Kartoon Kings: The Graphic Work of Simon Grennan and Christopher Sperandio,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 collaborative public art media created over the past 15 years, the book contains essays by Joshua Decter and Paul Krainak, as well as an interview with Grennan and Sperandio by WVU art professor Kristina Olson.
On Friday evening (Nov. 2), Barnes and Noble Booksellers at University Town Centre will be hosting a book launch ofKartoon Kingswith an informal discussion by Sperandio and Olson. The public is invited, and light refreshments will be served.
From 11 a.m.-1 p.m. Saturday (Nov. 3) Sperandio will be at the WVU Press booth at the Mountaineer Week craft fair in the Mountainlair on WVU s Downtown Campus, where he will sign books and talk to customers about his projects.
Grennan was born in London. He studied sculpture at Reading University and the University of Illinois, Chicago, where he met Sperandio, a Kingwood native who studied printmaking at WVU and painting at the University of Illinois.
Since the early 1990s, the pair has worked together as Grennan&Sperandio, creating over 60 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 spaceand 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 artwork has appeared in museums and media worldwide, including such diverse venues as Wired magazine, DC Comics and the Museum of Modern Art/PS1, and it has been written about in publications such as The New York Times, Chicago Tribune, 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 WVU .
For more information about the Kartoon Kings, go tohttp://www.kartoonkings.com/.
WVU Press on the Net:http://www.wvupress.com/