Is it comix? Is it art?

This afternoon a friend and I checked out the current exhibition at the Adam Baumgold Gallery in Manhattan, which features some works by comic artist Chris Ware. Ware might be familiar to folks for his work in any number of publications, including RAW, The New York Times and The New Yorker. His work is quirky, mature, sometimes a little grim, and consistently captivating.

For me, the most interesting works were the images from the series Building Stories, which chronicles the hour-by-hour happenings in a Chicago apartment building over the course of a day. My favourite in the series, Introduction 3, shows a statistical view of the history of the building, noting the number of occurences of various elements - 11,627 lost childhood memories, 4 criminals, 61 broken dinner plates, 6 suicide notes, 617 dead plants, to name but a few.

Definitely worth a trip into the city. The exhibit runs through March 15, if you're inclined to check it out.