Cedar Rapids museum bringing sci-fi realms to pair of exhibitions

CEDAR RAPIDS — Move over Marvin. Go with the flow Grant.

For the very first time, the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art is transporting visitors out of the mainstream and into dimensions full of fantasy and dragons, space travel and superheroes.

'Sci-fi is really something that doesn't appear in museums,' associate curator Kate Kunau says.

That's about to change.

A pair of exhibitions exploring science fiction art and artistry launches Saturday (9/12) with 'Out of This World: Science Fiction and Fantasy Art,' in the museum's second-floor back gallery. Continuing through Jan. 3, this show features 23 pieces from 10 artists who have been guests of honor over the past 30 years at ICON, Iowa's longest-running science fiction and fantasy convention.

The group is celebrating its 40th anniversary Oct. 16 to 18 at the Doubletree by Hilton in downtown Cedar Rapids. Dennis Lynch, 62, of Cedar Rapids, who 'has been there from the beginning,' planted the seed that sprouted the two exhibitions, all timed to coordinate with the convention.

The other show, on display in the art museum's main-floor galleries from Oct. 2 to Jan. 17, highlights science fiction story illustrations by Ryan Bentzinger, 26, of Iowa City.

ICON falls under the Mindbridge umbrella, an Eastern Iowa non-profit that provides social venues and outlets for people interested in the science fiction, fantasy, animé and related game realms. Lynch says the museum exhibitions will help fulfill one of the organization's most important goals.

Impact

'Part of the Mindbridge mission is to spread science fiction concepts to the general population, not just keep it to fans,' he says. ' ...

I just thought (the exhibit) was something that would be nice to do with the art museum — within walking distance of the Doubletree — to give this extra exposure to the artists.'

It also casts a positive light on the devotees, as well.

'People always think of comic book fans as being kind of isolated except for getting together at things like COMICON, where thousands of people show up in costume to celebrate their enjoyment of the characters,' Lynch says. 'But there is a craft and skill in story telling — whether they're writers or the people who pencil it or ink it or color it or letter it. All of these skills have to be at the service of telling a story, of creating an impression. Putting it in a museum helps people to look at it in a different light. It's not just goofy stuff and funny costumes. It gives it some legitimacy.

'It is certainly popular art,' he adds. 'If you get people coming in looking at popular art, they'll look at the other stuff, too.'

Museum curator Kunau is thrilled about that aspect.

'We're hoping to get a different crowd into the museum,' she says. 'Sci-fi always comes with its own crowd of people, so we're excited to get the ICON people over that weekend. Sci-fi is something that really doesn't appear in museums, so we're excited to do it.'

Viewers will see diverse works in four basic categories: fantasy landscapes, spacescapes, creatures and 'people.' Styles, media and sizes vary, as well, and include acrylics, oils, collage, pen and ink, and computer-generated images.

Everything is family-friendly, and the museum is planning lots of activities to show people — especially kids — 'really good examples of the different things you can do with art,' Kunau says.

Local Artist

Among the biggest names in the biz who submitted artwork for the exhibition is Phillip Hester, 49, of North English. A comic book artist and author, he has created some of the most recognizable characters for Marvel- and DC Comics, including the newest iteration of Ant-Man.

'In a career as long as mine, you wind up drawing everybody sooner or later,' he says. 'I had a long run on a character called Green Arrow, and that's the inspiration for the 'Arrow' show that's now on The CW' cable TV channel.

One of his Arrow pieces is in the exhibit, as well as drawings of Swamp Thing. Other high-profile assignments include drawing a year's worth of The Flash, another year writing Wonder Woman and creating Firebreather, which he says 'wound up as television show on Cartoon Network.'

Hester describes himself as a cartoonist, which covers the writing and drawing aspects of his trade. A comic book page contains multiple panels, and to 'make it,' he says artists need to create one page per day. Sometimes, 'to keep the assembly line going,' he does the pencil drawings and has a collaborator go over them with pen or brush, and very dark ink to embellish the pencil work.

Lately, he's been getting more work as a writer, but for an artist, he says the process begins when he receives a comic book script, 'which looks much like a screenplay or play.'

'I'm sort of the director,' he says. 'I need to take all the dialogue and all the scene descriptions and break them down visually, then sketch that out onto paper so people can view it and get the gist of the story just from the pictures. The penciler is responsible for translating the story into pictures.'

A comic book reader and collector since childhood, his big career break came in the 1980s, while working on his BFA in drawing at the University of Iowa. That's when Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles caused a comic book 'black-and-white explosion,' meaning small publishers with little capital could put out limited-run black-and-white comic books.

'It exploded overnight and doubled the size of the comic book industry,' Hester says.

He already had been submitting work to editors. Suddenly, all the new publishers needed artists, who were in short supply.

'Even though I was just 19, I could hold a pencil pointy-side down, and that's about all it took to find work at that point,' he says. 'So I actually started working in comics when I was still at school in Iowa. I've been climbing that ladder ever since then.'

He was the author/artist guest of honor for ICON's 20th anniversary convention in 1995, and will be a guest author/artist at Cedar Rapids Comic Con, another comic and gaming convention, to be held Feb. 6 at the Doubletree.

Pop Culture

Comics, science fiction and fantasy are riding a new wave of popularity, Kunau notes, thanks in part to pop culture's fascination with 'Harry Potter,' 'Lord of the Rings,' 'Star Wars' and 'Battlestar Galactica.'

'It definitely seems like it's having a moment now,' Kunau says, even if those art forms haven't been widely embraced for formal exhibitions.

She says some museums can be 'inherently conservative' and stick to tradition for exhibitions, instead of giving credence to an emerging form.

'When you look back at art, every new artistic genre has had to fight that battle,' she says. 'Impressionism wasn't good enough to be in a museum.'

She says some museums may dismiss it because it's an element of popular culture and is mass produced — not considering it 'high art.'

'But you also need to realize this is what's happening now, and this is what's popular and this is what people are responding to,' she says. 'So as a museum, you want to be a part of that. And not just a part — you want to be at the forefront of that, and you want to be a place that people come to.'

Besides all that, 'it's going to be cool,' she says.

If you go

What: 'Out of This World: Science Fiction and Fantasy Art'

Where: Cedar Rapids Museum of Art, 410 Third Ave. SE, Cedar Rapids

When: Sept. 12 to Jan. 3, second-floor gallery

Hours: Noon to 4 p.m. Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, Sunday; noon to 8 p.m. Thursday; 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday

Admission: $7 adults, $6 ages 62 and older and college students, $3 ages 6 to 18, free ages 5 and under, all ages free the first Thursday of every month

Related exhibit: 'Ryan Bentzinger: nAMUH,' science fiction book illustrations, Oct. 2 to Jan. 17, first-floor galleries;

Museum events: Free opening reception, 5 to 7 p.m. Oct. 1; Sci-Fest: Family Fun Day, 1 a.m. to 3 p.m. Oct. 17, free admission; details at Crma.org

Related event: ICON 40, Iowa's longest-running science fiction and fantasy convention, Oct. 16 to 18, Doubletree by Hilton, 350 First Ave. NE, Cedar Rapids; $10 to $100, Register here.