February 2009 Archives

Join the Brooklyn Museum during the month of February for Wikipedia Loves Art!

Who: Brooklyn Museum + cultural institutions across the country (find the one nearest you!)

What: A scavenger hunt and free content photography contest

When: The entire month of February 2009

Where: New York, Pittsburgh, Houston, Indianapolis, Honolulu, Chattanooga, Los Angeles, Cincinnati & London

Why: Create content to illustrate Wikipedia articles! Win *prizes*!

Click on a link below for rules, details, and prizes for your location:

Brooklyn Museum
Carnegie Museum of Art
The Film Society of Lincoln Center
Honolulu Academy of Arts
Houston Museum of Natural Science
The Hunter Museum of American Art
Indianapolis Museum of Art
The Jewish Museum
Los Angeles County Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Museum of Modern Art
New-York Historical Society
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Taft Museum of Art
V&A

Events will be coordinated at each location throughout the month. You can register as a team, or fly solo; sign up here. After registration, point, shoot (no tripods!), identify and upload!

Rachell Sumpter
Aten, Apollo and Amor, 2009

Californian collectors, this one is for you! Grab your red pens and put a heart around February 21st for this is an auspicious day wherein 20x200 sweetheart Rachell Sumpter will open a solo show, Molten Kin, at Richard Heller Gallery. Just because a little groundhog saw his shadow yesterday is no reason to give in to the wintertime blues when a show with molten sunshine is just around the corner!

Rachell Sumpter | Molten Kin
February 21 - March 21
Opening Reception: 5 - 7pm
RICHARD HELLER GALLERY
2525 Michigan Avenue, B-5A
Santa Monica, California

Rachell's 20x200 edition prints:
Cave Dwellers
Grande Finale
Rachell's site

Who: NYC Collectors & Team 20x200
What: Collectors Confab
When: Tuesday, February 10, 2009, from 6-9 p.m.
Where: White Rabbit @ 145 E. Houston (between Chrystie and Allen)
Why: We love you as much as we love art! Join us for a drink and meet other collectors in NYC.

Please rsvp by emailing rsvp@20x200.com or find us on Facebook.
*Cash bar. Stay tuned for more details on drink specials.*

(We also love White Rabbit!)

Snowy—but not quite a snow day—greetings, fellow collectors. There's pretty white stuff falling from above, but it's the unsticky sort thus far. Uncharacteristically, I kind of hope it stays that way; I'm planning on wearing most unsensible shoes for an event I'm attending this evening, and it'd be a pity to have to trade them in for my cute, but decidedly unglamorous, fleecy boots.*

Speaking of events, I'm hoping to see lots of you on Tuesday, February 10th. We're planning a 20x200 Collectors Confab that evening, and I'm looking forward to meeting lots of you people from the computer, live and in person. So mark those agendas (in pen please!) and stay tuned for details. Most pressing on my current agenda? Introducing today's edition. Let's get on with it.

Berry is our second edition from Brooklyn-based painter Kevin Cyr. His Koolman had everyone screaming for ice cream—as of today, there's just one left. While a bit grittier than its predecessor, Berry is one of the many striking paintings Kevin has been creating to document the commercial vehicles that are native to his not-quite-but-they're-sure-trying-post-industrial Williamsburg environs.

As I wrote in the newsletter announcing Koolman, I also find beauty in the rougher edges of our city, and am a big fan of Kevin's depictions of some of its finest incarnations. Simultaneously specimens and formal portraits, they communicate a veneration that we normally reserve for scientific wonders and heads of state. It's a well-deserved celebration, and as a lot of the art that I love does, it reminds me to look closer at my everyday scenery. There's beauty to be found in the derelict of things, and who couldn't stand to have more beauty in their life?

*A bigger pity: me wiping out in front of a throng of people gathered for a fancy art event. It's happened, and my most fervent hope of never having to do that again means I'll wear those boots if need be.

Enlarged photomicrographs of snowflakes from the series alleverythingthatisyou
by Doug & Mike Starn

20x200 photographers Doug & Mike Starn's photographs of snowflakes have taken a timely trip to Vermont.

This body of work was conceived in Vermont and pays homage to “Snowflake” Bentley (1835-1931), the Jericho, Vermont, photographer whose pioneering excursions in photographic microscopy are responsible for our recognition that no two snowflakes are alike.

Art Now: Doug and Mike Starn
Middlebury College Museum of Art
Middlebury, VT
January 6 – April 19

Mike + Doug Starn: alleverythingthatisyou book

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

Starn Studio site

Wednesday greetings, my collector friends! I hope you're all clearing your schedules, booking last minute travel and making excellent wardrobe choices in preparation for next week's 20x200 Collectors Confab. Our excellent venue, White Rabbit, is well within the confines of my natural habit, allowing me to dispense with the travel planning part. Free of that, I can focus on the important things, newsletter writing being amongst the most important of them.

Highway 94 Location, #1 and Jones Boulevard Location, #1, from photographer Kevin Miyazaki's Fast Food series, have gritty beauty in common with yesterday's release. (Less interesting, but also in common: the artists' first names.) Both artists coax aesthetic pleasure from the detritus of inattention and time's passage, but they find it in very different places. Mr. Cyr's paintings focus on the layers of what's been left behind, whereas the desolate beauty of today's photographs is delineated by absence.

I've been familiar with Kevin and his work via his blog for quite a while now, but my first opportunity for a real world encounter came last summer, at the wonderful Photolucida portfolio reviews in Portland, Oregon. Unsurprisingly, both Kevin and his work are best enjoyed in person, and we agreed then and there that 20x200 editions from Fast Food were a fantastic idea. It was actually tough to decide which series to choose from — if you browse his site you'll see that he's got several excellent bodies of work.

I am drawn to Kevin's photographs for how they make me think and feel. The thinky stuff comes via the documentary aspects of his practice. The Camp Home series addresses the Japanese internment camps of our not-so-distant past. Fast Food gets me thinking about how what we eat needs to change and also puts Alison Arieff's recent writings on the future of the suburbs at the forefront of my mind.

Although the work can provoke the consideration of some big ideas, no one would mistake Kevin for a straight documentary photographer. His photographs are subjective, personal, occasionally nostalgic and often intimate. That's the aspect that really gets me, and especially so, since it's reminiscent of the type of work that had the greatest impact on me at the beginning of my curatorial career. There's something uneasy about finding beauty and yearning in the uglier aspects of our culture and past, but it's also honest and, ultimately, optimistic.

As for me, I am optimistic that I'll be able to tackle a whole lot of my to-do list for the day. Honestly, I absolutely must; there are a few things on it that are long overdue (apologies!) and tomorrow morning is blocked out for... newsletter writing. That's three in one week, which means a lot of writing for me and a lot of Jen for you. I can assure you, however, that it's well worth it for all involved. Just you wait and see.

A my-breath-turns-to-icicles-as-I-speak hello to you on this seasonally frigid Thursday. (I know, I know. Minneapolis collectors are likely scoffing at my wussy East Coast cold threshold, but I just can't get used to this!) Grouchy as I may be about the temperatures, I have been secretly hoping that I'd be introducing today's editions on a day just like this one. Everyone needs fodder for sunny daydreams when the weather's like this, so I'm happy to offer up some inspiration.

Praia Piquinia 02/08/07 15h16 and Praia Piquinia 04/08/07 16h04 provide the perfect backdrop for your sun and sand fantasies. It's easy to see why Christian Chaize is, as he calls it himself, "slightly obsessed" with this idyllic beach in Portugal. I'm not one to bask in the sun myself, but I can easily imagine lounging beneath one of those festive umbrellas with a trashy novel for a languorous afternoon. In fact, I can see doing it for a few afternoons in a row, and am sorely in need of them right about now!

The visual appeal of these images should be inarguable to all but the crankiest of sun-and-surf haters (we all know a few). The landscape is inherently photogenic, and the umbrellas and sunbathers are most fetchingly arrayed across it. Collectors who came to us via the Domino (RIP) feature certainly agree — we got lots of anxiously enthusiastic emails from would-be collectors who saw Praia Piquinia 04/08/07 16h04 in the magazine and wondered why they couldn't find it on the site. Knowing we'd soon be releasing Chaize's pair of photographs, we secretly posted this one for intrepid sleuths and blog readers.

What makes today's introduction extra special is its pairing with Praia Piquinia 02/08/07 15h16. As you can surmise from their titles, these photographs were taken two days apart in August, from the same vantage point. The changes — subtle or obvious, natural or man made — revealed by the passage of time, are central to the work. Seen at different days and hours, the simple charm of the vista evolves into something richer — all the details unique to each moment are evidence of the transience of time and tide, creating a framework for human narrative, real or imagined. As each element is examined and identified, the daydream becomes clearer and the feeling of being there is that much closer.

It's this aspect of the work that sold me on it, and as Hey, Hot Shot! panelist Jenni Holder will attest, I was not an easy sell! She first showed me Christian's work in the Fall of 2007, when we rendezvous'd at Paris Photo. Jenni's an American expat living in Lyon with her picture perfect family, which is how she came to know Christian. She's also incredibly savvy about fine-art photography, having served as the director of a prestigious NY gallery for many years, so I knew going into our meeting that Christian was no slouch. Their aforementioned inarguable appeal was immediately evident, but I also couldn't help but compare them to the better-known (not to mention exponentially pricier) works of Massimo Vitali and Richard Misrach.

Jenni and I reunited again recently — and perhaps a bit less glamorously — over sushi in New York and once we got love, life and gossip out of the way, our conversation turned to photography. Meetings with other art dealers were what brought her here, and hearing of her conversations with my colleagues provoked an unexpected reaction in me. Was I... jealous? Yes, in fact, I was!

Suddenly it seemed absurd that I wasn't the one debuting Christian's work in New York. You should've seen the look on the patient Ms. Holder's face when I voiced this — a perfect mix of no-duh exasperation, and triumph. We bid each other adieu, and a few transatlantic instant messenger chats later — it's insane how much of my business life transpires over IM — everything was settled. With his editions announced, we're now turning our attentions to Christian's New York debut at Jen Bekman Gallery in May.

Ultimately, it all comes down to time and timing. (That "you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone" foreshadowing may have had a bit to do with it as well.) I knew that I loved the work and that it would look amazing on the walls of the gallery, but that wasn't quite enough. I had to be able to articulate what was different about Christian's approach and it took a while to figure it out and put it into words. The scale and dazzle of Misrach and Vitali captivate me, and those qualities also provide an opportunity for Christian's counterpoint: His photographs are less about humanity and more about being human.

Image by 2008 Emerging Photographer Fund grant winner Sean Gallagher

Hello collectors, friends and photographers (or friends of photographers). I was just reading this first-rate blog, and found a reason to rush back and share:

EMERGING PHOTOGRAPHER GRANT 2009

A $10,000 grant will be awarded in early 2009 to a worthy emerging photographer from the readership here whose work is on the highest level. Funding would be designed to support continuation of this photographer’s personal project. This body of work may be of either journalistic mission or purely personal artistic imperatives…

The Emerging Photographer Fund grant was initiated by David Alan Harvey in 2008, and is awarded by the Magnum Foundation, a non-profit created by the the member photographers from Magnum Photos, Inc. A five person jury will be named to review your work.

The DEADLINE for submissions is MARCH 15, 2009. No exceptions.

Complete grant details here.

Buona fortuna!

G.I. Goat
by Nina Berman
Buy one now

Windy City collectors, this one is for you! Jen Bekman Gallery artist, 20x200 denizen, and internationally lauded documentary photographer, Nina Berman, will be showing her Homeland series at Gage Gallery starting on Thursday, February 12th. Nina will be holding a lecture about the series the same night at 6.15. The reception and lecture with Berman are free and open to the public.

Nina's recently published book, Homeland, was named on The Times as one of the best photography books of 2008.

Nina Berman | Homeland
Gage Gallery at Roosevelt University
February 12 - May 22, 2009
Chicago, Illinois

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

Highway 94 Location, #1
by Kevin J. Miyazaki
Buy one now

Last Wednesday Kevin J. Miyazaki made his 20x200 debut, and today his hometown paper reported on his edition print with us:

Milwaukee artist Kevin Miyazaki's black and white photographs of forlorn urban spaces, former homes to fast-food restaurants, are featured on the site. The images, resonant with a sense of collective loss, are not presented as the unsentimental corporate spaces they once were but as the cultural relics that they've become.

And 20x200 didn't get away without some praise:

There are people who love and want to buy art. And there are people itchin' to sell art. And these folks are not always in proximity. Enter: The Internet.

Yes, we know, there aren't many Web-based art galleries worthy of a recommendation, but 20x200 is a rare exception.

A rare exception? Yes indeedy!

Kevin's edition prints:
Featured above--Highway 94 Location, #1
Jones Boulevard Location, #1
Kevin's site

20x200 superstars Jason Polan and Jane Mount are at it again! Well, to be clear, they are not sparring (and never really have), but instead are collaborating once more. This time it is for a group show at Syracuse University entitled Land vs Sea: Animals in the Consciousness of America. Looks like they are an art duo that is here to stay. Who could ever grumble about that? Not a soul, dear collectors. Not one.

The show will open next Thursday, February 19th @ Spark Contemporary Art Space.

SPARK
1005 E. Fayette Street
Syracuse, NY

Jason Polan's 20x200 editions:
Insects and Myriapods at The American Museum of Natural History
Sea Creatures at The American Museum of Natural History
Dinosaurs at The American Museum of Natural History
132 Birds at The American Museum of Natural History
Every Person in New York
Hand Project

Jason Polan's sites:
Jason Polan
The Drawing Project
Every Person in New York
The 53rd Street Biological Society

Jane's edition prints:
Bookshelf 29
Bookshelf 20
132 Birds Leaving AMNH (Response to Jason Polan)
Jane's site

Tonight's-the-night greetings, my collector friends! As reported last week, we're hosting our very first NYC 20x200 Collectors Confab this evening. We've gotten loads of RSVPs from collectors and artists alike, and I'm really looking forward to seeing everyone at White Rabbit in a few short hours. No one's going home empty-handed either! We'll have lots of those groovy 20x200 stickers on hand, plus we're going to be raffling off some prints too. More details about who's who and what's what after today's edition is introduced.

Inloveness Revisited comes to us from Jeff Lewis, a painter whose outsized, exuberant paintings have been exhibited worldwide. As someone who has to come up with thousands of words about pictures on a daily basis, I am most appreciative of the simplicity of Jeff's statement. It's almost like he's humoring us — why use words to describe a process that's as natural to him as breathing?

Words are my refuge and my reason — in my world view, everything should be describable. Rather, I should be able to describe everything — with words; without them I have no other way to express myself. Of course, this is untrue and unfair — to myself, and to the indescribable. Sometimes something just is.

Starting with creative writing crits in college and traveling along a professional continuum that's cast me as client, vendor, writer and editor, I've had ample opportunity to give and receive feedback. I try my best to be thoughtful regardless of which side of the equation I'm on, but it's easy to fall into broad language. Try excising the words "interesting", "nice" and "good" from your vocabulary and you'll know exactly what I mean. I ran up against this yesterday when reviewing some design work with Ken Hejduk, one of the fine fellows from Little Jacket.

We were looking at a first round of logo design sketches, which is the stage where nothing is supposed to be just right, but pinpointing why it's not right, or the ways in which it works a little bit really helps move the process forward. I was looking at a logo and, well, I just liked it. I don't have it in front of me, and can't remember it exactly, but it had a roundness to it and that was pleasing to me. I was utterly exasperated by my inability to articulate why I found it pleasing. Ken — who's good with words AND pictures, the bastard — stepped in and reassured me that it was ok to not be able to explain everything all the time.

Little did Ken know, he was also preparing me to write today's newsletter! I feel the same way about Jeff's prints as I did about that logo design — they have a roundness that is pleasing to me. Also: a color palette that I associate with elation. And with those two good things described, I'll leave it at that and I'll be back tomorrow.

Hopefully, I'll be seeing some of you between now and then though! I know for a fact that I'll be seeing lots of artists: Jonathan Allen, Ky Anderson, Ian Baguskas, Nina Berman, William Crump, Kevin Cyr, Scott Eiden, Steve Eiden, Shuli Hallak, Andrew Hetherington, Joseph Holmes, Gregory Krum, Emily Noelle Lambert, Rebecca Loyche, Jane Mount, Youngna Park, Kent Rogowski, Jennifer Sanchez, Trey Speegle, Superdeluxe, Amy Talluto, Matthew Tischler, Carlo Van de Roer, Yijun Liao and Cara Phillips have all expressed their intention to attend. So dust off those party duds and come on down:

20x200 Collectors Confab @ White Rabbit
Tuesday, February 10th | 6pm - 9pm
145 East Houston Street
(between Forsyth + Eldridge Streets)

This just in: Jason Polan's famed Taco Bell Drawing Club will be convening this very night, the eve of President Lincoln's birth, to draw pictures of good 'ol Honest Abe or crunchwrap supremes or any other thing you can imagine, on the menu or not.

Run, friends, run to that proverbial border--I've heard rumors of door prizes!

Taco Bell Drawing Club Abraham Lincoln 200
Taco Bell
4-5:30pm
14th Street (just W of Union Square)
NYC

Jason Polan's 20x200 editions:
Insects and Myriapods at The American Museum of Natural History
Sea Creatures at The American Museum of Natural History
Dinosaurs at The American Museum of Natural History
132 Birds at The American Museum of Natural History
Every Person in New York
Hand Project

Jason Polan's sites:
Jason Polan
The Drawing Project
Every Person in New York
The 53rd Street Biological Society

Wednesday greetings, collectors. Last night's event? Confabulous! It was really fun and we had an amazing turnout. I really love introducing collectors to the artists that are making the work they're collecting and last night provided ample opportunity to do just that. My only regret was that I didn't get to connect more dots. (We're already figuring out ways to do that better next time, and elsewhere.)

Today's edition, Resting on a Bush, comes to us from Yijun Liao aka Pixy. Pixy moved to NYC recently and today's edition is part deux of the Jen Bekman Projects' equivalent of a tickertape parade in her honor. Part one? The opening reception for our Hey, Hot Shot! exhibition, which is closing this Saturday — be sure to stop by the gallery and check it out.

Releasing this edition is particularly sweet for me as I've had a huge crush on this photo for quite a while now. I posted about it on Personism well over a year ago, and have remained fascinated with Pixy and her work ever since. I was so glad that she entered Hey, Hot Shot! and even more pleased to discover that my fellow panelists were similarly intrigued, meriting her one of the five winning slots in what was an extremely competitive round.

It just kept getting better from there — when we contacted her to tell her she was selected, she let us know that she was about to move here. The opening happened right as she was getting settled, and everyone from JBP has been enjoying getting to know the charming Ms. Pixy live and in person. The icing on the cake was being able to make this very photo her debut 20x200 edition.

It's always nice to exit on a high note, so with our cake iced, I'll take my leave till next week. We've got a ga-ga-gorgeous array of editions lined up and I can't wait to share them. Good thing time flies when you're having fun (and you know we always are), Tuesday will be here before we know it... Look for me then!

We Just Keep Taking Turns
by Wendy Heldmann

20x200 artist Wendy Heldman will be opening a solo show, Of Course and Never, this Saturday, February 14th @ JAIL Gallery in LA. Like Wendy's edition print, the show features work that reveal to us curious scenes of disarray that alarm as much as they entice. In her artist statement Wendy suggests that the "series of paintings of the interiors of a university library in the aftermath of a natural disaster is not committed to an accurate auditing of the untenable wreckage, but shows what such a site represents- the futility of invention and architecture in such a cataclysmic environmental condition."

From the press release:

JAIL Gallery is pleased to present "Of Course and Never", a solo exhibition of paintings by Los Angeles-based artist Wendy Heldmann. Library aisles appear in Heldmann's paintings as they are never seen. Tomes slump in their shelves, books lie in unintelligible piles on the floor, and periodicals are strewn across aisles, defying the organizing principles that make their contents accessible. The entropic state of these compositions is amplified through a use of paint that further enacts such a state. Whether alluding to the obsolescence of tactile information systems such as libraries, allegorizing the innavigable results of an obtuse google search, or simply documenting the varying degrees of disarray left after a thorough ransacking, "Of Course and Never" oscillates between affirmation and negation of each perspective.

A 32 page book will accompany the exhibition and is available here

Opening Reception: Saturday, February 14th from 6-10PM

JAIL Gallery
February 14- March 14, 2009
965 N. Vignes St., #5A
Los Angeles, CA

Gallery hours :
Wed - Sat, 12-6pm

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

Image by Ben Hider

Last night was the inaugural Collectors Confab at White Rabbit. I was there to observe many raised glasses, smiles a plenty, and a general feeling of merriment. Couldn't make it? Have a peek at the photos, and then you'll be sure to attend the next one.

20x200 darling (and Summer '06 Hot Shot) Kate Bingaman-Burt is one of many superstars in a new documentary by Faythe Levine, Handmade Nation: The Rise of DIY, Art, Craft, and Design .

Handmade Nation NYC Premiere and Director's Panel TONIGHT!
Tickets can be ordered here
Museum of Art and Design Theater
Thursday, February 12 6:30-8pm
2 Columbus Circle
NYC

P.S.

Kate designed the Handmade Nation logo you see above!

Image by Colleen Plumb from the series Animals Are Outside Today

20x200 artist and 2008 First Edition Hot Shot, Colleen Plumb, is basking in the glow of (well deserved) success. Colleen was recently granted a Solo Exhibition Award at the Center of Fine Art Photography in Fort Collins, Colorado, was indexed in the inaugural Artists' Showcase catalog with an essay by juror Darius Himes of Radius Books, and she is featured in the February edition of PDN!

But wait! There's more!

Colleen's first solo exhibition of her series, Animals Are Outside Today, opened February 12 and will run through through April 26 at the City Gallery at the Historic Water Tower on Chicago's North side.

City Gallery
806 North Michigan Avenue
Chicago, Illinois

Colleen's 20x200 edition prints:
Tiger Rug, Cabrini Green
Field Museum Sue
Amish Horses

Trash Mountain by Megan Whitmarsh

Color Work Station by Megan Whitmarsh

Sunny Tuesday greetings, my collector friends! I'm feeling awfully bright and bouncy today — well-rested and well-fed after a weekend that involved naps (highly unusual considering my shot-from-a-cannon hyper ways) and delicious meals with people whom I admire and adore. Today's editions are a nice fit for my mood and will hopefully provide a shot of dayglo-hued optimism for those of you that might be suffering some back-to-the-grind ennui on this Tuesday that feels like a Monday.

Color Work Station and Trash Mountain are by the Los Angeles-based artist Megan Whitmarsh. I sent Megan an email entitled "fan mail" on February 10th of last year after she placed an order for one of Ky Anderson's lovely prints. Rather than being alarmed by my order-inbox stalking (bless her heart), Megan sent a warm and speedy reply indicating that, yes, she would indeed love to work with us.

It took a bit longer to get from fan mail to edition than I thought it would, but exactly now is probably the best time to be introducing her work. Her solo show, The Fucking Crap of Life, opens at New Image Art in West Hollywood on Saturday. Being a similarly reared in the seventies, pop-culture obsessed woman who happens to curse like a sailor, rolling out editions in support of Megan's efforts is a no-brainer. Aside from that, Megan's approach and aesthetic dovetails nicely with recent company kept.

Last week's New York City premiere of Handmade Nation, artist Faythe Levine's directorial debut, brought the fabulous Kate Bingaman-Burt to town for an all-too-brief visit. (She hand-drew the lettering for the documentary's awesome title sequence.) She saved me a seat at the screening, which was held at Museum of Arts & Design, and we like, totally hung out at the mall after AND she arranged for Faythe herself to join us for a lovely, arty, crafty, power lunch at Freeman's the next day. After lunch they came upstairs for a preview of upcoming editions and we talked a lot about Megan's work.

Faythe, Kate and Megan have more in common than the fact that they're all totally badass, awesome, inspiring and intelligent women. They're also all involved in expanding the definition of what art is by employing and/or championing styles, subjects and techniques that we're more accustomed to seeing anywhere but a museum. Megan's amazing embroideries and fabric sculptures would be right at home amongst the creations of many of the artists featured in the movie. She also shares KBB's well-documented obsession with consumption, along with a sensibility that's informed and influenced by graphic design. An affinity for what Megan describes as "art that is generous in spirit and amateurish, art that inspires rather than intimidates" is well evidenced in everything that each of them do.

It would have been awfully great if Megan could've joined us for lunch, now that I think about it. Lunch with these three, a visit to Megan's show and an LA-screening of Handmade Nation - I'd book a ticket for that in a hot second. Whaddya say, ladies?

Nastya Before Class, St. Petersburg, Russia by Rachel Papo

Waiting for Hand Grenade Practice, Southern Israel by Rachel Papo

Wednesday greetings, collectors near and far! Sara and I are just back from a morning spent trooping around looking at office spaces. The raw, blustery weather chilled us through, making the return to our entirely-too-small-for-us-now office less of a let down, but it'll be awfully nice for all of us to get a little more elbow room. Climate aside, it was a thoroughly pleasant experience — the broker showing us around is a fellow New York native and Stuyvesant alum who shares my affection for the city and its stories. This meant that what could have likely been an awkward annoying morning spent on the receiving end of a high-pressure pitch was instead a pleasant amble around town, which has both Sara and I feeling cautiously optimistic. My affection for living and working here is strengthened by the amazing people I get to work with, talented photographer Rachel Papo being one of them.

Nastya Before Class, St. Petersburg, Russia and Waiting for Hand Grenade Practice, Southern Israel come from two very different bodies of work, but what I find particularly affecting about the pairing is commonalities, both obvious and subtle.

There's an easily accessible harmony in the way the subjects' postures mirror one and other, in their femininity and their youth. There's an enormous amount of complexity present as well though, and that's what makes them more than merely interesting. These are images that I've thought about a lot since we made their selection. They compel me to revisit myself as I traversed the precarious years where youth and femininity clumsily, and sometimes dangerously, intermingle. And with these two young women there's more than that simple trope — ambition, determination and a certain worldliness I sense in both their gazes removes the sugar-coating from their stories.

Another thing that didn't feel so obvious till Rachel and I discussed it was how close they are in age. Three years apart, I think she said. It's just about right when you think about it logically, but their closeness floored me once it was articulated. Three years seems ever shorter as I live my grown-up life, but when considered from the point of view of my younger self, it's a staggering distance.

Speaking of staggering... I've got a staggering list of things to get done by the end of the day since Sara and I will be off on another pleasant urban amble tomorrow. We'll be paying a visit to Aperture and will also pop in to see Brian Clamp, one of my favorite gallerist colleagues. His current exhibition? The not to be missed works of one Ms. Rachel Papo! Desperately Perfect is in the main gallery, and Serial No. 3817131 is in the project room. Seeing more of this work in person is absolutely worthy of an amble of your own, so plan on getting there before the exhibition closes on March 14th.

One more thing before I go — if this newsletter is the first dispatch you've received from me this week, you're missing out! We had a bit of a snafu with yesterday's newsletter which introduced two fun and fabulous editions, Color Work Station and Trash Mountain, from LA-based painter Megan Whitmarsh.

Interior 2 by Sarah McKenzie on view at Jen Bekman Gallery

Colorado-based artist Sarah McKenzie's NYC solo debut, Building Code, will open at Jen Bekman Gallery tonight, February 20th, with a reception from 6 - 8:00 p.m. at the gallery, 6 Spring Street (between Elizabeth + Bowery).

A limited edition of McKenzie's Site was released on 20x200 after Jen saw her work at Worlds Away: New Suburban Landscapes, which originated at the Walker Art Center in February 2008. Just one print is left!

Site by Sarah McKenzie, available at 20x200

If you're in the neighborhood, come by tonight, we'd love to see you and think you'll love seeing the paintings in person - it's smart and fun, just like Sarah herself. The show will be on view until Saturday, April 4th, 2009.

Not in NYC? We just might have more work from Ms. McKenzie here on 20x200. Make sure you're signed up for Jen's newsletter to be among the first to find out.

A new exhibit by Megan Whitmarsh, The Fucking Crap of Life, opened Saturday, February 21st at New Image Art in West Hollywood, CA. Whitmarsh, who embraces "entropy" and "visual noise" along with a vibrant color palette and 1970s pop culture, has two editions, Color Work Station and Trash Mountain, currently available on 20x200.

Whitmarsh says of her new work:

I am a child of the 70s whose sense of futurism is informed by Star Wars (fucked-up dusty robots) instead of Tomorrow Land. A future with entropy and drug use and weeds growing in the cracks between the scratched plexiglass windows of the geodesic domes. Bits of yarn and dusty houseplants. If this sounds bleak, I don’t mean for it to. Perhaps the healthiest kind of futurism is one that admits entropy and flux. Perfection is suspicious; worn and dusty can mean well-loved, too. Who loves the Stepford Wife?...

When I make a giant mountain of handmade trash I am lost in the fun of making, and feel like a kid building a fort. In the end I must resign myself to the fact that I have just added more crap to the world, but this seems an inevitable part of being an artist and a human. I try to remain optimistic. I like art that is generous in spirit and amateurish, art that inspires rather than intimidates.

The Fucking Crap of Life will be up through March 21, 2009.

Buy Color Work Station and Trash Mountain at 20x200.
Read Jen's newsletter on Megan Whitmarsh.

Image by Joseph O. Holmes

Hello beloved collectors! You know about our flickr account, right? I sure hope so! I recently uploaded images from our latest gallery reception, Sarah McKenzie's Building Code. Click on over to see photos of happy faces and excellent art snapped by our very own Joseph O. Holmes.

Sarah's 20x200 edition print:
Site
Sarah's gallery images on jenbekman.com
Sarah's site

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

Image of Ms. Jen Bekman by Zach Klein

Hey, hey!

The charmingly inexhaustible Jen Bekman will be speaking TONIGHT @ Ignite NYC. Watch Jen magically click through 20 slides (in 5 minutes!). Jen promises she'll be "the fast-talking, nervous blond with the lo-tech deck, entitled Overcrowded - How crowd sourcing is ruining everything.

See you there!

Ignite NYC III
Monday, February 23 | 6:30-10:00PM @ Santos Party House

96 Lafayette St (between Walker + White)

Schedule 6:30PM- Doors

6:30-7:30PM- Happy Hour: $2 Buds and $5 mixed drink

7:30-8PM- Know Your Meme: The Game Show! Pwn, Win, or Fail! w/ Rocketboom

Images from Kate's flickr.

20x200's Kate Bingaman-Burt is the latest artist to team up with Pinball Publishing for the release of this month's offering in their designer card series. Images come from Kate's series of drawings, What Did You Buy Today? documenting daily purchases from the last three years and are printed on chipboard with rounded corners in Pantone 376 (a lively spring green), black, and opaque white. The designer decks are a collaboration between graphic designers, illustrators, and artists with Pinball's team to show-off exactly what offset printing can do.

Princeton Architectural Press will also publish 650 of Kate's daily drawings in a book forthcoming in March 2010. We can't wait.

Kate's site, Obsessive Consumption.
Kate's editions, I Bought All of These and Plattsmouth, Nebraska, Carts #1 on 20x200.
Kate in the recently released documentary, Handmade Nation: The Rise of DIY, Art, Craft, and Design.
Kate's exhibit at Jen Bekman Gallery.

Lift by Sarah McKenzie



Support by Sarah McKenzie

Tuesday greetings, my collector friends. It's been a whirlwind since I last typed to you, right up until the wee hours of this very morning. I managed to get through 20 presentation slides in 5 minutes at yesterday evening's IgniteNYC event. Out past curfew on a school night already, I then repaired to Veselka for a late-night milkshake with the event's breakout star and a couple of her most ardent fans. (Veselka apparently ranked high on the list of afterparty destinations — we spotted no less than 6 other attendees there!)

Also fun: this past Friday night's opening reception for Building Code, the NYC solo debut of today's edition maker, the amazingly talented and absolutely delightful to hang around with Sarah McKenzie. The exhibition itself took shape as we were in the process of planning these editions, Lift and Support. Sarah's first edition with us, Site, has just one print remaining and collectors have been clamoring for her return since its release. With these editions, we're able to offer a broader range of editions and sizes:

$20: Lift (10"x8") and Support (8"x10")
$50: Lift (14"x11") and Support (11"x14")
$200:Lift (20"x16") and Support (16"x20")

We're also offering $1000 prints of Lift (36"x24") and Support (24"x30") — drop a note to collector@20x200.com for more information about those. Also, keep in mind that our quoted dimensions are for the paper size, not the image itself — Lift is tall and narrow, while Support is square. Their borders will vary accordingly.

Site is what started it all, almost exactly one year ago. I fell in love with the painting when I saw it at the opening reception for the Worlds Away: New Suburban Landscapes exhibition at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis. That show has traveled around the country since, and is opening at the Yale School of Architecture on March 2nd.

My newsletter introducing Site does a thorough job of explaining why Sarah's work has such a strong impact on me, laying the foundation (oh, I'm punny, yes I am!) for Sara Distin and Jeffrey Teuton's press release for Building Code:

At first glance it seemed photorealistic, in part because it reminds me of the ground well-trod by many of my favorite fine art photographers. But look closely and it's clearly not quite real — there is a flatness in both her paint and perspective that has the primitive feeling of folk art. Take that flatness in and allow yourself to focus on the lines, angles and grids of her work; suddenly you're fully immersed in geometric abstraction, a la the 20th century Modernists.

It's incredibly exciting to have such wonderful paintings hanging in the gallery. Uncrating the work was genuinely thrilling, and I find myself thinking about the pieces all the time. (As you all know, I look at tons of art — lucky me! It's amazing to have something take hold so strongly.) You know how sometimes you feel like your life has a soundtrack? In giving me a foundation for understanding the practice of painting, Sarah's paintings function in a similar way.

As I've mentioned before, painting and its practice have always been incredibly intimidating to me. My frequently mentioned reverence for the visually-talented (a plus!) and my distaste for not being good at things (a minus!) have made the endeavor that much more formidable. And so, in stepping through the door that Sarah opens, I feel so much gratitude.

I'm not resorting to hyperbole here... As I type this, I'm feeling a little frustrated and out of superlatives — I don't think there's a way for me to describe the experience without sounding over-the-top. The feeling that I have, and the joy of moving through the experience and trying to understand it — these are the things that make me so passionate about wanting people to collect art. For everyone to do it, because no one should have to miss out on it.

We've got several not-to-be-missed opportunities this very week, in fact. Tomorrow will bring our regularly scheduled photography release, and then on Thursday we'll be introducing a BAM-tastic bonus edition to benefit Brooklyn Academy of Music.

Image of Mickey Smith's Collocation No. 12 (TIME) installed at Marty Walker Gallery

Three cheers for Hot Shot and 20x200 superstar, Mickey Smith! Mickey is currently part of a group show, there’s something I’ve been meaning to tell you… at Marty Walker Gallery in Texas.

Mickey Smith explores history, knowledge, and a sense of place in her photographs of book spines. Using public library collections for inspiration, the artist composes shelves of imprinted words that float, connect, and refer to universal human experience. Smith’s photographs of books are transformed into color-field abstractions through repetition and a dramatic exploitation of scale, creating books that are four and five feet tall, proportionally dwarfing the viewer in an expanse of color, and bold accentuated text.

Marty Walker Gallery
February 21 – March 21, 2009
2135 Farrington St.
Dallas, TX
Hours: Tuesday – Saturday 11-5 and by appointment

In other exciting Mickey related news--Mrs. Smith will be moving off to China for a month this September for a Red Gate Residency. Woo hoo!

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

Border Watcher with Dogs, Arizona and Mexico Border, 2008 by Nina Berman

Jen Bekman artist and Hot Shot, Nina Berman will be showing works from her series Homeland at Unite and Untie, opening Friday, February 27th at the Houston Center for Photography. She will share the space with photographers Chris Sims, Toby Morris, Mark Bagge and Benjamin Lowy, whose images aim to re-shape contemporary war photography by looking at the effects of war away from combat and the impact of civil unrest in the Middle East on the rest of the world.

Houston Center for Photography
Friday, February 27th, 2009
6-8 p.m.

See works from Homeland, exhibited at Jen Bekman Gallery in the fall of 2008.
Buy Berman's editions 9-11-02 and G.I. Goat on 20x200.
Nina Berman's website.

Junk Drawer, Brooklyn, New York by Paho Mann

Junk Drawer, Tempe, Arizona by Paho Mann

Wednesday greetings, collectors. Welcome to this week's second installment of "artists Jen discovered at the Walker Art Center's Worlds Away exhibition." The trip was planned for compelling reasons to begin with — I had a speaking engagement which fortunately coincided with the opening of the Art Shanty Projects, plus face time with our Minneapolis-based printer Eric Recktenwald is never a bad thing. Looking back a year later though, it's amazing to see the unexpected things that evolved from the trip — Sarah McKenzie was one of several artists who I became familiar with then and am working with now. I didn't get to meet Sarah on my trip (sniff!), but today's edition maker, Paho Mann, and I had ample opportunity for eating, drinking and merriment.

A year after a fun weekend of art nerdery, I am happy to introduce you to Paho's Junk Drawer, Tempe, Arizona and Junk Drawer, Brooklyn, New York. Browse Paho's site and you may notice that he's got a thing for typologies. While I was fascinated by the Re-inhabited Circle Ks included in the Walker exhibition, it was the more personal stuff that really sucked me in. His Junk Drawers provide the anonymous voyeuristic thrill of examining the unintentional archeology of strangers.

The ubiquity of the mundane junk drawer can be particularly revealing — we stash stuff away in them without much thought, and with the unguardedness that comes from little expectation that they might be revealed. Junk drawers are an interesting counterpoint to medicine cabinets, which have been a source of fascination for Paho and another artist we've worked with too, Coke Wisdom O'Neal. You might not want someone rifling though those cabinets, but unless you keep them under lock and key, you should probably expect it.

Another thing for you to expect: a bonus newsletter from yours truly! As I mentioned when introducing Sarah McKenzie's Lift and Support yesterday, we've got a BAM-tastic double edition on tap for tomorrow. Tune in then for all the juicy details.

Just kidding, although being in Paris under any circumstances is probably never a bad thing! 20x200 illustrator Linzie Hunter was commissioned by Penguin to illustrate the paperback cover of Petite Anglaise. As always, Linzie's style is spirited and lovingly reminiscent of the beloved Jay Ward.

Take yourself on a little trip to her website, and see more of what she's been up to. Here are two of my favorite illustrations from her portfolio:

And of course, her lettering always pleases:

Walking through our inventory, I am surprised to see that we still have a small quantity of two of her edition prints available:

Left: Say Goodbye
Right: Boundless
Her latest edition print, Coney, sold out in a hot second.

Linzie also keeps a blog and a bubbly flickr stream.

Mike Perry is a man of patterns, so it is no surprise that his first New York solo show at Giant Robot NY is titled The Patterns Found in Space. The exhibit is follows the publication of his 2008 book, Over & Over, featuring a collection of hand-drawn patterns that impress in their complexity, innovation and whimsy. Whether lettering type or finding inspiration in everyday objects like scissors and flowers, Perry's patterns come very much alive on the page.

You can put a Perry on your wall; his 20x200 edition, Optical-01, is still available in several sizes. To see an entire room full of Perry's patterns, stop by Giant Robot NY on March 7th (next Saturday).

The Patterns Found in Space
March 7 - April 8, 2009
Reception: Saturday, March 7, 2009 at 6:30 p.m.

Giant Robot Gallery
437 East 9th Street
Between 1st Ave. & Ave. A

More Mike Perry:
Optical-01 on 20x200.
Mike's website.

Amalie Drury has written an article for Time Out Chicago called Laid-off Living: Home Office Makeover about how to decorate a home office on a limited budget. She cites 20x200's "limited edition, original prints" as a budget option for adding color to an office space. If you're decorating on a dime, don't miss our selection of $20 prints.

You can read the full article at Time Out Chicago

Decay of Industry, Industry of Decay by Greg Lindquist

Embers of the Maritime by Greg Lindquist

Embers of the Maritime and Decay of Industry, Industry of Decay by Brooklyn-based painter Greg Lindquist. Proceeds from Embers of the Maritime benefit BAM.

8" x 10" ($20): Embers of the Maritime | Decay of Industry, Industry of Decay
11" x 14" ($50): Embers of the Maritime | Decay of Industry, Industry of Decay
20" x 24" ($500): Embers of the Maritime | Decay of Industry, Industry of Decay
24" x 36" ($1000): Embers of the Maritime | Decay of Industry, Industry of Decay

These prints are created using archival inks on 100% cotton rag paper. Our editions are supervised by the artist and each one comes with a signed certificate of authenticity.

--
BAM-tastic Thursday greetings, collectors! Just like I promised when introducing this week's editions from Sarah McKenzie and Paho Mann, I'm back for a bonus round. Today we've got two prints from the very talented painter Greg Lindquist, one of which is being released to benefit the venerable and super-fantastically progressive and vital cultural institution that is BAM.

It's not often that you get to describe the same thing as being both venerable and progressive, but BAM is exactly that. Founded in 1861, it's America's oldest continuously operating performing arts center, and it presents an incredible array of programming. They're serious about their ambitious mission to be the "preeminent progressive performing and cinema arts center of the twenty-first century." Don't take my word for it — browse the calendar and see for yourself. BAMart, their visual art program is also great, and a lot of people aren't even aware of it, which is bananas. I'm especially pleased to be able to spread the wealth and the word in this here newsletter.

One of the most enjoyable things about doing benefit editions is the opportunity to collaborate with people who are as passionate as we are about the arts. BAMart curator David Harper is one of my favorites so far, and I'm not just saying that because he's a huge fan of 20x200. He's recommended so many great artists to me, Greg Lindquist being one of them, and I've really enjoyed learning about his perspective on the art world. He's got a very cool job, curating exhibitions, organizing benefits and auctions and working with all kinds talented, and often legendary, artists — artists who <3 BAM and are happy to have an opportunity show it by donating works that are sold to benefit the organization.

David's been hard at work on Greg's upcoming exhibition, Brooklyn Industry, which opens at BAM on Wednesday, March 11th and I was really excited when he suggested that we do our first editions together in support of the show. Everyone at 20x200 HQ is gaga over the prints which are really beautiful. It's nearly always true that stuff is better in person than on screen, but it's especially so with these prints. There's just no way to do them justice in pixels. I really love their proportions too — they're a bit tough to work with, long and narrow as they are, but they underscore the cinematic qualities of the images. Our own Sara Distin, writing for Flavorwire, did an outstanding job of explicating the work's other fine qualities. I'll close out our week with a quote from there:

Lindquist's paintings of the Brooklyn waterfronts in Red Hook and Williamsburg are much like the western horizons I know and love. Muted and neutral, his paintings are records of remnants; rendered from photographs, they function much the same way photographs do, triggering memory and serving as blank placeholders for those of us who do not tie our own histories to these post-industrial spaces, but instead, landscapes elsewhere. Identities are bound to geography; we are changed too, as we alter the surfaces around us.

Red Plastic Plates, 2008 by Ann Toebbe

20x200 artist Ann Toebbe received a fitting nod on the design blog, Cool Hunting. Her paintings are deemed "quite inspirational, giving the feeling of living in a geometric, melancholy collage".

Ann's 20x200 edition prints:
Drying Our Boots by the Stove
Burning Down the Second House
Ann's site

image by Jacob Magraw

20x200 artist Jacob Magraw will be showing work from his series Hyperopia in the Project Space at Franklin Art Works in Minneapolis. The exhibition opens tonight, Friday, February 27th, and will be on view until April 11th.

He'll be in fine company; fellow 20x200 artist and Hot Shot, Shuli Hallak will be showing her series, Cargo, in the Main Gallery. It's a regular 20x200 party!
Also on view: an interactive video installation, by MN local Bill Klaila, entitled Pool.

Can't make it to the show? Pick up 20x200 souvenirs instead:

Drawing by Jacob Magraw
AA, 2007 by Jacob Magraw

Hay Harvest, New Jersey by Shuli Hallak
Cotton Field, Mississippi by Shuli Hallak