Beating the Rug by Ann Toebbe

Rental Property by Ann Toebbe

My experiences in New York and at Yale University cast my family's home and lifestyle in a different light: a pragmatic, mundane (and rather flat) sense of beauty, unburdened by high ideas or refinements of style. The combination of my earlier working-class tastes and the later-acquired, intensely cosmopolitan awareness of style has shaped who I am as a painter.

— Ann Toebbe

When I first read Ann's statement about her work, I was struck by its forthrightness, and was perhaps a little uneasy about how unapologetic it was. But there was also some serious pattern recognition. At its heart, Ann’s work is about reconciling her adult self—urbane, sophisticated and in possession of an advanced degree from a prestigious MFA program—with her decidedly more humble Midwestern roots. As a girl from Queens who got dumped into the very cosmopolitan populace of Stuyvesant High School in the 80s, I can totally identify.

Beating the Rug and Rental Property being our fourth and fifth editions with Ann, I’ve had a lot of conversations about her practice, both with the team and with collectors here on 20x200 and elsewhere. Throughout, I've been surprised (and yes, pleased!) by how hackle-raising this brutal honesty has been to others. In frankly stating her discomfort with bringing denizens of her art-centric citified existence back into the fold of the Midwest's humble, less sophisticated comforts, it appears that Ms. Toebbe pushes a lot of buttons.

In the spirit of that aforementioned frankness, I call bullsh*t. I mean, who hasn't been made uncomfortable by family members' differences at one time or another? My mind immediately bounces to the families of many of our Presidents—Jimmy Carter's brother Billy; Barack Obama's recently-charged-with-a-DUI uncle; and then there's Arkansas-born, Oxford-educated Bill "Bubba" Clinton, who's a living testament to balancing a humble past with a high-minded present. Perhaps it’s because I see Ann's work as being very deeply American, but one could argue that aspirational reinvention is one of the pillars of our culture, after all.

We're all striving, but nobody wants to get caught doing it. Ann? She doesn't care, which makes me like her more. But what makes me like her, and her work, most is how lovingly she embraces all of it. Her process—painstakingly detailed and invoking the quintessentially American craft, quilting—honors everything that she's deeply ambivalent about, ultimately elevating all involved.

— Jen

ny.11.#12 by Jennifer Sanchez

Last we introduced one of Jennifer Sanchez's new works, we were nestled along the shore of the Atlantic, awaiting the arrival of Hurricane Irene. Picking up where we left off—we're introducing ny.11.#02's sister print, ny.11.#12.

The pair of prints marks a departure in Jennifer's work. Her signature spontaneous, multi-colored swirls and drips have been replaced by a subdued color palette and slightly more orderly composition. True to form, though, she's left evidence of her process—layers and marks that render the surface deliciously smudgy. As her work has changed over the years, we've been here to watch and share it with you.

As Jen wrote: The arc of our relationship with [Jennifer]—from emerging artist, to her sold-out editions, to her work being shown in numerous galleries ([then] at the Bronx Museum AIM's Bronx Calling exhibition), to the JBG selling her work to a really great institutional collection and, now, our partnership with West Elm—is truly remarkable and gratifying.

Jennifer is one of five artists featured in our collaboration with West Elm—a partnership that's brought her work, along with that of Sean Greene, Joe Kievitt, Carol Padberg and Bert Teunissen, to a large audience of art and design lovers. Our collaboration includes this weekend's (rescheduled post-hurricane) Living With Art + The Art of Living design talk with Jen. If you're in NYC, stop by on Saturday to hear her tips on collecting and living with art:

Living With Art + The Art of Living
Saturday, October 8th, 10–11 a.m.
West Elm
1870 Broadway, New York, NY
Call the store to RSVP: 212-247-8077

Hope to see you then!

— Sara

Marco Polo by Esther Pearl Watson

We send a lot of info your way—about the art we're sharing with you that day, about the artist who made it and why we love it. And we know you're busy, so we know you might not always read absolutely everything we put in your inbox*. You might skim, check out the links. Really, it's ok—we're happy you're looking at art a few times a week. But, sometimes, you're missing really good stuff, like when Jen first introduced you to Esther Pearl Watson's work.

Much of what she wrote then aptly applies to Esther's second edition, Marco Polo. So, here you are, again (slightly amended):

I don't know what it's like anywhere in Texas right now, but thinking about today's edition by just-outside-of-Fort-Worth native Esther Pearl Watson has me imagining a day so hot that the air ripples, with enough of a breeze to stir up the sand so it gets stuck on the damp hair of your neck and maybe even in your teeth. Esther paints pictures of stories that I want to hear. A few handwritten sentences give away just enough of the plot—suddenly it's not a story; it's a movie and we're building the set, soundtrack and a script. There are spaceships. [And also: swimming pools.]

In The Denny's Parking Lot [and Marco Polo], there are child stars who hopefully grow up to be just like Drew Barrymore, populating the sound stage wardrobed in impeccably curated late '70s fashions. I am pretty sure that Esther's dad, builder of the aforementioned spaceships, is played by Jeff Bridges. Heroes and spaceships aside, Esther's at Denny's with her dad, and maybe a sibling who she fought with in the back seat of the station wagon along the way... [Or playing Marco Polo in the backyard pool with friends, flapping around on plastic rafts, chlorine catching in their throats and on skin.]

This is where we get to the part where it's possibly easier for this to be a story instead of a memory, with perfectly puffed cotton balls serving as clouds and toothpicks that have bright green Easter grass glued to them standing in for trees. Back then, Denny's was cool and all, but it was hot in the car, and even though Esther was only five or so, it seemed like maybe her mom had a good point about the flying saucers. As a grown-up, Esther can tell the story in a deceptively simple way, referencing the outsider art that she discovered in high school (the same art that made her understand the artistry in her dad's quixotic endeavors) and the comics that make the most painful, awkward episodes of childhood and adolescence fodder for humor—even if some of it is a bit black. She tells these stories over and over, the simplicity and the whimsy expressing something real and universal, about what it is to be a child, and how you remember it, and how what happened then shapes what you become. How she tells it is in no small part due to her dad, so aside from everything else about how growing up with a dad who wanted to build spaceships meant and means, she's got that to thank him for.

— Sara

*And to all of you who do always read, and sometimes even reply: We know you're out there, too. Thank you. We love you.

Oranges by Jennifer Mason

Hello, collectors! We first spotted the imagery of today's edition-maker, New Zealand-based Jennifer Mason, when she entered our photography competition, Hey, Hot Shot!, last year. We saw so much good work—some of which we've already shared with you here, and some of which we will be releasing soon—including that of 2009 Honorable Mention Thomas Prior and First Edition 2011 Hot Shot Uygur Yilmaz—as well as, of course, work from the 2010 Hot Shots: Laura Bell, Michael Bodiam, Amy Stevens, Taca Sui and Chikara Umihara. Sifting through the photographs from all of these talented artists is one of the most exciting parts of what we do, and it's even more exciting when we see work that we can't wait to bring to you.

We were instantly smitten with Oranges for all of the (pretty) obvious reasons—the glowing globes of fruit arranged just so, yellow and red adding primary punch, all illuminated by an unearthly, interior light. Though she's a photographer, Jennifer's careful composition reminded us a bit of painters—from Mu Qi to Morandi. While Oranges' elegance largely speaks for itself, its references to 16th-century Dutch painting, too, root it firmly as an unforgettable image.

About Hey, Hot Shot!:

Since its inception in 2005, Hey, Hot Shot! has provided one hundred and forty photographers from all over the world with unrivaled exposure, support and recognition. With a longstanding history of awarding incredible opportunities to hundreds of artists, we encourage photographers at all stages of their careers to enter the competition. Not only will you be in the running for a $10,000 grand prize, with countless other invaluable opportunities to be had along the way, but you'll also have the chance to see your work here. Right here, on 20x200! The competition is the only way for photographers to submit work for consideration for 20x200 editions. Sign up for the HHS! newsletter to learn more about the competition.

— Sara

Lexington and 53rd Street by Jorge Colombo

Prince and Lafayette by Jorge Colombo

Excitement ahead, collectors! In the two and a half years since Jen first introduced Jorge Colombo's beautifully-rendered iPhone finger paintings of iconic New York City scenes, Jorge became the first to create a New Yorker cover with the new medium, going on to complete five covers to date and having his own finger painting blog on their site. His process and its lush results have even landed him a Good Morning America interview, and he was recently commissioned to reinterpret the T from the New York Times T Magazine.

NEW EDITIONS, NEW BOOK
Jorge's trajectory may be familiar to those of you who have been following his work since we released his first prints, but with today's editions—Lexington and 53rd Street and Prince and Lafayette—we have more good news: Both images are from his newly-released book, New York: Finger Paintings by Jorge Colombo, published by Chronicle Books in association with 20x200. The book is now available from both Chronicle and Amazon.

GREAT GIFT WITH PURCHASE + GIVEAWAY OPP
We have a special opportunity for you, collectors, to get your hands on a copy, on us: For today and tomorrow only (October 13th and 14th, 2011), if you purchase a 16"x20" print (or larger) of any of Jorge's editions, you'll automatically get a free copy of his new book! In addition, we will randomly be giving away five autographed copies of his book. To be eligible for the autographed books giveaway, simply purchase any of his prints ($50 or higher), or tweet the following between October 13th and 14th:

Hey @20x200, pick me to win an autographed copy of #fingerpaintings by @thejorgecolombo! http://bit.ly/20clmbo

CELEBRATE, COLOMBO STYLE
Mark your calendars, Colombo fans. The official book launch party, with Jorge in conversation with Jen, will take place on October 25th at powerHouse Arena in Brooklyn. Then Night Windows, Jorge Colombo's debut solo exhibition in NYC, is set for December, with an opening reception being held on December 10th, from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m., at Jen Bekman Gallery. Night Windows will be on view through December 23rd.

To tide you over till then, I'll leave you with a few words from Jen's introduction to the book:

[Jorge] depicts these places with broad strokes and imprecisely shining lights, creating the impression that everything is moving—the traffic and the people, each one of us contributing to the shimmering shuffle of the city’s pulse. This is the feel of the New York I know.

— Sara

When We Were Kings by Hollis Brown Thornton

Boo, collectors! Did I scare you? As Halloween nears, we're gearing up for all sorts of spooks and sweets. Apropos to the holiday that hallows ghosts, ghouls and haunted souls is Hollis Brown Thornton's latest addition to his suite of prints: When We Were Kings.

HBT's smiling skull and candy-colored sparkles swirling in space is, like his other works, made from a drawing done with markers. But, it's a slight departure from his more nostalgic prints about once-loved, now-obsolete media and technology, and is an homage of sorts to contemporary artist Damien Hirst's For the Love of God sculpture and the Ali/Foreman fight and documentary. In his statement, HBT makes no bones about our shared destinies, saying, "The skull is the great equalizer: No matter who you are, everyone eventually leaves behind a skull."

SPEAKING OF SKULLS AND SPOOKS (AND SWEETS!)
We have a couple more prints you might have missed that celebrate the season of costumes. Among them, Amy Stein's pair of c-prints from her Halloween in Harlem series offers a serious steal for all of you collectors—she painstakingly printed both editions herself, the old-fashioned way, in a darkroom. Hulk and Powerpuff Girls were introduced by Jen about this time last year, so read up on what she said then.

Looking for something that's more treat than trick? Check out Michelle Hinebrook's colorful Sugarcoat and Jonathan Lewis' stripy See Candy series, of which we've featured Sweethearts, Dots and Jelly Belly. For more tricks: Alex Beeching's starry skulls are a constellation imagined and drawn in Momento Vitae.

ONE MORE VERY IMPORTANT THING ABOUT BONES—BROWN BONES, SPECIFICALLY
Amit Gupta, the founder of Photojojo—you might know and love him (as we do) for his enthusiasm for photography and the community of people who make pictures—needs your help. He's generally known as one of the kindest, most generous and genuine gents around the internet. So, it's no surprise that when he was diagnosed with Acute Leukemia, an outpouring of support soon followed. While Amit undergoes chemotherapy, his friends and family are searching high and low, seeking a bone marrow match for the donation that will save his life. While Amit's match will most likely be of South Asian descent, there's a chance that it could be anyone, so get swabbed, stat. Please.

Click here (now!) to see how you can help.

— Sara

CBGB (Stage) by Joseph O. Holmes

CBGB (Register) by Joseph O. Holmes

Hello, collectors! Over the years, we've brought you bits and pieces of New York City as seen by Joseph O. Holmes. Joe's cinematic sweeps of the metropolis we love the most have the ability to create their own legends—his photos of Prospect Park painted snow-white render the space an urban wilderness; an anonymous woman in a yellow dress becomes a starlet at sunset. Likewise, he documents the people and places that make the city legendary. A staple of NYC's music scene for 33 years, CBGB is one of those places—steeped in stories and the grit and grime of rock and roll.

CBGB (Register) and CBGB (Stage) were taken just weeks before the revered music club shuttered its doors forever, five years ago, in October 2006. The layers of flyers and playbills, graffiti, stickers and spilt beer are as dense and sticky as the history of the space—visible traces and testaments to the beloved venue that launched the cataclysmic careers of countless bands. The Ramones, Blondie, Sonic Youth, Patti Smith and the Talking Heads all played there in their nascent days and graced the stage till the end—Ms. Smith performed at the very last show.

In his artist statement, Joe describes what it was like to be there in CBGB's waning days:

In September 2006, I spent 10 days shooting the interior of legendary NYC rock club CBGB. Six weeks later the club closed its doors forever, and the fabled walls and stage were dismantled. A year after that, as former owner Hilly Kristal succumbed to cancer, a high-end clothing store negotiated to take over the space.

The club had been a favorite venue for countless rock and punk acts, but for those few days my experience of the club was the exact opposite of most people's. I came to look forward to my visits as a time of peaceful solitude. I arrived each morning at 11:00 with my tripod and camera, greeted Hilly at his desk, and then passed into a silent and empty club. During the following three to five hours of shooting, I rarely saw another human. The club was so dark, even during the day, that I had to carry a flashlight. After framing each shot, I took five to seven bracketed exposures, with each exposure lasting as long as 30 seconds, and I ended up with more than 1800 individual frames.

And that's how I came to spend hour after hour sitting stock still in CBGB, alone in the dark among the empty beer bottles and broken guitar strings and abandoned drum sticks, waiting in the silence for the shutter to close.

OCT-TOTE-BER: FREE LIVE WITH ART TOTE WITH $250+ ORDER
Have you spotted our totes-awesome Live With Art totes? They're gorgeous, if we do say so ourselves, and super special. Usually only available at art fairs and other events, now's your chance to snap one up. The details:
+ Scoop up some art worth $250 or more
+ Enter code TOTES at checkout
+ We'll send you a tote! Please note, the tote will ship separately from your art
+ Offer expires October 31, 2011

— Sara

Sweet William by Amy Taluto

Good day! It's literally been ages since Jen first introduced Amy Talluto here, so I'd imagine there are a few of you, new-to-20x200, who haven't yet experienced the wondrousness of her work—you're all in for a treat. Sweet William—depicting a glittering, overgrown ravine—is, like her first edition, Hermaphrodite, hyper-real, gloriously detailed and quite a sight to behold.

Attempts to recognize, record and honor the natural world in this way can easily go awry (often in photography—y'all know what I mean), but Amy expertly wields both brush and pigments, and the effect is more than eye candy. Her work imparts the simultaneous sensations of wonder and fear felt amidst the most intimate encounters in the great outdoors.

Lovely and lush as it is, Sweet William takes its name from the centuries-old Appalachian mountain tune "Barbry Ellen." According to Amy, the song is about two ill-fated lovers, Barbry and William, who die soon after each other in the springtime and are buried side by side. While from each grave greenery grows, we can imagine what is going on in the ground below as decomposition takes its course. Amy admits that she might be projecting a bit (and I readily admit that I, of course, am, too). But, as she writes, "I find working in the studio from a photo allows me to have enough distance from the original scene to allow me to impose more of my own psychology and color onto the raw material of the collected image."

However she does it, she manages to replicate the succession of feelings—from admiration to awe, to stillness and silence, to slight discomfort (and hopefully back to amazement)—when you see something incredibly stunning. It could be nothing extraordinary—a patch of grass, or light behind leaves, or a particular blue of water. But whatever it is, you recognize it as something both bewildering and bewitching; something much bigger than us, simply: not human—that part of nature that we cannot touch or control and that will eventually outlive us.

— Sara

Well, hello there, collectors! May I invite you to sit here with me, for just one second to soak in the stillness and quiet that photographer Taca Zhijie Sui is presenting to us so elegantly? His layered, steely shades of gray add up to poetry in today's edition—White Dews.

China's earliest collection of poems, The Book of Odes, is the source of Sui's inspiration. The ancient text led the NYC- and Beijing-based Chinese photographer on a sojourn of sorts, through geography, history and cultural identity, to seek the images that would bring new life to the secrets—concealed and distorted over time—of the Odes.

The resulting, stunning body of work won Sui a spot as a 2010 Hot Shot. Learn more about his work and read his interview with Hot Shot and 20x200 artist Youngna Park, here. Sui exhibited his work, along with fellow 2010 Hot Shots Laura Bell, Michael Bodiam, Amy Stevens and Chikara Umihara, earlier this year at Jen Bekman Gallery. His rising star status was also recently recognized by the Lianzhou International Photography Festival, where he won the Photographer of the Year Award for 2011. Well done, Mr. Sui, I say!

Opening tonight: CHRISTIAN CHAIZE at Jen Bekman Gallery
If you're in NYC, please join us this evening, from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. at Jen Bekman Gallery, 6 Spring Street, to celebrate Paradis, new color photographs by Christian Chaize. For all of you far from NYC, never fear, we'll have new 20x200 prints from Christian, here, soon.

Hey, photographers: Enter HEY, HOT SHOT! today
As you might know, the Second Edition 2011 Hey, Hot Shot! Competition is in full swing—entries from talented photographers far and wide are coming in. Those who enter now will save a pretty penny: On Monday, October 31st, the entry fee will rise from $60 to $70. Consider this fair warning and don't delay—get your entry started today.

Since its inception in 2005, Hey, Hot Shot! has provided one hundred and forty photographers from all over the world with unrivaled exposure, support and recognition. Photographers who enter are in the running for a $10,000 grand prize, with countless other invaluable opportunities to be had along the way, including the chance to see your work here on 20x200.

Psst! Photography by JESSICA CRAIG-MARTIN. Available here. Tomorrow!
Yep, that's right—Elle leaked the news earlier this week. Set your clocks and tell your friends: To get the first peek and dibs on a pair of gorgeous photographs from Ms. Jessica Craig-Martin, make sure you're on the ready tomorrow, October 27th, 2011, at 2:00 p.m. ET. (As always, you dear newsletter readers will see the prints before then, in your inbox.)

— Sara

Let's Party by Jessica Craig-Martin

Cougar Friends by Jessica Craig-Martin

Greetings, collectors! Today’s oh-so-special editions—Let’s Party and Cougar Friends—are by none other than Jessica Craig-Martin, who so delightfully (and devilishly) bridges the worlds of art, fashion and high society. I couldn't think of a more perfect time to add Jessica to our roster, here in the height of the fall social season, as we are feverishly finalizing our plans for the Miami art fairs. Her photographs capture the off moments of glittering fetes and $10,000-a-plate benefits that attendees would prefer go unnoticed, and yet the end products are so perfectly framed as to underscore their untouchable wealth, prestige and power.

The world Jessica irreverently captures is so very glamorous and decadent. It's hard to resist letting at least some small pang of envy slip in: couture! jewels! riches! influence! With my own resistance worn down, I might even imagine wanting to be there for a moment. And then I remember my own (and relatively few) experiences as a last minute addition to a not-quite-full table at those $10K/plate dinners and how it made me feel: like the awkward, not-quite-cool-enough teenager I used to be. Also: how my feet hurt. A lot. And maybe my dress was pinching and I was probably too warm or too cold, or worried about ruining a piece of clothing or a handbag I'd borrowed.

It's precisely these socially awkward moments that Jessica so aptly conveys, down to her use of framing and cropping, as she writes in her artist statement:

The angle of a shot can convey the particular combination of levity and anxiety one can feel in social situations. My art dealer once called it my “drunken lens.” The photographs that work best for me have a sense of human fragility. Unrealized dreams; our perverse optimism as we swim upstream like salmon in order to mate, find love, security, money, power, to retain youth against all odds and evidence. One is never so naked as when dressed for a party.

JCM's slices of life*—garish jewel tones and the obliterating whites of her aggressive flashbulb—expose something that's even more un-ignorable in the current political and economic climate: These are the 1%**, among their own ilk. (JCM herself is somewhat of an ambiguous mix of attendee and reporter.) And, there's a certain comfort and privacy in being in a defined group of people who you know to be just like you, and that feeling of safety and familiarity exists across all kinds of people—it definitely adds another dimension to how I see the work.

Me? I'm firmly in the 99% camp, economically and philosophically, and I'm also fortunate enough to have grown up into being a person who is pretty happy with who she is, and who has interacted enough in those circles to know I wouldn't want to change places in a million years. So I find the images fascinating, gaudily beautiful and simultaneously funny and sad. And that combination of feelings makes me want to live with these photographs, if only to remember not all that glitters is gold.

— Jen

*I say slices of life rather than subjects on account of JCM's deft amputations and decapitations. It's almost cruel, and yet, somehow they seem like they kinda had it coming.

**Here I am acknowledging the political without the intention of politicizing. Some of my best friends are 1%-ers!