March 2010 Archives

Have you ever met a true birder? Someone that is really, really, REALLY into birdwatching? Do you know what a life-list is? And try this on for size: for the truly seasoned birders, most of what they "see" is seen with their ears, not with their eyes, meaning that what one learns to do crouching down into the woods early in the morning for hours and hours of every new dawn is to listen to the birds, get to know them through their various calls and songs, so that even if they're not visible, you'll get to know which ones are there, singing or calling to one another in trees or bushes around you, maddeningly hiding themselves from your direct line of sight.

All of this to is to say that I have a particular sympathy for what 20x200 artist Paula McCartney says drove her to create her body of work, Birdwatching:

This project came about from long walks in the woods when I would stop to look at the birds, but was always frustrated by the fact that they would be too far away, or moving about too quickly. I was interested in photographing them, but they would never land in an appropriate composition.

I decided to take control, buy my own birds, and create and photograph these idealized scenes that I fantasized about, where songbirds perched patiently on trees as I moved through the woods.

Rather than only recording what nature has to offer, I have taken control and adorned the trees with their longed for, but absent, tenants.

American Goldfinches by Paula McCartney

Since 2003, Paula McCartney has been creating a world where the birds sit still for her camera, come when called, and show themselves when asked. The project is a deliberately constructed theater as well as a kind of conceptual landscape photography, and through it she has managed to create a world that even the most die-hard naturalist would envy. What I'm most touched by in viewing these images is that the artifice has become an intrinsic piece of the art itself: she isn't trying to trick you into thinking that these are anything but craft-store bought fake birds. An even more subtle "inside" joke are her captions that from scene to scene mix real life species with some more fancifully made up common names that are just close enough to real North American Birds to sound legit to the non-birder ear. These images are made with a tender humor, as well as an honest appreciation for what it really takes to be someone who learns to see the seemingly invisible in the natural world.

Princeton Architectural Press has just published Paula's first monograph, Bird Watching, featuring essays by HHS! panelist and founding member of Radius Books Darius Himes and Karen Irvine, curator at the Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago. The book is truly that rare object which serves up an extra-something-special not immediately available for consumption on the gallery walls:

Black-capped Chickadee, September 2006 by Paula McCartney

Untitled, from Birdwatching by Paula McCartney

Paula McCartney's show Birdwatching opens this Thursday, March 4th at the KLOMPCHING Gallery, with an artist's reception tomorrow, March 3rd from 6-8 p.m. This Saturday, March 6th, Paula will be in conversation with Darius, from 1-2 p.m., also at KLOMPCHING gallery.

KLOMPCHING Gallery
111 Front Street, Suite 206
Brooklyn, NY 11201
Telephone: 212.796.2070

Snowfall #6 by Paula McCartney

Just a handful of prints from Paula's 20x200 edition remain (which incidentally have nothing to do with birds, but are from her beautiful new series of work A Field Guide to Snow and Ice)—I made sure to get mine during the last sale, did you?

Why You Should Buy Art by William Powhida

Airborne greetings, collectors! I am en route to SF for some meetings, but I will only touch down for the briefest of spells — I need to make it back in time for what is shaping up to be art-filled marathon of a weekend. I'll kick things off — fresh [sic] from the airport — with the Hey, Hot Shot! opening on Friday evening, which will have all five Hot Shots in attendance. Much as I'd like to paint the town red with them afterward, I'm going to have to conserve my energy for the panels I'm doing over the weekend. You can find me at 11 a.m. on Saturday at The Upside to the Downside: Young Collectors in the Global Market at The Armory, then at SMartCAMP on Sunday. And when not empaneled and pontificating, I'll be joining the 20x200/JBP street team. We'll be fanning out across key art fair locations throughout this metropolis, distributing our amazing Art Fair Survival Kits to those in need. More details to come, but trust me, they're gonna be fan-freaking-tastic.

With all art world eyes on New York, and our efforts focused on the art-for-everyone evangelism we're so fervent about, it seems a most fitting time to introduce today's edition from William Powhida, who's done such a grand job of skewering insider art world machinations that he's in danger of being taken into the fold. After all, Jerry Saltz did single out his recent solo show at Schroeder Romero & Shredder as being "one of the trickiest and most satirically cutting shows of the season," placing William in the #2 spot on his Best Art of 2009 list. His Why You Should Buy Art casts a gimlet eye on the acquisitive aspirations of a certain swath of the collector set, providing a checklist that is a wry medley of fact and fabrication.

The online dialogue that led to our collaboration on this edition — via blogs, Twitter, Facebook and IM — is one much more familiar to me from my web-world endeavors. It was really refreshing to experience that odd we're-meeting-for-the-first-time-but-kinda-know-each-other-already feeling with an art world denizen. For the most part, it seems like the art world is still hovering around the edges of the pool, scared to dive in, in spite of an increasingly louder chorus of "Come on, just JUMP already. Not so with @powhida, whose practice employs his fluency with social media in a way that just makes sense. Of course it takes a lot of time to get to that "just makes sense" stage, which is why I wish everyone else would get on with it. (I'm happy to help! No, really.)

Nowhere is William's way with the web is more evident than #class, an experiment in artworld transparency currently underway at Winkleman Gallery. William calls it:

a 'think-tank' with artist Jennifer Dalton, where we are exploring questions of class and access in relation to the market system... with over fourty participants and the public we will be engaged in creative problem-solving trying to understand an opaque, complex system that can perhaps work better for everyone, not just the wealthy and 'successful' few.

Better for everyone? I like the sound of that.

The deets:
#class
February 21 – March 20, 2010 | Wednesday – Sunday | 4:00 – 7:00 p.m. | 621 West 27th Street

The Armory Show and VOLTA NY will be hosting a series of conversations among industry professionals titled OPEN FORUM beginning on Thursday, March 4th and running through the weekend. Curated by Stamatina Gregory, the dialogues range in topics from art publishing and the socioeconomics of art to the future of Biennials (and lots more!).

On Saturday, the 6th, Jen will participate in a panel with Joshua Adler of Adler Development, Sharon Coplan Hurowitz of Coplan Hurowitz Art Advisory and Thomas Solomon of his eponymous LA-gallery on the topic of "The Upside to the Downside: Young Collectors in the Global Market." The panel will be moderated by Lindsay Pollock of Art Market Views and address the myriad opportunities available to collectors in the art market today. Are you a young collector or interested in becoming a collector yourself? Hear what this panel of art advisors, curators, gallerists and developers has to say.

The details:
The Upside to the Downside: Young Collectors in the Global Market
Time: Saturday, March 6; 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Location: : The Armory Show, Open Forum Lounge, Pier 92 (12th Avenue & W. 55th Street)

See the full schedule of OPEN FORUM conversations, and we hope to see you at Jen's panel!

Lindsay Pollock recently declared that 20x200 is making waves in the art industry. Covering the successful William Wegman edition release, which Pollock describes as "a clearcut hit", she went on to state that Jen "seems to be in the vanguard of finding commercial success". You can view the William Wegman edition and snap the few that are left!

Nice Pants by Landon Nordeman

West-Coast greetings collector friends! I'm still hustling around semi-soggy San Francisco as team JBP gears up for this weekend's artfest in NYC. I hear our Art Fair Survival Kits are coming along swimmingly. As I mentioned yesterday, they'll be stuffed with all kinds of goodies — what I didn't let on was that among the totes we're handing out, a golden few will include a 10"x8" print of William Powhida's ridiculously rapid-selling Why You Should Buy Art (the sole remaining edition of 14"x11" prints is quickly dwindling). Sweet surprise, no!? I thinks so. All the more reason to pick up your Live With Art tote at our soon-to-be-disclosed locations. Stay tuned; we'll have a dispatch with all the details, tomorrow!

Striding in to save us all from the mid-week slump is today's aptly-titled edition, Nice Pants. Evidence that good things come in threes, these poly-patterned golfers paraded across Landon Nordeman's roving frame, providing a perfect photo op. Fast and often funny, Landon is a regular contributor to The New Yorker and Saveur. His Best-in-Show photos for TNY of the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show got a shout-out from super blogger (and first-ever Hot Shot) Rachel Hulin who concurs, Landon's work is great: "when the images from the WKC Dog Show come out in the magazines and I laugh and feel oh so amused, in that delightful Christopher Guest-ian way. No one does it better than Landon Nordeman." And yes, Weimaraners are the best dogs to photograph! We know at least one other photographer — not to mention hundreds of collectors — who agree.

Landon's fans are not limited to fellow photographers alone. New-to-team JBP, our ever-sunny superstar Philae Knight counts Landon among friends and says, "Landon sees the world with fun and optimism. He's zany and adventurous. He took one of my favorite portraits when I was dressed up as a geisha for a masquerade wedding. All my make-up was happily documented. I suppose it was a fitting subject for Landon... Elvis fan clubs, geishas, dogs... Who doesn't love a man in zany pants?"

Funny stuff aside, his work reminds me of that of former Village Voice and fellow TNY photographer Sylvia Plachy. She's another one to not drop her eye from the viewfinder, picking up bits and pieces of optimistic humanism in visual form. It was this sense of the brighter things in life that attracted the eyes of the Hey, Hot Shot! panelists when Landon submitted this very photo last season. We saw it there first and it's now my pleasure to present it to you here, just a few days before our newest Hot Shots make their debut at JBG on Friday. I hope you like it and we hope to see you there!

This week's cover of TheNew Yorker by Mark Ulriksen

This week we saw several familiar faces pop up in The New Yorker—and, no, none of them were Jorge Colombo. Edition-maker Mark Ulriksen, who has illustrated over ten covers for the magazine, is the man behind this week's cover. On it are movie characters grabbing from all sides at a golden trophy, a riff on The Oscars, which air this Sunday. As noted in his contributor bio, Ulriksen's work is currently included in the exhibit Lines of Attack: Conflicts in Cariacture, now showing at the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University.

Inside the magazine, art critic Peter Schjeldahl reviews the 2010 Whitney Biennial, writing that aside from "a couple of mutedly horrific sets of photographs," including Nina Berman's, "this Biennial seems intent not only on not offending aesthetic appetite but practically on sedating it."

After the Dust, Second View (Beirut), 2009, by Curtis Mann, as photographed by Gus Powell

In an audio slideshow of the Biennial posted to The New Yorker website, an image of museum-goers silhouetted against a piece by Curtis Mann is displayed while Schjeldahl says, "[2010 is] extremely audience friendly and absorbing in a way unusual for biennials and I think you'll be glad if you go to it."

The Biennial is up through May 30th, but don't dally, and head over to the Whitney to experience the exhibit in-person.

The JBP Art Fair Survival Kit!

Today marks the official opening of the 2010 NYC Art Fairs! For the unacquainted, this annual event draws galleries from around the world to exhibit their artists in NYC for the weekend. However, there is so much art in one place at one time that the word "intimidating" is but an understatement.

In addition to our twice (and sometimes thrice!) weekly editions, everyone here at JBP HQ has been working extra hard to put together a special present for you: our patent-pending Art Fair Survival Kit! I can't give all of our surprises away just yet, but I wanted to shine the spotlight on one particularly awesome piece of the package that we'll be giving out at the fairs this weekend: The Map.

The Art Fairs and Other Useful Spots Map by Jason Polan, [download as a PDF]

Since posting a Google Map of our opinionated guide to the NYC Art Fairs earlier in the week, it has been viewed nearly 29,000 times. For the Survival Kit, the inimitable Jason Polan, who is profiled in today's Los Angeles Times, has created a hand-drawn version of our guide. We're throwing a printed copy of the map into every Art Fair Survival Kit, but we love it so much that we're also putting it online as a downloadable PDF so that everyone can print it, use it, share it, or even frame it!

In fact, sharp-eyed readers may notice a few discrepancies between our online guide and Jason's map. As I was crunching together text for the key that's on the back of the map, I noticed that Jason made a few of his own special additions including: Marfa, TX, a Taco Bell Drawing Club, and TWO zoos. Well-played, Mr. Polan.

Though cutting down all the amazing things happening this weekend onto one sheet of paper was no easy task, we hope that our guide will help you get the most out of your time at the fairs. If you spot anything amazing that we missed, perhaps for your edition wishlist, let us know on twitter @20x200!

The Art Fairs and Other Useful Spots Map by Jason Polan, [download as a PDF]

So, by now you know that the JBP street team is hitting the art fairs starting today with our Art Fair Survival Kits. They are in the form of our rather stylish orange and green Live With Art tote bags, and we want you to have one. And, better yet, we want you to take a picture (on your phone, with a camera) of people carrying the tote bags and upload them to Twitter or Flickr with a 20x200 hashtag (#20x200) or tag. We'll be following all the posts and every person who uploads a pic will get a $5 20x200 gift certificate and one lucky fair-goer will win a $200 print from 20x200. To keep track of our tote-distribution locations, follow us on Twitter @20x200 starting right now!

In short:
+ Take a picture of someone (yourself, a friend, a stranger) carrying a Live With Art tote at the art fairs and post it on Twitter or Flickr.
+ Include #20x200 in your tweet or tag 20x200 on Flickr and we'll send you a $5 gift certificate to 20x200.
+ Our favorite photo from the weekend will win a $200 print from 20x200.
+ The contest ends Sunday at midnight (EST). Only three photo entries per person will be accepted. Retweeting doesn't count. Please play fair!

As an extra bonus (!), we'll secretly/randomly be giving away selected 8"x10" 20x200 prints to people we spot carrying Live With Art totes in the fairs.

What's in these fabulous kits?
+ An awesome map drawn by Jason Polan with a guide to where the shows are by Casey Gollan.
+ postcards, stickers & special invites, Daily Candy's City Pocket Guide.
+ Our "Visual Palate Cleansing System" for the visually overstimulated
+ Various snacks, beverages, hair care products, coupons and more!

So, head out to:
+ The BAM Booth (P-7) at PULSE
+ The Blind Spot Booth at The Armory, Pier 92 (12th Avenue & 55th Street), near the entrance
+ SCOPE: look for us around the fair handing out totes!
+ Jen Bekman Gallery! 6 Spring Street between Bowery & Elizabeth.

Sound good? See you at the fairs!

Armory Arts Week is upon us with nearly a dozen fairs and 2,000 galleries exhibiting over the very short span of five days. Our friends at Artlog have partnered with Flavorpill, NY Art Beat and us to open up voting for the People's Choice Award to all the fairs across Armory Arts Week so you can select your favorite exhibition.

Head over to vote.artlog.com to submit your vote or tweet to @artlog with a picture, the gallery name, booth number and the name of the fair of your favorite exhibit.

See the exhibits leading in the vote in real-time on the site right now and browse through Artlog's live online map guide of all the events, fairs and art of Armory Week. Fairgoers can post live updates as they traverse the exhibitions via Artlog.com, Twitter and text messages (Tweet #armory or text message to 41411 armory+ message Visit live.artlog.com for all the details.

Procession, 2010 by Jason Jagel

PAPER!AWESOME! is the ecstatic title of the current group show at Baer-Ridgway Exhibitions in San Francisco. Artist and Curator Brion Nuda Rosch asked over 100 artists to present new works on, "the most basic of canvases, an 8.5" x 11" piece of paper."

When I first came across the title, I didn't understand how it could possibly be polite for anyone to put their show title in ALL CAPS and include two exclamation! points! But, looking at the work, it's clear that the title lives up to its embellishments. PAPER!AWESOME! is really the only way to describe the energy that happens when these 300+ pieces are put together in one room.

Three Points, 2009 and Leaning, 2009 by Ky Anderson

The show is accompanied by a thorough website, with four pages of thumbnails and a virtual tour that lets you to experience the show as if you were there. Browsing the work, something is sure to jump out at you—and not just because of the sheer quantity. The artists included (many of which are listed below) range from the internationally recognized to the emerging, but all are top-notch. We were thrilled to spot two of our own edition-makers, Ky Anderson (above) and Jason Jagel (top).

The show closes March 27th but if you're not in the San Francisco area, take a look at the website because this isn't the last time you'll be seeing these artists around.

PAPER!AWESOME!
Baer Ridgway Exhibitions
February 20 - March 27, 2010
172 Minna St, San Francisco, CA

Artists featured include:
Joshua Abelow, Tisch Abelow, Nick Ackerman, Derek Albeck, Christine Ancalmo, Mauricio Ancalmo, Ky Anderson, Mark Benson, Thomas Bernard, Hisham Akira Bharoocha, Joe Biel, Beni Bischof, Libby Black, Michelle Blade, Sara Blaylock, Ernesto Burgos, Beau Chamberlain, Nancy Chan, Ajit Chauhan, Alexander Cheves, Todd Chilton, Ryan Travis Christian, Travis Collinson, Alika Cooper, Chris Corales, Creativity Explored, Chris Crites, Seth Curcio, Dana Dart-McLean, Jack Daws, Joel Dean, Matthew Deleget, Chris Duncan, André Eamiello, Stephen Eichhorn, Danny Espinoza, Amir H. Fallah, Servando Garcia, Bryson Gill, Kori Alexander Girard, Rebecca Goldfarb, Joseph Hart, Vic Haven, Scott Hewicker, Jesse Hlebo, Laurent Impeduglia, Jason Jagel, Xylor Jane, David Kasprzak, Matt Kennedy, Christine Kesler, Benjamin, King, Rainen Knecht, Denise Kupferschmidt, Michael Krueger, Walter Louge, Kelly Lynn Jones, Mads Lynnerup, Alexis Mackenzie, Kirk Maxson, Sean McFarland, Barry McGee, Landon Metz, TV Moore, Julio Morales, Danielle Mysliwiec, Tucker Nichols, Jo Nigoghossian, Mat O’Brien, Kelly Ording, Matthew Palladino, Kottie Paloma, Jessica Paulson, Allison Pebworth, Kyle Ranson, Evelyn Reyes, Matthew Rich, Joe Roberts, Clare Rojas, Katherine Nuda Rosch, Oliver Halsman Rosenberg, Lizabeth Eva Rossof, Jonathan Runcio, Jovi Schnell, Zachary Royer Scholz, Peter Shear, Orion Shepherd, Mike Shine, Jeffrey Simmons, Josh Slater, Dean Smith, Geoffrey Todd Smith, Sarah Smith, Deb Sokolow, Chris Sollars, Travis Sommerville, James Sterling Pitt, Whiting Tennis, TM Sisters, Paul Urich, Andrew Vogt, Paul, Wackers, Ryan Wallace, Lindsey White and Eric Yahnker.

Welcome back to the Week in Review! What's that, you ask? Every Friday we look back on the highlights of the week, point out some great things we saw on the internet and drop hints about what the future holds.

ART FAIR SURVIVAL KITS FOR EVERYONE!
Look at all those smiling faces above! Yesterday team 20x200 hit the fairs to give away our Art Fair Survival Kits where—we're pleased to report—they practically flew out of our hands and into yours.

Today you'll find us at:
+ The BAM Booth (P-7) at PULSE
+ The Blind Spot Booth at The Armory, Pier 92 (12th Avenue & 55th Street), near the entrance
+ SCOPE: look for us around the fair handing out totes!

There will also be totes for all at tonight's Hey, Hot Shot! opening at JBG (more on that below). Check out our Jen Bekman Projects Tumblr for all the photos of AFSKs spotted in the wild.

A HUGE thanks to all the awesome companies + peoples who have contributed to the survival kit: Popcorn Indiana, Coca Cola, Kevin Murphy, Elemis, Daily Candy, 'wichcraft, and Robert Verdi!

Another HUUUGE thank you to everyone who has tweeted, blogged, and twitpic'd our Art Fair Survival Kits so far! You guys rule.

TONIGHT: Hey, Hot Shot! 2009 Second Edition Exhibition
Opening Reception: Friday, March 5th 6pm - 8pm
March 6 – March 20th, 2010
Jen Bekman Gallery
6 Spring St. (btwn. Elizabeth and Bowery)

We hope that you'll tear yourself away from the fairs for an hour or two this evening to stop by the opening of our Hey, Hot Shot! 2009 Second Edition Exhibition tonight at 6 p.m. at Jen Bekman Gallery.

TOMORROW: The Upside to the Downside Armory Panel with Jen
On Saturday, the 6th, Jen will participate in a panel with Joshua Adler of Adler Development, Sharon Coplan Hurowitz of Coplan Hurowitz Art Advisory and Thomas Solomon of his eponymous LA-gallery on the topic of "The Upside to the Downside: Young Collectors in the Global Market." The panel will be moderated by Lindsay Pollock of Art Market Views and address the myriad opportunities available to collectors in the art market today.

The Upside to the Downside: Young Collectors in the Global Market
Time: Saturday, March 6; 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Location: The Armory Show, Open Forum Lounge, Pier 92 (12th Avenue & W. 55th Street)

SUNDAY: Jen speaking at SMart CAMP
On Sunday, March 7th, from 2:30 - 3:15 p.m., Jen will speak on The Value of Building Community alongside Yancey Stricker of Kickstarter, Charlie Festa of Threadless/skinnyCorp and Anda Corrie of Etsy about each of the models these companies have undertaken to create their own circle of support.

Our previous post has more details on how to register for that.

New Editions

This week we had the pleasure of bringing you two hilarious editions. On Tuesday, just in time for the art fairs, came William Powhida's satirical Why You Should Buy Art (otherwise known as buying art for all the wrong reasons) making a splash among collectors, bloggers, and twitterers. It quickly sold out in all but one size so run, don't walk, and pick one up! On Wednesday, we released a Landon Nordeman edition titled Nice Pants—yes, really. Even though I knew the edition was coming, when I saw the announcement in my inbox I still laughed out loud. "Who doesn't love a man in zany pants?" says our very own Philae Knight in the newsletter.

Why You Should Buy Art by William Powhida	Nice Pants by Landon Nordeman

20x200 News

• This week's New Yorker cover was illustrated by Mark Ulriksen, inside is a feature mentioning Nina Berman, and Curtis Mann is included in an online slideshow. It's a 20x200 triple threat!


• “Wait, if all your 20x200 prints are gone, does it finally make you a sellout?” wrote Hrag Vartanian. “I’ve been waiting to call you that.” — Katya Kazakina reports for Bloomberg on this week's William Powhida edition.


• Our friends at Artlog have partnered with Flavorpill, NY Art Beat and us to open up voting for the People's Choice Award to all the fairs across Armory Arts Week so you can select your favorite exhibition. Vote for your Armory favorites at vote.artlog.com!


• Ky Anderson, Jason Jagel, and over 100 other amazing artists were asked to create new work on an 8.5 x 11 sized piece of paper for PAPER!AWESOME! at Baer-Ridgway Exhibitions.


• I got the chance to check out Paula McCartney's show Birdwatching at Klompching Gallery last night, and I can't recommend it highly enough. If you can't make it out to DUMBO, be sure to check out our writeup of the show.


• Don Hamerman's photographs of found baseballs were featured this week on Hall Ready, a blog about how to display art. We're lucky to have six of these awesome photos from this series available as 20x200 editions!


• Interior design blog 2 By Design pairs a William Powhida print with a selection of colorful decorations and a color-coded library.


• Brain Pickings, a website which curates "eclectic interestingness" has given 20x200 the top spot in their guide to buying "sticker-shockless" art online. "Wonderfully user-friendly and meticulously curated, 20x200 is an absolute treat.

That's it for this week, collectors—we're off to the fairs to hand out some more Art Fair Survival Kits!

Pelican Harbor Park Boat Ramp, Miami Beach, FL by Carolyn Swiszcz

Post-art-fairs-insanity greetings my friends! Did you catch all the hubuzz about our good-looking, not to mention terribly handy, Art Fair Survival Kits over the weekend? Based on tales from the trenches, I think they were a hit! Team 20x200 reported back with glee having met many of you long-time collectors and I think there just might be a few newcomers reading today's newsletter — we love having you here! Before I bring forth details about today's edition, I have good news: you still have a chance to win one of our $200 prints through our weekend-long contest. Upload your photo of someone carrying a tote to Twitter or Flickr by midnight tonight, tag with @20x200 or #20x200, and we'll send you a $5 20x200 gift certificate PLUS you'll be in the running to snag the aforementioned $200 print!* We'll announce the lucky winner in tomorrow's newsletter.

Till then, I'll let you daydream about this gorgeous print from West St. Paul-based painter, Carolyn Swiszcz: Pelican Harbor Park Boat Ramp, Miami Beach, FL. As I was preparing to write this newsletter, I came across this write-up about Carolyn's exhibition last year at Franklin Artworks, by Melissa Stang on mplsart.com. Her essay is titled Carolyn Swiszcz makes interesting pictures and just happens to use buildings — and if I do say so myself, the lady has a point! As I waxed on some time ago about Carrie Marill's House Plants series, it's not so much that Carolyn paints buildings, but that she paints those buildings with her own particular style.

In this instance, she's painted the sign and surrounding landscape of the Pelican Harbor Park Boat Ramp in Miami Beach in such a way that it instantly conjured the Miami I know from several art fair pilgrimages south. While this painting is specific to Carolyn's perspective and marked by her own tools, which, in this case, include a stencil and stamps, it's brought up my own memories of that city by the sea — palm trees, pinky-purple skies, 1950s architecture and cars. I can almost smell the salty sea air mixed with exhaust. Setting her sights on un-monumental landmarks, Ms. Swiszcz makes them into memorable works, worthy of a second look, or two.

I've got my own sights set on the South: not Florida, but Texas will soon find me stomping around. I'll be touching down in Austin later this week for South By Southwest and a round of Battledecks. Till then!

* Please play fair! Only three photo entries per person will be accepted. Retweeting doesn't count. Gift certificates cannot be combined with any other discounts or offers.

True story: many years ago I went apartment-hunting and almost moved into the Brooklyn loft of artist Pattie Lee Becker. Of course, I didn't know her at the time, but I did find myself standing in a fantastical space full of giant-size puppets, paintings and drawings of all sorts, and purple and green window frames. She has since relocated to the Rocky Mountains, but I recall often wondering what it would have been like to live in a space created by Pattie Lee; would I be able to soak up some of her creativity?

Rope Pile Triptych, 2010 by Pattie Lee Becker

Only later would I truly learn of Pattie Lee's craft of extracting the wondrous and complex details that exist both in nature and in her imagination. Tiny patterns comprised of diamonds, checkers, stripes and dots make up the textural surfaces of both inanimate and living organisms. Her subjects also contain both a pattern and palette that seem informed by what a scientist sees through a microscope as well as the patterns once worn by Harlequins and characters of fairytales.

Ropes are the latest subject of Pattie Lee's transformative powers—and one can easily imagine her standing in the rope aisle of Home Depot closely examining the threads within each of the varieties: sisal, jute, polyester, nylon, cotton, braided, and so on. With colored pencils, Becker extracts the lines of the rope, but also their microscopic construction, imagining the inextricable threads that make up this functional everyday tool. The result is an Escher-like tangle of twists and turns—ropes without ends that find themselves in infinite loops.

Ropes in Aqua, Rust and Brown, 2009 by Pattie Lee Becker

For those of you fortunate to be in Boulder, a collection from this series is currently on view at the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art (BMOCA) through May 23rd. We've also gotten a firsthand report from Sarah McKenzie, also a Rocky Mountain resident, that this is a show not to be missed, so if you happen to be passing through, be sure to stop on by.

Ropes
Pencil drawings and sculptures by Pattie Lee Becker
On view 'til May 23, 2010
Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art
1750 13th Street
Boulder, CO 80302

Pattie Lee's website is also rife with her drawings, sculptures, puppets and stories, and she has two editions, Ramona's Bright Idea and Down By the River My Lungs and I still available on 20x200.

Paris by Gregory Krum

Warm and springish greetings collectors! It's Sara today, filling in for Jen and oh-so-happy to be introducing a new photograph from the ever wonderful Gregory Krum. Paris is the fourth edition we've released by Mr. Krum, and is a fine companion to the sold out Chateau Pool and Nymphenburg, and New York (Peony), which is still available.

We've lined up this new edition just in time to remind the New Yorkers out there to swing by the Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum to see Quicktake: Rodarte, an exhibition celebrating the fashion design duo, curated by Mr. Krum. The exhibition closes this weekend, on Sunday, March 14th. Jen returned from the very fancy Vogue preview of the exhibition with rave reviews, so I'll be scooting myself uptown to see it this weekend and suggest that you do too. Next on the calendar for Gregory is his own solo show at Jen Bekman Gallery, opening in a few short months this May. We'll have more details soon!

When I was reviewing the final proof of this photograph with Gregory, he told me that his last specification to our printer was to make the image "more dreamy." I'm smiling as I share this because only Gregory could give that instruction in all seriousness without sounding like a dolt, and only Eric, our printer, could turn around a new version of the image that was exactly what Gregory wanted. And so we have a subtle and specific representation of a boat on the river Seine.

It's easy to give this image a minute to study the tangled coils of ropes and hose and foliage, alive and dead, scattered and floating, and the next thing you know, you too are scattered and floating, a glance having gleaned a full ten minutes of your time. For me, ten minutes turned to a half hour as I scoured the web for houseboat rentals on the Seine. As soon as the idea entered my mind, I couldn't get it out — what could possibly be more romantic than staying on a riverboat in Paris? One thing that comes close is Mr. Krum's own notion for the series of works that Paris is a part of — Sailors' Valentine. Yes, plural, possessive "sailors'" and singular "valentine" — as he writes, "as if there was one mythical collective Valentine" — all those sailors seeking the one and same thing to bring back to their patiently-waiting loves. If your own seeking doesn't take you far from a desktop today (sad but true for most of us!), no need to shelve indulgent fantasies entirely: Paris isn't that far away.

20x200 on The Brian Lehrer Show, Feb 17th, 2010

Back in February, Jen Bekman and JBP's Director of Business Development, Jonathan Melber, appeared on WNYC's The Brian Lehrer Show to talk about how 20x200 is changing the world of art collecting. In the twelve minute clip, Jen, Jonathan, and Brian discuss where the idea behind the site came from, the integrated business model of the gallery, website, and photo competition, and — most importantly — how we get to support artists. Painter and 20x200 edition-maker Clare Grill also joins the conversation via video chat to talk about how her work came to be sold on 20x200 and the exposure she has gotten from appearing on the site.

Brian had this to say about how 20x200 is impacting the world of collecting: "This, in a nutshell, is the revolution in art that the internet offers: a world where painters wouldn't need patrons to survive and the people could afford great art. We're not there yet, but 20x200 is smashing the barriers to art collecting." A huge thanks to the Brian Lehrer show for having us and to our artists who we are honored to support!

To find out more about the artists mentioned in the video, you can visit the artist pages of Kent Rogowski, Clare Grill, Christian Chaize, and Jorge Colombo.

When I was in college in Tennessee I worked for one of the (then) three outpost stores for the J. Peterman Company. This was in the mid-90's, and at the time everyone who walked into the store already knew something about the ethos of the brand because they were part of the bazillion people who watched Seinfeld. This gave the enterprise the biggest boost of free advertising it could ever ask for by writing in the president of the company as a character in the show and having Elaine work as his underling, writing fluid and fictional copy for his catalog. When customers walked into my workplace in Chattanooga, Tennessee, they felt that they already knew something about the kind of thing the company was trying to achieve, that it was a different kind of retail experience—quirky, for-the-people, but somehow exotic at the same time. Folks also seemed really comfortable with the fact that they were already familiar with the store before ever walking into it, through the magic of teevee (admittedly some even confused which came first, Seinfeld or J. Peterman).

All of this preamble is to say that word-of-mouth works. When people really get what it is you're doing, and when what is you're doing is something really appealing and unique in its approach, quality or efforts, then these people will tell other people about this great new thing they've found. They'll share it on their blogs, on their twitter feeds, sometimes even in the way they style and comport themselves. It is the highest praise if you're in any kind of business, and it is on the winds of the words of others that we at 20x200 have been finding ourselves in the past month.

Firstly, the design blogs. We found ourselves flatteringly featured in the design section of rentedspaces, in a post on how to begin to deck one's walls in a fashion that will not make your digs look like a page out of a Pottery Barn or IKEA ad. Eva Hagberg totally gets us, writing:

Bekman's cause un-celebre is to get people interested in collecting art, and each of her editions arrives with a perfectly-designed tag that say "Congratulations! You bought art." And with everything from contributions from young photographers like Youngna Park, drawings by established graphic designer Kate Bingaman-Burt to brilliant text-based pieces from Mike Monteiro, browsing the archives of 20x200 is both more pleasant, and more personal, than getting lost in the online version of the uncategorized library that is the online poster world.

See? She gets us. We love it when people get us.

Then the good people at Make gave us a shout-out, citing our edition by Clifton Burt, a "Maker haiku art print." (I've always loved this print too, and thought how great a culture-jamming project it would be if some business or church marquis were switched around in the dead of night to be replaced with such resplendent pondering).

think-make-think by Clifton Burt

Then a few other places started chiming in, like Maryann Devine showing us off as a stack-of-prints (and listing the artists that she's collected!) awaiting framing, or like Anna at The Quilted Giraffe showcasing selected prints already graciously adorning the walls whilst promoting us to her readership.

Perhaps our favorite most recent declaration of love and devotion came during the art fairs of the past week, when artist Michelle Vaughan dyed her hair the same vintage blue as our ravishing art totes before hitting the Armory show:

(I love that blue too...but my hair would never ever do that)

In the past week we've also seen our name splashed tongue-and-cheek across the likes of the ridiculously clever Hyperallergic labs site, and then discussed in that unabashedly populist way that MetaFilter seems to exceed at in this recent feed about the same Powhida edition.

Why You Should Buy Art by William Powhida

When Andy once said, "Don't pay any attention to what they write about you. Just measure it in inches," we think he'd be fascinated and obsessed with the data metrics and usage stats that have replaced the smeary printed page. Now you know that we are, and that we appreciate the free love and the free press. Thanks for all your support and keep it coming!

Hey, Hot Shot! Opens at Jen Bekman Gallery

Thursday marked the opening of the latest Hey, Hot Shot! Group Exhibition at Jen Bekman Gallery. The opening was a hit, with all five of this round's Hot Shots in attendance. Elizabeth Leitzell took a bunch of great photos both of people at the opening and some slick-looking install shots. With such a diverse group of work we were biting our nails here at HQ about how all the different bodies of work would play off of each other in the tiny space that is our gallery, but we are thrilled with how the show came out!

Did you know that almost all of the photography that appears on 20x200 has been scouted through HHS!? In fact, we put together a handy page with all 82 (and counting) Hot Shot editions so that you can check out how great the work is. We've already released an edition by Justin James King, a 2009 Second Edition Hot Shot, and hint-hint, cough-cough, more Hot Shot editions are on their way.

Next week we'll be talking all about this year's super special 5-year-anniversary round of Hey, Hot Shot! so if you're a photographer, keep your ears peeled.

New Editions

"I can almost smell the salty sea air mixed with exhaust," wrote Jen in her newsletter about this week's stamped and stenciled painting by Carolyn Swiszcz. Filling in on Wednesday for the SXSW-bound Jen, Sara introduced a gorgeous new photograph by Gregory Krum who asked Eric, our printer, to "make the image more dreamy."

Pelican Harbor Park Boat Ramp, Miami Beach, FL by Carolyn Swiszcz	Paris by Gregory Krum

20x200 News

• Rocky Mountain-based artist (by-way-of Brooklyn) Pattie Lee Becker has a twisting and tangled show titled Ropes up at BMoCA (that's in Boulder, Colorado — for all you non-western types). Youngna has all the details on that, including a story about the time the two almost shared a loft in BK. But don't take our word for how great the show is, fellow Colorado-based artist Sarah McKenzie says that this is not to be missed!
• Jen Bekman Gallery artist Nina Berman is lauded by TIME Magazine for her "tender but unflinching" work in the 2010 Whitney Biennial.
• Okay, so maybe it's not exactly news, but you haven't lived until you've seen this YouTube video by Carolyn Swizcz about her hometown of West St. Paul.
• Back in February, Jen and Jonathan headed over to The Brian Lehrer Show to talk about how 20x200 is supporting artists and "smashing the barriers of collecting art." We finally have the video online for your viewing pleasure. All your questions answered and more! Plus, painter Clare Grill makes a video-chat cameo to talk about her 20x200 experience from the artist's perspective.
• We're awash in the rosy glow of internet love! We've rounded up some recent blog mentions about 20x200. Thanks everyone, we're so grateful for the support!
• We spotted work by 20x200 edition-makers left and right at the NYC art fairs. Curtis Mann posted this great-looking install shot of his work in the booth of Kavi Gupta Gallery at The Armory Show.
• 20x200 artists are everywhere! Including on this Broken Bells album cover, as YP noticed, was drawn by Jacob Escobedo.

Our very own Jonathan Melber, JBP's Director of Business Development and co-author of ART/WORK, will teach a one-day class this Saturday, March 20th, full of tips, tricks and insights for artists at all points in their careers.

Titled Ten Things Every Artist Should Know, Jonathan will address topics ranging from how to find grants and residencies to the more legal side of navigating the art world like understanding copyrights, contracts, and all the fine print. The course is open to the public—you don't have to be a student (or an artist) to attend.

Ten Things Every Artist Should Know with Jonathan Melber
Saturday, March 20th, 1:00PM - 5:30 p.m.
Course fee: $100.00
Location: 209 East 23 Street
Click HERE to register.

Jonathan and his co-author Heather Darcy Bhandari will also be speaking on a panel next Thursday, March 25th with Jackie Battenfield of The Artist's Guide. They will discuss tools for artists as they pursue their careers and following the discussion, all three authors will sign copies of their books.

Barnes & Noble
150 East 86th Street (@ Lexington Ave)
Thursday, March 25th
7:00 p.m.

So, if you've been feeling artist's block, or are just looking to spring into motion in your search for grants, galleries or in making new work, sit down with these experts to learn some of the tricks from the trade that fall outside the realm of putting paint-to-paper.

The intrepid Jorge Colombo, ever willing-to-stand-in-the-cold-with-iPhone-and-fingerless-gloves, is back this week with his fourth New Yorker cover featuring a passerby with her dog in front of Chelsea's oft-documented Empire Diner.

March 22, 2010 cover of The New Yorker by Jorge Colombo

Previously painted by Harry McCormick in 1970, Ralph Goings in 1992, and John Baeder in 1999, (and many others before and since then), Colombo adds his depiction of this classic Fodero Dining Car, originally built in 1946 to the treasure chest of interpretations.

The New Yorker's online video series Finger Painting shows the cover-in-progress, starting with the framework of the surrounding buildings through the final touches of the woman in the foreground trotting by with her four-legged friend. Each week, Finger Painting shows one of Jorge's from commencement to completion, so you can see him craft a Window View, Construction Site, Corner Cafe or Taqueria with the touch of his hands. Keep your eye on that space for Jorge's latest whereabouts, and your eyes on this space, for more Jorge coming to you soon.

Untitled (I like you 'cause you like me and you don't like much.) by Mike Monteiro

Hello collectors! It's Sara, filling in for Jen as she enjoys her last few hours of SXSW-fun in Texas. I'd imagine it's a bittersweet departure for our friend — she's been out and about all over Austin, browsing boots, duking it out in battledecks and toodl-looing with a coupla 20x200 all-stars — Austin Kleon and Mike Monteiro. BUT, she was oh-so-far-away for a very big day yesterday: Jen Bekman Gallery's Seventh Anniversary! March 15th marked seven fine years at 6 Spring Street, no small feat. We'll be toasting upon her return for certain. Happy birthday JBG!

Instead of dwelling on the fact that we're far from south-by-southwest up here in the Northeast, we've decided to introduce a little southern sweetness to y'all this week. And we're kicking it off with Untitled (I like you 'cause you like me and you don't like much.) by Mike Monteiro. While the image is all his own, the words sprang forth from another source. Scratching your head? Here's a hint: fat babies have no pride.

Did ya get it? It's LYLE LOVETT. I've been giggling over this edition for *weeks* now. (And if you listened to that last.fm link and didn't laugh at least a little, I don't know what's wrong with you.) I LOVE LYLE. Seriously. I will forever live over in my head the moment he smiled at me from across a hotel lobby — Julia Roberts was no dummy for marrying the man, let me tell you.

Also no dummy: Mr. Mike Monteiro. Not only did he paint it on thick with this latest edition, he's skillfully selected wise words from musicians in the past. Need I remind you? Untitled (I'm an island of such great complexity) comes by way of Pavement. The SXSW 2010 rumormill was spinning yarns about Pavement's possible appearance that so far have proven false — the SXSW-music fest starts tomorrow — just another reason for those of us stuck at home to smugly convince ourselves that we're not missing out on much. Even if we are.

No need to feel sooooo blue, JB will be back to regale us with all the details soon — tomorrow we'll break from our regular programming to bring you a heart-breakin', good-lookin' print of a lonesome twosome, were they ever together, by a recent New Yorker cover artist. If you're not feeling our country fun, check out Mike's gift guide for his witty picks from the archives. Till tomorrow!

Patsy Cline and Hank Williams by Mark Ulriksen

Aloha collectors! It's SO good to be home sweet home AND it's starting to feel like spring around here. Winter coats have been banished and the sun seems just a little higher in the sky, bringing a bit more light to even the darkest of dark first-floor apartments.

I'll have a recap of all good goings on soon. I have but a minute today to introduce this edition from one of our favorite New Yorker contributors: Mark Ulriksen. Mark most recently put together The Oscars issue cover. If you're a subscriber, you might have also caught his third-page punchline in the tri-folding money issue a couple months back. As you all most likely know, Jorge Colombo is our other favorite New Yorker cover artist — and he's been at it again!

In Patsy Cline and Hank Williams, Mark's invented a moment for two of his country-music heroes to share the limelight together, with an owl! Dressed in their singing-Sunday best, standing in front of fence posts and what I imagine to be a very weathered barn tucked off among green acres somewhere south or west of here, the two look ready as ever to croon. Lonely, broken hearts be gone! This nostalgic print is a perfect companion for Hank Williams' Bed, Georgiana, Alabama as photographed by Scott Eiden.

To conclude our brief week of tributes to all good things that are a lil' bit country, we've rounded up our best bets for the cowboys and gals among you below, including Scott's photograph, yesterday's ode to Lyle Lovett, Untitled (I like you 'cause you like me and you don't like much.) by Mike Monteiro and Rodeo Stars, Strong City, Kansas by Mike Sinclair.

Mark's first edition with 20x200 is also a good one for music lovers: Monk. He generously agreed to create the edition with 20x200 as a benefit for a fine San Francisco institution, SFJAZZ, and only two prints remain!

Speaking of benefits, we're gearing up for a super kiss-off-to-winter event with our friends at Aperture this very Friday: SNAP! A few tickets are still available so hop to it and we'll look forward to seeing you there! Before then, I'll be back here tomorrow with one final fresh edition for this week.

SNAP! OUT OF WINTER
Friday, March 19, 2010
9:00 p.m. to midnight

Aperture Gallery
547 West 27th Street, 4th Floor
(Between 10th and 11th Avenue)
New York, NY 10001

What are you doing this Friday night to ring in spring? We hope you'll join us at Aperture's SNAP! Out of Winter Party where there will be giveaways, raffles, drinks, desserts, a polaroid photo booth, chances to meet and mingle with Jen Bekman (a party co-chair), the JBP crew and the many friends of Aperture.

Party tickets are available at a range of prices, from $100 to $250, and we're also giving away two pairs of tickets for you and a guest on Twitter! All you have to do is follow @20x200 + @aperturefnd + tweet "SNAP! Me" to be eligible to win a set. Tweets will be accepted until 11:59 p.m. tonight, and we'll randomly select the winner and announce he or she on Twitter first thing tomorrow (3/19) morning.

We have two pairs of tickets to giveaway, one set that gets you +1 entry into the party and access to all the fun schwag, drinks and entertainment we mentioned above. And, we have one set of tickets that includes all of the above and an exclusive limited-edition print by Dan Winters (the image below) and a subscription to Aperture magazine subscription.

Movie Theater, Midland, Texas, March 25, 1995 by Dan Winters

Keep in mind that the party is in New York, so if you enter the contest, make sure you can be here tomorrow night!

SNAP! OUT OF WINTER
Friday, March 19, 2919
Aperture Gallery
547 West 27th Street, 4th Floor (Between 10th + 11th Avenue)
New York, NY 10001

Nethermead by Joseph O. Holmes