Arts + Literature Laboratory presents You Are Sitting Here With Us: A Comics Show, a group exhibition on view Tuesday, July 7 through Saturday, August 29, 2026. The exhibiting artists are Tomato Soup // Maile Lloyd, Mysterious Mouse // Katrina Koppa, Dodo // Noa Rickey, National Velvet // Oliver Grubel, Claudia Gonson // Vincent Mollina, and Citizen Christensen // GG Christensen.This exhibition was organized by the community curation project, LAB^4.
A reception will be held on Friday, July 10, 2026 from 6:00pm to 8:00pm.
You Are Sitting Here With Us: A Comics Show is an interdisciplinary love letter to cartoonist and educator Lynda Barry. Each contributing artist is a former student of Barry’s, and each piece in this collection is informed by the pedagogy of storytelling, play, drawing, and writing outlined in Barry’s lifework. In her book Syllabus, Barry poses the question: “What do ideas look like when they are taking physical shape?” Through painting, sculpture, woodworking, puppetry, ceramics, textiles, and film, the six contributing artists engage with this question with curiosity and surprise. This exhibition honors the legacy of Barry with a curation of works that demonstrates how making comics inspires creativity across disciplines.
You Are Sitting Here With Us: A Comics Show
Maile Lloyd is a painter and photographer from Madison Wisconsin. She creates whimsical works which mainly focus on the human form and identity. Maile Lloyd studied at the university of Wisconsin Madison where she received a bachelors degree in fine art in 2025. Maile has exhibited artworks throughout Madison and as far away as Havana Cuba. She is a cofounder of the Figurative collective, a community lead group of artists passionate about drawing form and creating shared spaces. Maile is a current Bridge work artist and will soon be presenting her first solo show at Arts and Literature Laboratory this fall.
Katrina Koppa is an interdisciplinary artist moving between furniture, sculpture, and drawing. She received her BFA and certificate in Arts & Teaching from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2025. Her work has been featured in numerous UW-Madison exhibitions and publications and has most recently been exhibited at the Madison Children’s Museum. She is a recipient of scholarships from Peter's Valley School of Craft, Penland School of Craft, and the Chairmaker’s Toolbox.
Noa Rickey is an artist, performer, and educator. Born and raised in Minnesota to a family of artists, they grew up with a deep appreciation of craft and fine art making. Noa received a BFA in Drama from NYU Tisch School of the Arts with a minor in Irish Studies. As a graduate student at UW-Madison, they worked as a research assistant for the Design Studies Hemp Lab, a production assistant for Marianne Fairbanks and Mary Hark, and have taught an array of textile practices to undergraduate and graduate students at UW and in the community. In the summer of 2024, they received a fellowship and funding to research lace and culture in Ireland. They returned to Ireland in summer of 2025 with funding from the US Government and UW-Madison to learn Gaeilge and continue their research into Irish culture and textiles. Noa just received their MFA in Design Studies from UW-Madison after a successful thesis exhibition. With an interdisciplinary approach, Noa explores the stories people keep... Read More
National Velvet (they/them) is an artist and teacher who makes objects, books and alternative comics and runs Zip Zap Press. They are interested in solving silly problems and enjoy creating magical spaces for people to make art in. If you are interested in projects or collaborations, you can send a message to zipzappress@gmail.com.
Vincent Mollica is an artist and Student Processing Specialist living in Madison, originally from Chicago. He has been drawing his whole life, but started doing it in earnest after taking Making Comics with Lynda Barry in 2017/2018. He now makes comics, large scale drawings, and short movies.
PLAN YOUR VISIT
Arts + Literature Laboratory is located at 111 S. Livingston Street #100, Madison, Wisconsin, 53703.
Our galleries are normally open Tuesday through Friday 10am-5pm and Saturday noon to 5pm, and other programs take place throughout the week. Please check the events calendar and education section for details.
We will be closed Saturday, June 13 for a private event.