Associate Director for Digital Innovation, Learning & Research Nhora Serrano is the curator of a comics exhibit opening Dec. 13 at The Ohio State University. “Depicting Mexico and Modernism: Gordo by Gus Arriola// Representando México y el modernismo: Gordo de Gus Arriola,” will be on display through May 5, 2024.
Presented in English and Spanish, with translations by Serrano, it is the first retrospective on “Gordo,” a syndicated comic strip that ran in newspapers from 1941 to 1985. The show features works on loan from private collections and from the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum at The Ohio State University. Also included is Instructional Designer Bret Olsen’s animation of one strip.
An announcement for the event on the Ohio State website describes the exhibition as “an opportunity to look at the visually stunning Gordo and see firsthand Arriola’s development as a modernist Mexican-American artist who used the comics page to celebrate and share his Mexican heritage with American readers.”
The show’s grand opening is planned for Saturday, Jan. 20, 2024. In addition to a reception celebrating the exhibition, Serrano will present a curator tour and interview several Latinx cartoonists about Gus Arriola’s legacy.
