Three Trees at Galerie Arludik

Tadahiro Uesugi, myself and Enrico Casarosa at Galerie Arludik the night of our show. New and recent work will be on exhibit from January 27 to March 7, 2009.

Bonjour! I was happy to be back in Paris last week but especially so because we have a big show that reunites Enrico, Tadahiro and myself for a new showing of our latest work. Our hosts were the beauteous Diane Launier and her spouse businessman/adventurer Jean Jacques Launier, owners of Galerie Arludik.


A visit to Album, a bande dessinée treasure trove in Saint Germain, reveals a poster for our show. Neat!

J.J.(I believe is a nick name Lisa McLain of ACME archives christened him with and stuck)describes their mission...nay, crusade! is to present bande dessinée, comic book art, production art and animation art to be on par with fine art of traditional galleries. The gallery is on the Île de la Cité (the island cradle of the French civilization no less) and home to a host of those aforementioned traditional galleries, thus striking at the heart of that argument.



Tadahiro and Kuro had been in Paris a few days ahead of us and we proceeded to merge our schedules post haste. I don't know about you but the social event that rules my world tends to be coffee, espresso to be exact. But having the pleasure of being with good friends surrounded by the astounding cultural lushness of Paris makes for a particularly special visit.



The show itself was a blast. Diane had warned us that several hundred people had been emailing the gallery with questions and intentions of attending. "We might have more than four hundred people tonight." It ended up being around six hundred, with people spilling out into the street outside.



We met so many of the luminaries of bande dessinée fame. Nicholas de Crécy, Juanjo Guarnido , Sébastien Cosset of Kerascoet (Marie Pommepuy was not feeling well and sent her regrets) , Arthur de Pins... the list goes on.

I was especially happy to be reunited with Bibo Bergeron who looks the same as the days when we were trying to shoe horn a rockin'south american musical number into a sagging section of the El Dorado reel. So fun to talk to him again. His movie, A monster in Paris looks amazing! He showed me a clip of the unjustly beleaguered production. I wish him all the best.




It was an amazing show. Our heartfelt thanks to Diane and Jean Jacques for taking good care of us and orchestrating this grand show. We hope to be invited back soon and maybe even stay longer. But hold on, they weren't done with us yet.

Next: Angoulême!



Galerie Arludik