	"Black Hole: After," 2000 Ink on paper 14 7/8" x 11"
"Black Hole: Before," 1996 Ink on paper 14 7/8" x 11"	"Black Hole: After," 1996 Ink on paper 14 7/8" x 11"
"El Borbah: Title page: Robot Love," 1999 Ink on paper 18" x 14"	"El Borbah: Title page: Dead Meat," 1999 Ink on paper 18" x 14"
"El Borbah: Title page: Living in the Ice Age," 1999 Ink on paper 18" x 14"	"El Borbah: Title page: Bone Voyage," 1999 Ink on paper 18" x 14"
"El Borbah: Title page: Love in Vein," 1999 Ink on paper 18" x 14"	"El Borbah: Fantagraphics cover," 1999 Ink on paper 19 1/4" x 14 1/4"
"Black Hole cover: Girl Underwater," 1995 Ink on paper 21" x 14 1/2"	"Black Hole cover: Girl in Bed," 2001 Ink on paper 21" x 14 1/2"
"Black Hole cover: Girl with Tail," 1997 Ink on paper 21" x 14 1/2"	"Black Hole cover: Feet on Glass," 2004 Ink on paper 21" x 14 1/2"
"Black Hole indicia page: Woods," 2005 Ink on paper 21" x 16"	"Black Hole cover: Girl Smoking," 1998 Ink on paper 21" x 14 1/2"
"Black Hole endpapers: Black Circle," 2000 Ink on paper 17 7/8" x 12"	"Black Hole back cover: Doll in the Woods," 1996 Ink on paper 18" x 13"
"Black Hole back cover: Sick Kids in the Woods," 2003 Ink on paper 18" x 13"	"Black Hole back cover: Nude Girl/ Snakes," 1995 Ink on paper 18" x 13"
"Black Hole back cover: Worm Creature," 1997 Ink on paper 18" x 13"	"Black Hole back cover: Teen Couple/ Thorns," 2000 Ink on paper 18" x 13"
"Black Hole back cover: Floating Skin/ City," 1998 Ink on paper 18" x 13"	"Black Hole back cover: Looking Down Hole," 2002 Ink on paper 18" x 13"
"Black Hole back cover: Teen Bulletin Board," 2001 Ink on paper 18" x 13"	"Black Hole back cover: Male Figures in Dirty Water," 1995 Ink on paper 18" x 13"
"Black Hole cover: Fetal Creature," 2002 Ink on paper 20 3/4" x 14 1/2"	"Black Hole endpapers: Thrashed Woods," 2000 Ink on paper 15" x 19 1/4"
"Mutant Tilley: New Yorker," 1993 Ink on paper 17" x 12 1/2"	"Coney Island: New Yorker Cover," 1996 Ink on paper 20 1/2" x 16 1/4"
"Witch: New Yorker Cover," 1993 Ink on paper 20 1/2" x 16 1/4"	"Black Hole endpapers: Tadpoles," 2002 Ink on paper 17 7/8" x 12"
"Big Baby: Blood Club cover" 1992 Ink on paper 20 3/4" x 15"	"Skin Deep: contents page," 2001 Ink on paper 11 1/4" x 12 1/4"
"Dog Boy: Dog Days title page," 1992 Ink on paper 20" x 14 1/2"	"Dog Boy: drawing for silkscreen print," 2001 Ink on paper 12" x 12"
"Big Baby: drawing for silkscreen print," 2001 Ink on paper 11 1/4" x 11"	"El Borbah: Spicy Defective cover," 1988 Ink on paper 11" x 8 1/2"
"Skin Deep: Fantagraphics cover," 2001 Ink on paper 18" x 13"	"Big Baby: Fantagraphics cover," 1999 Ink on paper 20 3/4" x 15 3/8"
"SPX Illustration 1," 2002 Ink on paper 16 1/2" x 15 1/2"	"SPX Illustration 2," 2006 Ink on paper 17" x 14"
"Noir: Esquire Illustration," 2000 Ink on paper 17" x 13"	"The Residents' 'Freakshow' cover," 1992 Ink on paper 20" x 14"
"Frankenstein & Dracula: New Yorker," 1994 Ink on paper 14 3/4" x 10 1/4"	"Permagel cover ," 2008 Ink on paper 18" x 13"
"Le Muscle Carbine cover," 2007 Ink on paper 16 7/8" x 13 7/8"	"Atomic Monster: Esquire," 1991 Ink on paper 22 7/8" x 19"
"Dog Boy: RAW strip," 1983 Ink on paper 8" x 21"	"Unpublished comic: page 6," 1986 Ink on paper 18" x 14 1/4"
"Big Baby: Molemen page 1," 1985 Ink on paper 18" x 13"	"Big Baby: Molemen page 8," 1985 Ink on paper 18" x 13"
"Big Baby: Teen Plague page 14," 1989 Ink on paper 14 1/2" x 14 3/8"	"Big Baby: Teen Plague page 16," 1989 Ink on paper 14 1/2" x 14 3/8"
"El Borbah: Ice Age page 8," 1983 Ink on paper 20" x 14 1/2"	"El Borbah: Bone Voyage page 30," 1985 Ink on paper 20" x 14 1/2"
"Zero Zero cover," 1995 Ink on paper 17 3/4" x 12 3/4"	"Karl Hiaasen 'Basket Case' cover," 2002 Ink on paper 14 3/4" x 10 1/4"
"Burroughs," 1986 Ink on paper 13" x 8 1/2"	"Monica Lewinsky," 1999 Ink on paper 15 1/2" x 14 1/2"
"Crumb Illustration," 1995 Ink on paper 16 3/4" x 16 3/4"	"Fairyland: from 'Little Lit'," 2000 Ink on paper 17 3/4" x 24"

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