Exhibition Review: Hell, Ink & Water: The Art of Mike Mignola

  reviewed by Carli Spina

 

Hell, Ink & Water: The Art of Mike Mignola. New York: Philippe Labaune Gallery. September 19 - October 26, 2024. https://philippelabaune.com/show/philippe-labaune-gallery-hell-ink-water-the-art-of-mike-mignola

As a gallery specifically devoted to “high-end narrative art and illustration,” the Philippe Labaune Gallery in New York City was a perfect setting for Mike Mignola’s first gallery exhibition. This exhibit featured a range of his work, while his iconic work on Hellboy was well-represented through an array of cover illustrations and watercolors of the characters. The exhibit also included many pieces from his other notable works, such as a collection of illustrations and a watercolor from Pinocchio: An Illuminated Edition. Seeing this curated collection of Mignola’s works together underscored recurring themes of his work, including death, the supernatural, playing cards, plants, and the macabre, to name just a few. It offered a clear understanding of the way that his personal style translates across media, from pencil sketch to watercolor. Given how many of the illustrations are in black, white, and, occasionally, shades of gray, the color work in the watercolors particularly stood out.

 For many Mignola scholars and fans, the Hellboy art was a major draw of this exhibit and there were several pieces of interest including his original artwork for many covers which demonstrate his skill at character expressions, dynamic motion, and composition. In addition to covers, his Hellboy characters are front and center in the original artwork he created for a poster for the Art Bubble Festival held in Copenhagen, Denmark in 2017. The gallery had arranged many of the Hellboy pieces near one another, which offered a nice way to compare them and see recurring elements and approaches. Beyond Hellboy, his work with other well-known comics characters also popped up here and there in the exhibit, including Batman, Robin, and the Rocketeer, which offered a chance to see how his art translates to characters that are not his original creations.

 The exhibition featured several pencil drawings of characters with plant elements in their anatomy. They were quite a bit different than the other works in the collection while, at the same time, very clearly in line with his style. These sketches exhibited Mignola’s skill in bringing a character to life through a single drawing and his deft depiction of apparent motion.

 Mignola’s watercolors were a true highlight of the exhibit. His use of color in these pieces skillfully drew the viewer’s eye to specific elements in some works and, in others, created lighting within the work that felt by turns natural and eerie. While these watercolors displayed the same recurring elements seen in his other works, their color and style made them stand out even among all the other impressive pieces in the exhibit.

 The gallery, in conjunction with IDW Publishing, created a catalog for the exhibition. It features images of art from the exhibition with the title and size of each piece presented alongside it. Signed copies of the catalog were available at the gallery and unsigned copies are available for sale elsewhere. It is a great option for Mignola fans who were not able to visit the exhibit in person, particularly those interested in seeing the watercolors from the exhibit. The gallery’s website also hosted high-quality images of the pieces in the exhibit that users can zoom in on, which is another helpful resource for those who want to examine the pieces. Fans of Mignola’s work will be impressed by the range of works included in this exhibit and those who were not able to visit the gallery should definitely check out the website or the print catalog.