FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
New Book from WVU Press Documents Graphic Work of “Kartoon Kings”
Contact: Sara Pritchard
West Virginia University Press
Phone: (304) 293-8400, ext. 4504
Fax: (304) 293-6585
www.wvupress.com
Jacket scans available.
November 30, 2007—Kartoon Kings: The Graphic Work of Simon Grennan and Christopher Sperandio, edited by Paul Krainak and new from the West Virginia University Press, is the first monograph and comprehensive analysis of the graphic artwork of Simon Grennan and Christopher Sperandio, known as the Kartoon Kings. In addition to full-color images excerpted from comic book projects, video, billboards, and other of the artists’ collaborative public art media created over the past fifteen years, the book contains essays by Joshua Decter and Paul Krainak and an interview with Grennan and Sperandio by West Virginia University art professor Kristina Olson.
Since the early 1990s, Simon Grennan and Christopher Sperandio have worked together as Grennan & Sperandio, creating over sixty art projects. In the art world, the name Grennan & Sperandio is known for work that is a blend of sardonic humor, sly politics, comics, and public space, and for art that gives a voice to people from all walks of life and invites them to take part in the creative process.
Grennan & Sperandio collaborative artwork has appeared in museums and media internationally, including such diverse venues as Wired magazine, DC Comics, and the Museum of Modern Art/PS1. Grennan & Sperandio projects have been written about in books and journals, including the New York Times, the Chicago Tribune, the Independent (London), Artforum, and Flash Art. Sperandio is creator and executive producer of ARTSTAR, the first reality television series set in the New York art world.
The publication of Kartoon Kings was made possible by generous support from the Myers Foundation to the Division of Art at West Virginia University.
Simon Grennan was born in London, England, and studied sculpture at Reading University and at the University of Illinois, Chicago, where he met Christopher Sperandio, a Kingwood, West Virginia native, who studied printmaking at West Virginia University and painting at the University of Illinois, Chicago. Grennan & Sperandio community-based photos, drawings, paintings, animations, and comic books are all represented in Kartoon Kings: The Graphic Work of Simon Grennan and Christopher Sperandio. Kartoon Kings is the imprint of Grennan & Sperandio publications ().
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Kartoon Kings: The Graphic Work of Simon Grennand and Christopher Sperandio
edited by Paul Kraniak
Published by West Virginia University Press
ISBN-10: 1933202246
ISBN-13: 9781933202242
144 pages, hardcover
List price: $27.50
