Past attendees of any of the F.W. Thomas Performaces, the semi-regular literary-comedic efforts of City Paper contributor Adam Mazmanian held at Warehouse, are well versed in the religion of Lowery. That’s T.M. Lowery, or Mike Lowery, or Thomas Michael Lowery, depending on who you ask, the baby-faced “artist-in-residence” of F.W. Thomas and proprietor of The Argyle Academy, a collection of neurotic cartoon animal characters. Mazmanian invited Lowery to present some of his drawings at the inaugural F.W. Thomas performance, and has asked him back (nearly) every time ever since.
It’s difficult to explain the near-cultlike following Lowery has achieved if you’ve never seen him perform — and I do mean perform. Even though he prefaces every presentation as being a simple matter of sharing some drawings from his diary, there is no question that the self-concious, deapan commentary he weaves through his slideshows constitute a high form of performance art. You’re never sure if Lowery’s actually that charming or completely aware of his own brilliance and putting on that aw-shucks demeanor entirely for his act — either way, it’s tough not to be taken in. Somewhere between the Still Life series, a collection of cartoons about an apple and a pear who are in a relationship, but live with a third-wheel banana, and the introspective robot who worries about whether his wife is right and they’re ready to have kids, a devotion to Lowery is born.
His latest project, a group art show with the DeerMilk Collective, explores another set of characters who populate Lowery’s work — the Werewolf Youth. The show opens tonight at Warehouse from 6 to 8 p.m. Lowery was kind enough to answer some of our questions via e-mail. He comes across as very sincere over e-mail. It wasn’t what we were expecting.
Who exactly are the Werewolf Youth?
The Werewolf Youth are a group of characters that tend to show up in my paintings and drawings a lot. Sometimes they’re brother and sister, and sometimes they’re young lovers. Sometimes they’re matrioshka dolls, and sometimes they’re real wolves dressed up in hoodies and sweat bands.
What can people expect to see at this exhibition?
The show is made up of several of my favorite artists’ take on the theme of the Werewolf Youth. You can expect to see work that ranges from the dark, experimental short films of Jym Davis, to the amazing and oddly funny, felt sculpture work of Heidi Kenney. We have robot versions of the kids from Tokyo artist Shibuya, and the real-life versions of the kids in Lisa McCarty’s photographs.
