Organic Oval by Jeff Lewis

Contact High by Jeff Lewis

Tuesday Editions: Jeff Lewis

Good day collectors! It's Sara again. Today Jen's wrapping things up at NEXT in Chicago and is finally on her way back home. The next month or so looks relatively low-key and travel-free so you can look forward to your usual dose of JB art goodness in your inbox. But for today, you're stuck with me as I introduce two new works from Jeff Lewis: Contact High and Organic Oval.

Moments after we released Jeff's first edition, Inloveness Revisited, press inquiries started streaming in. Everyone wanted a little Inloveness. But after seeing how quickly the prints were disappearing, a couple of the requests fell through — editors realized they should feature works that would be around for their readers to acquire once their pages came to print. Lewis' print was featured in amNY and we figured the best thing to do was not let anyone else be disappointed. So, we got to work selecting new paintings for Jeff's next editions.

Jeff's website features mostly newer work but he's been fixated on ovals for at least the last decade, yielding the shape plenty of time to dictate his work. Given the scale of his canvases, it's easy to see how they might, in their monolithic presence, overtake the artist, allowing him to work intuitively and spontaneously, much like his predecessors from the New York School. Peek at Jeff's pic; he's a small but dedicated presence in front of his paintings.

As we were oohing and ahhing over all of Jeff's ovals and their gorgeous palettes, Jen and I were joined by Jane Mount who mentioned something along the lines of, "my brain certainly does not work the way his does!" which is really a great comment, not only in the context of Jeff vs. Jane's differing approaches to making art, but also in recognition of all the work we've featured on 20x200. Browse the archives and you'll see, we've been able to work with an incredible range of artists with diverse interests and approaches. Consider Beth Dow's work next to Donald Weber's, for example. And often, as in the case of Weber in particular, we have the opportunity to present work that might otherwise have a hard time finding its way into the hands of collectors, despite receiving some of the most prestigious awards for artists.

A lot of the artists we work with are featured in major collections; Ann Toebbe is a West Prize finalist, along with Hot Shot Georg Parthen (we have 20x200 editions with Georg in the works too!), putting 20x200 in good company. Since the West Collection brought the work of the finalists to NEXT, Ann and Georg were in attendance and paid visit to Jen and Jeffrey. Midwesterner Kevin Miyazaki also stopped by, along with Sarah McKenzie, of course, making team JBG feel right at home in the Windy City with 20x200 friends and family.

Jen is making one last stop in Chicago to meet and greet a few new friends at the Museum of Contemporary Photography. We're all fans of their print program which gives collectors the opportunity to acquire some incredible photography and support MoCP. I know Jen's already snagged Amy Stein's Hillside from her series Domesticated.

For today, we'll leave you with MoCP's photography as our own Hey, Hot Shot! is, unfortunately, offline and unavailable due to some very mysterious and poorly-timed hosting snafus. If you've tried to visit the site and/or apply for the Hey, Hot Shot! competition in the last 24 hours and have been denied access with the unfriendly "forbidden" notice, do not fear, we'll extend the competition deadline once the site is back up. Nobody who's tried to submit images will miss their chance. And we'll be featuring the best of the best contenders on the blog again in no time. More on that later! Tomorrow Youngna Park will tide you over with a sweet photography edition from a brand-new-to-20x200 artist. Until then!