It's a Sign

Printed Matter just announced the release of a fund-raising edition by Jack Pierson (shown here). Pierson works in many media including photography, painting, and sculpture. Although some may know him from his portraits of young men, his imagery also spans the gamut. His work is in major museum collections, including the MFA, Boston. In writing the entry, I realized that the title of the piece I bought by Brian Glaser at the MassArt Auction in 2008 (a portrait of a man constructed from cigarette butts entitled, "I Will Leave Less Than This Behind," shown in the blog entry from 10/21/08) references a 1994 work by Pierson, "What You Take With You and What You Leave Behind." Pierson's piece is a photograph of a shirt draped over a chair with cigarette butts on the floor.
Anyway, Pierson has done an 8x10 C-print photograph in an edition of 100 (plus 10 APs) for $100. While the image may suggest caution, you shouldn't wait too long to buy it. You can buy it online at www.printedmatter.org or by phone (212-925-0325).

Josh Smith

Painter Josh Smith had a recent show at Luhring Augustine in NYC that art critic, Jerry Saltz, described as a "rush" and one of the bright spots in the current state of the arts. Smith's paintings are semi-abstract and often have primitive looking figures or even fish. While his paintings might be out of your recession/depression budget, you can pick up one of his limited edition artists books from Printed Matter for $300-$400. Usually done in editions of 30, the books are photocopies of sketchbooks. He also made a brilliant artist book last year that was a photocopy of the gallery sign-in book from his 2007 show at Luhring Augustine. The book is an interesting narrative of the art world told through signatures and comments, who came to the show and what they had to say. There is a deluxe version of this book in a signed edition of 100 plus 20 APS which includes a note by the gallery's associate director for $70.

Holiday Cards

I have always been envious of the people on the Peter Norton Christmas card list who get the annual limited edition multiple made specifically for that Christmas. Kara Walker and Vik Muniz have done editions. I've thought about sending Mr. Norton a card one year to see if, in the spirit of holiday reciprocality, he'd feel obligated to put me on the list. I've also thought about creating my own tradition of sending out Christmas multiples instead of holiday cards. Because I don't have the funds to commission an established artist to create a special edition, here are some possibilities for limted-edition "holiday cards."

Crown Point Press is selling sets of playing cards by Jockum Nordstrum in an edition of 500 for $14.95 (shown here above left). Nordstrum, represented by David Zwirner in NYC, has works in the collection of MOMA, SFMOMA, the Whitney, and the Guggenheim. How about adding him to yours?

For something edgier (and more expensive), there is David Shrigley's small letterpress playing card, "Fucking Ace," in an edition of 250 at $50 at Printer Matter. Shrigley is known for his witty doodle-like drawings, some of which, by the way, are owned by MOMA. He is also represented by Yvon-Lambert in Paris (the same dealer as Jonathan Monk). I had trouble linking the page from Printed Matter to show the image on the blog, so you have to go to their website to see it (search "shrigley").

A final option is Christian Marclay's "Shuffle," a deck of 75 cards that are music-related images. Marclay's work has focused on images of sound and music. His recent large photograms of unravelled audiotape, which were at IFPDA and at the Miami fairs this year, are amazing. Although I haven't been able to confirm that "Shuffle" was printed as a limited edition (some info says yes, some info doesn't say anything), it would still make a great gift. You can check out the press release from Aperture here. Marclay is represented by Paula Cooper in NYC.

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/).

Sperandio and Grennan

I just bought a signed copy of the book, Kartoon Kings, at the Carnegie Art Museum in Pittsburgh. "Kartoon Kings" is the name of the collaboration between two artists, Christopher Sperandio and Simon Grennan, who create site specific-comic books as art.

The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston commissioned their first work for a musuem in 1998. They created a comic book based on real Bostonians' brushes with celebrity entitled, Dirt: The Essence of Celebrity. Malcolm Rogers, the Director of the MFA, is featured in the comic. Dirt is now part of the permanent collection of the MFA and is an affordable way to add something that the MFA owns to your own collection.

Three years ago, I started collecting their comic books. Although the comics are usually distributed at the site of the project for free or at the cost of a standard comic book, they can also be purchased from time to time at Printed Matter in NYC.
http://www.printedmatter.org/


More information about Kartoon Kings can be found on their website:
http://www.kartoonkings.com/