February 2003 Ralph Steadman: A New York Retrospective Hurrah! The slightly manic, multi-talented British artist Ralph Steadman along with his alter egos Raphael Steed and Gavin Twinge, is back in town with his first New York show in almost thirty years celebrating the publication of his new Triography : Doodaaa, the Balletic Art of Gavin Twinge * Best known for his biting political and social drawings about American culture in the 1970s, Steadman is exhibiting more than thirty of his original pen and ink, watercolor and collage drawings, photomontages and three-dimensional assemblages along with a series of 1970s Polaroids with the emulsion scratched and pushed around to surreal effects. Metamorphosis of the body into Grandville-like animals, explorations of the nude, Raymond Roussel-like bizarre machineries such as The Distillation Art Gallery or The Wine Diviner are frequents themes in Steadman’s work. His precise craftsmanship runs a fine line between bewitching and bizarre and the written doodles on the drawings only add to our delight. As New Statesman journalist Willi Self has remarked, "The Steadman line is… the draughtsman's equivalent of a high-velocity bullet." If you like black humor with a touch of the surreal, delight in Lewis Carroll and Marcel Duchamp, and dislike most of the washed-out imagery that often passes for illustration, then this invigorating show that blurs categories between ”serious” art and illustration is right for you. -- Carole Naggar On view: Feb. 4 - March 18, 2003 Gallery@49 322 West 49th Street NY, NY 10019 (212) 767-0855 www.gallery49.com * “Doodaaa, The Balletic Art of Gavin Twinge, A Tripography by Ralph Steadman.” Bloomsbury Press, 2002. To see more of Steadman’s art: www.ralphsteadman.com