Call Me

If you thought xeroxed prints were pushing the boundaries of contemporary printmaking, then today's offering on Jen Beckman's 20x200 is going to interest you. Jorge Colombo has done a series of drawings on his iPhone, using the Brushes app (one is shown here). These drawings remind me of impressionist pictures, even though the production methods differ considerably. The Impressionists would lug a canvas and paint to an outdoor site to paint the light, later showing their work in a salon. Colombo is making these pictures with light on a tiny glass screen, printing them out with a computer and showing them on the internet.

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.

They're Copying!

Another trend I noticed at the fairs in Miami was Xeroxing. There were a few works by Ari Marcopoulos, including one of a machine gun and one of his son, Cairo (shown here). Marcopoulos' use of the Xerox technique creates soft, velvety images that seem like they would stain your fingers if you touched them. He also recently had a show in NYC where he presented large-scale Xeroxed images.

White Columns, NYC's oldest alternative art space, has been producing a benefit print portfolio for the last couple years. This year, it doesn't look like there is a 2008 portfolio. Instead, there are a number of limited edition prints, all printed by Xeroxing. You can view them here. I am not sure yet what I think about Xeroxing as a printing technique. Initially, I thought it was ridiculous- that you could just take a print to your own copy machine and expand the edition size by 10, 50, or even 100. However, Xeroxed prints would still need to be signed and numbered, increasing the importance of that act in identifying the "original" prints from the "copies." Xeroxing does have some visual similarities to silkscreens, though, and could be considered, in some ways, as a technological advancement. Xeroxed copies each have some subtle variations and I can image Warhol creating a suite of Jackies using a copying machine. The use of the Xerox machine also further blurs the line between art and everyday life, elevating a banal clerical task to art production. It makes you think more about pressing that green button...