NY Comic Con 2012 - October 11 - 14, 2012

Art Whino will be returning to NY Comic Con showcasing 10 artists.  Each artist will be exhibiting original artwork along with limited edition prints.  Also each artist will be doing signings at various times so please check the upcoming schedule for exact times.  Each artists will also be painting large scale panels during the event.

Shawnimal

About the NYCC

New York Comic Con is the East Coast's biggest and most exciting popular culture convention. Our show floor plays host to the latest and greatest in comics, graphic novels, anime, manga, video games, toys, movies, and television. Our panels and autograph sessions give fans a chance to interact with their favorite creators. Our screening rooms feature sneak peeks at films and television shows months before they hit either big or small screens. And with dedicated professional hours, New York Comic Con is a market place, bringing together the major players in the entertainment industry. New York Comic Con is the second largest pop culture convention in America and the only one that takes place in the comic book, publishing, media, and licensing capital of the world -- Gotham City.

Adrian Viajero Roman
Adrian Roman is a mixed media artist focusing primarily on installations, sculpture and drawing, was born in New York City of Puerto Rican decent. At the age of 12 he received specialized lessons at Pratt Institute in New York and attended The Arts Students League of New York at the age of 18. He received his BA from New World School of Art in Miami Florida and received a second BA in graphic design from NYIT in New York City. Adrian is a resident of the NARS Foundation in Brooklyn New York, a member of the Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute in New York City, and has worked closely with Seed on Diamond Gallery, and Semilla Arts Initiative in Philadelphia. Traveling throughout the Caribbean, Central America, Africa and numerous cities across the United States, Adrian has exposed himself to a variety of cultures. Adrian explores memory through observed and experienced events, repressed trauma, childhood, and preservation of time by using images and objects from the past that embody cultural memory. “Viajero” is not just a name, it’s a projection of life’s journeys with the purpose to carry consciousness of timeless being in the midst of a time-bound experience.” Adrian’s work has been exhibited in solo and group shows in the United States and Puerto Rico.

Assisting Adrian with the installation: Robin Padro aka RIBS

Angry Woebots

Aaron Martin was born on the island Oahu 1977, Hawaii. Most of his childhood was spent growing up and moving from Southern California to Nevada before finally landing back into Hawaii during his Junior year in high school. In 1999 a car accident changed everything; this life-threatening experience inspired him to leave the island once again, this time to Seattle, Washington. Inspired by the rain and being indoors, he started playing around with different art mediums again. He then left back to Hawaii with a new perspective, Aaron had his first show in 2002 and has not stopped. He has showed in galleries up and down California, the east coast, and even in shows that have traveled from the U.S. to Hong Kong. His focal medium is acrylic paintings on wood and canvas. Using minimal colors and detailed character design, these paintings are usually comprised of stressed out emotional pandas. The pandas tend to represent the story of struggle.

Ekundayo (Dayo) was born in Honolulu, Hi, in 1983 where he lived with his mother and father until the age of five when his mother and father could no longer get along. Ekundayo's father snuck him out of the state without his mother’s knowledge, and for seven years Ekundayo and his father moved from place to place living a life on the run. Meanwhile in her desperate need to find her son, Ekundayo's mother helped start Hawaii's first clearing house for missing children. The life on the run ended in 1994 when his father moved to California with Ekundayo's sister because his father was dying from cancer. In early 1995, Ekundayo's father passed away from lung cancer; Ekundayo was eleven…

Ekundayo lived with his sister, brother in-law, four nieces and his sister’s mother in a small three-bedroom and one-bath house in Pacoima, Ca. It was in this house at the age of 13 that Ekundayo discovered his love for art. After being involved in school fights, stealing and hanging with the wrong people, he was suspended from school. One day while in the garage, he found one of his uncle's black books. This uncle wrote for a graff crew in L.A. called C.H.B. This book completely changed Ekundayo’s life. He became obsessed with drawing and copied every single page in that little book. Meanwhile, the Dept of Justice had located Ekundayo at his sister's home and returned him to the custody of his mother. Ekundayo went back to Hawaii to live with his mother. His drive to create didn't stop, and the encouragement from his family only fueled that ambition. Shortly after graduating high-school, Ekundayo moved back with his sister and brother in-law in much more spacious accommodations. He attended Pierce College in Winnetka, Ca, where he practiced his craft and worked on his portfolio until 2003 when he was accepted into Art Center College of Art and Design on a scholarship. Although the teachers he studied under and the friends he met while going to Art Center were priceless to his development, Ekundayo dropped out after completing his foundation courses in order to create his own path in the fine art world. He combines both subversive graffiti aesthetics in combination with art-historical erudition using acrylic, gouache, watercolor, ink and various carving techniques. Ekundayo's work expresses the struggle of life and how those struggles and burdens can either inspire us to change in a constructive way or weigh us down by our own inability to change.
J*RYU

J*RYU, AKA the Purdy Supremacy, is an east coast-based designer/sculptor/artist focused primarily on exploring the themes of life and death and more intriguingly, what lies beyond. Primarily recognized for his signature Forest of Sorrows series, with its emotive, eerie and ghostly themes, J*RYU has garnered an avid following of fans who eagerly look forward to seeing each subsequent new piece and how the accompanying narratives add to the ongoing story.  In his career, J*RYU has worked on projects for companies and clients such as Marvel Ent., Sony Ericsson, Wonderbra, AT&T, NCAA Final Four, Columbia Pictures, TOPPS, Mia Hamm, Michael Crichton, IBM, Slim Jim and more and has shown in Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego, Sacramento, New York, Nebraska, Washington DC and Miami. He is a proud member of the world famous Army of Snipers.

Jeremiah Ketner

Jeremiah Ketner's paintings are instantly recognizable amongst his contemporaries in the pop surrealism movement. His early work, characterized by mischievous sprites and whimsical patterns, has evolved into lush, richly colored environments inhabited by a cast of pensive, dreamy young women. Each character presents a unique brand of beauty, created entirely within Jeremiah's imagination and painted completely from memory.

Jeremiah's pop culture-inspired style and unconventional creations have a traditional foundation. With his family's encouragement, he began formal art studies at the age of 12. He holds a BFA from Columbus College of Art and Design and an MFA from Southern Illinois University. Jeremiah's paintings and toys have been featured in solo and group exhibitions in more than 50 galleries across North America, and he's acquired a strong international following through his dedication to the Internet and social media.

Josh Taylor

Joshua Taylor's existence was secured in the early summer of 1979 in a modest New Jersey-based womb. Upon his birth February of the following year of 1980, he began the rapid development of his artistic abilities, with particular focus on illustration and character design. His formal education culminated with a BFA in Illustration from Pratt Institute. He has gone on to work as freelance illustrator, as well as garnering extensive recognition for his fine art, showing frequently in galleries across the US and abroad. Accordingly, his work frequently explores themes of the intertwinement of creation, destruction, and the inherent multiversal continuity therein.   

Kano

Born and raised on the streets of New York City, kaNO now makes a living as an illustrator, designer and animation artist.  From the silver screen to billboards and even on to toy shelves across the world. kaNO is a jack of all trades.With up to 10 years of experience as a commercial artist, he now focuses on creating urban content for his company kaNO kid, LLC. His clients include: ASPCA, Nike, Jordan, Upper Deck, Disney and Hasbro to name a few.

Kelly Denato

With careful attention to color and inspiration drawn from nature, literature, lyrics, and music, Brooklyn-based artist Kelly Denato's turbulent compositions are a playful combination of gloom and glee.  Her style has been aptly described as "juicy and gauzy" and often engages our darker sense of humor.  Her body of work consists primarily of paintings, drawings, and small sculptures.

Kelly began showing in NY in 2005 and since has participated in numerous shows in the U.S.  She was a part of this year's Artist Series for the Android Vinyl Toy and is currently creating works for galleries in NY and LA for shows in early 2013. 

Lou Pimentel

Lou Pimentel is a multidisciplinary artist based out of New York City. Born in Santo Domingo, the heart of the Dominican Republic, he and his family made the move to Florida when he was four years old and subsequently settled in Brooklyn five years later. Having started drawing at age four with the help of his father, he eventually found inspiration in his teenage years from the pages of comic books and the vibrant street art scene of his adopted city. However, not satisfied with relying soley on his self-honed skills, Pimentel applied and was accepted to the prestigious School of Visual Arts in NYC, where he earned his BA in Illustration. Upon graduation and now armed with the techniques of the old masters but still retaining the indelible influence of street and pop-art, his work is a visual outpouring, reflective of the inspirations that guide his life - his daughter Maddie, cartoons, graffiti and the art that surrounds us in our every day lives. No matter what the medium, whether it be oils, acrylics, spray paint, water colors and sculpting, Lou takes pleasure in utilizing whatever methods necessary in order to convey his artistic directions.  Recent projects include artist sketch cards based on Lucasfilm's Star Wars series via Topps Trading Cards and collectible toy designs for myplasticheart, a NY-city designer toy institution, shop and gallery.

Shawn “Shawnimal” Smith, the visionary behind Shawnimals, began to develop his distinctive style of art as a kid obsessed with cartoons, video games, and drawing pictures. Not satisfied with simply drawing his favorite cartoon and comic book characters, he felt compelled to create his own, inspired by all that he loved.