Esquire/Rolling Stone Illustrator's "Freak" Images Open in Gallery

Date: 9/18/06
Contact: Marc Lebovitz

Illustrator Thomas Woodruff's "Freak Parade," a dazzling cycle of images that celebrate of the beauty of aberrance, will open at the University Galleries at Illinois State University on Sept. 26. It will run through Nov. 5.

An artist reception is planned at 5 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 26, in the Galleries. Woodruff will give a slide lecture on his work at noon Wednesday, Sept. 27.

Consisting of 34 drawings and paintings (each on 40 by 60 inch heavy rag, unframed paper), "Freak Parade" stands as a reaction against the global standardization of culture. The parade's hapless yet noble characters march gaily across a black expanse, each member on a different panel.

Woodruff began this project six years ago as a reaction against the global standardization of culture. A master of hybridizing vocabularies from the past and present, Woodruff references sideshow banners, Pompeian wall frescoes, baroque religious paintings, theatrical posters and Victorian penmanship charts to create a new, yet oddly familiar, world.

Woodruff's illustrations have been published in such publications as Esquire, Rolling Stone, American Illustration, European Illustration, New Drawing in America, Grpahis, Tattootime, The Village Voice, Interview, Psychology Today, The New Yorker and Juxtapoz.

A bachelor of fine arts graduate of The Cooper Union School of Art in New York, Woodruff has taught at the School of Visual Arts in New York since 1983, serving as chairman of the Illustration and Cartooning Department in the BFA program since 2000.

He has had one-person exhibitions in New York Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, St. Louis and Honolulu, and has been included in group exhibitions in Australia; Paris, France; Seattle and Washington, D.C.

The University Galleries is planning a slide lecture on Woodruff's work at noon Wednesday, Sept. 27, and a month later, Oct. 31, will host an all-day Halloween celebration with scary film screenings and attendees invited to wear costumes.

University Galleries are open 9:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesdays, 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Wednesdays through Fridays and noon to 4 p.m. Saturdays through Mondays.