School of Visual Arts (SVA) presents “All in the Family,” an exhibition of work by BFA Cartooning and BFA Illustration third-year students. The exhibition will be on view from Tuesday, April 27, through Friday, May 28, at galleries.sva.edu.

What do King Lear, Peter Pan, Auntie Mame, Gypsy Rose Lee and the Swiss Family Robinson all have in common? All of their stories of tragedy and comedy will be lovingly illustrated, along with dozens of other tales, in “All in the Family,” the culmination of this year’s Junior Project.

The Junior Project has been part of the curriculum for the past 20 years, and our students in the third year of study work hard to create multiple images or comics that illuminate pre-existing texts. Our 2021 theme was inspired by stories that involve the family, both traditional and atypical, and each student chose titles that would best express their interests and artistic goals. You will see visual adaptations of works by Louisa May Alcott, Pearl S. Buck, Anton Chekov, William Faulkner, Gabriel Garcia-Marquez, Henrik Ibsen, John Steinbeck, Amy Tan, Thornton Wilder, and many others.

Over one hundred projects will be included in the online gallery, and you can be certain there will be works that will appeal to every aesthetic taste.

The faculty that worked with our students on this project are all masterful in their skills of visual adaptation: Nick Bertozzi, Joey Cavalieri, Brian Douglas, Teresa Fasolino, Peter Fiore, Tomer Hanuka, Frances Jetter, Zohar Lazar, Eliott Lilly, Travis Louie, Josh Neufeld, Carl Potts, Jess Ruliffson, Koren Shadmi, David Soman, Riccardo Vecchio, Sam Weber, Lauren Weinstein and BFA Cartooning and BFA Illustration Chair Thomas Woodruff.

The exhibition was guest judged by Anelle Miller, executive director of the Society of Illustrators. We thank her for her participation.

Image credit: Yiran Xia