St. Petersburg’s museum offers an insight into the world of anime

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – A special exhibition exploring comics and anime art opens at the Imagine Museum in St Petersburg. The exhibition hopes to shed light on comic book art.

“At the heart of this exhibit is the desire to showcase comics, manga and anime art as the true art forms that they truly are,” said Imagine Museum Communications Director Francesca Brown.

A view inside the Imagine Museum.

A wide range of media is displayed in the exhibition. This includes paintings, drawings, sculptures and, of course, glass art. Some feature well-known heroes and villains, such as Spider-Man and Batman.

Some are original comic creations. The deep history of the medium is also explored through multimedia presentations.

“For us to be able to bridge that gap between popular culture, museum culture and art, that was our goal with this whole exhibit,” Brown said.

Sculpture featured in Imagine Museum’s series and anime exhibition.

Artists from around the world are featured, with several local artists highlighted. Professional glass artist Jack Alden created a glass dragon fruit inspired by the long-running anime series “One Piece”.

“I started watching the show, and just the idea behind the dragon fruit is that it gives the person who eats it these kinds of mysterious magical powers,” Alden said. “Who doesn’t imagine, as a child, having these magical powers.”

Oil painter and sculptor Blake Emory went big with his contributions, including a large painting of Conan the Barbarian.

Artist Blake Emory stands in front of his Conan the Barbarian painting on display at the Imagine Museum.

“The main motivational piece for any artist, I think, is that when someone comes and looks at the art, it inspires them to create themselves,” Emory said.

Inspired by vintage comics like Wonder Woman, artist Heather Tapia created her own comic book covers.

“I thought of, in my own life, different friends or women, people who have inspired me, and I came up with characters based on that because I thought it would be a neat spin on it,” Tapia said.

All three artists were happy to be part of an exhibition that can be seen by many.

“It opens up a way to like all new possibilities, and when you come in here, look at what this other artist did, look at what was done, and you see all of these as things that are like limitless,” Tapia said.

Graphic Worlds: Exploring Comic and Anime Art will be on display until January 5th.

For more information, visit the Imagine Museum website here.