taken international by a New York City girl."
"Molly Crabapple is a downtown phenomenon".
"Molly Crabapple is to New York art & culture today what Dorothy Parker was to wisecracks & bootleg gin in the Twenties."
"Jesus, that picture rules".
The Short Version
* Illustrator for fine places like Marvel Comics, New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Playgirl. Molly's also illustrated eight books, including her own.
*Creator of Dr. Sketchy's Anti-Art School, a cabaret-life-drawing class with 57 branches around the world.
*Author of Dr. Sketchy's Official Rainy Day Colouring Book, the heavily illustrated companion volume to Dr. Sketchy's.
*Artist for Backstage a murder mystery webcomic set in the burlesque halls of old New York. Appears every Thursday at Act-i-vate
*Caffeine addict.
The Long Version
Molly Crabapple is an award-winning artist, author, and the founder of Dr. Sketchy's Anti-Art School
Molly learned to draw in a Parisian bookstore. She later drew her way through Morocco and Kurdistan, and once into a Turkish jail. She's developed her trademark Victorian style based a fascination with ambition and artifice. Remember, the devil's in the details
Molly's drawn for the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Marvel Comics the Bloomberg Corporation and Playgirl, and illustrated eight books. She's also turned her talents to 30-foot theatrical backdrops, children's books, parade installations, burlesque posters, critically acclaimed webcomics, pornographic comic books, art writing, and gallery shows around the world. She's the resident Toulouse Lautrec of The Box, one of New York's most exclusive nightclubs.
In her free time, Molly created Dr. Sketchy's Anti-Art School, the world's largest chain of alternative life drawing classes, with over 60 branches in every continent except Antarctica . Dr. Sketchy's has spawned a book, calendar, jewelry line, US and European tours, an internet radio show, series of comedic YouTube shorts, and show at the 2007 Edinburgh Fringe Festival. You can find out more about it at www.drsketchy.com
Molly and her projects have been covered in: The New York Times, The LA Times, The New York Post, Time Out London, Time Out New York, The Village Voice, La Repubblica, BUST, HEEB, Venus, HOW Design, Bizarre Magazine, Juxtapoz.com, Suicidegirls, Playboy.com, BoingBoing, The Scotsman, The National Post, The Houston Chronicle, SF Chronicle, Sydney Morning Herald, Melbourne Age, BBC Radio, AP Wire, NPR, The Channel 11 Morning News, Publishers Weekly, Fleshbot, and hundreds of other media outlets around the world.
Molly's spoken at spoken at the Graphic Arts Guild in Boston, the School of Visual Arts, and Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art in Helsinki, and has written testimony for the Small Business Administration.
Molly is 25 years old and lives in Brooklyn. In her free time, she likes coffee.
Do you want to interview me for a paper, zine, webzine, radio show, or any other media? Press@mollycrabapple.com.
Got questions? Comments? Scurrillous Allegations about my past? Email them to molly@mollycrabapple.com.
I learned to draw in a Parisian bookstore. My pen and ink technique comes from hours spent copying Alice in Wonderland and A Tart’s Progess. I soon fell in love with the feel of making ink lines- the crackle of the paper, the scratch of the pen nib, the sensual pleasure in drawing a curve.
Back in New York I came across the subject most dear to my heart - artifice. As a model, I work in an industry where girls turn their bodies into art objects. It’s a beauty doubly poignant because it’s so short-lived. Most girls won’t last past thirty. My time as a burlesque dancer showed me plain women emerging from the club’s dressing room as goddesses. Through paint, feathers and pasties, they made themselves gorgeous. It’s beauty as a garment, a shell, a mask.
In the two time periods I draw from most in my work- Victorian England and Rococo France- people tried to make their entire public lives as artificial as a burlesque dancer’s face. My characters, bewigged aristocrats and corseted ladies, are creatures of the polished surface. They’re molded by ornament- their corsets and cage skirts- and sometimes trapped inside.
But as with any mask, there’s a face underneath. And the face in my work is smirking. For any mask, or mask like society, has a weakness. If you want to crack it, you only have to laugh. Thus, my characters have arched brows and sarcastic smiles. They want to let you in on a secret. It’s all terribly silly, isn’t it?
Selected Solo and Group Exhibitions:
Distinction Gallery (2009)
Planet Illogica Launch Party curated by Mark Murphy (San Diego Comic-Con, 2009)
Gallery 1988 (Hollywood)
Copro Nasan Gallery (Hollywood)
Cabinet des Curieux (Paris)
Vanguard Art Fair at Art Basel Miami (2008)
A & D Gallery (London)
Defintion Gallery (Baltimore)
Museum of Sex
Last Rites Gallery (New York)
Ad Hoc Art (5 Person Show, 2008, multiple group shows 2009)
Hive Gallery (Hollywood)
Perihelion Arts (solo show, 2006)
Black Maria Gallery (Los Angeles)
Trinity Art Gallery (solo show, 2007)
M Modern Gallery
Fountain Art Fair at Art Basel Miami (2007)
DvA Gallery
Deitch Art Parade (2007, 2008)
Selected Clients:
New York Times
Wall Street Journal
Marvel Comics
Bloomberg Corporation
Playgirl
Harper Collins
Soft Skull Books
Vermillion Lies
Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art
Amanda Palmer
Zupi Magazine (Brazil's top arts magazine)
Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab
Steampunk Magazine
The Box
Avalon Publishing
Seal Press
Books:
Scarlett Takes Manhattan
(with John Leavitt, published by Blowfish, 2009)
Dr. Sketchy’s Official Rainy Day Colouring Book
(with John Leavitt, published by Sepulculture Books, 2007)
Anthologies:
Semi-Permanent 2009
Curvy 2007
(Australian anthology of top 100 female artists)
The Comic and Cartoon Book
Writing Clients:
Paper for Small Business Administration on effects of the proposed Orphan Works bill
Jewcy.com
Art Calendar (frequent contributor)
$pread
NY Press
Punk Planet
Coagula Arts Journal
Copyright Molly Crabapple © 2008 or earlier.
Design by Mekenzie Larsen.