Villains and Superheroes: Works on Paper by Simone Bianchi

Danese/Corey is proud to present an exhibition of drawings and paintings on paper by Simone Bianchi, an acknowledged master of the art of the comic book. Born in 1972, Bianchi lives in Lucca, Italy, where he works exclusively with Marvel comics. This is Mr. Bianchi’s first exhibition in New York.
Since gaining prominence in the US in the mid to late 1800s, comic books have played a significant role in the lives of children and adults alike. Visual narratives featuring characters endowed with moral and physical powers reference both classical mythology and biblical villains and heroes. As early as 1960, Warhol’s Superman and later, Lichtenstein’s Drowning Girl, 1963, employed comic book imagery, and by extension, confirmed its validity as both art and cultural phenomenon. By providing a means to reintroduce the figure into American art, the comic book added measurably to the emergence of Pop Art and generated a radical departure from the hegemony of Abstract Expressionism.