Cut, paste and Riot Grrrl: on the gloriously energetic paintings of Molly Zuckerman-Hartung

Comic Relief is the first museum monograph of the work of artist Molly Zuckerman-Hartung, reviewing over twenty years of her art and life. Created as a catalogue for a major survey of Zuckerman-Hartung ‘s practice at the Blaffer Art Museum in Houston, the book acts as both a record of the exhibition and the artist’s wide-ranging body of work–from her involvement in the underground punk Riot Grrrl scene to her work as a painter and creator of layered, multimedia objects. Playfully engaging the aesthetic details of Riot Grrrl zines and vintage feminist theory texts, the book serves as the first in-depth exploration and celebration of the artist’s work. Taken as a whole, Comic Relief presents the art historical intersections within Zuckerman-Hartung’s practice, the enduring cultural and aesthetic implications of Riot Grrrl’s radical feminism, as well as broader questions about the current landscape of contemporary art, queer aesthetics, and abstract painting. In addition to dozens of images, many of which are in print for the first time, the book features a foreword by Blaffer Art Museum director Steven Matijcio and writing from Kate Nesin, a leading postwar art historian; Lisa Darms, Riot Grrrl archivist and writer; Annie Bielski, artist and former student of Zuckerman-Hartung; and Tyler Blackwell, Cynthia Woods Mitchell Associate Curator at the Blaffer.