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On the white gallery wall in DCA, a giant mural shows a horned creature wearing a Dennis the Menace jumper, surrounded by other DC Thomson characters holding numbered signs, and a strange green monster. Writing on the wall says 'Do the DCA Thomson'

DCA Thomson

Artists respond to the DC Thompson comic archives: Rabiya Choudhry, Rob Churm, Craig Coulthard, Malcy Duff, Hideyuki Katsumata and Sofia Sita.

03 December 2016 - 19 February 2017

To celebrate the 80th anniversary of The Broons and Oor Wullie, we were delighted to share this unique group exhibition in partnership with DC Thomson, in which six artists have each created playful responses to the publisher’s extensive comic archives. 

The six exhibiting artists are: Rabiya Choudhry, Rob Churm, Craig Coulthard, Malcy Duff, Hideyuki Katsumata and Sofia Sita.

In front of a giant mural painted on the wall which shows Desperate Dan, there is a transparent box with two small foil takeaway boxes inside them. Next to the box are four smaller white boxes with the word 'Plastic Bucket' written on them. On top of these boxes are green and yellow books.

The exhibition featured brand new work by all artists, including murals, prints, drawings, paintings, installations and videos, as well as archive material from 80 years of the celebrated Dundee publisher and their beloved characters. 

Rabiya Choudhry's work for the exhibition is loosely based on her family and inspired by DC Thomson’s riotous comic strip The Numskulls, about a team of tiny human-like technicians who live inside people’s heads and run their bodies and minds. Choudhry has created her own comic creation called The Coconuts for a new set of paintings. Glasgow-based artist Rob Churm is influenced by comics and underground zines and he's chosen to work with the Jonah strips that appeared in The Beano in the late 1950s and early 1960s, and which were notable for their ingenious storytelling and compressing elaborate action sequences into a one-page cartoon.

Craig Coulthard has taken inspiration from DC Thomson's Commando comics and created a series of drawings inspired by these for the exhibition. Artist, musician and cartoonist Malcy Duff has taken inspiration from Oor Wullie and produced a brand new comic for the exhibition, named Pineapple, that can be read within a new sculptural installation inspired by Wullie’s famous bucket.

Hideyuki Katsumata, whose solo exhibition at DCA in 2015 was one of the organisation’s most popular to date, revealed he has a fascination for DC Thomson’s cartoon characters while in Dundee. The Tokyo-based artist has created a large mural and numerous smaller drawings using characters from his imagination to converse with the DC Thomson universe. Sofia Sita is an artist and illustrator based in Dundee who has exhibited locally and in her home country of Italy. Inspired by The Broons, Sita has created a mural celebrating The Dundonians – a happy and heterogeneous family of DCA visitors who submitted their photographs to be included as drawings in the exhibition.

DCA Thomson | Exhibition Introduction

DCA Thomson: Exhibition Notes

Click here to download the Exhibition Notes for DCA Thomson.
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Exhibition images

On the white gallery wall in DCA, a giant mural shows a horned creature wearing a Dennis the Menace jumper, surrounded by other DC Thomson characters holding numbered signs, and a strange green monster. Writing on the wall says 'Do the DCA Thomson'
In front of a giant mural painted on the wall which shows Desperate Dan, there is a transparent box with two small foil takeaway boxes inside them. Next to the box are four smaller white boxes with the word 'Plastic Bucket' written on them. On top of these boxes are green and yellow books.
Painted directly on to the wall of DCA Galleries is a picture of an orange chest of drawers, with blue and yellow vases and flowers on it. Surrounding this mural is small framed paintings of people, which are very colourful.
Framed cartoons on DCA gallery walls. The cartoons are in classic comic strip style, in black-and-white.
Two paintings on a white wall. Both are surreal images of faces which have been combined with houses. They are against a pink background and use flat but very bright colours.
On the white gallery wall in DCA, a giant mural shows a horned creature wearing a Dennis the Menace jumper, surrounded by other DC Thomson characters holding numbered signs, and a strange green monster. Writing on the wall says 'Do the DCA Thomson'
On the white gallery wall in DCA, a giant mural shows a horned creature wearing a Dennis the Menace jumper, surrounded by other DC Thomson characters holding numbered signs, and a strange green monster. Writing on the wall says 'Do the DCA Thomson'
In front of a giant mural painted on the wall which shows Desperate Dan, there is a transparent box with two small foil takeaway boxes inside them. Next to the box are four smaller white boxes with the word 'Plastic Bucket' written on them. On top of these boxes are green and yellow books.
Painted directly on to the wall of DCA Galleries is a picture of an orange chest of drawers, with blue and yellow vases and flowers on it. Surrounding this mural is small framed paintings of people, which are very colourful.
Framed cartoons on DCA gallery walls. The cartoons are in classic comic strip style, in black-and-white.
Two paintings on a white wall. Both are surreal images of faces which have been combined with houses. They are against a pink background and use flat but very bright colours.
On the white gallery wall in DCA, a giant mural shows a horned creature wearing a Dennis the Menace jumper, surrounded by other DC Thomson characters holding numbered signs, and a strange green monster. Writing on the wall says 'Do the DCA Thomson'
On the white gallery wall in DCA, a giant mural shows a horned creature wearing a Dennis the Menace jumper, surrounded by other DC Thomson characters holding numbered signs, and a strange green monster. Writing on the wall says 'Do the DCA Thomson'
In front of a giant mural painted on the wall which shows Desperate Dan, there is a transparent box with two small foil takeaway boxes inside them. Next to the box are four smaller white boxes with the word 'Plastic Bucket' written on them. On top of these boxes are green and yellow books.
Painted directly on to the wall of DCA Galleries is a picture of an orange chest of drawers, with blue and yellow vases and flowers on it. Surrounding this mural is small framed paintings of people, which are very colourful.
Framed cartoons on DCA gallery walls. The cartoons are in classic comic strip style, in black-and-white.
Two paintings on a white wall. Both are surreal images of faces which have been combined with houses. They are against a pink background and use flat but very bright colours.
On the white gallery wall in DCA, a giant mural shows a horned creature wearing a Dennis the Menace jumper, surrounded by other DC Thomson characters holding numbered signs, and a strange green monster. Writing on the wall says 'Do the DCA Thomson'