As part of Rice University's ARTS387 Exhibition Design course led by Professor Christoper Sperandio, students co-curated this season's Moody Project Wall by drawing from a selection of original comic art sourced from the archive of American comic book artist Jack Katz, recently donated to Rice University.

As the outcome of this course, Sperandio imparted a practical approach to exhibition development and implementation, centering on the artist's perspective as a curator. Guests can experience the application of this approach through the Moody Project Wall display and additional individual student presentations in Media Arts Gallery II. Opening the installation in concert with the multi-day event Comics Sans Frontières, this student-centered collaboration is a visual complement to the public academic conference organized by Sperandio in collaboration with Dr. Ofra Amihay.

About the artist: Christopher Sperandio (b. Kingwood, WV, 1964) has produced collaborative projects for museums and cultural institutions across the United States and Europe including MoMA/PS1, London's Institute of Contemporary Art, Fantagraphics, and DC Comics, among others. Creating work in the form of comic books, television, painted installations, and websites, Sperandio has been reviewed in the New York Times, Art in America, Artforum, Frieze, Flash Art, Sculpture Magazine, The New Yorker, ArtReview, and Art Papers among others.

A prolific lecturer, writer, and illustrator, Sperandio has given presentations at the International Sculpture Conference, and the College Art Association, and was a contributing artist at Wired Magazine. Along with his long-time collaborative partner, Simon Grennan, he is also a founding member of Kartoon Kings, a media company engaged in the production of comic books, animations, and films. Their work has appeared in several books concerning relational, social and collaborative art including After the End of Art by Arthur Danto, Kartoon Kings: The Graphic Work of Simon Grennan and Christopher Sperandio by Joshua Decter, edited by Paul Krainak, and Exhibition as Social Intervention: ‘Culture in Action’ edited by Lucy Steeds.

Sperandio received his MFA from the University of Illinois at Chicago and his BFA at West Virginia University.