Joan Cornellà, dark AF web comic star, announces Beijing show

The Spanish artist's dark comedic works make a Beijing solo debut this July

You may not know him by name, but if you've spent any time in the meme-ier corners of Facebook or Instagram, you may have stumbled across Joan Cornellà's work, and more particularly the unsettling gaze of faces such as this: 

The Spanish illustrator, cartoonist and artist, best known for his dark and surreal comedic comic strips – often all-too-accurate social commentaries that tread a fine line between the absurd, the clever and the outright offensive – is returning to China this July for his first solo Beijing exhibition, at Parkview Green's 798 gallery.

A man with more than 4.7 million fans on Facebook and 1.9 million followers on Instagram, his work has gained a huge social media following that has allowed him to grow from producing humble comic strips to having his work displayed in galleries all over the world, including taking Asia by storm in recent years with shows in Bangkok, Hong Kong and Shanghai.

While appearing light-hearted and innocent with the inclusion of bright pastel colours and smiling, white-toothed protagonists, Cornellà's work is usually rather dark and morbid, often featuring bloody images of murder, cannibalism and amputation. However, it still manages to remain both thought-provoking and incredibly entertaining through the use of brilliant black humour and strong social satire.

No word yet as to whether Cornellà himself will be arriving in the capital himself to open the exhibition, but we'll be keeping our eyes as wide open as his troubled subjects' on the lookout. In the meantime, here's a few more illustrations to get you thinking about your modern existence on your commute home.

And finally, this accurate depiction of how we all might feel when we look at the news these days:

For more great exhibitions in Beijing, click 'Read more' at the bottom of the page.

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