Saturday, June 23 – Thirsty
7-11 p.m.
Stardust Video & Coffee
1842 E. Winter Park Road
407-623-3393
stardustie.com
free
Delicately lewd, playfully provocative, Carly Jean Andrews’ drawings share an anarchic spirit with the work of Sophie Crumb (R. Crumb’s daughter and a respected cartoonist in her own right). Their frank sexuality and earthy sense of humor puts them right at home with comix by the likes of Crumb (père et fille), Dame Darcy or Julie Doucet (particularly Doucet’s Dirty Plotte series), but her shimmering, precise washes of color put her in the territory of madcap American painter-illustrators like Florine Stettheimer, Heyd Fontenot or Maira Kalman. Andrews told us last week, “The women in my pieces are exuding sensuality but in an unconventional, uncomfortable way.”
Like most of the artists mentioned above, Andrews includes a fair amount of self-portraiture in this show. It’s hard to tell whether the level and nature of her self-exposure is motivated by a sincere attitude of sex-positivity, an artistic practice legitimately motivated by body-as-commodity politics, or a cynical play for commercial attention – but we love her work so much, we kinda don’t care. – Jessica Bryce Young
This article appears in Jun 20-26, 2012.
