With A-Kon departing from the Sheraton Hotel June 12 and Comic-Kon loading up its boxes of cartoons last month; The Texas Visual Art Association has produced a cure for your "no more conventions" blues.
Graphic Novels, Comics, Anime & Toons: Art as Story was chosen to be on display so it could correlate with A-Kon. The show will run until the end of the month and is at the Plaza of Americas, located at 700 N. Pearl St. Admission is free and exhibition hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday. The gallery contains three rooms that hold various works and mediums of art. The art ranges from pencil blueprint drawings to sculptures made out of aluminum.
Upon arriving at the gallery, the first thing that will catch your eye is "Captain America Shield." The life-like armor is made out of red, black and blue playing cards and massive amounts of super glue. The piece, crafted by Brandon Sparks, grabs your attention as you find yourself tempted to touch it because it looks so authentic.
There is no doubt that anime dominates this exhibit. The biggest piece is "Another World" by Cindy Hau. The acrylic canvas painting portrays a busty, golden-hair manga character reaching out to you while she floats on water.
Providing the public with an understanding of how much focus and artistic skill goes in to creating 2D and 3D art is the main purpose of this exhibition, said KeLaine Kvale, a gallery board volunteer.
"Cartoons are a viable art form and they don't get a lot of media attention so we're trying to be the gallery that shows off that type of cutting edge art," she said.
Most pieces displaced at Graphic Novels, Comics, Anime & Toons: Art as Story are for sale with 25-percent of profits going toward TVAA. A hanging fee is required if an artist's piece is chosen, Kvale said.
Comic books from Zane Steadman, curator of the exhibit, are a part of the exhibition. Original Superman and The Road Runner issues are just a few of the timeless treasures available from his expansive collection.
The graphic novel Echoes of the Lost Boys of Sudan was presented at the reception on June 5 and details regarding the book's construction, from characters to scenes to color schemes are visible throughout gallery. The graphic novel focuses on four African American boys who fled from violence in Sudan in pursuit of living out the American Dream.
TVAA hosts themed exhibitions monthly and offers the public a chance to participate in each showing. For Kvale, a local artist herself, TVAA is not just another gallery among the masses in Dallas-- it's a place for inspiration. "It's the best little unsung gallery in town," she said.
For more information on TVAA and upcoming exhibitions, call 972-951-7879