Los Angeles, California May 2024: The Torrance Art Museum & Urban Contemporary Artist Craig Knight announce the Artists’ inclusion in the Exhibition Project: Studio Systems: An Experimental Project. The interactive and immersive project opens June 1^st, 2024 and presents through June 29th, 2024. Studio System 2024 . The Studio System Experimental Residency project is a unique attempt to bridge the gap between artistic practice and the public. First held in 2015, Studio System seeks to bring the dynamism of the artist’s studio into the museum space, encouraging audiences to not only see works as they are in progress but to interact with the artists to discuss inspirations, sources, thoughts, feelings, content, and context, as well as chart the progression of the works over the month long period that the project encompasses.

Craig Knight is returning for his second artistic residency, and remarked:

Craig Knight

The Artist 2024

“I am so proud and delighted to be accepted for the Torrance Art Museum’s ‘Studio System Experimental Residency.’ It provides much needed validation and encourages me to strive to create something worthy of the opportunity. I feel energized and open to endless possibilities. Interacting with the visitors will provide a dynamic dialogue that will clarify what I am doing and why. It will provide the space to engage with creativity and wrestle with meaning, something I need to do at this stage to move forward. I see myself working towards a more mature style where I am closer to perfecting my craft. The need to communicate, enhance connectivity and develop a dialogue is a powerful desire. I hope to do my best and produce something meaningful and….and produce work that is important and transcends the platform.”

Dramatic + Mortality

Craig Knight

This groundbreaking Exhibition continues TAM’s dedication to exploring new ways of understanding and engaging with the art of our time and those that produce it.

Studio System will run Tuesday June 4th through its’ closing reception on Saturday June 29th, 2024. For more information: Studio System 2024 .

Craig Knight is also a featured Artist in the upcoming Burner: The Exhibition: A traveling Exhibition that will present at the Torrance Art Museum January through March 2025.

This Exhibition, in its North American tour, houses the finest original contemporary works in the Street Art/Urban Art genre, and of which renowned Artists Banksy, The Conner Brothers, Anthony Lister, Mr. Doodle, KEF!, Shepard Fairy, Kaws and Bambi as well as other Icons of the Movement are an integral part of The Collection.

HOW IT HAPPENED

The Brothers

As a child in America, I would sit with my brothers and read comics. One day my older brother explained we would want comics when we were older, so we should start collecting them now. He could not have been more than nine years old, and I remember thinking this an odd idea as comics were a few cents. However, we started to bag the comics and put them in order. We created a diverse collection in mint condition.

When my family split up and we came to England in the 70’s the one thing we brought with us was the collection. It was a strange time for my brothers and I in a new country, but we had our collection to provide some continuity. Years passed and comic shops opened, and we realized our ‘treasure’ had become valuable. Even though we did not want to part with it, it was nice knowing we had something of value.

Time passed, and one day my stepdad informed us he had cleared out the loft. In panic we asked about the boxes of comics, but he had taken them to the dump. He did not realize they were important. They were gone and could never be replaced. It is hard to say what the collection meant to us, but it was not money it was so much more.

When your part of a single parent family and money is extremely tight, it is difficult if you have feelings of being adrift and alienated too. Having something no one else has, something valuable helps your self-esteem even if no one knows about it.

Comics mean so much to me – they provided excitement, adventure, and escapism. They provide a shared interest, creating a bond with others, like belonging to a secret club. They provided male role models; helping build a self-identity. Superheroes provided guidance on ethics and justice, creating structure, and meaning (exemplified in the Batman Joker conflict). People can underestimate the profound impact of comics, for example when Shultz introduced Franklin to Charlie Brown in the Peanuts comic strip the editor was threatened by racists saying they would withdraw sponsorship if Franklin (a Black boy) was allowed into the same school as Charlie Brown. Shultz put his job on the line and shut this down immediately. Comics may be ephemeral and trivial, but they mirror culture and society- you see the first female superhero, the first black superhero, the first openly gay superhero or the first trans superhero, it is all part of deciding who we are and what culture we want. In comics/ graphic novels like Watchmen, The Dark Knight Returns, Kingdom Come, Empire, Civil War, and many others, they explicitly grapple with how heroes exert their benign will and how their intervention can become authoritarian or fascistic.

The Most Influential Films

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
The Seven Samurai (any Kurosawa film)
Spaghetti westerns (particularly Clint Eastwood)
A Clockwork Orange
Shawshank Redemption
Good Will Hunting / Hook / Good Morning Vietnam / Dead Poets Society
Comedy: Animal House / The Blues Brothers
V for Vendetta
The Graduate
Midnight Cowboy
Apocalypse Now
Shane
The Lord of the Rings
Kung Fu Hustle / Sholin Soccer (Stephen Chow)
All Batman films and Joker films too (I enjoy superhero films)
Quadrophenia

Most influential TV

Cartoons (Scooby Doo, The Jetsons, Spiderman all)
Batman / The Hulk / The Avengers
The Man from UNCLE / The Avengers / The New Avengers (British spy series not superheroes)
Happy Days
MASH
Kung Fu
Sci-Fi: Star Trek / Dr Who / Tomorrow People
Children’s animation- Captain Scarlett / Joe 90 / Bagpuss / The Wombles / The Clangers

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