Exhibitions
The Perth Comic Arts Festival actively seeks to explore the edges of comics, where they intersect with other art forms and how other art forms can inform comics practices.
Our annual exhibition program creates dynamic opportunities for artists and audiences to question these edges and dive into big ideas.
2018 – Inner Atmospheres
Gallery 25, Perth, Western Australia
Curated by Elizabeth Marruffo
Curatorial Statement:
Presented as part of the first Perth Comic Arts Festival, this exhibition explores the relationship between painting and comics.
The exhibition illuminates the ways in which artists are using the language of paint itself to add to the vocabulary and possibilities of expression in sequential narrative art. With diverse materials, unusual forms and surprising connections probing the very outer edges of what we consider to be ‘comics’ and ‘painting’.
Exhibiting artists include: Carla Adams, Rachel Ang, Anne Barnetson, Calliope Bridge, Celene Bridge, Robert Buratti, Julie Dowling, Stuart Elliott, Michael Fikaris,Sarah Firth, Jillian Green,Gabby Loo, Soolagna Majumdar, Gregory Pryor, Justin Randall, Sarah Searle, Briony Stewart, Shaun Tan, Hayley Welsh and Campbell Whyte.
2018 – Comics west
Spectrum Project Space, Western Australia
Curated by Bruce Mutard
Curatorial Statement:
Comics West celebrates the last thirty years of comic making in Western Australia. All the artists included were either born in WA, resided here for some time, have moved here or have moved on. There is a thriving comic making scene in this state that is not all just costumed superheroes.
Making comics is a hidden activity, occurring in home studios as a side job for many of its makers. Comics artists spend many long hours perfecting their skillsets as makers of comics, be it writing, drawing with pencils and inks, painting with acrylics, gouache and watercolours, digital tablets and programs that end up in printed or online. There can be a considerable difference between the original work and what is seen as the end product, where all the ‘imperfections’ are removed before publication.
Exhibiting artists include: Skye Odgen, Emily Smith, Ashley Wood, Justin Randall, Ben Templesmith, Gary Chaloner, Leonie Brialey, Mel Tregonning, Shaun Tan, Bruce Mutard, Patrycja Babinska, Neel Goodwin, Andrei Buters, Brenton McKenna, Shane Tholen, Andrew Richardson, Alyce Sarich, Campbell Whyte, Jacinta Protar, Jarryd Vaughn, Damon Gueroni, Jordan Harris, Carol Wood & Susan Butcher, Soolagna Majumdar, Stuart Medley, Aśka, Robert Buratti.
2019 – Sequence and Consequence
Gallery 25, Perth, Western Australia
Curated by Elizabeth Marruffo
Curatorial Statement:
For the 40th anniversary of renowned mother artist Mary Kelly finishing her seminal conceptual work Post Partum Document, this exhibition was held in which artists considered the overlap between conceptual sequential art and comics making as part of the annual Perth Comic Arts Festival.
One of the most iconic images of Kelly’s Post Partum Document was a series of little baby wraps or ‘onesies’ that were presented with text. For Sequence and Consequence, each contributing mother artist was provided with a blank, white onesie as a starting point for work. Mother artists considered the word ‘Sequence’ in their submission.
Comics makers participating in the show considered the word ‘Consequence’ in their submissions of existing work made about relationships with caregivers and parents.
There is an intention that the works may create a circular journey of storytelling between mother and child about many things said or left unsaid, the many things requited and unrequited and perhaps also about the intensity of such ordinary and even banal relationships.
Exhibiting artists include: Leonie Brialey, Vanessa Wallace, Gabby Loo, Sharon Callow, Meg O’Shea, Jessica McLeod, Emma Lashmar, Sue Starcken, Shona McGregor, Lilly Blue, Jo Pollitt, Lynnette Kohler, Denise Pepper, Pat Grant, Leela Corman, Campbell Whyte and Emily Ten Raa.
2019 – any reading order
Spectrum Project Space, Perth, Western Australia
Curated by Bruce Mutard
Curatorial Statement:
Any Reading Order brings together several comics makers whose work transcends the popular conception of the medium as printed works, particularly superhero comics. To whit, comics are not a genre of literature, but a medium in which pictures and sometimes words, are placed on a surface and communicate by their accumulation of meaning in the beholders mind.
The works in this exhibition will fill the space, inviting beholders to move through them, along them and around them, constructing narratives of their own making. This is a far cry from turning pages in a book. Comics might even be better thought of as visual art.
Exhibiting artists include: Elizabeth Marruffo, Campbell Whyte, Alyce Sarich, Emilie Walsh, Hien Pham, Adam Yusoff, Alexandra Spargo, Abbi Todd, Ajay Ajay, Tosca Hellemans, Claudia Genovese, Vanessa Howell, Kristina Turner, Kristina Lebedeva, SJ Rens,
2021 – Message in a Bottle
Spectrum Project Space, Perth, Western Australia
Curated by Elizabeth Marruffo
Curatorial Statement:
Signed, sealed and cast out to sea.
In our creative lives we set ourselves adrift with the pure hope that our message will be found on some distant shore. If we’re lucky, that message is found by just the right kindred soul.
Message in a Bottle showcases four collaborating artist duos from Perth, who were lucky enough to find their kindred soul. Their works explore comics narratives, small sculptural vessels, and poetry. This exhibition features the strong but delicate connections that bond and bind us to one another.
Although each individual artist retains their own unique voice, together they weave their practices into a whole that is greater than the sum of their individual parts. Through their art they find ways to connect with one another, support each other, move across materials and send their messages out into the world.
Exhibiting artists include: Alina Tang with Bodie Hartley, Elizabeth Marruffo with Campbell Whyte, Edward J Grug III with Jessica McLeod and Leonie Brialey with Layla.
2022 – Tales from the hermit kingdom
Western Australian Musem Boola Bardip, Perth, Western Australia
Curated by Elizabeth Marruffo
Curatorial Statement:
Tales From the Hermit Kingdom provided the PCAF organising committee the opportunity to reflect upon the impacts the pandemic had on their lives and their time spent in lock-down within the so-called “Hermit Kingdom” that was Western Australia.
Contributing artists created short comics works that featured anthropomorphic versions of themselves and came together at the Milktooth School of Art and Stories to design and craft soft-felted dioramas of their lock-down lives.
Exhibiting artists include: Aśka, Lola Baldsing, Jess Harris, Scott Higginbotham, Soolagna Majumdar, Elizabeth Marruffo, Stuart Medley, Bruce Mutard, Sarah Winifred Searle, David Strack, Kristina Turner and Campbell Whyte.
2023 – Who Cares?
State Library of Western Australia, Perth, Western Australia
Curated by Elizabeth Marruffo
Curatorial Statement:
It’s a question we often find ourselves asking, ‘Who Cares?’
The 2023 exhibition commissioned new works that invited comics-makers to respond to the cover-up of feminised labour throughout history and how the consequences of this have been sharply brought into view over the last few years during the covid pandemic.
Twelve comics-makers from across Australia and with diverse perspectives contributed tender, thought provoking and blood boiling works of graphic literature.
Exhibiting artists include: Aśka, Bruce Mutard, Campbell Whyte, Claudia Flores, Eleri Mai Harris, Elizabeth Marruffo, Isis Dorado, Joshua Santospirito, Kim Lam, Lauren Marshall, Soolagna Majumdar and Stuart Medley.
