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.