Editions/Artists' Book Fair

Attended the opening of the Editions/Artists' Book Fair last night.  The name is somewhat misleading.  Although they do have books (or more often portfolios) of artist's works, the fair is more a showcase for contemporary prints.  In many cases, the print presses themselves are there representing their artists.  Many of these print centers like Tamarind Institute, Dieu Donne, and Cad Tompkins invite artists to come in and do special projects.  

Last night we had the opportunity to meet the artist, Christiane Baumgartner who produces large scale woodcut prints.  Christiane explained to us that she is working with video and transferring the image ultimately to a woodcut -- which she finds interesting because video is one of the most contemporary forms of media, whereas the woodcut is the orginal message of printing.  The sort of blurryness of the image and the reference to video remind us of the Suara Welitoff prints and videos we've posted about previously.

Vrrrooom! IFPDA Print Fair Opens

Stealing a quote from Cliff Ackley, "Vrrroom!". There was no doubt that the IFPDA members were trying to leverage the exhibition Rhythms of Modern Life: British Prints 1914-1939currently at the Met and previously at the MFA Boston. At the IFPDA Print Fair which opened last night at the Park Avenue Armory, we spotted two entire booths dedicated exclusively to these British Modernest style prints, with several other booths also including a few prints by Cyril Power, Paul Nash, David Bombert, C.R.W. Nevinson and Sybil Andrews.

This was our first time at the opening night preview. It is definitely a much less crowded time to visit. There is a sliding scale of ticket prices, with the priciest tickets offering earliest access. But even at 7:30, the latest entry time, there was still plenty of opportunity to talk to dealers. Despite economic fears, we did see several red dots early in the evening.

Stay tuned for more posts as we return to the fair. See you tonight at the opening of the Editions/Artists' Book Fair!

Jonathan Monk

I like Jonathan Monk. Period.

He is a young British artist working in Berlin, who creates conceptual works that play off classic conceptual works. If a concept can be art, what about a concept about a concept? He has turned artists books by Sol Lewitt into movies and made a few artists books poking fun at the books of Ed Ruscha. While it may all seem like a joke, he is in the collection of MOMA and had his own show at the ICA in London. He is represented by Yvon Lambert (http://www.yvon-lambert.com/).

He also does prints. Over the last 10 years has been creating prints that are of the image of the wrapper in which the blank paper was sold (shown here above). He has also done a series of "meetings" that are limited edition text pieces that announce a specific date and time at a specific location, written in the native language of location- sort of like invitations. I have 3 of his meeting editions, including one to meet at sunrise in Luxor, Egypt (in Arabic) and, on the reverse side, to meet at sunset at Luxor in Las Vegas (in English). I have been trying to collect his prints and artist books in depth.

Most recently, he has created a benefit edition for Printed Matter for this year's NY Art Book Fair. The print is white with a Braille transcipt of Monk talking about making the piece. It is only $20 and can be purchased through Printed Matter (http://www.printedmatter.org/).

Edward Burtynsky

(left to right: two Burtynsky's and a McLean)

A recent trip to Toronto allowed for a pleasant morning in the Mira Godard Gallery in the fashionable Yorkville district. The goal of the visit to the gallery was to view and learn more about Edward Burtynsky, a Toronto-born photographer. The Mira Godard Gallery was first to represent him in his early days, in the 1960’s. It was not clear for what reason, but apparently, Burtynsky has left the Godard Gallery, and although they seem to have swallowed that bitter pill, they still have some amazing large scale photographs for sale, for USD $19,000! Apparently, Burtynsky style is to step up to an imaginary line of life and subject matter to capture a moment in time. The photographs we saw represent and focus on the ideas of deconstruction, recycling and living life in the midst of both. For the 3 Gorges Dam piece, snapshop depicts the Chinese workers who were paid very little to disassemble their own homes, to pile the bricks neatly into organized piles, to retrieve and save the rebar metal ropes which held the structures together again for future use while at the same time people are continuing to live in the village, hanging their laundry out in the dirty air and trying to get by in the middle of this controversial and major re-location project of 1,000’s of people. For the Shipbreaking piece, Bangladesh workers were paid about $.10/day to disassemble an aging, out-of-commission ship and to recycle the metal for scrap. You see workers, obviously poor, in bare feet or flimsy sneakers, walking over the dangerous area with metal on the ground – they too, are going to melt and recycle the ship’s metal for more rebar for a future-use project. While the images are so overwhelmingly industrial and dirty they are both ‘green’ recycling projects on an awesome scale. Close inspection of both really puts you at the line of viewing life and being viewed by it.

As we were leaving, we noticed another photographer: Melville McLean, based out of Maine. His work is amazing, even a little overwhelming. Landscapes are not a favorite of ours, but the quality of the photos is extremely eye catching and almost surreal looking, as the technique he uses is the layering of transparencies over each other (each focuses on a particular aspect, element or color) to bring out the most heightened color and vividness possible for the works he makes. Stones have a luminescent tonality, not because of the light of day, but because of the technique. He also focuses on nature/nurture, for example in Rocks, Plants, Sea and Fog 2007, below, the centuries old rock formations are the life line of the very healthy and living seaweed attached and living on it. We are wondering if he will be the next Edward Burtynsky – so someone to keep an eye on, especially with his large scale works priced at a third of Burtynsky’s. A trip to Toronto to the Gallery could be a beneficial and fun excursion.
The Mira Godard Gallery is located at 22 Hazelton Avenue, Toronto. http://www.godardgallery.com/.

Artcetera 2008

For those who won't be at the IFPDA Print Fair in NYC on November 1st, that Saturday AIDS Action in Boston is presenting Artcetera 2008. The live and silent auctions at this event can be a good place to see and buy art made in Boston and beyond- sometimes with really good deals. Michael Mazur and Judith Larsen (both mentioned in this blog) have prints in the auctions. There is also a Laura McPhee benefit print (shown here) for Patrons at the $2,500 level and above. To view the available artwork and purchase tickets, click on the link below.

http://www.aac.org/site/PageServer?pagename=events_artcetera

Interesting statistics on year over year price changes in the contemporary art market just came out (link below). It's only through mid-year so it doesn't include the most recent data. Amazing how many Chinese works are listed.

Artprice and the Fiac publish an exclusive report on the 2007/2008 contemporary art market, in partnership with Axa Art http://web.artprice.com/AMI/AMI.aspx?id=NjQ1NTM3MDAwNTk4Njk=

Michael Mazur claims "I'm definitely not a purist"

Michael Mazur was a guest this evening of the MFA's Print and Drawing Club. Michael took the group of about 25 of us through a variety of print-making processes that he uses. He showed proofs along the way to making several prints. For one of the prints in his Dante's Inferno series, he had one of the original mylars that was used to make the metal plate, the copper plate itself, which had been reworked several times (but before the steel electroplated layer was added). For that work he also share a working proof, the B.A.T. (Bon a Tirer -- meaning "good to pull"), and final edition print.

He also walked us through a series of 5 proofs starting with the first flat produced with a "rainbow roll" (a method where one or more colors are literally rolled on the paper to create a colored stripe), new images were superimposed in additional colors and then finally a wood block was used to print a wood-grained texture onto the final image.

In another interesting example of using different printing techniques, Michael showed us to very different prints of the same image. One was made as an etching and the other produced with an inkjet printer. "No one should be frightened by injet prints" he advocates. After the lecture, I shared my skepticism of injet prints with Michael. Think about the image - don't worry about the process he said.

In Boston, you can find Michaels work at Barbara Krakow Gallery.

Prints Only?

Lately I have been struggling with the concept of "focus" in a collection. I started out collecting artist books and prints, but have found it difficult to stick with one medium or even a theme. In the last year or so, I have been buying drawings, sculpture, and some excellent work that defies categorization, such as rising art star, Brian Glaser's peice entitled, "I will leave less than this behind," made out of over 5,000 found cigarette butts.

In a kind of organic process, I think a focus has been slowly evolving out of my art purchases- artists in the early phase of their careers. It has been really fun to buy without a safety net, following my own instincts and tastes. In fact, some of my biggest art buying regrets have been not following those instincts and not buying Tara Donovan and Judith Larsen years ago.

Rachel Whiteread at MFA, Boston

When I lived in NYC in 1999, I would make special trips to SoHo just to see Rachel Whiteread's Watertower piece. It is a clear resin cast of the inside of one of the ubiquitous watertowers in Manhattan, installed on a watertower base on the top of a building. Amidst all of the bustle and commotion of the street below, it was like a secret oasis of calm, still water- frozen. It could also be quite spectacular when hit by the sun.
Last week, Rachel Whiteread opened a show at the MFA, Boston and gave two lectures about her work. Although her work looks very simple, it is deceptively thoughtful and emotional. Everyone needs to go see her installation, Village, as soon as possible. It is an arrangement of hand-made dollhouses that she has been collecting over the last 20 years. The room is dark and each dollhouse is lit from within, resembling a village at night. You might at first associate to a Christmas display in some shop, but when you stand there in the dark and reflect on the fact that each house was made by an individual- the piece represents the lives of possibly hundreds of people- it can give you goosebumps.

Bruce Yonemoto gets Ironic at MassArt

We first discovered Bruce Yonemoto at Art Miami last December. His striking portraits of Asian-American men dressed in Civil War costumes posed in classic poses of the era. (Bruce is represented by Alexander Gray Associates in New York)

Having attended the Mass College of Art's benefit auction the past few years, we are on their mailing list and were surprised to recieve an inviation to their visiting artist speaker series -- which featured out favorite Yonemoto photograph as the main image!

We attended the lecture on Wednesday. Hey, this is a great opportunity! We were expecting crowds, but discovered about 25 attendees -- almost entirely students. Bruce spoke for just over an hour and we discovered that he is first and foremost a video and installation artist. Some of his early works consider the materiality of the film screen itself. He has art created out of the material used to make movie theater screens. He also uses a variety of portable movie screens to create a layering effect upon which a movie is shown. Another issue that Bruce examines is the passage of time. He had an interesting piece where he projected a video up into a glass of water. Inside the glass is a sugar cube upon which you can see the video. Of course, as you watch the video, the sugar cube is disolving, becoming increasingly noticable.

I would say that the most common theme throughout Bruce's work is irony. Bruce creates a "screen" made of chopsticks, made supposedly from trees from the rainforest -- upon which he projects images of the rainforest. In another installation, he uses globes, inside which he projects the movie "Journey to the Center of the Earth"

Back to his Civil War series, Bruce lives near a major costume company in California. He rented Civil War costumes which thought might have been used in the Movie "Birth of a Nation" -- a film which is considered to have re-started the KKK. Using costumes which may have been involved in such a racially controversial movie, Bruce places non-white models. Another interesting irony that Bruce points out is how the entire racial discussion around the Civil war is around black and white -- leaving no room for any discussion of other races. In fact, Yonemoto states, that Asian-Americans fought in the Civil War and there is nearly no discussion of this in history books. Beyond the political underpinnings, the photos are quite striking. Although the costumes and poses are quite traditional, your eye is somewhat jarred because it is not expecting to see the Asian-American men in the Civil War costumes, nor are you expecting the vivid color. The strong background colors together with the patterns of the painted floor clothes contribute to a strong graffic impact.

Suara Welitoff at Barbara Krakow

On October 2, the Barbara Krakow Gallery held a special event for those of us who had supported the MFA Counsel’s Summer P(art)y by purchasing the benefit by Suara Welitoff. Suara, who we had a chance to see last year at Alston Skirt Gallery, has been picked up by Barbara Krakow. We had the opportunity to hear from Suara and view a dozen of her video works. Her

works include videos that she shot herself, as well as works based off of found footage. Her works were included in the MFA’s exhibition War and Discontent in 2007. In fact, Suara’s works make up 3 out of the 6 video works in the MFA’s contemporary collection. One of the MFA works, “Say Yes” was a crowd favorite. Some of her works are entirely silent. Several of these which include war or military images are especially eerie without sound. Suara has paired others, including “Tell Me” with music which in some cases makes them seem overly sentimental. Suara explained that she doesn’t start out with a plan for including or excluding sound or music, but rather experiments with several options to determine if the audio adds to the composition. Another crowd favorite was Lasts Longer, 2008, which although only 1 minute 46 seconds, includes a complexity of motion and design which makes it feel substantially longer. The scene -- a photographer shooting photos of a model-like women invokes a feeling of being in Warhol's Factory. Not surprisingly, Wharhol is one of Suara's inspirations

Thanks to Suara, William Stover and the Barbara Krakow gallery for this amazing opportunity.

Wall Street Journal Discusses Handmade Paper Works

I got an email from Dieu Donné today with a link to an article in Friday's Wall Street Journal (Dieu Donné is a non-profit non-profit artist workspace dedicated to the creation, promotion, and preservation of contemporary art in the hand papermaking process.)  Stay tuned for more about Dieu Donné in a later post.

The article was interesting from several perspectives.  It featured some nifty manipulated paper pulp works by Chuck Close (we're big fans) Louise Bourgeois, Ellsworth Kelly and Kiki Smith.  The article discussed artists' works on handmade paper as a more affordable way to acquire unique or semi-unique pieces by top artists.  I was surprised though that the article suggested that some critics consider these paper works to be "crafts".  (And Chuck Close was quoted as saying that artists refer to the term as "the C word".)  

Print Week in New York

Print week is coming up in New York.  You'll hear a lot about the two major fairs:  IFPDA which has it's opening party on Wednesday, October 29.  The Editions/Artists' Book fair opening is the following night.  I just read that on the same night, Art on Paper magazine is having a party to kick off their annual print issue -- which includes their choice for the top new print editions.  

Since it is near the EAB fair at the Tunnel, we should be able to knock them both off that night.

 

5TH ANNUAL NEW PRINTS REVIEW ISSUE RELEASE PARTY!

 

artonpaper magazine and the 
International Print Center New York
invite you to the unveiling of this year's 
New Prints Review issue

 

Be the first to see artonpaper's selection of the best editions of 2008 on Thursday, October 30th, from 8 to 10 pm

The party will be held at IPCNY
526 West 26th Street #824

Boston Common Magazine includes the MFA Summer Party

Lookout for the Late Fall issue of Boston Common magazine.  Several great photos from the MFA's Summer Party (including a shot of one of the BostonPrintCollectors).  

When I was checking out the online edition (still Early Fall edition photos), I discovered that the publisher, Niche Media, also puts out a special Art Basel Miami Beach edition.  Web site currently links to the main ABMB website (http://www.artbaselmiamibeach.com/ca/cc/ss/ ), but I'll be checking back before I head down to Miami.