Left: Golden State Freeway/San Fernando Pass; from Los Angeles 02.12.04; Right: Untitled/San Fernando Valley; from Los Angeles 07.27.05

To all of our Santa Fe-based collectors, you have a chance to get your hands on a copy of one of Michael Light's books (and to meet the artist!) tonight from 5 to 7 p.m. at Radius Books.

Light and 20x200 teamed up earlier this week to bring you two mesmerizing, bird's-eye-view prints from his newly released book LA DAY/LA NIGHT, available through Radius's web site. From our friends at Radius:

For the last fifteen years, Light has aerially photographed over settled and unsettled areas of American space, pursuing themes of mapping, vertigo, human impact on the land, and various aspects of geological time and the sublime. A private pilot and 2007 Guggenheim photography fellow, he is currently working on an extended aerial photographic survey of the arid West. Radius Books published the first of a planned multi-volume series of this work, Bingham Mine / Garfield Stack, in Fall 2009. Light is represented by Hosfelt Gallery, San Francisco, Craig Krull Gallery, Santa Monica and Galerie Michael Wiesehoefer, Cologne.

Light's work will also be on display through April in Portland's Blue Sky gallery. His show, "Some Dry Space: An Inhabited West," opens soon.

As you lounge, safely grounded on your couch this weekend, browsing the internet, be sure to view Light's two airborne editions, Untitled/San Fernando Valley; from Los Angeles 07.27.05 and Golden State Freeway/San Fernando Pass; from Los Angeles 02.12.04, and read more about the artist and his process.

La Paz, Bolivia, 2003 by Stefan Ruiz

The folks over at Vice magazine recently dropped in on 20x200 artist and photographer Stefan Ruiz at his Brooklyn studio for an interview, and subsequently produced this fantastic short documentary on Ruiz and his work.

To see more of Ruiz's beautiful portraiture and photography, be sure to browse his 20x200 editions and visit his web site.

Kate Spade New York's blog recently featured the home of Lonny magazine editor Michelle Adams—and readers with a sharp eye will notice something familiar hovering just above her television. Christian Chaize's Praia Piquinia 02/08/07 15h16 adds a touch of color to Adams's otherwise muted wall space.

Adams "infuses pops of color throughout the space" to add character to her apartment, as she explains in the video tour of her home posted on the Kate Spade blog. And this isn't the first time that Adams has relied on 20x200 editions to tie her various elements of decor together—last spring, Joseph Holmes's West Nineteenth Street (Yellow Dress) appeared in a spread of images showcasing her living room.

Lonny, Spring 2010

This spring, add a classy hint of color to your own home with one of Chaize's newest prints, Praia Piquinia 11/08/10 12h15 and Praia Piquinia 28/08/10 12h20, released just last week on 20x200.

Ferry from Ardrossan Harbor, 2010 by Laura Bell

The work of Laura Bell may soon hang right above the bed of fashion/design blogger and New York City-based magazine writer Joanna Goddard, according to a recent post on her popular blog, A Cup of Jo. Goddard writes:

Alex and I are giving our bedroom a little makeover, and we've been looking for artwork to go over our bed. How calming and lovely is this ocean photograph? Laura Bell took it while on a ferry in Scotland, and the circular shape makes it feel like she's peeking out of one of those round ship windows. Beautiful, don't you think?

On March 23rd, 20x200 released two editions by Bell, a 2010 Hot Shot.

Left: Imperial Palace Gardens with Wall, Tokyo, 2006 by Emily Shur; Right: Shinjuku, 6:43, 2007 by Joseph O. Holmes

On March 29th, 20x200 became the 99th contributor to the Hearts+Hands raffle to benefit Japan, organized by Satsuma Press owner Lynn Russell. We donated one each of the Joseph Holmes and Emily Shur prints and these—along with the work of a number of other artists, studios and small businesses—will be raffled off to raise money for the earthquake and tsunami victims.

Sales from the 20x200 benefit editions have already generated over $12,000 in donations and we sincerely hope to see those funds go even further through Hearts+Hands.

Modern Art by Craig Damrauer

Deciding what to do with that big blank wall in one's home can be quite the conundrum, according to Lucky magazine blogger Diane Vadino. In a post written on March 25th, she explored possible solutions to the "blah" wall. As it turned out, one of the solutions ended up being, oddly enough, an equation—Craig Damrauer's Modern Art, to be exact. Vadino writes:

Is there anything more exciting in home design than confronting what to do with a blank wall? The creative possibilities are endless ... Many of the wares from stellar online gallery 20x200 are photographic prints, but occasionally we'll spot incredible text and typography pieces—like this piece by Craig Damrauer, available in three different sizes as an archival pigment print.

Vadino featured 20x200 as one of "four inspired picks" for New York City venues at which to buy art. To sum it up, it all comes back to Jen's very own equation: (limited editions x low prices) + the internet = art for everyone.

The New Math of Relationships by Craig Damrauer

We're fascinated and delighted by Craig Damrauer's New Math series, but it's nice to know that we're far from alone—his typographic equations are showcased on the popular news catch-all The Huffington Post.

The article, written by contributor Sara Wilson, along with an embedded slideshow of 24 letterpressed equations, highlight the prints through which Craig dives into a sea of complex human interactions and emotions and attempts to sort them out.

For more on Craig's New Math series, view his 20x200 editions or visit his blog for a more complete description of the project as a whole.

Well-being 1 by Valerie Roybal

Good morning, collectors. It's Sara, writing from a finally-feeling-spring-ish New York. It's humid and warm—you can't help but be reminded that the city, for all its concrete, is surrounded by water and dappled with parks—cherry trees are starting to bloom, crocuses are coming out of the ground. It's cliché but, really, things are starting to feel new again.

It's about this time of year that we usually bring you a new edition from the perennially-popular artist Valerie Roybal: Well-being 1 is her fifth. Well-loved on 20x200, Valerie's work is celebrated in much broader circles, too; it's most recently been included in the book Cutting Edges, published by Gestalten earlier this year.

Like the work featured in the book, and in her previous 20x200 editions, Valerie's collected, culled, cut and arranged bits of ephemera—pages from old encyclopedias, postcards, letters, found photographs—making them all new again. Well-being 1 is a bit like spring itself, especially as described by E.E. Cummings.

Spring is like a perhaps hand

Spring is like a perhaps hand
(which comes carefully
out of Nowhere)arranging
a window,into which people look(while
people stare
arranging and changing placing
carefully there a strange
thing and a known thing here)and

changing everything carefully

spring is like a perhaps
Hand in a window
(carefully to
and fro moving New and
Old things,while
people stare carefully
moving a perhaps
fraction of flower here placing
an inch of air there)and

without breaking anything.

–E. E. Cummings

Rue magazine, January/February 2011

In their last issue, the design-savvy folks at Rue magazine featured a gallery wall curated by Jen. Rue writes:

Guest curator Jen Bekman is the founder of 20x200 and Jen Bekman Gallery on New York's Lower East Side. 20x200 offers limited edition prints by emerging, established and legendary artists, all starting at $20.

The round-up of "cheery," brightly colored prints includes work by Lauren DiCioccio, Jane Mount, Aaron Straup Cope, Amy Stevens, Youngna Park, Jessica Snow, Christian Chaize, Lisa Congdon and Jonathan Lewis. Our prints paired with Rue's fabulous page layout? It doesn't get much better than this.

Nungesser Elephant, 2010, by Colleen Plumb

Sleeping Lion by Colleen Plumb

NYC Collectors, listen up: 2008 Hot Shot Colleen Plumb will be signing books at Jen Bekman Gallery on April 21st, from 6 to 8 p.m. Colleen and Associate Gallery Director Jeffrey Teuton will also be holding a discussion on her latest exhibition, Animals Are Outside Today. Her accompanying book, published by Radius Books, will be available for purchase at the gallery that evening.

Animals Are Outside Today "examines relationships between humans and animals, studying how animals are woven through the fabric of culture," according to the book's synopsis.

So mark your calendars, and don't miss out on the chance to meet Colleen and to snag a copy of her new book.

Last month, Choire Sicha of Details.com likened the spirit of what he called the "new entrepreneur" to the characters of AMC's popular television series Mad Men. "Despite being separated by decades of social and technological upheaval (not to mention the gulf between fiction and reality)," he writes, "we are motivated by the same impulse—not so much to stick it to the Man, but to be a better version of him." Sicha continues:

This same spirit is shaking up the fine-art world. Jen Bekman, a gallery owner, launched 20x200, a site that regularly commissions a photograph and a print in small editions and sells them at affordable prices. "I wanted to scale this in a way where artists are getting big checks, and people like you and me and everyone else we know can become art collectors," Bekman says. Last September, after two years in business, Bekman raised $885,000 in seed funding; she now has 19 employees.

Jen has been cited numerous times as a pioneer in the online, affordable art movement. By selling limited-edition prints at prices that the everyman can squeeze into his or her monthly budget, she is paving the way for a number of online startups to come.

Sleeping Lion by Colleen Plumb

Greetings on this fine, spring NYC Wednesday, collector friends. Colleen Plumb's stunning exhibition at Jen Bekman Gallery is well underway, and we're all looking forward to her return to 6 Spring Street later this month. She'll be back on the evening of April 21st to chat with Associate Director Jeffrey Teuton about the exhibition, and to sign advance copies of her gorgeous debut monograph Animals Are Outside Today, published by our friends at Radius Books. So let today's announcement serve as a save-the-date for another festive event with this talented, articulate artist. It's also an opportunity to become a patron by acquiring our newest edition from Colleen, Sleeping Lion.

I spent the early part of this morning contemplating leonine inspirations—cinematic (the Cowardly Lion) and nostalgic (Leo, the Steiff hand puppet that my mom got me as a get well gift when I was a wee lass)—and also indulged in a little anthropomorphic speculation (is Sleeping Lion sad? bored? above it all?) This was followed by a quick revisiting of Why Look at Animals?, an essay in which John Berger firmly debunks such folly, which made me feel awfully silly about all the emotional baggage I was burdening this regal beast with.

Sent back to the drawing board in search of something more pragmatic, I rediscovered a long-ago post to my (now-neglected) blog Personism. In 2009, I paired Sleeping Lion with a passage from Leaves of Grass, wherein Whitman considers going to live among animals, imagining an existence uncluttered by existential angst:

32
I think I could turn and live with animals, they're so placid and self contain'd, I stand and look at them long and long.

They do not sweat and whine about their condition,
They do not lie awake in the dark and weep for their sins,
They do not make me sick discussing their duty to God,
Not one is dissatisfied, not one is demented with the mania of owning things,
Not one kneels to another, nor to his kind that lived thousands of years ago,
Not one is respectable or unhappy over the earth.

In The Library by Tatsuro Kiuchi

Hello, collectors! It's Sara, with a timely tribute to books—it's National Library Week, in case you didn’t know. How could you not know?

Tatsuro Kiuchi's ode to tomes (and their home) is stacked thick—in In the Library, stripes and colors assemble themselves into spines and shelves. It's a print that would find itself in good company with Jane Mount's Ideal Bookshelf series and Mickey Smith's elegant volumes. It also pairs well with Tatsuro's other prints, which celebrate a few more of our favorite things: biking, baseball and photography. Tatsuro's tribute to an institution founded on sharing and giving is apropos for reasons other than this week's national holiday.

Based in Tokyo, Tatsuro is offering support for relief efforts by giving away high-resolution files of three of his works. Donate $50 or more to Red Cross (Japan Earthquake and Pacific Tsunami), then email him your receipt and image selection and he'll send you the file to print on your own. In case you missed them earlier last month, we have two benefit editions available as well. All proceeds from the sales of Shinjuku, 6:43 by Joseph O. Holmes and Imperial Palace Gardens with Wall, Tokyo by Emily Shur will go to support the Japan Society's Earthquake Relief Fund. So far, with your help, we've raised over $12,000.

That's all for now, but this is just the first of three great editions we have lined up this week—just you wait and see...

Old Typewriter by Todd McLellan

Wednesday greetings, collectors! We're in the midst of a three-day curatorial fiesta here at 20x200 HQ; it's exciting and fun, but I'm happy for the opportunity to take a break from choosing things to talk about why something has been chosen. Old Typewriter is our first offering from Canadian photographer Todd McLellan—it's but one of the many fascinating photographs in his Disassembly series.

The series has been the subject of ooh-ing and ahh-ing all across the interwebs as of late, garnering the attention of sites like Boing Boing, The Fox is Black, Laughing Squid, Flavorwire and (of course!) Things Organized Neatly. All these sites being frequent destinations of mine, Todd's imagery kept popping up in my RSS feed again and again, and I was just pleased as punch when he accepted our invitation to create 20x200 editions from the series. (That's right, I said "editions." As in plural. As in: there's more to come!)

While it's true that I am an inveterate digital hoarder of the aesthetically pleasing, it's also dismaying to me that so many are sated by the cheap thrill of bookmarking when the rich experience of living with art is so readily available. That's one of the reasons why it's so deeply satisfying to transform imagery that's internet-famous into a tangible, collectible, live-with-able object that everyone can afford. The richness that I refer to is a multifaceted one—living with a piece of art takes someone else's creative output and makes it part of your story, and the serendipity of proximity amplifies your opportunity to reconnect with the emotions, interest and/or excitement that the image sparked in you to begin with. As someone who lives with lots of art (Too much? Never!) I can attest that this happens again and again—sometimes when you least expect it and often when you need it most.

You by William Powhida

Special-edition Thursday greetings, collector friends! Today's edition is a For-Mature-Audiences-Only salvo from everyone's favorite art world provocateur, William Powhida. We here at 20x200 couldn't think of a better day than what we thought* was Tax Day Eve on which to release You.

William posted the original on his blog back on November 2nd—which happened to be another day that registers highly on the government vexation scale, Election Day. I posted it to my Tumblr immediately and with great glee—I was quite certain that an edition was a must. After all, I'd said months before that I looked forward to assisting William in ticking off the 20x200-related accomplishment from his list again soon.

The challenge of exactly how to release this edition has been such an engaging, amusing and interesting process that it's somewhat bittersweet to be moving on to the next phase of its existence. (Although, I'd hazard to guess that continued interesting-ness is practically guaranteed.) I showed the image to my boyfriend a few weeks ago, saying how excited I was that we'd gotten it definitively scheduled, and his response completely surprised me. He shifted uncomfortably in his seat and said, "Well... I kind of don't like it." That he didn't like it was definitely something to talk about. But what was most striking was his level of discomfort: he couldn't possibly hang it in his house where his young son (who'd probably find it kind of hilarious) and his mom—who visits pretty frequently—(she'd be absolutely unamused, let me tell you) would see it. The whole parental disapproval thing simply hadn't occurred to me, blessed as I was with a mom who gave me license to curse at a scandalously young age. (Actual quote: "I'd much rather that you cursed someone out instead of throwing punches.")

Up until that very moment, I hadn't given an enormous amount of thought to how we'd present the print to you, dear collectors. I knew that it was going to require some special handling, but seeing Steve mildly scandalized made me think that perhaps I'd underestimated the potential impact of You. Earlier this week, I presented the conundrum to the team, and the process of figuring out a solution provoked myriad "I-can't-believe-this-is-my-job" episodes. We're a pretty liberal-minded crew around here, but it was important to us that our own sensibilities not alienate those among you who are well within your rights to be offended by a screen full of profanity. Conversely, we didn't want to compromise or disrespect the image or its creator in any way, shape or form. Then there was a whole other vector that we'd never had cause to consider up until today—namely, whether we'd be violating any internet obscenity laws with the edition's release.

And then there's the question of whether artwork like this threatens to dilute the word's potency. "That's the most important thing!," Steve told me, then added, "I really like saying it and don't want that to go away." That it won't is part of what's so fascinating about the word to begin with. It's pretty commonplace in many spheres. I could count at least three times Jon Stewart was censored during his recent Glenn Beck tour de force, for instance. As someone said to me at a cocktail party last night, it's among the most severe in the pantheon of four-letter words, and yet it's potency remains, by and large, unabated. I kind of don't understand why, and have thought quite a bit about why it's so scandalous to utter it. What I do know for sure is that it's a deeply satisfying word to say, the corporeal embodiment of blowing off steam. The "F" forces your upper teeth against your lower lip, the opportunity to extend the uhhhhhhhhhh in proportion to however regretful, frustrated or angry you may be, but always ending crisply with the decisive full stop of a "kuh." There, don't you feel better now?

* Turns out that Tax Day falls on Monday, April 18th this year! Who knew?

Untitled (300 x 404) by Greg Allen

Here at 20x200, we've been following the Cariou v. Prince case (and ruling) very closely. Chain emails have been flying around the office and the topic seems to find its way into many a casual, across-the-desk conversations. For our collectors out there who might not be familiar with the specifics, you can read the blow-by-blow. When the judge first ruled that Prince was in the wrong, we were most struck by the fact that she changed the standard for fair use: in order for appropriation art to fall within the legal limitations of the fair use clause, she said, it must be "transformative," and also refer back to, or comment on the original piece from which it is borrowed.

The Prince decision has hit close to home, indeed—seeing as how our very own edition-maker Greg Allen once appropriated a Prince piece. Greg's 20x200 edition, Untitled (300 x 404), is a thumbnail-sized jpeg of Richard Prince's Untitled (Cowboy), 2003. After editors at Slate were, "ironically, unable to get permission" to use the image in a slideshow review of a MoMA exhibition featuring the work, Greg took a screen-grab, gave the image a new name and called it his own. If you're familiar with the piece, (or Prince's work in general) you'll know that it, too, was borrowed—Untitled (Cowboy) is a rephotograph of a Marlboro ad by Sam Abell.

Did we lose you? We'll try to break it down:

1. Sam Abell snaps a pic of a cowboy for a Marlboro ad.
2. Richard Prince reproduces said Abell cowboy pic and calls it his own.
3. Greg Allen takes a thumbnail of Prince's rephotograph, blows it up and dubs it his own work.

Got it? Now get Greg's take on the most recent ruling and more details about the making of his 20x200 edition.

In light of the recent court proceedings surrounding Prince, the art of appropriation as we know it could cease to exist, though an appeal could just as easily turn the tables once again. Stay tuned—we'll be here, glued to our screens. In the meantime, you can get a steal: we're offering 11"x14" prints of Untitled (300 x 404) for $30 (usually $50) for today only, until 8:00 p.m. ET.

What a pleasant surprise on a Monday morning to find out that we had been featured on none other than The Today Show! In light of the budding spring redecorating season, the Today show invited ShopSmart Editor-in-Chief Lisa Lee Freeman to share online redecorating resources with their viewers.

See the clip here:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Among her list of handy online tools (including our friends West Elm, Lonny mag and Apartment Therapy), Freeman named 20x200 as a great resource for "fun and funky" wall art.

"It's so fun because every week they feature different, new artists' works," she lauded. "So you can go on there and you can buy art for as little as $20."

The spot featured a pair of colorful prints, perfect for a "spring pick-me-up": Valerie Roybal's Well-being 1 and Amy Jean Porter's Mandrill. These editions, along with the others on the site, Freeman said, can provide great inspiration for your next room-revamping project.

Shop the featured Roybal and Porter prints (before they're gone!). And if you haven't already, be sure to sign up for our newsletter for exclusive peeks at more great, affordable art to fill any and every lackluster wall.

Icon by Michelle Muldrow

Tuesday greetings, collectors, and the warmest of welcomes to those of you who are receiving your very first edition announcement after discovering 20x200 on the Today show yesterday morning. (There are lots of you!)

We are pleased and proud to be hosting Cathedrals of Desire, the NYC solo debut of the fabulously talented painter Michelle Muldrow at Jen Bekman Gallery. We're so looking forward to the opening reception next Friday, April 29th, from 6 to 8 p.m., and we're not the only ones! Her gorgeous paintings created quite a buzz when we showed them at the PULSE Contemporary Art Fair last month, selling out in a snap. Many of her would-be collectors marked their calendars for the event, and quite a few of them have eagerly inquired about available inventory ahead of time. Icon, Michelle's first 20x200 edition, is an archival pigment print based on an original painting that's included in the exhibition.

At its heart, Michelle's work is an exploration of the idea that consumerism has replaced religion as a social anchor in contemporary culture. The places and things she is depicting are so mundane that there is no doubt as to what they are as actual things. But, to some extent we've blinded ourselves to the meaning that we've invested in them. By placing manufactured landscapes and their contents in a religious/devotional/ecstatic framework, Michelle makes plain the uncomfortable truths of our consumer culture. Our cathedrals are big box stores and our icons are shopping carts.

Michelle's pursuit is a calculated one; surely she understands the futility of trying to imbue these barren, generic landscapes and the things in them with a depth of meaning on par with the foundations of religion and of God himself. But in attempting to do so, in a strange way, she underscores how all of it is an invention, a manifestation of our urge to make meaning out of what's unknowable.

Untitled (Sarah & Arnold) by Michael Bodiam

Untitled (Red Carpet) by Michael Bodiam

Good morning, collectors! It's Sara, with our first pair of prints from London-based photographer Michael Bodiam. Michael was one of five photographers selected in our 2010 Hey, Hot Shot! photography competition. He exhibited his work alongside fellow Hot Shots Laura Bell, Amy Stevens, Zhijie Sui and Chikara Umihara at Jen Bekman Gallery earlier this year. And now, all five photographers are in the running for the $10,000-and-two-years-of-gallery-representation grand prize. I'm excited to report that we'll be announcing the winner and opening the first round of competition in 2011 very, very soon. Among other things, HHS! is the only way for photographers to submit work to be reviewed for 20x200, so if that's something you've wondered about, stay tuned.

Similarly to yesterday's new print, Icon by Michelle Muldrow, Michael's photographs, Untitled (Sarah & Arnold) and Untitled (Red Carpet), highlight sites of commerce. Unlike Michelle's work, though, which focuses on the ongoing—and seemingly, increasingly pervasive and invasive—role of consumerism in contemporary American culture, Michael's photographs document what relics remain and sentiments persist after the fall of an economy.

Untitled (Sarah & Arnold) and Untitled (Red Carpet), from Michael's series Dickins & Jones, are also a good foil to Brian Ulrich's series of post-December 2007 closed storefronts, Dark Stores. But unlike Brian's photographs, which keep a distance from their subjects and seem to wonder what happens next, Michael's pictures bring us close and cryptically allude to what happened then—when these spaces were populated by people and things, shoppers and garments to be had. Michael's images of the now empty stores are carefully composed, surfacing small details—paint stains, a particular kind and color of carpet, wear and tear. What is absent becomes more present, hinting subtly at the life—both public and private—that these spaces formerly had. Associate Director of Jen Bekman Gallery Jeffrey Teuton notes that, "There is so much energy and vibrancy coming out of these static spaces. They are at once quiet and deafening. It is as if the rise and fall of the spaces is happening all at once in front of you and in a split second you are left standing there in silence, with nothing but dizzying memories."

Moore Estates (West) by Matthew Moore

It’s easy to get lost in the Digital Age—being the spunky, e-commerce art site that we are, all of us here at 20x200 are constantly immersed in the imaginary world that is the Internet. But that’s exactly it: we’re so busy deteriorating our vision with megapixels and LCD backlighting that we regularly forget to stop, go outside and take a breath of fresh air (and maybe even look at a tree or two). These worlds, though, are not necessarily mutually exclusive, and artists like edition-maker Matthew Moore are finding ways to merge new technology with Mother Nature. The result: moments from the natural world, usually transient, are captured, recorded and saved.

Moore, whose 20x200 editions pay tribute to and analyze modern American agriculture, captures on film the ephemeral nature of, well, nature. In another project, he manipulates time-lapse photography to record the lifespans of cultivated plants around the world. Moore is working to receive an United States Artists fellowship to continue his work, which he has titled the Digital Farm Collective. In his introduction to the project, he writes:

“Using time-lapse photography, I have begun the process of filming everything I grow, and [I'm] inviting other farmers to do the same. The arranged short films show a single production cycle of each plant/tree.”

Moore plans to use the footage he captures and edits to create short films that will “educate consumers on the produce they purchase by showing the growing process as it happens in the field, reconnecting them to the land and time-based concepts integral to the agricultural process.”

Read more about the project or make a pledge to the Digital Farm Collective to support Moore and his goal of producing a “digital film herbarium,” which will house footage that documents the life cycles of crops grown by farmers worldwide. The deadline for pledging is Friday, May 13th. You can also view his editions, Moore Estates (West) and Moore Estates (detail), and read Jen’s introduction to the series.

And just in time for Earth Day, we’re offering you the chance to get a regularly $50 11”x14” of Matt’s print for just $30, for the next eight hours only (until 8 p.m. EST).

Be Realistic Demand the Impossible by Carrie Marill

Also available for $30 (today only) is Matt’s wife (and fellow 20x200 artist) Carrie Marill’s Utopian edition, Be Realistic Demand the Impossible. To create this print, Carrie scanned an image from a French classroom “visual aide” from the late 1950s and updated it with modern drawings to “reflect current events that relate to the state of our environment and how humans anthropomorphize the planet.” See if you can spot all of the out-of-place-and-time objects, and read more about Carrie’s work in Jen’s newsletter.

Photo by Mike Fernandez

Jen was profiled by writer Jerry Portwood this week for both the print edition of CityArts and online in the New York Press. According to Portwood, who paid a visit to the 20x200 HQ last week, Jen is "doing art's work" by making art readily available not just to those brave enough to venture into a gallery, but to (literally) everyone. In the article, Jen says:

Everyone is concerned with their pie; they want to hold on to their piece...I’ve been sort of saying for years: I’m trying to make the pie bigger; I’m not trying to take any away from you. I’m trying to get more people coming though the door of your gallery. I’m trying to map a path for people from, starting with us, feeling much more confident and comfortable walking in and engaging because it’s an important thing to do...I don’t think we are so much about selling prints as we are about extending the experience of being an art collector to a bigger audience...And while doing it, we’re very committed to ensuring that experience is authentic, whether someone is spending $20 or $2,000.

The article also featured Michelle Muldrow's Altar in Orange, on view at Jen Bekman Gallery beginning April 29th.

Old Flip Clock by Todd McLellan

Thursday* Surprise Saturday greetings, collectors. It's Sara, with a quick note to bring you a brand new print by master disassembler and creator of organization from chaos: Todd McLellan.

Old Flip Clock features a trusty time-telling steed, gloriously gutted. Bound only by screws and glue, its pieces easily—and more importantly, non-toxically—come apart. Cleverly, McLellan has arranged all of its spirals and springs, numbers and other unidentifiable things into a skeleton of sorts: what once made this clock tick-tock now lies here.

But don't fret, this is no sad end, friends! Just as this is not the first of Todd's

Disassembly series we've presented, it also won't be the last—we'll have another edition from Mr. McLellan in a snap and flash (and yes, that is a hint). Additional news to be excited about: next week we'll be popping up with a new crop of neatly assembled framed prints for your perusal. Till then!

* This edition was originally scheduled to reach your inbox on Thursday. Many of you might have noticed that several sites, including ours, were down that day, due to an Amazon Cloud outage. Thanks for your patience and understanding as we dealt with this widespread problem. We didn't want to inundate your inbox with both the Friday Flash and a new edition yesterday, so here we are today, instead!

Baby Monkey No. 6 by Sharon Montrose

Over the weekend, 20x200 appeared in the Wall Street Journal's Off Duty section as one of six places to find limited-edition artwork suitable for even the youngest of collectors. "The pioneering affordable art site has plenty of kid-friendly choices in its roster," WSJ writer Jane Margolies writes.

The article is accompanied by an image of Sharon Montrose's Baby Monkey No. 6, and also mentions the work of edition-makers Lisa Congdon and Carrie Marill—all "real art," and all affordable, the article notes. Margolies continues:

The four-year-old website 20x200 has a "Gifts for Kids" search option, and the site's founder, Jen Bekman, estimates that 14% of customers buy art tagged as appropriate for children. 'Why settle for a poster?' she said.

You can read the rest of the article online, and browse more kid-friendly prints via our youth-inspired guide.

Studio, All Over Coffee #392 by Paul Madonna

San Francisco spring greetings, collectors! It's very fitting that I'm writing from here—not only because this is my home away from home (and I've written many a dispatch from here), but also because today's edition, Studio, All Over Coffee #392, is from San Francisco-based artist Paul Madonna.

Paul's always-charming ink wash drawings touch upon the everyday, often in a playful way. We were super excited to release his Balsa planes #3 and Balsa planes #4 last winter, just in time for the Mixtape exhibition at the JBG and, of course, gift-giving season. Loaded as they are with nostalgia (both for me and Sara), the planes and Album 1 (with its prominent Fisher-Price record player), tug at the ole heartstrings.

In Studio, All Over Coffee #392, Paul brings the viewer into his workspace. He is sharing with us his studio, which happens to be (as he recently told 7x7 magazine*) his most prized possession: "Can you call an art studio a possession? I often fantasize about it—the tables, the lighting and rows of bookshelves. I daydream about amassing a great library someday." In this particular corner of his space, though, we don't see Paul's books but instead, a Pez dispenser, neatly organized inks, toy figurines and (OMG) finger puppets!

Not long ago on one-among-many trips to San Francisco, I stumbled across an installation of Paul's drawings in Ritual Roasters on Valencia, which featured, of course, the finger puppets! I've had an attachment to these weird rubbery creatures since receiving one as a gift years ago. Randomly, artist and curator Melanie Flood gave me one on the night we met, out with mutual friend and artist, Jason Polan. I can't remember where we were or what we did, but the finger puppet—whose gradient colors flow gaudily from yellow to orange to purple—is currently perched atop the ledge of my Chambers stove and serves always as a reminder of the evening. I think of Melanie and Jason every time I look at it—and also, now, of Paul.

Back at Ritual Roasters, seeing one of those wacky finger puppets made me think fondly of not just Paul and the editions we'd done with him (and the book those drawings were published in), but also of my experiences in San Francisco. It made me think, too, of home, where my finger puppet lives, of Melanie and Jason and of how familiar objects anchor and connect you in unexpected ways to others, to memories, to yourself.

So at that point, I realized we really ought to do an edition with a drawing of Paul's that had at least one of the weird finger puppets in it. Lucky us, this one has THREE. (One of which, by the way, looks an awful lot like the one that Melanie gifted me all those years ago.)

This print is also part of Paul's new book, Everything is its Own Reward: An All Over Coffee Collection. If you find yourself in San Francisco, Paul will be signing copies at Electric Works this Friday, April 29th, from 7 to 10 p.m.

* You can read the whole interview here in this PDF.

According to an article published on CNNMoney.com on April 26th, tech entrepreneurs like Jen Bekman are pioneering the merger between e-commerce and the art market—the "last frontier" to be invaded by technology. The article cites Jen as one of the frontrunners in the push to integrate the art world with the online community:

Bekman was a pioneer at the intersection of art and tech. She launched her venture on a shoestring budget just before the recession hit, after years of running a gallery in the the Lower East Side.

And for investors looking to find the "next big thing," art-related e-commerce could be it:

Gallery owner Jen Bekman launched 20x200, which sells limited-edition prints online starting at $20, back in 2007. Two years later, venture capitalists plowed $2.9 million into her company.

According to Jen, 20x200 has been "steadily doubling year-over-year" since its launch in 2007 and was already a $1 million business before taking on investors. And "those kinds of economics," CNNMoney says, "have investors excited."

F--- you. Pay me. by Mike Monteiro

Have you heard the news? Our very own Mike Monteiro has taken his internet famousness to new heights! His recent Creative Mornings talk about the business side of being a designer has been extremely well-received and made online headlines all across the ether. It was awfully amusing to see how the various outlets handled the title of the talk, laced as it is with such colorful language. The challenge of presenting such verbiage is something we became familiar with ourselves just a few editions ago, when we released William Powhida's You. Emboldened by the success of that endeavor, we were delighted to create this edition based on Mike's talk's title, and hope that we'll soon be seeing it hung in creative workspaces all across the land.

F--- you. Pay me. does have sensationalism on its side, but the underlying message—one that encourages honesty, transparency and self-respect—is not to be overlooked. Mike might talk big (and I like it when he does!) but he's also being incredibly generous by allowing others to learn from his mistakes. I also think he's probably the only person in the history of all time who became even MORE likeable because he brought his lawyer along.

This edition is but one of nine we've released with Mike—and just one small gem from his ongoing repartee. If you're like me and have a high tolerance for foul-mouthed straight-talkers, you should follow his (not for the faint of heart and usually NSFW!) Twitter feed.