SOUTH JERSEY

Pop-up gallery puts political drawings in DNC spotlight

Matthew Kass
Special to the Courier-Post

PHILADELPHIA – A DNC-themed pop-up exhibit rips political cartoons off the printed page and puts them in a public gallery space.

The Nib Takes Philly,” sponsored by the cartoon website The Nib, features political cartoons and election-themed objects and props on Cherry Street in Old City.

No one is spared – Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and many other politicians are lampooned. Cartoonist Matt Bors, 32, from Canton Ohio, explained the exhibit started with a simple idea.

Political sketches are displayed in Old City, Philadelphia during the Democratic National Convention.

“We had a new website launch last week, and we were talking about sending cartoonists to do live drawings,” Bors said. “Then it was, maybe we can do a gallery show. It just sort of grew and grew into something quite big.”

Dan Perkins, 55, a cartoonist at the exhibit from Iowa City, Iowa, who goes by the pen name Tom Tomorrow, said the exhibit is more than just comic relief.

“Cartoonists have been through a decade basically of newspapers going out of business, cutting budgets, and of websites not wanting to pay for cartoons,” he said. “The art form is kind of teetering on extinction.”

“So the fact that you have someone like Matt, with his energy and his ability to find someone to sponsor this and to pull this thing together,” Perkins continued. “I can’t even explain how important this is to cartooning.”

Political sketches are displayed in Old City, Philadelphia during the Democratic National Convention.
Political sketches are displayed in Old City, Philadelphia during the Democratic National Convention.