1040 Ridge Road, Munster, Indiana
Monday–Saturday, 10am – 3pm

A STORY LIKE MINE

Curated by Gabe Garcia and Micah Bornstein November 15, 2021–March 5, 2022

Artist Reception: Friday, December 17, 5­-8pm

Panel Discussion beginning at 5pm

About the Exhibition

This winter South Shore Arts has transformed its gallery into a comic reading experience. A Story Like Mine is an exhibition of contemporary comic art and literature featuring works by Breena Nuñez, Carta Monir, Gabe Garcia, Jorge Garza, Lawrence Lindell, Nate Powell and Whit Taylor. All of these comics creators have an extensive history of distributing their comics via independent presses or through self-publishing, and their work reflects the complex and ephemeral nature of biased systems that continue to work against marginalized groups.

In addition to original work—finished pages, character studies, sketchbooks, typed manuscripts, etc.—contributed to the exhibition by each of the artists, the gallery is dominated by large-scale reproductions of pages from their comics. Some of the reproduced pages measure nearly eight feet in height, such as pages from Northwest Indiana comic artist Jorge Garza’s Tetlacatl, a comic inspired by Aztec culture featuring a stone robot battling colossal monsters. In the case of Stealth Mechanic by Carta Monir, the comic, originally published as a webcomic, has been printed in its entirety and is displayed on the gallery floor so that viewers can read the comic while moving through the gallery space.

 The emphasis on the reproduced page was a key element of the exhibition, according to the co-curators, Gabe Garcia and Micah Bornstein. They felt including original work was important as it serves to show the process behind how comics are made, but they didn’t want the original art to take on greater importance than the printed page. With comics the original art is only a means to an end. Comics are intended to be reasonably accessible and easily disseminated in their finished form. For the co-curators, that’s why comics are so powerful.

 The comics by the artists featured in the exhibition, combined with the comics selected in the exhibition reading area, tell stories rooted in a diversity of lived experience. The result is a powerful collection of stories from some of the most engaging contemporary comics creators working today.  

Jorge Garza , Page from Tetlacatl #1, Digital