El Vética t-shirt designed by Mike Monteiro

20x200 artist Mike Monteiro is the head of a Mule, a design studio in California. In addition to creating exemplary design solutions, the studio also has a small store, Feed, that sells t-shirts designed by the staff of Mule. Feed's most recent t-shirt offering, El Vética, is described thusly:

Celebrating the career of Mexico’s only typographer/luchador. El Vética, also known as El Kernudo, fought out of the small town of San Serif. He held the Mexican Inter-Continental belt for an unprecedented 7 years, from 1977–84.

Visit the Feed Store to see more of Mike's funny and clever offerings.

New York (Peony) by Gregory Krum

Thursday greetings, collector friends! Unlikely as it may seem, I've genuinely missed you all. I consider it a privilege to write about art and artists, and it's an even greater one to do so knowing that at least a few people are going to actually read this newsletter. Even better still? Some lucky few of you will be living with the art I write about!

Today's edition—New York (Peony)—is a special one indeed. Its elegance, beauty and melancholy are so evocative of its creator, Gregory Krum, that I've come to see it as a self-portrait of sorts.

You might be wondering why you would want a self-portrait of one of my dearest friends hanging on your walls. Or how on earth I see a self-portrait in a vase of dying flowers. And maybe you're even thinking that Gregory's going to be mighty peeved that I've likened him to a subject so sad. (Fortunately, when I mentioned this to Greg on the phone the other day, he was actually quite pleased.)

The ability to feel an ache all the way to your core—to have that openness to emotion at all—it unlocks all the beauty in the world. Sometimes it's too much. If you're someone like my dear Mr. Krum, this too much-ness will cause you to knit up your eyebrows and sigh in the most heartfelt of ways. When he does this, I think of my most beloved short stories, tragic heroines, classical paintings in the dusty halls of museums and of my favorite poet, Frank O'Hara.

This photograph reminds me of him when he's like that, which reminds me that to feel anything at all, and to feel it deeply, is to be alive.

Thread 2 by Don Hamerman

Good Wednesday dear collectors! It's Sara with a short shout-out and some of our favorite baseball editions in celebration of tonight's big game. NYC is all abuzz as the Yankees and Phillies set up to face off for Game 6—what could be the final game of the World Series. Will we soon be seeing Philadelphia's Mayor Nutter sweeping our city's fair streets in pinstripes?

However the chips may fall this evening, I think you'll all be pleased to know that Jen will be back tomorrow with a new edition from a favorite 20x200 photographer. It's a gorgeous print sure to bring some joy to everyone—even the Phillies fans among you.

In the meantime, browsing the 20x200 archives may be the best cure for nail-biting. There are a few baseball-themed prints left, including Don Hamerman's Thread 2 and Mark Ulriksen's The Babe in the Negro Leagues. Isn't it nice to think of the Big Bambino watching over his hallowed team on eves like this? Last week's In the Ballpark from Tatsuro Kiuchi rounds out our offerings—the bases are loaded!

In other news of note: we've extended Hosang Park's exhibition A Square over at Jen Bekman Gallery. If you haven't seen this show, be sure to swing by before November 14th. Reading about Hosang's work here, here and here isn't the same as seeing it in person!

Until tomorrow!

Stuart Klipper's new book has a slipcase that was crafted from salvaged New Orleans heart pine.

Minneapolis-based panoramic photographer, Stuart Klipper, has published a book with The Press at Colorado College, A City as Once Seen, of images he made while on multiple visits to the city of New Orleans. The book features twenty-seven, new panoramic photographs.

From the press release:

This book, with its images and texts, stands as a reminder of the importance of a city that has long quickened the pulse of America’s heartbeat and added spice to the American soul.

Five of the photographs are paired with texts. Stuart enlisted five of his friends, all New Orleans-based writers to involve themselves in the project that preceded and prompted this book. Each was asked to select and in turn respond in writing to one of the 27 images. The book is structured so that each of these outstanding original vignettes counterpoint the photographs that inspired them.

A City as Once Seen: Photographs by Stuart Klipper has been printed in an edition of 40, and is expected to sell out soon, so if you are interested please call or email The Press at Colorado College to claim your copy today.

Image from A City as Once Seen

A portion of the proceeds from the book will be donated to relief and rebuilding efforts in New Orleans.

Stuart's editions Icebreaker, Emperor penguin, Southern O., Antarctica and Swell, Southern Ocean near 50 S, Antarctica are still available in all three print sizes.

Visit Stuart's gallery to see more images.

Untitled by Kate Bingaman-Burt

20x200 darling (and Summer '06 Hot Shot) Kate Bingaman-Burt has been documenting her daily consumption for close to a decade. Now, she wants our help with a new side project.

Kate clarifies:

I want to draw your mixtapes. I want your sad songs, you love jams, your sing at the top of your lungs car tunes, your break-up tape, your make-up tape and your BFF-4evah cassette.

I am only drawing the tape. If you want to participate, please snap a picture of the best side of your favorite tape and email it to me (see my profile) or upload it to your flickrstream and let me know.

If only I still had that mixtape that Ryan Butler made me in 6th grade! I am happy to think that it changed my life. Kate seems to deeply understand the nostalgic power of the nearly outmoded mixtape, so if you still have a mixtape collection, be sure to help Kate out!

See more of Kate on her site, Obsessive Consumption. Her editions, I Bought All of These, Drawings from July 2009 and Plattsmouth, Nebraska, Carts #1 are also both still available on 20x200. Kate is also featured in the recently released documentary, Handmade Nation: The Rise of DIY, Art, Craft, and Design. Then, last but certainly not least, you can also see Kate's mixtapes in our upcoming show at Jen Bekman Gallery opening at the end of November!

The Gardens by Tyson Anthony Roberts

Happy Tuesday collectors! It's Sara here on a very crisp and sunshiny NYC afternoon to introduce a brand-new edition from a brand-new 20x200 artist: The Gardens by Tyson Anthony Roberts. Jen first came across his work on Design-Milk and after visiting his site to see more, we agreed: wowza indeed.

Upon spotting The Gardens, Jen immediately conjured Seurat's Sunday Afternoon on the Island of Grand Jatte. While the compositional elements are strikingly similar, Tyson, in fact, was inspired by a more recent reference, a trip he took to the Butchart Gardens on Vancouver Island, British Columbia. But this blending of then and now is an appropriate lens for viewing Tyson's work.

With cunning strokes of his brush, Tyson mixes the best of old-skool traditions to create a quiet commentary on the world we live in. Landscape painting goes way back to the beginning of artistic conventions in both the Eastern and Western worlds. From there, Tyson brings in a little bit more modernism, referencing abstract expressionism and minimalism, then eventually transports us to the ever-changing present. His brushstokes, while defined by history, are very much objects of the here and now, looking a little like exaggerated pixels or Legos. However you see them, it's hard to not get the feeling that they are moving, or are, at least, recording something in motion.

As Tyson writes, "the places we know are always changing whether we are ready or not." This is especially true for nature. In spite of our efforts to tame and control it—Butchart Gardens boasts five seasons!—and sometimes, intentionally or not, to destroy it, nature relentlessly continues to permeate the globe. In his painting, Tyson is reminding us that not only will nature persist, but we'll be lucky if we're able to keep up with it. The same can be said for pretty much every aspect of life today; it's cliche but resonant: the only constant is change itself.

I'll leave you today with this little bit—knowing full well it's a thought that can be equally overwhelming and exciting. But I am doing so also knowing that Tyson's work provides a little peace, calm and quite amidst all this craziness.

Untitled by Jason Polan

Jason Polan, artist and illustrator extraordinaire with eight (yes, 8!) editions on 20x200 has a show opening at Lump Gallery/Projects in North Carolina this Friday, November 6th.

Jason writes,

Please Trust Me is an exhibition of all different things. The source material ranges from comic book panels, to pages from LIFE Magazine, to notes found on the street. There are particular shapes, lines, letters and texts that I like and want to show to you.

Please Trust Me
Opening reception: Friday, November 6th, 7–10 p.m.
Lump Gallery/Projects
505 S. Blount Street
Raleigh, NC 27601

The exhibition will be accompanied by the release of a new book and will remain on view through November 28, 2009.

Can't make it? Don't worry! Jason's prints of birds, people, hands, insects, sea creatures, dinosaurs, and rocks are all waiting for you at 20x200!

Untitled by Kurt Tong

New work from a series titled In Case it Rains in Heaven by two-time 20x200 edition-maker and 2009 First Edition Hot Shot Kurt Tong opens next Thursday at Fotofest in Houston. The group exhibition International Discoveries II features 18 images and a video by Kurt and will be the first public showing of these works documenting folded paper funerary gifts from China, such as the paper roller skates above. The series was also recently awarded second runner-up honors in the editorial category of the Photography.Book.Now competition (where another one of his series, People's Park took the grand prize). Of In Case it Rains in Heaven, Kurt writes,

Traditionally, many Chinese believe that when a person dies, he leaves with no earthly possessions and it's up to their descendants to provide for them in their afterlife until reincarnation.

In the last 50 years, more and more elaborate items are made out of paper as offerings for the dead. Cars, servants and houses were common sights at funerals. As consumer culture takes over China, Joss products have become more and more outrageous. While this practice is officially banned in China, it has always been tolerated.

If you're in Houston, don't miss the chance to check out work by Kurt and the other five international artists who are "being featured by FotoFest as outstanding ‘discoveries’ in the world of contemporary photography."

International Discoveries II
Fotofest
November 5–December 19, 2009
Houston, Texas
1113 Vine Street, Houston, Texas, USA

For more information, see the press release (pdf) and check out Kurt's work online.

Kurt's 20x200 editions, RAF Vulcan XL-361 and Gosling Lake, are both available in all sizes from 20x200.

We've been featured on Lucky Magazine's Lucky Right Now blog! The article, titled "Rad Affordable Art", highlights one of our recent favorites, Nonsensical Infographic No.1 by Chad Hagen. Kamping Kabins by Ian Baguskas, whose work you can look forward to in the upcoming exhibit at Jen Bekman Gallery, is also featured.

Elise writes "There will always be a debate about whether art can be affordable. I am firmly, firmly in the yes camp—beauty is a pretty relative thing, don't you think? Thus, the brilliance of sites like 20x200.com."

We couldn't agree more.

20x200 has been listed among the "best in affordable art" on p.236 in the November issue of InStyle Magazine! Pictured above is Victoria's Peak, Hong Kong by 20x200 edition-maker Emily Shur, which you can pickup for yourself right here. And don't forget: sign up for the 20x200 mailing list to receive weekly announcements of our new editions.