Hot Potatoe: Fine Ahtwerks 2001-2008

"A gifted…cartoonist… the delight of his work is in the play of free-associating and funny imagination.”– Ken Johnson, New York Times

“Boundary-destroying, wacked-out (and beautifully drawn) material from Canadian artist Marc Bell that will leave you feeling as if you have bees in your head.”–Minneapolis Star Tribine

“Marc Bell is a riddle wrapped in a conundrum further wrapped in salty bacon.”–LA Weekly

Marc Bell’s HOT POTATOE seamlessly combines decade-plus comics activities with a lifelong devotion to, as Bell calls it, "Fine Ahtwerks." Part art monograph, part comics collection, HOT POTATOE is filled with mixed media cardboard constructions, watercoloured drawings, altered found texts and Bell’s most intense, dizzying comics from the contemporary avant-garde comics anthologies – Kramers Ergot and The Ganzfeld. Bell’s works have their roots in draftsmanship, typography and old-fashioned gags, but morph into assemblages that connect his images into real space. His comics are funny, seat-of-the pants narratives that give the characters an inner-life.

Represented by the Adam Baumgold Gallery in Manhattan, Bell is one of the leading lights in the new emphasis on drawing in the art world. He comes on like a stepchild of R. Crumb, Ray Johnson and Basquiat; armed with a dashing and looping rapidograph.