Cute Nose

Artist Bio Ro is a multidisciplinary artist and librarian who creates comics focused on themes of identity, often conveying experiences and ideas using elements of the surreal and magical. In 2018, they founded Canada Comics Open Library (CCOL) in Toronto, and they maintain the Canadian Cartoonists Database. Their most recent project is a distro called Lost Doll Comics And Art. Currently, they are completing a graphic novel exploration of Jewish identity and mythologies, through a lens of queerness and experiences of illness, with support from The Canada Council for the Arts. Exhibition Statement For the past three years, Ro has self-published a series of comics called Cute Nose. This exhibition features original comic art and clay miniatures made in tandem for this series. Cute Nose Issues 1-3 feature experimental comics that explore mental illness, gender identity, and the artist’s own Jewish identity using themes of cuteness, play, and the physicality of the body. Miniature clay sculptures were created in communication with comics and illustration work in Cute Nose. These clay sculptures are called “golems” after the legend of the Prague golem. In one version of the story, this creature was said to have been created out of clay and brought to life by Rabbi Loew to protect the Jewish community from harm in the late 16th century. The artist playfully and ap... read more...