Wednesday greetings, collectors! NYC is brisk and bright today, the first day that calls for a proper coat and scarf and hat and gloves. A few short weeks of this weather, the kind that makes you scrunch your shoulders up to cover your too cold ears, and we'll all be wishing for a little warmth and greenery. For now though, it's kind of nice — festivity is in the air as people are stopping in the street to chat about Thanksgiving menus, and the snap of the climate is appropriate for the season. (It also ensures that we needn't stop and chat for too long.) Ollie's frisky too; that fur coat of hers keeps her toasty and suddenly there are loads of leaves to snuffle through.

Today's photography editions, Untitled, Swamp #1and Untitled, Swamp #2 are our second set of prints from Dorthe Alstrup, one of the many talented Hot Shots who've done editions with us. Her first pair of images, Max and Arika, have an obvious narrative thrust, what with the balloons and the children and all, but Dorthe's landscapes are also bursting with narrative potential.

This particular duo sent me off in search of a fitting poetic accompaniment. I didn't need to look too far, or long, before finding the perfect match: Robert Frost's poem, The Wood-Pile. Here's how it starts:

Out walking in the frozen swamp one gray day,
I paused and said, 'I will turn back from here.
No, I will go on farther—and we shall see.'
The hard snow held me, save where now and then
One foot went through. The view was all in lines
Straight up and down of tall slim trees
Too much alike to mark or name a place by
So as to say for certain I was here
Or somewhere else: I was just far from home.

You can (and should!) read the complete poem on The Poetry Foundation's website.

That's it for the week, but you'll be seeing me again sooner than usual. With next week being shortened by Thanksgiving, we'd hate for those spending their Wednesdays in planes, trains and/or automobiles to miss out! So look for fresh editions, and some other 20x200 news of note, on Monday and Tuesday.

Untitled (Hanoi no.2)
by Kelly Shimoda
Buy one now

Forbes.com selected 20x200 as its ForbesLife Find of the Day! According to their review, buying art on 20x200 is $20 better spent than "a mid-afternoon splurge at the vending machine". It is also much healthier for you.

Thinking about $20 editions, here are some prints which I am truly surprised to see are still available:

Cul de Sac
by Michelle Weinberg
Buy one now

amnh #62
by Joseph O. Holmes
Buy one now

Paradigm Shift
by Jessica Snow
Buy one now

Panda
by Charlie Crane
Buy one now

Tuesday greetings, collectors! I am nearly, mostly 100% recouped, which is a good thing indeed. I'm relieved to be heading into tonight's Hey, Hot Shot! panel review with a sharp mind and clear vision. (As are the contenders, I'd imagine.) I'm looking forward to an evening spent evaluating entries with some of the smartest people I know, Ms. Sara Distin among them. Sara proved herself to be the most able of email understudies when asked (at the verylastminute of course) to introduce Clifton's edition last Thursday. So big thanks to Sara, and on with the introductions!

David Corbett's editions, Untitled (blue) and Shill, are richly layered abstractions with sturdy roots connecting them to figure and landscape. Bill Gross, director of his Chicago gallery, 65Grand sees a bit of 19th century romanticism a la David Casper Friedrich, but filtered first through the influence of the San Francisco Mission School, JB fave Chris Johanson in particular, then later informed by Thomas Nozkowski when David was at Rutgers. He also sees a glimpse of Philip Guston in David's practice, and he's got a good point.

David's own special sauce worked into that formidable mix is what makes his works unique — enamel paint is assertive, weighty, and as he describes it, increasingly risky when poured in layers. The interplay of colors is enhanced by the unfamiliar and irregular densities of enamel on canvas. His accumulated layers of color and influence belie a weighty intellectual investigation of painting via practice, but one that's ripe with pleasure and beauty.

Exploring and enjoying David's work has led me to create connections of my own, with other artists in the 20x200 archive. Whether it's color, composition or subject, this process of understanding why I look at one work and see something of another's leads me to a deeper understanding of why I like what I like. I'm still in the process of putting it all into words, but the journey to forming them is part of the fun. Here are a few editions that David's paintings brought to mind:

Space and Illusion by Carrie Marill

Balloons by Juliane Eirich

In One Ear, Out the Other by Jessica Snow

Flying Colors by Ann Tarantino

The Mountain of Tomorrow's Sunrise by William Crump

Many Mountains by Ky Anderson

Untitled (Hanoi no.2) by Kelly Shimoda

Radar by Aili Schmeltz

With this newsletter running long and my time running short, I'll leave you on your own to connect the dots. 'Til tomorrow, my friends!

Piñata Carnival, 2007 by Fernanda Cohen

Happy Monday once again, collectors! This weekend I was taking a stroll through many of our 20x200 artist's websites, and was delighted to read this on Fernanda Cohen's:

I'm the coordinator of Special Events at the SOCIETY OF ILLUSTRATORS OF NY, including lectures and workshops. The fourth and last event I'm coordinating in 2008 is a lecture I'm moderating with NICHOLAS BLECHMAN, the art director of the Book Review section at THE NEW YORK TIMES, and MAX BODE, art director at THE NEW YORKER.

Lecture: Art Directing and Illustrating
with Nicholas Blechman and Max Bode
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Begins at 6:30pm.
$15 non-members, $10 members, $7 students.
RSVP tara@societyillustrators.org

I also learned that 20x200 star and Summer 2006 Hey, Hot Shot,! Kate Bingaman-Burt, signed a book contract with Princeton Architectural Press. Drawings from Kate's ongoing What Did You Buy Today? series will be edited down to 650 images, bound and preserved for all eternity. The only sad news is that we'll have to wait until 2010 for the book to be released.

Congrats, Kate!

Homeland Security Advisory Billboard, Country Club Hills, Illinois 2008*

It's a rainy weekend for us New Yorkers, so if you are in the mood for some gallery hopping (and I believe that looking at art is a surefire way to shake off the rainy day blues), slide on over to Jen Bekman Gallery. Nina Beman's Homeland exhibition has been extended until November 29th.

Check out this Google map of the Lower East Side produced by Jen Bekman Projects to help steer your gallery hopping course.

Jen Bekman Gallery
6 Spring Street
(between Elizabeth + Bowery)
New York City 10012

Nina's website
Nina's 20x200 edition: 9-11-02
Nina's portfolio on JenBekman.com

*Curiosity got the better of me. I looked up today's Homeland Security Advisory, and learned that the threat level in the airline sector is High or Orange. Seize il giorno!

Detail of Collocation No.4 (Today) by Mickey Smith

Happy Friday! I know I let you all know about Mickey Smith's opening this evening at Invisible Exports, but did you see that she also received some accolades over on the New York Magazine website this week? 'Tis true! Three cheers for you, Miss Mickey!

MICKEY SMITH | YOU PEOPLE
November 14 – December 21, 2008
Invisible-Exports
14A Orchard Street
Wednesday through Sunday, 11-6:30pm

Mickey's 20x200 edition prints:
WORD STUDY
MORE BOOKS
A 20x200 interview with Mickey
Mickey's site

Geetbets #1 by Bert Teunissen

Buongiorno collectors! Photographer Bert Teunissen will be showing his Domestic Landscapes series at Witzenhausen Gallery next Thursday evening. Bert's 20x200 edition print, LA ALBERCA #6 1/3/2005 12:56, was from this series and is just about sold out.

Teunissen documents interiors that are oriented around the natural light that falls in through the windows, that find their origins in the era before electricity. Where the table is situated under the window, because most of the light can be found there. Where it is still impossible to work in the basement, because it is simply too dark. Teunissen realized all this at just the right moment. Now he is trying to keep up with rapid developments and struggling to document as much as possible of what has been the norm for centuries, but will soon not be found in our modern interiors.

Reception for the artist:
Thursday, November 20 6-8pm

Witzenhausen Gallery
5th floor, Suite 530
547 West 27th Street

Bert's 20x200 edition print:
LA ALBERCA #6 1/3/2005 12:56

Wednesday greetings, collectors! I'm composing this email so early that Ollie's skulked off to the bedroom, pouting at being disturbed from her foot-warming spot at such an inhumane hour. Apparently she's not fond of getting up during pre-dawn hours either. That's my girl!

As it does everyday, the sky will inevitably brighten on its own. My mood is another matter entirely; I usually require a little outside inspiration to burn off the gloom. Chocolate, fresh flowers, and happiness in the form of a warm puppy often do the trick. This morning, my cheer arrives in photographic form — Juliane Eirich's Fishline and Balloons are just what Dr. Feelgood would order for a girl like me.

Bright colors, faraway lands and balloons — all neatly composed in a square — these images are a double dose of photographic bliss. It also doesn't hurt one little bit that Juliane's work is reminiscent of the captivating contradictions I find in Rinko Kawauchi's work — gentle yet brutal, feminine but not girly, domestic without being mundane, quiet yet exuberant. It takes a keen eye to find the remarkable in the everyday, and I have a hunch that an ability to do so is another prescription for happiness.

Speaking of which, Sara Distin's blog post sent some brightness my way this morning too, photographically with Justin Visnesky's imagery and poetically. Naomi Shihab Nye's So Much Happiness is the sort of thing you might want to keep folded up in your pocket:

It is difficult to know what to do with so much happiness.
With sadness there is something to rub against,
A wound to tend with lotion and cloth.
When the world falls in around you, you have pieces to pick up,
Something to hold in your hands, like ticket stubs or change.

But happiness floats.
It doesn't need you to hold it down.
It doesn't need anything.
Happiness lands on the roof of the next house, singing,
And disappears when it wants to.
You are happy either way.
Even the fact that you once lived in a peaceful tree house
And now live over a quarry of noise and dust
Cannot make you unhappy.
Everything has a life of its own,
It too could wake up filled with possibilities
Of coffee cake and ripe peaches,
And love even the floor which needs to be swept,
The soiled linens and scratched records...

Since there is no place large enough
To contain so much happiness,
You shrug, you raise your hands, and it flows out of you
Into everything you touch. You are not responsible.
You take no credit, as the night sky takes no credit
For the moon, but continues to hold it, and to share it,
And in that way, be known.

Architecture's Internal Logic
by Jessica Snow

Hello darling collectors. This week's fine art edition print artist, Jessica Snow, will be opening a solo show entitled, Incident in the Territory of Invention, December 4th at Merge Gallery, so mark your calendars!

Merge Gallery is thrilled to present California-based artist Jessica Snow’s first solo exhibition with the gallery. Her East Coast debut will include a series of 6 medium and small scale paintings.

Opening reception:
Thursday, December 4th, 2008, 6:00–9pm
The show will run until January 10th, 2009.

Merge Gallery
205 West 20th Street
New York, NY

Jessica's 20x200 edition prints:
Paradigm Shift
Cascade
In One Ear, Out the Other

Jessica's site

Image from Joseph O. Holmes' workspace series

Here's some good news: 20x200 photographer Joseph O. Holmes was awarded an Honorable Mention from the Silver Eye Center for Photography's Fellowship 2008 competition. Joseph will be in a exhibition in early 2009 with the rest of the Silver Eye award winners, and I'll let you know when and where as soon as the schedule is announced.

Joseph's 20x200 edition prints:
Prospect Park
amnh#30
amnh#10
amnh#62
Joseph's gallery images on jenbekman.com
Joseph's site

Tuesday greetings my collector friends! I apologize in advance if my ramblings seem at all fantastical. I've been woozy all weekend (and then some!) with a low grade, yet vexingly persistent cold-flu thing. All this is rather inconveniently timed, I must say. With the deadline for Hey, Hot Shot! tonight (tonight!) at 8 p.m., preparations underway for a photo shoot tomorrow morning and editions to introduce to you, my lovelies, I really would prefer to be in top form. Alas, I am cotton-headed and perhaps not capable of producing my best prose ever. Apologies in advance if my lead is hard to follow.

It's a good thing today's editions are such lookers! Who needs coherence when you have such gorgeous shapes and colors to gaze upon? In One Ear and Out the Other and Cascade come to us from the talented Bay Area painter Jessica Snow. Jessica and I met briefly in person when we had our collectors' gathering at Crown Point back in July, but I'm still looking forward to visiting her sure to be colorful South San Francisco studio on a future visit.

As you might imagine, my job requires a whole lot of looking at art, in person, online, in original and reproduced forms. I'm on aesthetic overload a lot of the time, but there are always a handful of images that percolate at the top. Right now my A-list mental image playlist has a very West Coast flavor. In One Ear and Out the Other and Cascade are in heavy rotation alongside Chris Johanson's out of this world This is a Picture of Space from Paulson Press.

Also in the mix is Todd Hido's stunning Untitled 6426, which you can see in SF at Wirtz Gallery right now. A Road Divided opened recently, is on view through December 20th, and oh my God, you'd be crrrrazy to miss that show if there's any chance at all of seeing it.

Other top hits of the moment? Basically anything drawn by the fabulous Mr. Tucker Nichols and Tauba Auerbach's mesmerizing Yes and No and/or Yes or No, also printed at Paulson Press. (I kind of hate Jamie at Park Life for making me aware of its existence, but I suppose I'll thank him in the end.)

In case it's not obvious, it's awfully crowded up here in this noggin of mine, making the aforementioned cotton-headedness most unwelcome. As for Jessica's pieces, I encourage them to settle in and stay awhile. The saturated, multi-hued palette, always a draw for me, is taken a step further by Jessica's ever-so-slightly offbeat color combinations. The bestest, freshest part of these particular prints? They were done full bleed — printed right to the very edge, that is — making the impression that these colors and curves continue on through eternity.

Apparently they're not the only things going on for an eternity right now. How'd this email get so long? I blame the Nyquil. I'm going to continue with my rest while catching up on some reading (and seeing.) Hey, Hot Shot! entries are arriving at a fast and furious clip in these final hours before the deadline, meaning that a feast for the eyes awaits me.

I'll spend the afternoon perusing the contenders posted on the HHS! blog whilst downing hot liquids. I'm back tomorrow with this week's photography offering, another colorful double edition by someone who happens to be a Hot Shot herself. See you then!

*Requiring no small amount of effort on the part of our fabulous printers.

Collocation No. 7 (BLOOD), 2008

Hey, Hot Shot! winner and 20x200 superstar, Mickey Smith will be opening her first New York solo exhibition, You People, this Friday, November 14th at Invisible-Exports in the Lower East Side. The opening reception will be from 6-8pm.

Mickey Smith is a cultural archeologist and You People is her reclamation project. The books and bound periodicals she photographs are a fossil record the 20th century unknowingly left behind. In their own time, these periodicals represented to their readers a concrete and tangible common culture — each reader knowing that there are thousands, perhaps millions, of people around the country reading the very same things — unifying communities of subscribers around shared interests, shared standards and shared identities. But looking at them past their expirations dates has the opposite effect: the publications seem insufficient, the audience for them a universe of disparate and disunited lives, only loosely bound. They become something else, the meaning shifting from their content to the viewer’s own inherited history.

MICKEY SMITH | YOU PEOPLE
November 14 – December 21, 2008
Invisible-Exports
14A Orchard Street
Wednesday through Sunday, 11-6:30pm

Mickey's 20x200 edition prints:
WORD STUDY
MORE BOOKS
A 20x200 interview with Mickey
Mickey's site

Image from Nina Berman's Homeland series

Hello Collectors! Those of you lucky enough to live in NYC should swing on by the gallery this evening to hear documentary photographer extraordinaire Nina Berman talk about her current exhibition and sign copies of Homeland, her newest monograph published by Trolley Books. Nina will be at the gallery Saturday, November 8th, from 5pm-7pm.

Image from Nina Berman's Homeland series

Jen Bekman Gallery
6 Spring Street
(between Elizabeth + Bowery)
New York City 10012

Nina's 20x200 editions:
9-11-02
G.I. Goat

Nina's portfolio on JenBekman.com

Image from Birthe Piontek's Sub Rosa series

Congratulations to Birthe Piontek! Birthe will be opening a solo show at Gallery Kominek in Berlin today. The romantic series, Sub Rosa will remain on view through December 13th.

From the press release:

Sub Rosa reminds us of a time, a stage in one's life which could not have been more intimate, and nevertheless exists as a romanticized blur in our mind today. No period in life is so comprehensively enriched with emotions, frustration and high expectations as the stage between our youth and adulthood. Adolescence, the loss of prolonged innocence and the desire to belong and to be different at the same time, seems to be an unconquerable obstacle in the journey of discovering our identity...

Gallery Kominek has also published a book of the exhibition available here.

Birthe's gallery images on JenBekman.com
Birthe's edition print: Untitled
Birthe's website

Untitled (Nymphenburg) by Summer 2007 Hey, Hot Shot! winner Gregory Krum

Hey, all you bright and ambitious photographers! Next Tuesday, November 11th, 2008 is the last day to upload your photographs for our panelists! Don't forget: each winning photographer of the Second Edition of Hey, Hot Shot! 2008 will be awarded a $500 honorarium!

Check the Hey, Hot Shot! blog for daily contender updates!

Hey, Hot Shot! website

Triumphant Wednesday greetings collectors! Oh what a night last night was, wouldn't you say? Really incredible. People were whooping and hollering in the streets into the wee hours and my various online haunts were percolating with excitement and relief.

All the electricity in the air seems well expressed by Brooklyn-based artist Marcie Paper's exuberant edition Untitled 76. It's not just its energy and the ways in which it's an excellent, albeit slightly off-kilter, pairing with yesterday's Super Rally photograph by MDM. It's also because Marcie's work is informed and inspired by the present moment, memory and personal experience. The contemplation of memory — its influence on us, and ours on it — seems a worthy endeavor during this most memorable and momentous of times. Marcie writes:

How much of our long-term memory is a sum of small insignificant events? Is this whole greater then the sum of its parts? How do short and long term memory influence each other...When do our daily experiences transform into our recollections of the past? And ultimately, what is the impact of memory on our concept of our selves and our placement within the world?

My own memory of last night is proving to be shaped by the mundane. Exhausted from my travels, which only allowed me a few fitful hours of sleep before heading into a hectic day at the studio, I was useless by the day's end. I headed home and ensconced myself on the couch, with Ollie at my feet and my laptop on my lap. An evening of home alone channel-surfing might seem an ignoble commemoration of the night's historic events, but in reality I wasn't alone at all. It was an experience shared virtually, via Facebook, Twitter, IM and text messages. A late night chat session with a West Coast pal, a fellow dog lover, went like this:

Jen Bekman: PRESIDENT OBAMA
Not THAT Sarah: YESSSSSS!!!!!!
JB: Yes.
NTS: i was just clicking over to read your post :)
JB :D
NTS: i like the photo more now :)
JB: I'm so happy.
JB: Hah
NTS: i was too nervous to love it this afternoon!
JB: HAH.That's funny. We were cocky to choose it, but there you go.
NTS: i was glad you did
NTS which coast are you on?
JB: I am back in NY already
NTS: are people in your hood loud and happy?
JB: yes they are
NTS: nice
JB: Cheering in the streets and horns honking etc
JB: It's super
NTS: so SO great. i'm all weepy
JB: I am excited, it's really amazing, but it hasn't really hit me yet.
NTS: i don't know why, but it's nice to like the first family
JB: totally
NTS: btw, michelle and barack told the girls they'd get a dog after the election
NTS: whichever way it goes
JB: :D
NTS: so we'll have a first puppy :)

Barack and Michelle: I'll send you the 20x200 print of your choice, just so long as you promise me that the nation's First Puppy comes from your local SPCA. I suggest you do your window-shopping on Petfinder, but forewarned is forearmed — it's bound to make you teary.

Totally Historic Election Day greetings, my collector friends. How exciting is today? SO freakin' exciting! Photographer, patriot, activist and all around awesome guy Michael David Murphy suggested this image to us a while back, when there was more hope than certainty. I'm glad we went the hope route, because it's the perfect edition with which to commemorate this momentous day.

Super Rally, So Help Me is one of my favorite images from Michael's amazing and inspiring work done during the presidential campaign. His exhibition, So Help Me, is on view at Opal Gallery in at Atlanta, and online too.

The gallery is hosting an election night party and it looks like there will be cause to celebrate. I've got my fingers crossed that the ebullient mood of the image will be turned up to 11 tonight, at Opal Gallery and all across the country.

It's not time to pop the cork just yet though! There are ballots to be cast and returns to be tallied. Speaking of casting ballots, have you cast yours yet? Be a part of history — get out and...

VOTE!

Happy Monday Morning collectors. 20x200 artist Todd St. John will be showing new work at 222Gallery in Philadelphia. The show will open November 7 and run through December 5.

222gallery Philadelphia presents a selection of new works by artist, designer, and filmmaker Todd St. John.

The show will be comprised of works on paper and wooden sculptural work that St. John has been developing over the past 6 years. The work combines elements of industrial design with sign-based and abstract forms. Much of the work contrasts the representation of similar forms in flattened and dimensional space. Another section of the show is devoted to animated shorts and some of the handmade characters and sets created for them.

Read the full press release here.
Also check out this interview with Todd by Meg Wells on Flux.

Below is a still from Todd's video Circle Squared: A Tale of Giving

Watch it here.

222gallery Philadelphia
222 Vine St.
Philadelphia, PA
Opening reception November 7th 6-9pm

Todd's 20x200 edition print;
Untitled (Black Blocks)
Todd's site

Image from Nina Berman's Homeland series

20x200 documentary photographer Nina Berman (and former Hot Shot! and Ultra) has work up in the gallery as we speak. Nina was kind enough to take the time to answer a few questions for us for this week's interview.

As a participant in 20x200 you must be interested in making art available in affordable ways, what is your philosophy on this?
I'm mystified by the valuation of art. When I go to galleries, I often walk out wondering why something is valued at $30,000 instead of $3,000 or
$300. It seems to me based on hype and what the market will bear and so something like 20x200 which flies in the face of all of that, is a breath of fresh air.

Image from Nina Berman's Purple Hearts series

How has participating in Hey, Hot Shot! furthered your art career?
I had shown my Purple Hearts and Marine Wedding pictures at many venues in the U.S. and Europe, but hadn't had the opportunity to show in a gallery space in New York. Hey, Hot Shot! allowed me to do that very quickly.

Image from Nina Berman's Marine Wedding series

Do you have a favorite painter?
Francis Bacon and Gerhard Richter

Photographer?
Ray Metzker

Musician?
Miles Davis, Patti Smith and Antony and the Johnsons.

Author?
Franz Kafka and Junot Diaz. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao is spectacular. Read it.

Image from Nina Berman's Under Taliban series
How do the above influence/inspire your art (if at all)?
They mainly influence me by showing me what brilliance looks and sounds like.

Top 20x200 artists?
I like Andrew Hetherington, Colin Blakely, Laura Levine and Amy Park.

Do you collect art?
I have a few photographs taken by friends, and two paintings, one I bought at a NYFA auction and one I purchased at a residential facility for people with mental illness.

Image from Nina Berman's Megachurches series

Describe a perfect day:
Taking a picture I had never imagined in a place I had just encountered, and then finding somewhere near there a place that had really good ice cream.

When did you first feel a calling to be an artist?
When I realized that the journalism world was too straight for my tastes.

What would be the first thing I'd notice upon entering your studio?
Chaos and clutter in a cramped space.

What are you working on now?
I'm working on moving my Homeland exhibition around.

What are you looking forward to?
A New York City real estate crash.

Wouldn't that be nice?!
Thanks, Nina!

If you're in New York, swing on by the gallery to see images from Nina's Homeland series. The show will be up through November 15th.

Also be sure to read more about Nina on the The NYMPHOTO Blog.

Nina's website
Nina's 20x200 editions:
9-11-02
G.I. Goat
Nina's images on JenBekman.com

Stephen Shore at Strand Bookstore
September 9, 2008

Hello collectors! Here is what a slightly edited and hyperlinked email from Jason Polan looks like:

I will be working on a project this weekend at the Editions/Artists' Books Fair. On Thursday, Friday, and Saturday I will be making drawings for a book called 100 People I Saw At The Editions/Artists' Books Fair. The book will contain 99 people I saw during these three days. Once the drawings are completed I will print the book, in an edition of 100 to be available on Sunday at noon. The book will be available for purchase at the Esopus table at the fair. The book will cost $20. If you choose to purchase a book, you will be drawn in your copy, completing the project and becoming the 100th person in the book.

A limited number of books called POINTS OF INTEREST will also be available at the fair from Glenn Horowitz Bookseller. The work in the book will coincide with an exhibit I am having at the space in East Hampton opening November 15.

An edition was just released on this website.

I hope everyone is doing well and I look forward to seeing you soon.

Sincerely,
Jason.

I just realized that the email neglects to mention one more show that Jason will be in opening this weekend in DC. Who can blame Jason? He's just got so many project going at once. Here are the details:

A FRIEND INDEED: Contemporary Art and the Academy
November 3 - November 28
Katzen Arts Center Rotunda
4400 Massachusetts Ave.
Washington, DC

More Jason here, and here and here!

We know more than we knew before
2008
acrylic on canvas
14" x 12"

20x200 artist Wendy Heldmann is in a politically themed group show opening tonight in Los Angeles. The RED & the BLUE, Art and Politics will also feature the work of Shepard Fairey and Richard Serra. Not too shabby company I do believe.

Congratulations, Wendy!

The RED & the BLUE, Art and Politics
Opening Reception: Thursday, October 30, from 6-9pm
Occidental College
Weingart Art Gallery
1600 Campus Road
Los Angeles, CA

Wendy's 20x200 edition print: Darkness moves
Wendy's website

Weary of the weather Wednesday greetings, my collector friends. It's still "obnoxious" out as dear friend (and new JBG Assistant Director) Jeffrey Teuton just pointed out to me. A couple of days of this chilly, drenching weather has made me very receptive to reports of fine weather I'm getting from my West Coast correspondents. I'm looking forward to saying good-bye to all this tomorrow morning and hopping a plane to San Francisco. As my parting gift to you, I have a couple of fine photographs from one of my favorite urban shutterbugs, Joseph O. Holmes.

amnh #62 and amnh # 10 are from Joe's ongoing series shot in front of the American Museum of Natural History's legendary and beloved dioramas. These photos continue our evolutionary themes of the week, both in subject and style. They're fine and fitting companions to Jason's 132 Birds of the AMNH, and while Joe's amnh photographs are editioned at our familiar $20/$200/$2000 sizes, this time we've produced digital c-prints, a lovely medium for the subtle yet saturated colors of the photographs.

I first introduced the 20x200 crowd to Joe's work in the midst last year's holiday frenzy when we released amnh #30 (there's just one left!) I can hardly believe that it's been nearly a year! Joe's got a show up in Seattle now (more on that below) and he's a key player in 20x200's plans for the holiday season, making it a perfect time to offer up a double dose of Joe. amnh #62 and amnh # 10 are but a taste of what's to come!

Before I skedaddle, let me give you the lowdown on Joe's Seattle show, under | exposed, currently on view at wall space gallery in Seattle. If you're out west before it closes on November 8th, don't miss it! You'll be able see images from Joe's broad repertoire, including some from amnh, workspace, and cbgb. We've been following Joe and the show over on the Hey, Hot Shot! blog; he's already received accolades from Seattle Weekly's Joshua Lynch.

And now I'm off to prep and pack for my trip! I'm back on Election Day, with a perfect "Thank you for voting!" gift to give to yourself. (Once you've voted!)

Wind-whipped Tuesday greetings, my collector friends! Today's the kind of day where everyone is talking about the weather, not just me. We all arrived at JBP HQ in various states of bedragglement, our good humor tested by inside out umbrellas and water-logged subway lines. Things are cozy and humming indoors though, topped off with a buzz of anticipation. We've been pretty excited to introduce today's edition, produced especially for the clamoring Jason Polan fans among you. (Of which there are many!)

Today's edition, 132 Birds at the American Museum of Natural History — The Print, is making a little 20x200 history of its own. We're mixing it up a bit, offering some new dimensions and edition sizes, both because of the nature of the original it's based on and in order to meet our often outpaced demand. (Keep in mind that these are additions, not instead-ofs! We've got lots of great regular editions in the queue.) Today's prints, produced on 100% cotton rag matte paper using archival ink, are available in the following sizes:

14"x11" — edition of 500 — $50 each
24"x20" — edition of 50 — $500 each
40"x30" — edition of 2 — $2000 each

The oohs and ahhs elicited by Jason's previously released edition, comprised of booklets and individual birds, were often accompanied by the same refrain: "We'd love to have a print of all the birds!"

A capital idea, says I, especially since the charms of the utterly captivating original drawing are well known to me. While I'm so glad that it's ended up in a favorite collector's hands, I have found myself jonesing for a flock of my very own. These generously sized prints give the birds room to spread their wings, and any of the three available sizes will make quite a statement once framed and up on your wall.

It won't surprise you to hear that the industrious Mr. Polan has more than birds on the brain. In fact, he's been quite busy preparing for his upcoming solo show on the tony East End of Long Island. Point of Interest opens on Saturday, November 15th at Glenn Horowitz Bookseller. I canceled a trip to France in order to attend his opening, which makes me his #1 fan.

And now I'm off to attend to other things closer at hand, like the spicy sandwich growing cold at my left elbow, the never-ending email queue, plus planning and preparations for the quick trip I am taking — Thursday morning I'll be SF-bound for some important tacos meetings.

Till tomorrow, when I'll be back with a double dose of photography editions from another 20x200 fave.

Images from Doug and Mike Starn's show alleverythingthatisyou

Yes, more Starn news! Now until Jan 3, 2009, Doug and Mike Starn will be showing images at David Weinberg Gallery in Chicago.

Their recent photographs of individual snowflakes are utterly gorgeous, almost to the point of preciousness, but above all they're technical marvels.

Mike + Doug Starn: alleverythingthatisyou book

Doug and Mike Starn's edition prints:
Structure of Thought 6b
Structure of Thought 6a

Starn Studio site

ny.08.#14 by Jennifer Sanchez
mixed mediums on canvas
30" x 40"x 1 1/2"
2008

Hallo!
Guten Montag Morgen to you all.
I have a few links to share with you.

First, Jennifer Sanchez has updated her site with new work, so be sure to click on over and see her brightly colored canvases and works on paper. If you missed the interview I did with Jennifer, you can read it here.

Next, the one and only Jason Polan is selling a t-shirt on McSweeny's. He promises that when you wear the shirt, "You win the lottery and make all the right decisions with the money". Who could refuse this offer?

And, Linzie Hunter's sold-out Coney print made its way across the Atlantic to grace the wall in this Parisienne flat. C'est magnifique! Also, don't miss your chance to get a copy of Linzie's postcard book.

Lastly, Mike Montiero was sadly attacked by a McCain calligrapher.

Special Friday greetings collectors! As promised, I'm back with a bonus edition in celebration of Nina Berman's new exhibition, Homeland, which opens at Jen Bekman Gallery in a few short hours.

G.I. Goat and our other edition from Nina, 9-11-02, perfectly capture the absurdity of post-9/11 preoccupations with terrorism and its manifestations in our country. The use of fuzzy creatures in "readiness roleplay", surveillance in the name of patriotism and the provision of counter-terrorist training to citizens in the flyover states doesn't help me sleep better at night, but Nina's Homeland series reveals that these endeavors have been both comfort and cause to many of my fellow Americans.

In the fourteen photographs that comprise the Homeland exhibition, militarism is an accepted part of everyday life and theatrically choreographed disaster-preparedness drills are a weekend diversion. Her new monograph of the same title, published by Trolley Books, is a thick tome — as I wrote when introducing 9-11-02, there is seemingly limitless material to draw upon.

I'm proud to be showing Nina's work again, and hopeful that it will prove to be a perfectly-timed retrospective on an ugly era in our nation that's about to draw to a close. I've included all the details on the exhibition below. If you're in NYC, do drop by tonight — we'd love to see you, and for you to see this super show!

One thing that's definitely coming to a close right now is this newsletter, as I've got some last minute details to tend to before tonight's festivities.

Homeland
An exhibition of fourteen color photographs by Nina Berman on view @ Jen Bekman Gallery from October 24 — November 15, 2008.
images | artist's statement | press release

Opening Reception : Friday October 24, 2008 | 6pm-8pm
Please join us at the gallery tonight at a reception for the artist.

Artist's Talk + Book Signing : Saturday November 8, 2008 | 5pm-7pm
Nina will give an artist's talk at the gallery and will sign copies of Homeland, her newest monograph published by Trolley Books.

Jen Bekman Gallery is open Wednesday — Saturday from noon-6pm or by private appointment:
6 Spring Street
(between Elizabeth + Bowery)
New York City 10012
e: info@jenbekman.com | w: www.jenbekman.com | p: +1.212.219.0166

Helicopter Fly By, All America Day with the 82nd Airborne, Ft. Bragg, North Carolina, 2006 by Nina Berman

It's that time again!

An exhibition of fourteen color photographs by Nina Berman on view @ Jen Bekman Gallery from October 24 — November 15, 2008. Please join us at the gallery this Friday October 24th, from 6pm-8pm, for a reception for the artist.

Artist's Talk + Book Signing : Saturday November 8, 2008 | 5pm-7pm
On Saturday November 8, 2008 Nina will give an artist's talk at the gallery and will sign copies of Homeland, her newest monograph published by Trolley Books.

Jen Bekman Gallery
6 Spring Street
(between Elizabeth + Bowery)
New York City 10012

Nina's website
Nina's 20x200 edition: 9-11-02
Nina's portfolio on JenBekman.com

Image from Carlo Van de Roer's Orbs Project

20x200 photographer Carlo Van de Roer has been selected to appear in a special project with MUSAC Museum of Contemporary Art: an edition of FAKE Magazine.

MUSAC has invited Fake to develop a project for its Showcases. The initiative, produced by the Museum itself, will essentially revolve around a special issue devoted to today’s art, for which guest editor Tolo Cañellas has selected a number of works by contemporary artists, asking some of them to carry out specific interventions on the publication. Fake’s editorial line is underpinned by the idea that form is just as important as content, if not more so, applying concepts such as “copy”, “imitation”, “impersonation” or “appropriation” as formal tools to engage the reader’s critical perspective and suggesting readings on different possible levels. This special issue of Fake will draw its inspiration from Hello! magazine, appropriating its design, layout, sections and the luxurious artifice of its photography. The MUSAC Showcases will display an installation imitating the exhibits of any traditional museum. Based on Fake’s underlying philosophy, the exhibition will review the magazine’s history through its covers (published or not), with a special focus on this new and exclusive special issue. The magazine will also be distributed from the same spot. Close to 3,000 copies of this English and Spanish edition of Fake will be circulated free at the MUSAC stand at Frieze Art Fair from 16 to 19 October 2008.

Images from Carlo's Orbs project (which I enthusiastically wrote about this past August) will be featured in the magazine.

If only the Q train went to Spain...I'd be on my way.

MUSAC Museo de Art Contemporaneo
Avenida de los Reye Leoneses, 24
20048, Leon, SPAIN
FAKE
Sept 27, 2008 - Jan 11, 2009

Carlo's site
Carlo's 20x200 edition prints:
Untitled (Bondi Baths, Sydney, Australia) 2007
Untitled (Astoria Park, Queens, New York)

Greetings, collectors! As regular readers of these announcements are aware, cozy sweater weather's arrival in NYC has been highly anticipated by one Ms. Jen Bekman. The good news: it's officially here! The bad news: apparently a voracious colony of moths took up residence amidst my stored and sorely missed sweaters. These vexing critters were of discerning taste, choosing to munch upon some of my most beloved items. Apparently the intoxicating smell of cedar isn't a sufficient safeguard against these beastly insects; it's toxic aromas (form of: camphor) from here on out chez JB.

Enough about my domestic tragedies! Let's imagine instead the smell of roasted peanuts and get on with part deux of the 20x200 World Series of Art, shall we?

Today's editions come to us from the extremely charming and gracious Mr. Don Hamerman. Stricken and Untitled (elephant) rolled up at JBP's world headquarters a few weeks ago, and they were huge hit among sports fans and aesthetes alike. Everyone's been anticipating an encore after Don hit it out of the park with his first double header back in April. With the actual World Series upon us (who are these Rays they speak of?) it seemed high time to get a couple more of Don's delightful baseballs into collectors' hands.

And what a fine pair we've got here, no? It's hard for me to decide which I like better. The cowlicky good looks and bold red stitching of Stricken really pop out against that slate gray background. Then again, I really do love elephants and am a sucker for a beautifully printed black and white image, which makes Untitled (elephant) hard to resist . Why decide, though, when you can get the prints for twenty bucks a piece? Make mine a double!

Don's closing out the 20x200 World Series of Art, but not the week itself. I'll be back early in the day on Friday to announce a special bonus edition. Nina Berman's second solo show at the JBG, Homeland, opens on that evening and we'll be a releasing an image from the series here on 20x200. Look for me then!

*Yes, yes I know you're reading this — mothers DO know best.

"Time Machine" by Mike Monteiro
gouache on paper
40 x 30"

Hi Kara!

I was IMing Jen this morning and she suggested I email you. I had a
piece in 20x200 back in the early days.

I'm currently showing my work on the beholder and from now until
Election Day I'm donating 50% of my sales to the Obama campaign. Jen
mentioned this might be something you could include in your blog. I'd
be most appreciative if you did.

http://tinyurl.com/6gputb

Thanks in advance.

Mike

My pleasure, Mike. Anything for Barry!

Mike's 20x200 edition print:
Untitled
Mike's blog