Press Release

David Zwirner is pleased to present an exhibition of work by R. Crumb (b. 1943), opening at the gallery’s London location. One of today’s most celebrated illustrators, Crumb helped define the cartoon subcultures of the 1960s and 1970s with comic strips like Fritz the Cat, Mr. Natural, and Keep on Truckin’. Instrumental in the formation of the underground comics scene, Crumb challenged and expanded the boundaries of the graphic arts, redefining comics and cartoons as countercultural art forms. The overt eroticism of his work paired with frequent self-deprecation and a free, almost stream-of-consciousness style have solidified his position as a renowned and influential artist, whose work addresses the absurdity of social conventions and political disillusionment. This presentation will feature work from across the adventurous and expansive arc of Crumb’s sixty-year career, and will be his first solo exhibition at David Zwirner London since 2016. It follows R. Crumb: Tales of Paranoia, which was presented at David Zwirner Los Angeles in 2025–2026. The eponymous comic book—the artist’s first in twenty-three years—was published by Fantagraphics in 2025.

Installation Views

About the Artist

Born in Philadelphia in 1943, R. Crumb has used the popular medium of the comic book to address the absurdity of social conventions, political disillusionment, irony, racial and gender stereotypes, sexual fantasies, and fetishes. Inspired by Thomas Nast, Honoré Daumier, T.S. Sullivant, James Gillray, amongst others, his drawings offer a satirical critique of modern consumer culture, and often seem to possess an outsider’s perspective—a self-conscious stance which Crumb often relates to his personal life.

View Artist Profile

Also Exhibiting

About the Gallery
Since opening its doors in 1993, David Zwirner has been home to innovative, singular, and pioneering exhibitions across a variety of media and genres. The gallery has helped foster the careers of some of the most influential artists working today, and has maintained long-term representation of a wide-ranging, international group of artists and estates. Based in New York with spaces in Chelsea and the Upper East Side, David Zwirner expanded to Europe in 2012 with a gallery in an eighteenth-century Georgian townhouse in London’s Mayfair district, and opened its first gallery in Asia in January 2018 in Central Hong Kong.
View Gallery Profile
Address
24 Grafton Street
London
United Kingdom
Opening Hours
Tuesday – Thursday
10am – 6pm
(1)
London 24 Grafton Street
David Zwirner
24 Grafton Street, London, United Kingdom
+44 203 538 3165
http://www.davidzwirner.com

Opening hours
Tuesday – Thursday
10am – 6pm
The art world in focus