Installation view, 2011 Nicholas Robinson Gallery

New York Times art critic Roberta Smith reviewed 20x200 edition-maker Jason Polan's New York solo debut in today's paper, calling Jason an "incessant draftsman and enterprising artist interested in making both his art and himself more available." Living and Working debuted June 9th at the Nicholas Robinson Gallery, and "its principal theme is availability; namely how art is usually made available to the gallery audience, and how the artist’s availability is in turn limited within (or by) this context," explains the gallery site.

In the Times review, Roberta lists the various ways Jason immerses himself in his craft. Roberta writes:

Through his Web site he can be commissioned to make an hour’s worth of drawings for $125 and will consider requests. One of his several projects is to draw every person in New York. His self-published books include Every Piece of Art in the Museum of Modern Art Book. Mr. Polan’s New York solo debut includes One Month, a series of 31 drawings, each depicting objects encountered during a single day and drawn from life.

Installation view of the artist at his workspace, 2011 Nicholas Robinson Gallery

Jason's dedication to his daily drawings has resulted in some truly spectacular (and rule-breaking) 20x200 editions (which you can now purchase beautifully matted and framed). Living and Working closes July 30th; the artist will be on hand working, as well as interacting with attendees via his illustrated-all-over Ping-Pong table and/or an interesting conversation. For more of what Roberta Smith said about the show and the artist, read the full online article.

Who says sports and art can't be teammates? Two 20x200 photographers are featured (full page spreads, no less!) in ESPN The Magazine's Photo Issue, which was released earlier this month. Jenny Odell's satellite view mosaic of Football Bowl Series stadiums is as impressive as her yachts, swimming pools and parking lots. The image even captures a game in progress at UConn's Rentschler Field, the publication points out.

And Don Hamerman's Found Baseballs is a home run in the sports magazine. Among the 35 gnarled baseballs in the spread, you'll find two of Don's latest editions, Shallow Left Center and No. 46.

The issue is out now. And if you're in the gift-giving state of mind, check out our selection of prints sure to be a big hit with any sports fan. They're even more of a grand slam when custom framed!

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.

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.

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.

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.

The New Yorker Goings On About Town Calendar, 2011

The New Yorker's offering a new calendar full of highlights from their Goings On About Town section that'll help you ring in the new year by remembering the last few. The calendar features twelve photographs from New York City cultural events taken over the past five years by 20x200 photographer Landon Nordeman, as well as Brian Finke, Martine Fougeron, Yola Monakhov and Gus Powell.

You can preview the full calendar at Lulu, and pick up your own for only $15.

The intersection of fine art with various other spheres of culture is something that has intrigued and compelled us for ages (see for example our super-love at JBP of books in art, and art in books).

Music is another field where we often see an overwhelming overlap with the world of visual art—albeit one that is recognized and considered with surprising infrequency. Paddy Johnson's recent Kickstarter campaign to produce an album of various sounds gleaned from the New York art world caught our attention this past September, and we're thrilled to see that the project, titled The Sound of Art was a smashing success; it generated the necessary funding to be realized, and records are now pressed and set to ship in time for Christmas.

Just about a year ago we had our very own sonically-inspired show at JBG with Mixtape, which took thematic cues from the fast-disappearing art of the compilation album, with its own rich variety of works inspired by songs, recording artists, instruments, and even the machinery of music. We thought we'd take this opportunity to examine a few choice examples of how music has influenced art and vice versa, and to look at some people who refuse to limit their creative production to one field or the other.

Here are a few musical editions and projects for your perusal; you might just find the perfect gift for the audiophile on your list! And of course we recommend putting on some tunes while you browse.

Untitled (Let's Get Lost) by Shaun Sundholm

Shaun Sundholm's gorgeous Untitled (Let's Get Lost) riffs on lyrics of—and draws its title from—a song from Elliott Smith's haunting posthumous album.

Untitled (I'm an island of such great complexity) by Mike Monteiro

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

Mike Monteiro's wordplay as well often reaches over into the realm of popular music. Two of his editions see him quoting lyrics, appropriating the words of musicians to say something new and personally relevant—first those of Pavement and more recently of Lyle Lovett.

Album 1 by Paul Madonna

Paul Madonna cites music as his primary source of inspiration, stating:

Though I've been drawing and writing for as long as I can remember, music is the medium that has influenced me the most. I love the thought of an album being a collection that encapsulates a period of ideas, work and life into a tidy package, allowing the artist to work through a creative goal then move on to the next. Taken together, multiple albums become a systematic organization of a life's work; a collection of songs defines one album, and the collection of albums defines the artist. This led to my newest project, a yearly publication overtly titled Album, as an homage to that concept.

Roots of War in Popular Song (forest of no return) by David Byrne

No stranger to the music industry, David Byrne's edition to benefit Creative Time draws unexpected connections between popular music and political conflict.

Patsy Cline and Hank Williams by Mark Ulriksen

Monk by Mark Ulriksen

Mark Ulriksen's charming, cheerful portrait of country icons Patsy Cline and Hank Williams, and his atmospheric, classic-album-cover-inspired, (all but sold out) rendition of jazz legend Thelonious Monk round out our current selection.

We hope this little detour leaves you humming as you approach the New Year!

Prairieside Forks by Ross Racine

Lately, 20x200 edition-maker Ross Racine has spent a lot of time explaining his art. First, he sat down to talk about his fictional aerial landscapes of suburbia with BreakThru Radio, then lent a hand via email to bloggers at TheUrbanTimes and Rising Wisely. To top it all off, UrbanSpaceMag added him to the pages of their Copy & Paste issue examining the essence of original and new.

In his interview with the Bushwick-based host at BreakThru Radio, Ross offered a bit of insight into why everyone is asking him to explain his work:

I’m in between drawing in the traditional sense. I’m in between the computer itself, and I’m in between photography. Photography is a reference for most people with this kind of image so that is something that I have to deal with. We don’t have that many examples of computer drawings so far that use realism, so we don’t have this reference. They know what a painting looks like roughly, they know what a photograph looks like roughly, but a computer drawing is something that has very few references.

What Ross so modestly left out is just how fascinating his fictional suburban designs are. Take a quick glance and you’ll see a sort of greyscale rendering of a suburban sprawl on Google Maps terrain view. Focus on his work for just a moment longer, and you’ll catch detailed complexity and a sense of playfulness, as well as a commentary on micro versus macro and the psychological effects of societal structures.

Ross delves deeper into the unrealistic details of his suburban sprawls in his interview with TheUrbanTimes. His creativity starts with scribbles, and he keeps and modifies the images he deems worthwhile. In this exchange he also touches on his fascination with abstraction and interest in diagrams and designs as a means for conveying information that's never said outright.

It’s exactly this narrative that caught the eye of the good people at Rising Wisely, a blog that rethinks India’s development. In this interview Ross explores his the idea of repetition in his work, which is exactly why UrbanSpaceMag picked up his art for their Copy & Paste issue on varying social perspectives on the idea of copying and pasting in society.

To read and hear about Ross biking around the suburbs where he grew up, the innate human desire to have a large living space and how he prefers the slippery qualities of a disembodied virtual medium, check out his recent press. Then go to the IPCNY silent auction by tomorrow, December 18th to bid on his work.

Untitled by Jason Polan

If one thing is clear about Jason Polan, it's that the man does not fear a project most others would find insurmountable. In fact, it seems that Polan fancies these endeavors, and is at his best when producing work that is impossibly interactive and inclusive of its audience. We've written before about Polan's Taco Bell Drawing Club, along with Every Person in New York—the project in which Polan has set out to make a quick pen sketch of every one of New York City's residents. (You can take a shot at arranging to be one of his subjects, too!) He also just last week prodcued an edition of 10 unique pen-and-watercolor compositions and 250 hand-pulled silkscreens for 20x200, 50 (+1 for good luck) Giraffes.

Criterion is offering yet another means to get your hands on a whimsically unique Jason Polan composition. Just place an order for $150 or more prior to December 25th, and Criterion will send you (along with your purchased items) an original, personalized Polan drawing. Holiday gift shopping's never been so fun.

And, be sure to check out Polan's 20x200 prints while you're at it! Polan's giraffes, insects, sea creatures and dinosaurs appear alongside a bunch of other animal-inspired compositions, including one by today's edition maker—the inimitable William Wegman!

Here at 20x200, our motto of “Art For Everyone” means we’re always interested in new ways of making great art accessible. It’s good for collectors, helps support artists, and enables everyone to live with art. A new-ish London outfit has found an intriguing way to address this concept with their Art Barter events. Art Barter is an auction, open to the public, taking place over 3 to 4 days. However, unlike at Sotheby’s, bidders are allowed to offer anything at all EXCEPT money for the work. Past bids have included a year of private chef services and cases of wine, but anyone is free to offer whatever they think is fair. At the end of the event, artists review all offers and decide what they’d like to accept. It’s an amazing way to open up the auction as a viable format for all kinds of collectors, and allows artists to trade their work for something of value to them without worrying about setting minimum reserves or what the long-term effect on their pricing will be.

Previous Art Barters have been held in London and Berlin. Art Barter 3 launches in New York today and continues through Sunday, December 12th. While the auction will feature some big-name artists such as Terence Koh and Mick Rock, all work will be identified only by a number, so the “value” of the work will really be determined entirely by each interested bidder.

Not only is this a fun idea, it’s a great way to make the auction sale format super un-intimidating for potential collectors. It’s interesting to note that Art Barter is also a Kickstarter project. We’ve featured some great art-related Kickstarter endeavors before, including Kevin Cyr’s Camper Kart and Rachel Sussman’s extremely successful journey to track down and document The Oldest Living Things in the World, which led to an invitation to give a talk at the prestigious TED conference on the project. One of the unique things about the Kickstarter model is the little incentives project owners offer to their supporters, which can range from a limited-edition copy of the work produced to lunch with the artist. As a whole, micro-funding sites like Kickstarter have the effect of fostering a personal, reciprocal exchange between donor and recipient that goes far beyond traditional funding models. Art Barter has the potential to do much of the same for the fine art market by encouraging art lovers to be creative and contribute more than just money. It’s less an auction than an exchange, based on the assumption that all participants have something unique and valuable to offer.

Art Barter New York
Thursday, Dec 9 - Sunday, Dec 12
NP Contemporary Art Center
131 Chrystie St, New York
Open daily from noon to 6 p.m.

87 Suns From Flickr - 29 Visible by Penelope Umbrico

Penelope Umbrico's art is as much about the process of creation as it is about the art itself. Her work has made her a kind of 21st century archivist who investigates the things we take for granted, and her newest project is an extension of that idea.

Many already know Penelope for her 87 Suns From Flickr - 29 Visible and 79 Moons From Flickr - 51 Visible , works that burn with a sort of cheeky commentary on cliche, consumption and the power of the Internet. And, after some time on the lecture track and an exhibition at LMAKprojects that earned her coveted press in Art in America, Umbrico is working on a new project.

Her latest undertaking is Penelope Umbrico (Photographs), a kind of mixed media Ars Poetica about the creation process. For this Aperture title Umbrico is curating and appropriating a collection of previously published essays that relate to her artistic process and pairing them with artwork in a way that proposes new ideas and questions. The printed page has become Umbrico's new installation space in collaboration with Aperture's Andrew Sloat and Publisher and Book Editor Lesley Martin, and we're excited to see the final result. Check out this Aperture post to learn more about how Umbrico is tackling her monograph and look for the title to hit the presses in June of 2011.

Entabled, 1988 by William Wegman

We've never been bashful in our adoration of William Wegman’s expansive practice and have brought you two editions to evince the presence of humor and formal repetition and varying media in Wegman's work, in addition to the familiar presence of those gorgeous Weimaraners. And, we're always excited for the opportunity to share more with you about this intrepid artist's work and creative process. Today, this comes in the form of a piece about Mr. Wegman, conducted by The Morning News's Nozlee Samadzadeh.

Centered around William Wegman's current show, William Wegman and Fay: Polaroids 1987–1995, on view at Senior & Shopmaker Gallery through December 24th, Samadzadeh's interview with Wegman touches on the process of shooting 20"x24" Polaroids of his beloved dog Fay Ray. There was the behemoth camera that required the help of Polaroid personnel to operate along with the creative use of props to get Fay Ray up to the camera's eye-level, and the sometimes-gratifying restrictions imposed by the film format. We also learn of the almost serendipitous event from which this show was conceived:

Wegman told me how, when his assistant discovered a stack of forgotten Polaroids in a warehouse, the idea for the exhibit was born: 'You think of 35mm film, you take 20 or 30 photos on a roll and barely look at any of them. I did the same thing with Polaroids—I was producing so many per week that most of them went straight into storage.'

Read the full piece for yourself and view the impressive gallery of Polaroids from the series at The Morning News, and be sure to peruse the web-viewable catalogue for William Wegman and Fay to whet your tongue before heading to Senior & Shopmaker to see these works in person.

William Wegman and Fay: Polaroids 1987-1995
Senior & Shopmaker Gallery
On view through December 24, 2010
210 Eleventh Avenue at 25th Street, 8th Floor
New York, NY 10001
Hours: Tuesday - Friday, 10:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m.; Satudays 11:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m.

Team Picture by Keith Shore

Keith Shore, whose pencil drawings and acrylic and watercolor paintings feature a cast of octagon-shaped head people, earless people, soccer players and a wiley recurring character named Henry, recently gave a short interview over at It’s Nice That.

Keith lets us in on the origins of some of these characters and their anatomical peculiarities, along with some of the themes in his work, a trip to Ireland that served as fodder for one of his paintings and a project we told you about a while back. Check out It's Nice That to read Keith Shore in his own words.

It's gift guide extravaganza! While the holidays are a time to come up with the perfect presents for friends and family, we can all use a little gift-picking guidance. We're proud to say that the editors at DailyCandy have selected Youngna Park's gorgeous prints as examples of a "picture perfect" present, especially for the "girly" type.

The work shown, Winter Flags (East Village, New York), is sold out in the $20 size, but available for $50, $200 or $1000. Prints of the other edition featured, Balloons (Midtown Manhattan) (below), are still available in editions ranging from $20-$1000. For more great art for yourself or the ones you love (including additional editions from Youngna Park), be sure to browse 20x200. Check out the full DailyCandy Guide For Girls, which also features an excellent home doughnut-maker and a neat type-based 2011 calendar.

Balloons (Midtown Manhattan) by Youngna Park

Over time we're often fooled into thinking that our private spaces effectively hold our secrets. Our living rooms, our refrigerators and our bookshelves are like repositories for the details of our lives that were meant only for ourselves, and maybe for the occasional carefully vetted visitor.

For the most part our society respects this idea of privacy, but like curious thieves in the night, some artists prefer to tell stories by entering the spaces we call home and illuminating the objects we keep.

Photographer Todd Selby, known for his project The Selby [is in your place], and 20x200 artists Jane Mount and Mark Menjivar, are among this group of personality revealing artists. If given permission, they will zoom in on the things you keep stashed away and use their works to reveal the precise, finite details of our lives.

In some ways this approach leaves glaring gaps in the stories of who we are, but for the most part it also reveals the things we often omit from introductions and autobiographical portrayals of ourselves. Selby attacks this intimate approach in his ongoing project by photographing the famous—of the fashion, art and cultural worlds—in their homes. Though their clothes and their expressions always reveal a bit about them, it's his signature shots of their peculiar knickknacks, artwork, and collectibles from around the world that are truly revelatory—it's what they have that nobody else does.

Jamie Isaia - photographer; and Anthony Malat - clothing designer in their Brooklyn home by Todd Selby

Mark Menjivar takes a slightly different approach to his work, omitting the subject entirely and instead focusing only on an open picture of their fridge. As you can imagine, participants who have let him photograph their fridges has liked the experience to "posing naked" or as Claire O'Neill of NPR's Picture Show called it last week, a "foodie's Freudian analysis."

Midwife/Middle School Science Teacher | San Antonio, TX | 3-Person Household (including dog) | First week after deciding to eat locally grown vegetables. by Mark Menjivar

The ever curious Jane Mount takes a similar approach without a camera. Like someone who might draw your most played list on iTunes, she tells the stories of our lives through the titles we keep on our bookshelves.

The image below reveals swissmiss' (aka Tina Roth Eisenberg's) favorite children's books. (Hint!: In the next few hours we'll be releasing a new edition from Jane and we can hardly wait for you to see it. Stay tuned to see whose story she will tell next.)

Ideal Bookshelf 5 by Jane Mount

In each of these variations of portraiture, it's the particular combination of objects—whether it organic milk and blue cheese, your copy of Mark Twain's Tom Sawyer next to Dr. Seuss's Green Eggs & Ham or your home's special collection of rare African figurines—that makes them both yours and meaningful. So, seeing those characterized in gouache, pen, ink or as a photograph, memorializes and further solidifies that they are more than transient things in your life.

Agoraphobia by Austin Kleon

Sometimes we say more by saying less. It's communication by subtraction, and artist and writer Austin Kleon is a master. Agoraphobia epitomizes his mastery, and today, we take a closer look at the story behind this print.

If you run with the social media crowd you may have already heard of Austin Kleon. He's the kind of artist who lures you into his work through Tumblr and Twitter, and then talks about things like diner recommendations just often enough to help you remember he's real.

And then there's his Newspaper Blackout Poems (all four of his editions are part of this series)—works created by redacting words with halfway reckless but carefully considered marks in black permanent marker. His editions resurrect old stories by changing their meaning. In Agoraphobia, Kleon takes the story of a young violinist from The New York Times and creates the an ode to the overwhelming possibilities that surround us. The word "agoraphobia" refers to the great anxiety of facing open spaces (also often thought of as a fear of leaving home and a fear of crowds). The first clause/phrase of Austin's poem reads, "Space is a big place," alluding to this not-so-funny phobia. Whether Austin first writes the poems or names them then digs out the words from the spread in front of him is a mystery, but either way, he deftly crafts a layered narratives with the wise choice of a few well-chosen words.

There are only 14 of his 10"x8" and 15 of his 20"x16" prints remaining, so be sure to pick up Agoraphobia or one of Austin's other editions before they're all gone.

And as for the violinist that was once profiled in The New York Times, you can assume that the person's music is reverberating all throughout the world, hidden behind the veil brought about by agoraphobia.

As winter's chill creeps over New York City, we're warmed by seeing that this month, one of Jen Bekman Gallery artist Christian Chaize's photographs, Praia Piquinia 23/08/07 14h59, which first appeared at the gallery during Chaize solo exhibition, Praia Piquinia, is featured in a lovely Elle Decor spread that profiles the New York City home of Kiane von Mueffling. At 88"x68", anyone lucky enough to sit at the von Mueffling's dining table might imagine themselves—at least for a second—that much closer to the sun and sand. The other images from Chaize's Praia Piquinia series are also available in this size directly through Jen Bekman Gallery.

Chaize's Praia Piquinia series is has also been popping up in holiday gift guides and features left and right. The series, which Chaize created by photographing--over and over--the same strip of beach on Portugal's coastline from the same vertical angle, offers a palette of cool ocean colors and a serene image of bathers, unaware of the camera's presence, basking in the sun. Recently Chaize's 20x200 edition, Praia Piquina 06/08/09 14h01, made Nate Berkus's list of 50 gift ideas under $50.

Jorge Colombo's sketches (created entirely on his iPhone or iPad) have a dreamy, murky, painterly quality that belies their essentially tech-y nature. It’s fitting, then, that since appearing on 20x200 he’s contributed work to a variety of NYC publications, including regular contributions to the New Yorker. Kind of like the city itself, Colombo’s work manages to be simultaneously old-fashioned and cutting-edge; futuristic images that still feel romantic and somewhat ephemeral.

Untitled by Jorge Colombo for The New York Times

Today in the New York Times Opinion pages, his work pays perfect complement to Tom Scocca and Choire Sicha’s homage to the imperfect perfection of New York’s Penn Station. Although impressive when it was first constructed, the massive bus-subway-Long Island Railroad depot has come to be regarded as one of the city’s less exalted transportation options. As the New York Times writes:

The city beneath our city is a delightfully ill-lighted, incomprehensibly organized, low-ceilinged, viewless labyrinth. Harried people surge through its concourses and tunnels in perpendicular lines, mean salmon in puffy coats going always upstream. Soldiers with combat weapons lurk outside the city’s most unhygienic group lavatories. There is nowhere to sit. The “talking kiosk” that serves the visually impaired has been heckling Long Island Rail Road customers with chirping for so long that we have begun to associate birdsong with the most terrible things.

Penn Station is now slated to undergo a huge expansion/renovation project, which city planners hope will make it more modern and user-friendly—more in line with how present-day New York sees itself. Nonetheless, it’s the view of the authors that the beauty of the station lies in its unglamorous, chaotic utilitarianism. After all, as the authors point out, “Why should you be forced through a grand entrance and into a mob of thousands of people on the floor of a great hall, if all you desire is the 7:49 to Flushing?”

The contradictions of New York, which Jorge Colombo expresses so beautifully in his work, are part of what make the city so fascinating, whether you’re a lifelong resident or just passing through Penn Station. Take a moment to read the full Op-Ed here, and check out 20x200 for some great art inspired by cities, including more editions from Jorge Colombo.

Before the holiday retail season comes the holiday gift-guide season, with myriad suggestions for almost any type of giftee on your list, from wanderers to homebodies. For everyone else, Refinery29 has put together a well-edited selection of gifts ANYONE will love—one of which just happens to be Craig Damrauer's recent Modern Art edition. We love that Refinery29 is featuring another 20x200 artist, and we certainly agree that Craig’s witty work would please pretty much anyone we know.

Be sure to check out the full guide, which includes a great range of thoughtful gifts- from great art books to bacon-chocolate chip pancake mix. And if you want to give the gift of art but just can’t decide, 20x200 Gift Certificates are always available to come to your rescue!

Craig's print has sold out in the $20 size, but it's still available for $50, $200 and $1000.

Drawings From July 2009, 2009 by Kate Bingaman-Burt

We’ve been closely following the work of Kate Bingaman-Burt over here at 20x200…and there is a lot to keep track of! Between her co-curatorial endeavors at Portland’s Museum of Contemporary Craft, serving as a 2010 Alumni Master at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and her ongoing lecture series at Portland State University, she’s also recently done a fantastic interview with Debbie Millman at Design Observer.

Listening to Kate discuss her Obsessive Consumption project yields some fascinating insights on the role everyday consumption plays in shaping human interaction. Although she reveals herself as an artist who didn’t initially like to draw and an English major who doesn’t like to write, Kate talks about how the process of making these drawings helped her tap into the shared lexicon of consumers- how these little rituals create a common language that can serve as ways for people to create a connection.

As someone who “feels good about making something new every day”, Kate is big on being a producer of usefulness in the world. It’s great how her work for Obsessive Consumption neatly closes the creation-consumption circle. All this, plus growing up in a family of weavers and drawing for Target! Take a moment to check out this awesome conversation with Kate.

Vogue March 2010:pg 230 (List of Contributors) by Lauren DiCioccio

Vogue May 2010:pg 70 (List of Contributors) by Lauren DiCioccio

Surprise Monday greetings collectors! It's Sara—Jen and I are home from Paris. We've hit the ground running to kick off the gift-giving season, sneaking in a new release today and another tomorrow, just before you hit the road for Thanksgiving. Then, we'll be back on Friday with a snowy pair of prints from one of our favorite photographers. As is our holiday tradition here at 20x200, we'll be offering back-to-back releases over the next few weeks. We've got editions lined up from our best and brightest, so keep an eye on your inbox for amazing art and photography for just about everyone on your list. To kick off this season of giving, we've got a little something for you too:

The code Holiday10 is good for print purchases of $50 or more, now though the December 17th, which marks our ship-in-time-for-Christmas deadline. If you've been eyeing an 11"x14" print—which already offers the most bang for your buck—now's the time to pick one up for just $40.

Now, on to the shiny, new additions to our curated selection of editions: Vogue March 2010:pg 230 (List of Contributors) and Vogue May 2010:pg 70 (List of Contributors) by Lauren DiCioccio. It's hard to pinpoint exactly why we love Lauren's work so much, and in particular, the color codification dot drawings that these prints are a part of. That this pair resembles Rorschach inkblots seems especially appropriate: efforts to define what makes them great may just be a task best left to the subtle subconscious. Give in to their glowing beckon and their source will reveal itself to you: Lauren's created her own renditions of Vogue's List of Contributors from two of this year's issues by assigning each member of the alphabet its own hue, then carefully copying every letter with a tiny brush. These prints ring true to her process, produced for you on a mylar to match the originals these prints were created from.

When she introduced the first pair of prints from Ms. DiCioccio, Jen noted the gradual decline of glossy magazines. And while they may indeed eventually exit our reading lives, slowly replaced by pixels, Lauren's works bid anything but a sad adieu. Huddled together, her dots create a chorus of affection for the printed page. Crafting decadent, tactile versions of the ephemera that haunts our everyday is Lauren's specialty. She's made embroidered versions of plastic water bottles and shopping bags and is currently at work on a project that sends hand-sewn letters to soldiers overseas.

Proceeds from every print purchase directly benefit our artists; you're supporting worthy endeavors like Lauren's every time you give the gift of art. So use Holiday10 to start your shopping today and and look for us to knock it out of the park tomorrow with a couple of editions from one of our MVPs.

I'm just about to leave town for a few days, so my refrigerator is looking pretty sparse. There's milk (that I ought to finish up before I go), a half a dozen eggs (from the farmers' market), the usual array of condiments and sauces that fortunately take a while to go bad, a can of Pilsner-Urquell beer, two bottles of champagne, a few avocados, parmesan cheese and a tupperware full of vegetable soup I made last night and will bring to the office for lunch this week.

If Mark Menjivar were at my place, what would he think? Menjivar photographs the interiors of people's refrigerators, laying the grounds for the viewer to interpret who the person is based on what--and how--they eat. NPR's Picture Show blog reports on the project with a slideshow of 10 refrigerators ranging from that of a former amusement park owner in Texas to the freezer full of buck meat belonging to a carpenter/photographer. The author, Claire O'Neill writes: "So would this foodie's Freudian analysis make me wilted curacao stew?"

Short Order Cook | Marathon, TX | 2-Person Household | She can bench press over 300 lbs.

Fortunately, as Mark photographs, he doesn't appear to be judging and is most interested in capturing the vast array of expressions that what you eat, or simply store for too long, is a reflection of something deeper. Is this just a Rorschach test made out of milk cartons and kale? Maybe, but we're still interested in reading into it.

We also have two prints from this series available on 20x200: Bar Tender | San Antonio, TX | 1-Person Household | Goes to sleep at 8AM and wakes up at 4PM daily. and Midwife/Middle School Science Teacher | San Antonio, TX | 3-Person Household (including dog) | First week after deciding to eat locally grown vegetables. and you can see more from this series on Mark's website.

Stephanie Cinelli's 20x200 edition, You Are Important, was recently featured in an interview with comedian Samantha Bee in The New York Times Magazine! In the rather humorous interview, Samantha discusses working at The Daily Show and the challenges of raising children, and reflects on her "Self-Referential Object": Cinelli's You Are Important. Of the photograph she says:

It’s a sad photograph from a series about the first places men go after being separated from their families. That’s my wheelhouse. I like to wallow in others’ misery.

After the interview ran in the New York Times, the Huffington Post also included a piece on Cinelli's 20x200 edition in their newly launched "Divorce" section. Still, Cinelli herself provides the most valuable insight into the meaning behind her series:

The idea behind this series was to document the changes in the home of a family as the process of a divorce was occurring. In this instance, the mother was the one to leave the home while the father and sons remained. Due in part to the fractured family unit, as well as the absence of the matriarch, a quiet emptiness became evident as time went on. The subtle changes in the home were the things that spoke the loudest about the difficulty of this emotional transition.

Given the variety of collectors who have found a way to incorporate You Are Important into their homes, it's no wonder that this edition is very nearly sold out!

Just in time for the holidays, ReadyMade magazine has just released a “Deck the Walls” issue, filled with tons of projects and ideas for brightening those often blank white spaces in your home. ReadyMade has featured 20x200 artists on their blog before, and in keeping with the theme of the issue they’ve included Don Hamerman’s Rawlings print in their gift guide! As avid 20x200 readers may already know, Rawlings is part of a series that Don did on baseballs he found in a field near his home, all fascinatingly disintegrated in their own way. While the $20 edition of Rawlings is sold out, the $50 edition featured in the guide is still available.

Rawlings by Don Hamerman

And, if you’re not already a subscriber to ReadyMade, be sure to check out this winter issue!

What does the place where you do your work say about you? According to Kate Donnelly, quite a bit. For some time now, she has been conducting a collaborative project (and accompanying blog) titled From Your Desks, where she asks creative types to turn their eyes inward, and (honestly and accurately - no preemptive tidying allowed!) document their own work spaces in photographs and in writing - studios, home offices and the like. Donnelly writes of the desk's significance:

A Desk is where we work. Symbolic. Psychical. Present. A second home. A Desk is a platform. A hearth. Roots are planted. It’s where hours upon hours pass.

Personally, I want to be (and have always been) inspired by my work space. I’m surrounded by “my stuff” which helps me think and conjure new ideas. I covet solitude; it gives me more time to think. I’m one of those organized clutter types (yes, I remember where it went). I keep torn pages for inspiration on my cork boards and Polaroids of friends which reminds me, I should retell that story. I’m always rearranging, taking things down; keep it choppy and not get too comfortable. Still, I crave familiarity from my workspace.

This past July, we were allowed a glimpse of Mickey Smith's meticulously, enviably tidy home office and of the space Craig Damrauer uses to create his hilarious New Math prints. Now, Carrie Marill has her (slightly busier, but definitely still orderly) workspace featured on From Your Desks, and its cheerful, brightly colored paints and works-in-progress, bathed in warm sunlight seem very much in keeping with what we know and love of her work. Carrie writes of her space:

This is a new studio for me, which is why it looks pretty sparse (although i really like it this way). My husband and I are sharing a studio in downtown Phoenix.

The old house has excellent light, realized I hadn’t painted to natural light in 8 years, so sitting down to paint is like seeing colors all over again.

Kate also talks to Carrie about her attraction to painting birds, how she captures the gaze of animals, her National Geographic fetish and her love for enamelware. See more photographs (including ones of Carrie's dog and kittens!), and read more about her inspirations and her process here. Then browse some of Donnelly's other featured desks, and see if you can't find more connections between an artist's work and the places where they create.

Lazuil Bunting by Carrie Marill

From the series No One Here Gets Out Alive, 2009 by William Powhida

For the just-released Issue #23 of Map Magazine, Paddy Johnson (a JBP friend, and the brains behind Art Fag City) has a feature about a series of interviews she conducted with six artists or arts organizations about what it means to survive in New York City. Her subjects include Harlem non-profit gallery Triple Candie, the Executive Director of Rhizome, and artist (and sometimes-revolutionary) William Powhida.

You can read all about William's artistic beginnings in the big city—jobs he had to take to get by, dismal apartments he's lived in, and the sacrifices he made to maintain a studio space. The accompanying article in Map Magazine is an overview of all six of Paddy's interviews—and stands out as an unusually honest, fascinating and insightful look at the challenges (and potential joys!) of making it—or just scraping by—in the NYC art world.

On the subject of successes, we're happy to announce to all you London art-goers that William will have work in a bold new group show called Dirty Kunst at Seventeen Gallery, alongside the likes of Jota Castro and Lisa Yuskavage, (to name just a couple). This exhibition will open this Thursday November 18th.

From the gallery's press release:

Dirty Kunst is a show with Tourette's. An exhibition of artists committed to what George Orwell called significant 'mental rebellions,' it lives and breathes according to the idea that there is no such thing as dirty art, just dirty minds. A rough version of the hippie mandate to 'speak truth to power,' the spirit behind this batch of 'dirty kunst' is one that seeks out extreme responses. Cruelty, venality, lubriciousness, perversity, black humour, misanthropy - all of these count as genuine paths to artistic expression and - why not - a certain twisted redemption.

The show is certain to generate some buzz - make sure to stop by and have a look if you're in or around London!

The Details:
Dirty Kunst
On View: Thursday November 18th - Thursday December 23rd, 2010
at Seventeen Gallery
17 Kingsland Road, London, E2 8AA

Prospect Park #2 by Joseph O. Holmes in Real Simple

On this eve of winter, we're very pleased to report that Joseph O. Holmes has an image featured in this month's issue of Real Simple (a publication that's had some pretty nice things to say about us in the recent past!)

Joseph's serene and wintry image (and very, very nearly sold out edition!), Prospect Park #2 gets a terrific spread in the "Thoughts" section of the December 2010 issue. It's beautifully paired with an evocative quote from poet Anne Sexton:

I am younger each year at the first snow.
When I see it, suddenly, in the air, all little and white and moving; then I am
in love again and very young and I believe everything.

This image and these words are fitting as the days get shorter, the nights chillier, and we New Yorkers await the first snowstorm of the year, which always seems to hush the city for at least a moment. We're also excited to share that we'll have lots more work for you from this series that you can see in-person. Joe's show The Urban Wilderness opens December 10th at JBG.

Untitled #5 by Sean Greene

If you're in the New England area this week, Sean Greene has made his mark on two new group exhibition. First, you can find a number of his new paintings in NONOBJECTIVE at William Baczek Fine Arts in Northampton, MA, which is on view for just a few short weeks until November 27th.

Next, Sean has curated the show Pictured Thoughts at the Student Union Gallery on the campus of UMASS Amherst, opening tonight from 4 - 6 p.m. The exhibition's site features a closer loko at the work of the six artists in the show: Lucy Mink, Matt Phillips, Jen Simms, Kathranne Knight, Cary Smith and Matt Tiernan.

NONOBJECTIVE
William Baczek Fine Arts
36 Main Street, Northampton, MA
On View: through November 27, 2010

Pictured Thoughts
Curated by Sean Greene
On View: November 15th - December 3rd, 2010
Opening reception: Tuesday, November 16, 4-6 p.m.
Student Union Gallery, UMass Amherst

Broken Sets (eBay) AD6D264E-3D49-42D8-9775-27293A37C401, 2008 by Penelope Umbrico

Earlier this year we wrote about Penelope Umbrico's astonishing show titled As Is at New York's LMAKprojects. Using imagery gleaned from the internet, Penelope's work for the exhibition represents a fascinating exploration of the nature of consumption and technology, and the inevitability and implications of obsolescence. A little refresher on the show from its press release:

Broken Sets (eBay) are images of the screens cropped from pictures of broken LCD TVs Umbrico found on eBay.com, where they are sold for parts. The sellers turn on the TVs while photographing them so that potential buyers can see that the electronics behind the screens work. Umbrico became interested in the incidental abstract beauty of the screens because they are derived from the breakdown and failure of their own promising technology...

Zenith Replacement Parts are photographs, also taken from eBay, of dusty cardboard boxes containing Zenith replacement parts. What intrigued Umbrico about these images was the seller's belief in the photograph - that a picture of the box storing the part would lend more veracity to the objects inside, than to simply list the parts numbers.

...Umbrico forces us to recognize our desire to see and understand, itself a kind of consumption, as something deep and essential, and equally impenetrable. We are all too willing to jettison common sense in order to indulge.

Projects where artists give up or alter some crucial, tangible aspect of their everyday, non-artistic lives are always fascinating and particularly—if a little perversely—compelling. Artist Michael Landy enacted a drastic version of this in 2001 for London's Art Angel, when he systematically inventoried and subsequently destroyed every single thing that he owned in a lengthy public performance titled Break Down.

Marc Horowitz is in the process of doing something comparably extreme for a piece presented by our friends at Creative Time (our recent David Byrne edition to benefit the organization continues to fly off the shelves!). In this instance, however, Horowitz hasn't relinquished all of his worldly goods; his sacrifice, rather, is his free will—all of his agency—for a project titled The Advice of Strangers that will run for the duration of November 2010.

For the entire month Horowitz will base every one of his life decisions—from the totally trivial, to the momentous—on the online (and anonymous) votes of the public. Those who care to vote will have the final say on whether Horowitz grows a mustache or goes clean-shaven, how he votes in the November 2nd elections, how he conducts himself at work, what he discusses in therapy and much more. From the project website:

Each day, Horowitz will post the dilemmas he’s facing — from the seemingly mundane to the profound — for the public to vote on. The project, presented by Creative Time, tracks the results and follow the action and repercussions through edited video coverage. The Advice of Strangers constitutes a collaboration between artist and audience, comprised of anyone who visits the website and casts a vote, thus influencing the course of the project and Marc’s life at the same time.

It'll be fascinating as the project unfolds to see if those who participate really have Marc's best interests in mind. On the very first evening that The Advice of Strangers was underway, voters had him winding down by walking to 7-11, buying a 40 and drinking it on his way home—let's hope this isn't indicative of how events will transpire over the weeks to come.

You can follow Marc's progress (and have your own say in his future, if you so desire!) on the project's interactive website.

As you well know, we always love to hear how members of the JBP family keep busy, and Kate Bingaman-Burt has had her plate particularly full of late. Not only has she been co-curating shows and arranging interactive art projects, and helping to organize the ongoing Show & Tell Lecture Series at Portland State University, (where she's an Assistant Professor) that we mentioned a little while back, she's also been giving interviews galore!

Read Kate's musings on a vast range of topics (such as attending public school, her love of typography, Wes Anderson and living blocks away from the lead singer of Pavement), over on he Austin-based art and culture blog PUBLIC SCHOOL.

Her second interview is for Poketo, a design firm with which Kate has collaborated. This one sees her ruminating on craft, exploring her Daily Drawing project in detail, and creating new drawings of her pouch designs with Poketo, available nation-wide at Target! (See Kate's drawing above, and the real deal here).

Take a gander at these fun conversations with Kate!

Development by Amy Casey

It always gives us the greatest pleasure to hear about the projects that artists we work with are involved in, and this year has certainly been a busy one for painter Amy Casey.

To recap: her work has been included in a whole lotta terrific 2010 exhibitions around the country – a solo show at San Francisco’s Michael Rosenthal Gallery, and one titled State of the City—2010 at the Rochester Contemporary Art Center (read a fantastic interview accompanying the exhibition with Amy for the Rochester Center's blog, where she talks in depth about her work here, and a review of the exhibition here).

She's also had work in a group show at Chicago's Zg Gallery, another at Kansas City's Charlotte Street Foundation, and still one more—at the the Hopkins Hall Gallery in Columbus. Amy also recently completed a residency in Provincetown, MA with the help of the fine folks at the Ohio Arts Council and the Fine Arts Work Center.

Amidst all of this furious activity, she has still somehow found the time to update her website and to print some new etchings at Zygote Press in Cleveland. She is showing some of this work - along with paintings - in an exhibition with Jeremy Mora on right now at POVevolving Gallery in L.A. What's more, she's is also responsible for the cover image on a new book of poetry by Megan Snyder-Camp, called The Forest of Small Things.

If you missed out on—or loved—all of her work earlier this year, make sure you pick up your very own copy of this beautiful book - and check out her show at POVevolving, if you find yourself in Los Angeles over the coming weeks.

For the future: if you make it down to Miami this December, keep your eyes peeled for her work in the Michael Rosenthal Gallery station at the Aqua Art Fair, and if you're in Chicago, look for Amy's May 2011 solo show at Zg Gallery.

We'll be sure to keep you posted, as dates arrive and more information comes in. In the meantime, big congratulations to Amy, all around!

Where you can see Amy now:
POVevolving
939 Chung King Rd
Los Angeles, CA 90012-1710
(310) 594-3036
Call for gallery hours.

On Monday, we had the honor of releasing an edition from musician, artist, bike advocate, and cultural icon, David Byrne, Roots of War in Popular Song (forest of no return). Byrne wrote his own mailing list this morning, talking about his relationship with Creative Time, whom the edition benefits, and of the purpose, history and "roots" behind this drawing.

Hello out there

I've done a couple of public art projects here in NYC (Playing the Building and "I Love this Crowd!") that were presented by a wonderful organization called Creative Time. To return the favor I have done a limited edition print on nice fuzzy archival paper of one of my "tree" drawings, and the money goes to said organization-Creative Time. An art edition place called 20x200 is selling the print. Obviously these are not drawings of real trees, they're more like family trees or evolutionary trees. They show how things evolved and where they come from. For me they are not exactly literal; they're more like mental maps or aids to my thought process, or to your thought process-but sometimes I can actually explain a little of what it's about.

In this drawing I propose that the roots of conflict and wars lie in popular song. Well, not exactly. But yes, also. Popular song can be viewed as a measure of sentiment, feeling, and values, and of what a culture projects as their identity. I'm not being as obvious as drawing a line from "The Ballad of the Green Berets" to the war in Vietnam, or from "Deutschland über alles" to WWII; the connections are more subtle than that. Songs and the sentiments that they contain are emotional memes that worm their way into the general culture and are at the same time a reflection of that culture. In that sense they're a distillation-culture concentrate. And the hubris, vanity and self-image of a people are all there, waiting to collide with those of The Other, like particles in an accelerator. Lots of energy is released as a result. Is this crazy talk? Maybe, but do you feel lucky? Whatever, the song titles are pretty good-but they're not, I admit, verifiable.

So, if you like trees, unexpected connections and supporting arts organizations, the purchase of this relatively inexpensive print will satisfy all of your needs.

DB
Midtown

Roots of War in Popular Song (forest of no return) by David Byrne

Image Courtesy Pace/MacGill Gallery

Aaron Straup Cope's latest 20x200 edition, prettymaps (sfba) is right on-trend, according to Bay area mag 7x7. His map uses an aerial perspective that's intended to disorient viewers; he says of the project:

I'd like to generate map tiles that give you that same dizzy feeling you get when you look down at a city at night, from an airplane. We've spent so long fussing over the relentless details in cartography that we've sort of forgotten what things (should) look like at a distance.

And it's not just the folks over at 7x7 who are digging this bright map; our collectors are intrigued too! There are less than 25 8"x10" editions left, so pick one up today!

Do you need an inspired idea for a last minute holiday? Have you always wanted to take up painting, but never found the time? Do we have a suggestion for you!

Amidst a flurry of activity that includes the daily documentation of her numerous and extensive collections, and a subsequent soon-to-be-published book about this very project (both of which we've written about recently),
Lisa Congdon has somehow managed to make time in her busy schedule to lead a 3-day/4-night retreat and painting workshop for Angela Ritchie’s ACE Camps. It is to be held at the magical-looking Whisper Canyon Ranch in the Siskiyou Mountains of southern Oregon, this coming October 7th – 11th. The workshop is titled It’s What You See that Matters (a quote from the ultimate nature-lover, Henry David Thoreau).

From the ACE Camps website:

Join Lisa to explore how to create your own paintings of the natural world—as you see it—through your own distinct vantage point. Lisa will lead the group in exercises designed both to help participants see the idiosyncrasies in the natural world and to draw and paint them in their own unique ways. Participants will learn to recognize and honor their own personal perspectives and translate them into their paintings and drawings.

the cover of Longshot Magazine

In a recent Week In Review post, we mentioned the release of the first issue of Longshot Magazine – a new(ish) and noteworthy publication co-founded by Mathew Honan, Alexis Madrigal and Sarah Rich. Now, a closer peek into what's on those pages:

Formed under the precept that an entire magazine could be created, compiled and printed, all in a single weekend, the first issue was published in May 2010 under its original title, 48Hr Mag. Its makers, however, were forced to change the name of the magazine by CBS, who produces a television program of the same name (you can read the full story of the lawsuit on the NY Times blog). It is entirely fitting then, that for its new incarnation as (the more poetically-dubbed) Longshot Magazine, the title and theme of the issue is “Comeback”.

For this issue, the creators sent out a virtual call for submissions, and were overwhelmed by the response—more than 500 writers, artists and general creative types—both well-known and more obscure, sent in work. From the magazine’s website:

Over a 48 hour period from noon August 27, 2010, through noon August 29, 2010, hundreds of writers, editors, artists, photographers, programmers, videographers, and other creatives from all around the world came together via the Internet, and in offices in Los Angles, Portland, and San Francisco to make a magazine and build this website, from start to finish.

Illustration by Wendy MacNaughton, "the drive to GOOD magazine's offices in LA (our hosts for the making of issue one.)"

The result is an unpredictable and ceaselessly entertaining assortment of articles, stories, drawings and miscellany, and features the work of Wendy MacNaughton, (who graced us with a terrific catch-up interview earlier this week). Works by author (and JBP friend) Alissa Walker and VIP Choire Sicha of The Awl also appear in the publication.

During the 48 hour period, Wendy created illustrated documentation of everything from driving to the offices of GOOD magazine where they produced the first issue, and the bleary-eyed faces of the editors crouched behind their macs.

Illustration by Wendy MacNaughton who notes, "proper diet of pop chips, pizza, ice cream sandwiches, beer and coffee."

You can read selected articles from the first issue here (and see the complete list of contributors here). A couple telling examples include the "Which Celebrity Comeback Are You?" quiz, and an essay celebrating butter’s recent return to popularity, titled “This Isn’t Why You’re Fat”. If you like what you read, you can also order your very own print copy (with all the pictures!) from MagCloud.

The Amsterdam-based photography publication (and exhibition space) Foam has just released a new issue of their quarterly magazine: #24/TALENT. For this, the editors sought submissions from young, emerging photographers, and—after receiving work from over a thousand artists—selected just 15 for inclusion in this edition.

Luke Stephenson, (whose photograph just so happens to be featured on the magazine’s cover!) is one of these artists, and he is in good company. From Issue #24’s release announcement:

This special Talent issue is the result of our call to young, talented photographers to send us their work. For the editors, an important criterion was: to what extent does a photograph add something to that which already exists and to what degree are we touched by it because it is unfamiliar, provocative or challenging? After an intensive process of looking, judging and sifting, fifteen out of more than a thousand portfolios remained. We agreed not only that they were the best, but that it would be possible to use them to create a powerful issue of the magazine.

You can see the complete list of the chosen photographers, and a gorgeous selection of images from the issue online here and also order your very own hard-copy here).

What's more: if you are lucky enough to find yourself gallivanting about Europe these days (hey, it’s the Venice Biennale!) or if you just happen to be in Amsterdam this weekend, make sure you stop by the issue launch party this Saturday, September 18th, from 3:15-6:00 p.m. (but don’t forget to RSVP first!) It will include artist interviews and an introduction to the issue, not to mention drinks and socializing!

The Details:
Foam Magazine: #24/TALENT Launch at Breda's Museum
Saturday, September 18th, 3:15-6:00 p.m.
Parade 12 / 14 – Chassépark, Amsterdam

Things Happen by Wendy MacNaughton

Fresh out of advertising-land, 20x200 edition-maker and prolific artist Wendy MacNaughton has recently taken to being a full-time artist in San Francisco. We sent Wendy a few questions about what it's like to make that transition, and what she's up to next!

First of all: congratulations on quitting your day job! What made you decide to become a full-time artist?

Thanks—it was a big move for me. Scary and exciting. My job was a great job as far as jobs go, like a little family, and all the work was for a good cause, so it was tough to leave—not only because it was a shift from security to risk, but also I was nervous about leaving a social life for a more reclusive one. But I didn't have a choice really. My artwork had been my priority for a long time, and my day job was not getting the attention it deserved. Towards the end there I was basically working two jobs—I would get up and go to my job from 10-6, then come home, eat dinner, hang out with my girlfriend for an hour, then do my "real work" from 8-1 a.m.

I made the final switch when I had enough commissions, sales and illustration jobs to know I would be okay for a few months, and most important: the timing just felt right. Things were taking on a life of their own—one opportunity leading to the next, and it felt like, "if there is ever a time to do this it is now—and if I don't I will have missed my chance." So to not make the leap because it is scary, well, that would have been a terrible mistake.

I'd like to imagine you roaming around San Francisco by trolley (and other less romantic forms of public transportation, of course) with a drawing pad, pencil case, and a set of keychain watercolors. But what does a typical day actually look like for you these days?

I thought that would be every day, too!

I mean, that is true, I do that, but it's not every day—it's maybe one day a week. When I had my day job there was a structure imposed on me that I had to work within—I was literally on public transport every day, so I had at least 40 minutes of public drawing time every day. Now it is up to me to get myself out into situations to work. I am still learning how to create that structure for myself. mainly, how not to get stuck behind the computer with emails, invoices, marketing, all the stuff that leads to the actual drawing. Not that I don't enjoy that stuff—I do. But it is the exact opposite of making something, headspace-wise. It is a different brain mode for me, and once I start working at the computer, I promise you I am not going to draw. Or at least not very well.

But to answer your question more directly—I wake up later than I used to and check emails in my robe. I draw midday and paint at night—sometimes 'til 1, but that's fine as I can sleep later now. I go to the gym in the evening. I do errands in the afternoon. It is a VERY different life than a 9-5, less regularity, less predicability. But I have always preferred to shift between crazy busy and crazy mellow than to have a steady, plodding pace.

Untitled, from Commuters, 2010, by Wendy MacNaughton

A lot of your subjects so far have been commuters, will you continue commuting now that you're self-employed?

(See above) I've been drawing commuters for almost 5 years. There are other groups of people that I never had the time to explore that I can start to now—some short term projects, some longer term. But I won't stop drawing the commuters. It is such an interesting space to me&mdashthe commute. I'll always be hopping on one train or another, and hopefully in different cities more, too.

What's the hardest part about being an artist?

Remembering to change my clothes? That might be runner-up. Right now the hardest part is balancing all the different types of work I have while still keeping my eye on the direction I want to move in with my work. Not only do I make my own work, but I also do freelance illustration and commissions. I love doing it, it's fun to draw and I like working with people&mdashbut they are very different experiences. The only thing they have in common is that they both require me to draw. And because the illustrations and commissions are a more reliable source of income, and I enjoy the interpersonal side of it, it is easy to get caught up in those jobs and put my own work to the side. Which, of course, takes a toll on my work (and me). So now I am trying to find that balance, which I think is more about behavior than math.

As part of your humanitarian efforts, you've previously designed ad campaigns for non-profits, and produced a film about political elections in Africa. Can you tell us a little more about this aspect of what you do? Does this feed back into your work?

Absolutely it does. I have a curiosity about all different types of people, how people think, how they live, why they feel the way they feel, and why they do what they do. My degree was in social work, and I think the ethos of empathy and self-determination are integral in everything I do. I approach people through drawing with a little bit of a social work lens, a little bit ethnography, a little bit voyeur, and a lot of appreciation...so whereas I might not work directly as a social worker or on specifically social or political projects, I hope the work I do still brings up the important issues and question grappled with in the field.

A lot of your work incorporates writing. Do you ever write without drawing or draw without writing? What's the relationship there like?

Drawing is how I experience a feeling related to a person or a place&mdashit literally allows me to work through the subject&mdashand writing is how I put a meaning or narrative to that feeling. I do sometimes draw and without writing for sure, though I haven't written without drawing in a while. Maybe I should try.

There Are So Many Things I Would Be Doing if I Didn't Work in Advertising, from Commuters, 2008 by Wendy MacNaughton

Your recent projects have included some fast-paced artmaking in conjunction with Longshot Magazine, guest-illustrating for Gizmodo, and an installation at ShoeBiz in San Francisco. What's next for you?

Those projects were so fun and the people at those places are all so great. Right now, I have a couple commission jobs with non-profits (TechSoup Global and the California Women's Foundation) which is great, I'm drawing a shirt for Gizmodo (their first!) and painting a website (The Scuttlefish), and I'm working on a couple pieces for 20x200(!). A chinese fashion magazine, Vision, is running a story on my work, which is fun and Katie from Juxtapoz (who we all love) is coming over for a studio visit in the next couple weeks. Also, I am also starting a monthly visual column in the literary journal The Rumpus, which will be a new adventure in narrative for me. I started working on it a week ago. The first piece will be on the motley crew of chess players at Market and 6th Street in Downtown SF. Wish me luck.

A huge thanks to Wendy for taking the time to answer our questions! You can learn more about the artist herself (and take home a print) at Wendy's 20x200 Artist Page and website, and keep up with her drawing adventures over at her blog.

Drawings for Longshot Magazine, 2010, by Wendy MacNaughton

Clothespins by Lisa Congdon

Precisely 253 days ago, Lisa Congdon embarked on a far-reaching and deliciously compulsive year-long project, titled A Collection a Day, for which she arranges and reproduces objects from one of her many, many collections. Most often these are (beautifully) photographed; sometimes they are drawn; and on occasion, she paints them. Lisa vowed to post one of these groupings on her blog, every single day for the duration of 2010, and is well on her way to completing this goal.

As we mentioned back in January, Lisa writes of the project, "Since I was a young girl, I have been obsessed both with collecting and with arranging, organizing and displaying my collections. This is my attempt to document my collections, both the real and the imagined."

It's a project that is very close to our own collector hearts over here at 20x200 and as the year progresses, A Collection a Day never ceases to delight. In recent days she's documented collections of golf tees, vintage food stamps, sewing ephemera, buttons, pendants and bookmarks. Sometimes the collections are budding—two items making a dashing pair—at other times they reveal that Lisa has likely stashed away one object at a time, only to find herself on day 225 with a group of ten beautiful vintage coat hangers. The project has appeared on myriad blogs throughout the year, including a feature just yesterday on NPR’s Picture Show.

It is thus very fitting, and very well-deserved that the project is being made into a book by the fine folks over at Uppercase Publishing. Though the year and Lisa's documentation will eventually come to an end, they'll be preserved in this publication, scheduled for release in Spring 2011. (You can pre-order your very own copy at Uppercase today.)

In the meantime, you can also listen to Collector by Brooklyn band Here We Go Magic, the very fitting song that first came to our minds while browsing Lisa's site. They sing,

I've got a mild fascination for collectors
I've got a mild fascination for collectors
Where'd you find all that time,
a place for everything in the house?
I've got a mild fascination for collectors.

A piece of wood from Noah's Ark,
a thing collected from the start.
And if there is another flood,
your house will float on Noah's wood.

Drawings from The Exquisite Book by Mike Perry, Camilla Engman, Lab Partners, and Nick Dewar.

Back in January we posted about the upcoming release of a super-cool and super-ambitious project: The Exquisite Book: 100 Artists Play a Collaborative Game. We are thrilled to announce that the day we were so eagerly anticipating has finally arrived—The Exquisite Book is out!

Published by our friends at Chronicle Books (and with a forward by always-awesome-author Dave Eggers),
the book was inspired by, and draws its title from Exquisite Corpse, a practice made famous by the Surrealists in the 1920s; a sort of artists' parlor game. The Exquisite Book's official website explains the project as such:

The book is a modified version of the game, played by one hundred contributing contemporary fine artists, illustrators, designers and comic artists.

There are ten groups of ten artists who participated in the process. Each artist contributed one page to the book. The first artist was given a few words to inspire their drawing. Each of the following artists only saw the page that immediately preceded their own. Each artist used images (and optionally, words) to create the continuation to the story, and the inspiration for the next artist in line.

The image above, with four sequential drawings from the book, gives you a taste of how this idea manifests itself on paper, and of how unexpected, varied and fabulous the end results are.

While this project is incredibly fun and interesting on its own, what makes it even more exciting for us here at 20x200 is that four artists we've had the opportunity to work with were asked to participate! Kate Bingaman-Burt, Jill Bliss, Lisa Congdon and Mike Perry have all contributed pages.

You can also take a look at the complete (and very impressive) list of artists here. Be sure to check out this amazing project and grab your own copy.

There's nothing like summer sun, lots of barbecues and hot days on the beach to make one want to kick back with a beer, but we have to admit: we're sick and tired of terrible beer labels with metallic foil that peels off the very instant they get wet.

Fortunately, artist Keith Shore has teamed up with Scotland-based BrewDog + Danish brewery Mikkeller on the labels for their brand new beer collaboration, "I Hardcore You." The beer's name comes from a blend of two of the two breweries' concoctions: BrewDog's Hardcore IPA and Mikkeller's I Beat You. The beers were blended, the brewers added more hops, and came up with a wicked new beverage you see here.

Shore took his identifiable illustration style to the sea green labels, portraying man, woman and beer, all mutually in love. It makes us think beer and art should get together more often.

Browse Keith's other recent projects, including the cover illustration for Citrus County, a McSweeney's publication, an illustration for Dwell and a series of skateboards.

What's TBDCSPTBSC, you ask? Why, it's the Taco Bell Drawing Club Second Place Tote Bag Stranger Competition!!, ongoing right this moment. Jason Polan's Taco Bell Drawing Club, an open-membership organization in which you can become a member simply by going to any Taco Bell in the country and drawing, has devoted members far and wide. In fact, if you head to your local Taco Bell today (and there are quite a few to be found), then why not take your pad of paper and a pencil, draw for a while, and wait for a fellow tote-bag carrying member to walk in? You could be the lucky winner of the original giraffe drawings below.

The Taco Bell Drawing Club tote bag

Jason writes in:

A member [of the club] in California recently mentioned how her Taco Bell Drawing Club Tote Bag had been traveling with her all the way up and down the west coast! I thought it would be fun to have a contest to see who could be the first person to spot a stranger carrying one of the bags. Unfortunately, before I could announce the contest a friend emailed to say he saw a stranger with one of the tote bags! We are going to have the contest anyway. Be the second (or third) person to spot a stranger carrying one of the tote bags, let me know, and I will mail you and the other person a page of giraffes (one of the ones attached).

Before you think you're just going to be the next person to get one of these super special giraffe drawings, keep in mind that there are a few rules to this contest:

1. The person you see with the tote bag has to be a stranger.
2. When you email art@jasonpolan.com to let him know you have spotted a stranger with a tote, you must tell him your address, but also the stranger's name and have them email Jason too. As he puts it, "It would be weird to meet a stranger and ask them for their address. It would not be weird to meet a stranger and tell them you are a member of Taco Bell Drawing Club."
3. The sighting can be anywhere except at a Taco Bell Drawing Club meeting.

A Page of Giraffes (the drawing you could win) by Jason Polan

So whether you are looking to satisfy your Taco Bell cravings, practice your drawing skills, meet a stranger or win one of Jason's giraffe drawings, this is a win-win competition to participate in. Now, get off your computer and head to Taco Bell with your eyes wide open.

Since 2003, Los Angeles-based Poketo, (a.k.a the duo of Ted Vadakan and Angie Myung) have been commissioning artists to design wallets, bags, t-shirts and accessories of all sorts. Like the big idea we celebrate here at 20x200 of art being something you should and can live with every single day, Poketo showcases original artwork by turning it into functional and beautiful objects, accessible to everyone.

Their newest project is a limited-edition partnership with Target featuring a roster of artists from around the globe, including a few in the JBP family: Mike Perry, Kate Bingaman-Burt and Lisa Congdon. Target has put together a collection, now in stores of pouches, totes, day bags, luggage tags, wallets, umbrellas, water bottles and other colorful outfit-enhancing accoutrements based on the original artwork of this talented twenty-one.

Water Bottle by Lisa Congdon, Three Pouch Set by Kate Bingaman-Burt and Weekender Bag by Mike Perry

The collection is truly limited, so head to a Target near you to snatch of one of these artists' wares. And, if you're like us New Yorkers, where Target is always painfully crowded or out-of-stock, you can ooh and ahh at the lovely lookbook of the collection photographed by Ye Rin Mok.

Mike Monteiro's black and white one-line quips have graced our screens many times, ranging from the witty to the acerbic to the contemplative. They read: I told my therapist about you., I'm an island of such great complexity., and You're impossible. His newest project, however, a book self-published on Blurb titled Firecracker, strings together the intimate and revealing thoughts of a nameless man experiencing a breakup. His fallen hero is a security guard at a museum, who wanders around the Kiki Smith installation contemplating whether or not to call his lost love. He writes, "Picked up a Kiki Smith postcard in the gift shop. Might mail it to her. might not." This man's crisis is deeply personal yet also mundane, and as I read through, looking at the pictures by Ryan Carver that accompany Mike's words, I think: I've been here. The magical part, though, is that everyone else has too.

The cover of Firecracker

In the track Woke Up New by John Darnielle of the band, The Mountain Goats, the second refrain of the song reads,

the first time I made coffee for just myself,
I made too much of it.
but I drank it all,
just 'cause you hate it when I let things go to waste.
and I wandered through the house, like a little boy lost at the mall.
and an astronaut could've seen the hunger in my eyes from space.

Like Darnielle's caffeine-driven return to single-dom, the text on a page of Mike and Ryan's book reads, "Damnit. Poured two cups of coffee again." These are the predictable-as-a-screenplay actions of the newly single and mourning: refusing to sleep on the other side of the bed, buying letterhead and postcards you will never send and exerting calculated restraint from engaging in any of the means of communication that grace us in this modern era. The updated facebook status? A real heartbreaker.

The actions' predictability, however, also enables every reader great empathy for our security guard's tale of love and loss. Carver's images, also of the delightfully mundane—jugs of milk, shrubbery, parking lots, cars and empty roads—riff on photographic stereotypes of the forlorn wayfarer, but are worthwhile and stand-alone depictions of each.

Mike and Ryan have entered Firecracker into Blurb's fantastic Photography.Book.Now competition (won in the past by photographers Beth Dow and Kurt Tong). You can support Mike and Ryan's bid for the People's Choice Award by voting for them before August 20th and also preview the entire book on the site. Firecracker is available for purchase directly from Blurb for $40.00, and as with all Blurb books, 100% of the markup from the production price of the book goes directly to the artists.

We'll have a round-up of other JBP artists with books on Blurb soon, so stay tuned, and in the meantime have a look through Firecracker.

Lately, the weather has been a bit bipolar—last week it reached a whopping 103 degrees Fahrenheit, and today it is 75 degrees with scattered thunderstorms. Working in Midtown Manhattan, I was able to pick up a personal fan and an umbrella on both days to combat the elements. Without them, I'm just not well equipped to deal with such a wild climate!

Jump by Thomas Prior

Some artists, like mosses, enzymes, and lichens, are extremophiles—an organism that lives and thrives in an extreme environment. The most famous of these artists is probably Georgia O’Keefe, who after her first summer in New Mexico, fell in love with the barren landscape and expansive skies of the desert. She relished the desolate and decaying bone graveyards. She loved the burning, hot tones of reds and oranges. O’ Keefe wrote:

I have picked flowers where I have found them—have picked up sea shells and pieces of rock and wood that I liked... When I found the beautiful white bones on the desert I picked them up and took them home too... I have used these things to say to me the wideness and wonder of the world as I live in it.

20x200 has our very own extremophile, Thomas Prior, who is working on several documentary projects that look at beautiful and dangerous recreation spots around the world. He's photographed in the Bonneville Salt Flats, whose highest recorded temperature was 112 degrees Fahrenheit in 1939 and whose lowest recorded temperature was -18 degrees Fahrenheit in 1990. His photographs at Blackrock Tower in Ireland are slippery, treacherous, and filled with nervous anticipation. Prior says it best:

It's a mixture of the super dedicated people and beautiful open landscapes. I remembered the changing light and engine noise of Bonneville, Utah. Starting at about 4 p.m. in summer, the light changes by the minute all the way till dark after 10 p.m. Blackrock diving tower is such a cool structure, out there on that pier all by itself, and it’s so un-Americanly dangerous. The locations are simple yet not at all boring. They’re visually incredible but made more amazing by humans.

Steps by Thomas Prior

But, maybe the most extreme is Steve Eiden’s account of Leonard Knight who for the past 24 years has been living alone in the desert of Niland, California, a few miles from the shores of the Salton Sea, working ceaselessly on a giant monument to God known as Salvation Mountain. During the five coldest months of the year, he sleeps in the back of an old broken down flatbed truck. The other seven months of the year, he sleeps in this bed.

Leonard's Bed, Niland, California by Steve Eiden

Collocation (NATURE) by Mickey Smith

We were ecstatic to receive word that photographer Mickey Smith's permanent glass installation at the University of Florida (pictured above) was recently named one of the 40 Best Public Artworks of 2009. Americans for the Arts' Year in Review 2010 reflects "the most exemplary, innovative permanent or temporary public art works created or debuted in 2009" in making their selection.

Collocation (NATURE) by Mickey Smith

You may, of course, recognize some of the panels from this installation from Mickey's 20x200 editions: Collocation No. 14 (NATURE) Left Panel and its pair, Collocation No. 14 (NATURE) Right Panel:

Mickey Smith on 20x200

What I find so wonderful, even magical about Mickey's work is that the photographs aren't staged, but discovered, as she writes in her artist statement:

The act of hunting for and photographing these objects is fundamental to my process. I do not touch, light or manipulate the books and words—preferring to document them as found in the stacks, created by the librarian and positioned by the last unknown reader.

Her Collocation series is full of quietly startling, witty, and beautiful images, embracing the word play, color and texture spectrum of the familiar book spine.

In her selection for this award, Mickey joins many awesome and inspiring artworks. Here's just a taste of the other thirty-nine honored artists,

Her Secret is Patience by Jane Echelman (Phoenix, AZ)

Filament/Firmament by Ellen Driscoll (Cambridge Public Library, Cambridge MA)

Home of the Stars by Ellen Harvey (Bronx, NY)

Congrats, Mickey! It's also worth noting that Collocation (NATURE) is Mickey's first major public artwork—we look forward to see what's in store next!

Zoe Strauss wants to be your eyes and ears in the Gulf of Mexico.

She is embarking on a new and timely project to document the fallout (literally and figuratively) of the BP Gulf oil disaster in affected coastal states, and she is seeking your help to get there and do it right. From her project statement:

I want to go and document the waiting for landfall as well as the places where landfall has already been made. I think it's an important thing to document; BP has effectively tried to prevent journalists from documenting a lot of the oil spill. My interest is not necessarily in the documentation of cleanup, but in the kind of longer-range anxiety that will result from what's a long-term environmental disaster.

Untitled, 2010, from the project On the Beach by Zoe Strauss

Using an arts-funding platform called Project Site, Strauss is seeking donations for very specific and reasonable line item costs for the project: travel, accommodations, external hard drives, car rentals, food and, if she raises enough money, for the publication of a book of the project. The initial project request amount of $4000 has been met, but the project will be more thoroughly realized with a greater donation total (Strauss would have funds enough to remain on the Gulf Coast longer to create more work and a fuller narrative of the unfolding events and its impact on the residents there).

The title for the project, On the Beach, is taken from a 1950s post apocalyptic novel written by Nevil Shute. Strauss is in the Gulf now and her first images have been posted on her personal website.

We recently posted about ways in which artists are responding to the oil spill in their work. Zoe Strauss's On the Beach is a perfect marriage of artistic drive/vision and a pressing crisis that needs a reliable narrator. There are 23 days left to fund her project on the site; please take a moment to venture there and consider making a donation. Strauss is offering a series of perks at various donation levels, up to and including postcards, prints and copies of the forthcoming book.

Exciting news fellow collectors! Wendy MacNaughton, an artist we featured two weeks ago with her awesome Things Happen Venn diagram, has been featured on the July cover of 7x7 Magazine. There is a great Q&A with Wendy explaining the cover for 7x7's transportation issue. The interview details why she has chosen her subjects, how she pictures the city she calls home, and some pretty memorable stories about her experiences as an artist.

The Q&A follows a commission to create a "psychological map" of Wendy's native San Francisco—and boy, did it turn out well. So well, that in addition to the magazine cover, 7x7 and Wendy decided to release 200 signed and numbered editions as posters. Her depiction of the city is both witty and blithe, just like her interview. Wendy's work makes me want to book a plane ticket to SFO just to see what she sees. I think my piggy bank may even be introduced to a hammer rather shortly for a quick trip west.

I've been to sweet sixteens, 21st birthday blowouts, and big bashes for friend and family turning ages 30, 40, 50, 60 and each decade after that. But, I've rarely commemorated age thirty-four in any context, especially not by way of photo zine.

The eleven different covers of zine, Get Off My Lawn

Leave it to Geoffrey Ellis to fuse photographic minds around the unifying theme of the artist being age thirty-four or older, which he writes is "a tongue-in-cheek response to the calls for entry, contests and publications that require “emerging photographers” to be somewhere between the ages of 18 and 34." These eleven artists come together from both coasts and everywhere in between in his new zine, Get Off My Lawn, featuring a breadth of landscapes, portraits, open vistas and several montages of urban life. The publication comes with eleven different covers, each by a different artist, and closes with a back cover photograph of a solemn and open grave with the artists' names hovering above it, eliciting a chuckle on behalf of these humored-and-oh-so-old photographers.

As Geoffrey writes to the young-folk out there: "We can no longer be in your club, but soon enough, you will be in ours…"

For those out in San Francisco, there will be a zine release party tomorrow night:

Sad Kids Zine Release Party
July 1, 2010, 6-9 p.m.
Casanova Lounge, SF
with DJs Utrillo and Forest Love
(RSVP here)

Get Off My Lawn is also available for purchase online for $10 here and here. It's 7"x7", color laser printed, and available in an edition of 222.

The zine features photographs by: Noah Beil, Geoffrey Ellis, Grant Ernhart, Alan W. George, Liz Kuball, Sarah Lacy, Ian Lemmonds, Jennifer Loeber, Dalton Rooney, Andrew Martin Scott and Justin Visnesky.

This summer I will be moving across the country and settling into a home I'm hoping to be in for a good long while. One small detail of domestic life that I've eagerly been anticipating is setting up subscriptions to some of my favorite print publications; something I've been unable to do thus far with my migratory lifestyle of shifting addresses every couple years. One of the publications on my must-have list is to reinstate my lapsed subscription to Aperture magazine. Long a signpost for both established and new artists, Aperture's reach and history is a long and gratifying one for both reader and the practicing photographer.

The current Summer issue (now available on news stands) features a piece on an artist that we love to follow, William Lamson.

Intervention 11.01.07 by William Lamson

The article focuses the relationship between photography and performance, and also showcases the work of artists Melanie Bonajo and Lilly McElroy.

Most of Lamson's work is in fact a mixture of science experiment and performance. In his body of work Interventions (which we've featured in multiple editions here) Lamson mixes a little bit of the mundane everyday that we tend to take for granted with surprising or startling elements of play and displacement.

Intervention 01.08.08 by William Lamson

Lamson's website functions not only as an artist's C.V., but as a viable alternative to being able to experience his work in person. Many pieces contain video features, and I can and have easily spend a lot of time completely engrossed in his many investigations that are concerned with the relationship between man, nature and time.

Timeline, 40 ft wall drawing with fuse and firecrackers, by William Lamson

Until I can make my way into an exhibition showing Lamson's work and stand in front of it in person, I will more than happily make do with his awesome web presence and in profiles like the ones in the pages of Aperture.

Artists, patrons of the arts, and Claire from LOST (among other celebrities) all headed up to The Whitney last night for the annual Art Party benefit. While the guests missed out on the premiere of Bravo's new reality show A Work of Art, they were treated instead to a series of "action art" performances by artists who have previously attended the Whitney's Independent Study Program, and given the opportunity to bid on artworks donated by a star-studded roster of artists. Not one...not two...but three 20x200 artists (Jonathan Allen, Curtis Mann, and Lawrence Weiner) generously donated works of their own to the auction. All proceeds from the night will go to furthering The Whitney's educational programming and Independent Study Program.

Red Carpet Ride, 2009, by Jonathan Allen

Cube, hover, #4 (Beirut), 2010, by Curtis Mann

Drawings from Venice Suite, 2002, by Lawrence Weiner

One of the most genius and not-too-pushy forms of self promotion for artists that I've ever come across has to be Kickstarter. If you've got an idea for a project that you need to generate some on-the-fly financing for, Kickstarter gives you a forum to do just that. You can lay out your case, show a video of what you're doing or are prepared to do, offer rewards and incentives, and provide updates as to how the process is going. The only catch is also some profound motivation for finishing what you start: Kickstarter is all or nothing funding, meaning: if a project creator doesn't reach their full funding goal in the time specified, then no one that pledged money is delivered to the creator.

But you might be surprised at how enthusiastic people can be when you crowd-source your inspiration, drive and energy. Below are some quick previews of some Kickstarter projects we're following, some that have already met their goals and some that are very much within grasp. Take a look at the project homepages and see if any of them strike a chord with you; you may be superstitiously or spiritually inclined to rack up a little art karma for $10 or more:

Camper Kart by Kevin Cyr

Inspired by the resourcefulness and autonomy described in Cormac McCarthy's The Road, Kevin Cyr was compelled to make a piece of functional, habitable sculpture that he dubbed "Camper Kart," which we've mentioned a few times here on this blog. Ultimately meant to be a mobile unit built into a shopping cart, Cyr declared his ambition to be no less than the construction of the "ubiquitous urban object." Cyr set his project goal at $2000, and offered up donation incentives at several price points (ranging from a woven patch at the $10 level to a 16x20" archival print at the highest level of $175). In around 6 weeks his goal was met, and Kevin's Camper Kart dreams were realized. You can see the finished piece, as well as other amazing sculptures and paintings he's created, on Kevin's website.

FV Meridian; Wrights Wharf, Portland, Maine by Mark Marchesi

Mark Marchesi's Kickstarter project is about his ability to continue a documentary project of Portland Maine's working waterfront. He is seeking a total of $2,000 funding in order to buy materials needed to continue work (the analog has become less cost-effective than ever, and Mark shoots with a large format camera). From his statement:

As the fisherman grow more scarce and their vessels rust at the wharf an entire network of processors, wholesalers and shipping agents also suffer. As the revenue stream that this network produces dries to a trickle, the wharves that they occupy become vulnerable to rezoning and at risk of being lost to the fishery forever.

Right now it looks like parts of the waterfront will be preserved for the commercial fishing industry for a long time to come. But the industry as a whole is in such a precarious position nothing is certain. The documentary project I am working on is an important one. I try to believe that fish stocks will bounce back and a way of life will not be lost. But in case of the worst, this project will at least preserve Maine's oldest surviving industry on film.

Mark's project has 16 days to go with Kickstarter's all-or-nothing funding, and you have just got to love the incentive offered at the pledge level of $50 or more:

A quart of home cooked lobster and haddock chowder made with locally caught seafood purchased on the Portland Waterfront AND an 11" x 14" limited edition print from this series in an archival matte AND a "Preserve Working Waterfronts" magnet.

Learn more about Mark's project on his Kickstarter pageor at his blog.

We've written about Rachel Sussman and Jon Gitelson, our last two Kickstarter artists before, but both are in the closing days of their project so it's your last chance to donate, receive prizes from each artist for supporting their work, and rack in that good karma for helping someone realize a dream.

Jon Gitelson has already met his funding goal for his book project, Scavenger Hunt, but it's worth mentioning that at a $25 pledge (which you can still make on the site), you'll receive an 8"x10" signed print from the book, which is a steal. For double that you get a double-down gift of any 10"x16" spread from the book of your choice.

Spruce Gran Picea, 9,550 years old, Fulufjället, Sweden by Rachel Sussman

Rachel Susmann's project is so righteously awesome, multidisciplinary, collaborative, exotic and romantic all at once. Teaming up with biologists, she's been researching the world's oldest living organisms (2,000 years old and older!) and traveling to places near and far to document them. Her project scope has been ambitious, as is her funding goal of $10,000. With just over two weeks to go, Rachel is nearly within reach of her project's total realization. She only needs $354 more to be able to find and photograph 5,000 year old moss in the Antarctic peninsula, find a 2,300 year old Banyan Fig tree in Sri Lanka, find up to 43,000 year old clonal shurbs in Tanzania and Australia, and go under the sea in Spain to locate and document 100,000 year old clonal sea grass. Rachel's also offering several incentive gifts for various donation levels as well; visit her Kickstarter page for more details, or her blog for more frequent project updates.

If you've got a little cash on hand, helping one of these artists realize their project dreams is a really worthy way to spend it. And if you've got a great idea yourself, why don't you get busy with your own Kickstarter project?

Talisman I, graphite and watercolor on paper, 2010 by William Powhida

When Hrag Vartanian announced on favorite go-to art blog Hyperallergic last week that they were going to host a lecture by artist/provocateur William Powhida on "Surviving the Art World Using the Art of Sorcery," I was both intrigued and confused. After coming off the heels of the month-long #class, would this be something like that? Would it be like watching the Art World Town Crier? Would it be performance art? Stand-up?

From Powhida's site:

I will be discussing the magical aspects of art including illusionism, conjuration, alchemy and drawing power from malign art world entities. I will also be presenting a new work in progress for the operation of composite art magic. While some of the forms are borrowed from traditional black magic this is a highly personalized, composite magic made with common studio materials. I will also perform certain magical operations that use the ability of the mind to alter the physical world and bridge the gap between what is and what is desired. In the words of A.E. Waite "You have to be good to do evil."

Not living in the city itself, I watched with interest as the limited-space seating quickly filled up, shrugged my shoulders, and added this to the great long list of Things-I'll-Miss-'Cause-I-Don't-Live-In-the-NYC.

Enter Facebook fanpage for Hyperallergic:

Seriously. Awesome.

Why every art venue worth a damn doesn't do something similar, I'll never know. But kudos to you that do. I'll listen to your podcasts, watch your streaming video, Vimeo, YouTube, etc in whatever way you choose to make art more accessible.

Tune in tonight at 8 p.m. on the Hyperallergic site to get some Art Magic, baby.

As an avid reader and collector of books who organizes the thousands of titles in my apartment by the color of their spine—on an expansive shelf of reclaimed wood that spans one-hundred square feet—the challenge of selecting 15-18 books that are marked favorites, was a distinct and nearly impossible challenge. It's one Jane Mount put me up to a few months ago, when she emailed asking for my selection of "ideal books," for her show Ideal Bookshelves, which opens at The Curiosity Shoppe in San Francisco tomorrow, May 14th.

Ideal Bookshelf 27: JH by Jane Mount

I slowly pulled down Margaret Kilgallen's In The Sweet Bye & Bye (the first edition pink-cover version), A Summer's Day by Joel Meyerowitz, and Selected Poems by e.e. cummings, each eliciting a memory of when those books were acquired and how I first languored over their pages. I got excited putting together a collection, then felt fraught with great indecision, knowing that my "ideal" may soon be permanently down on paper in gouache and ink.

The exhibition features paintings, print and postcards of the bookshelves of friends around the country—the shelves of chefs, designers, artists, moms, dads, kids and collaborators. Jane is a firm believer that books say a lot about who a person is. She writes, in the statement accompanying the five Ideal Bookshelves available as editions on 20x200, "For a while, I've been documenting people's bookshelves as a form of portraiture; you can actually learn a lot about folks by their book covers."

Ideal Bookshelf 20: CR by Jane Mount

The ideal component of the series makes a slight departure from the literal organization of titles (messy or perfectly stacked as they may be), as an amalgamation of favorite books that might not sit next to each other in real life. One can fancifully add books they've lusted over but never acquired, rare editions that are no longer available, and books exterminated by time and use that live on in memory.

So, if you are in San Francisco tomorrow, stop on over to The Curiosity Shoppe (where there are lots of fantastic books, trinkets and objects worth browsing in addition to the gallery), and browse amongst Jane's painted shelves.

Ideal Bookshelf 1, JMM by Jane Mount (editions available on 20x200)

Ideal Bookshelves, Works by Jane Mount
Opening Party: Friday, May 14, 6-8 p.m.
The Curiosity Shoppe
855 Valencia St., San Francisco

For those of you unable to make it to the party, or to the show, the works will also be available for viewing and for purchase on the The Curiosity Shoppe's Gallery.

Earlier this week I told you about the changes in point-of-view, production models and consumer trends in the world of photo and art books. Citing questions from both the muchly read Livebooks Resolve photo book discussion ("How Should Photobook Creation Evolve in the Next Decade?"; "How Should Photobook Consumption Evolve in the Next Decade?"; "How Should Photobook Funding Evolve in the Next Decade?") and the recent colloquium on the subject in Lausanne, Switzerland, we examined both the alarm of traditional publishing models at changes in consumer trends and funding for production, as well as the liberty and opportunity to be found by other publishers small and large to be explored during this moment of flux.

We left off with the following rhetorical question:

So what's an art-loving bibliophile to do? Or even more to the point, what are you as a photographer to do, if you've got a book to publish and you're not a Robert Frank, with eccentric foreign publishers willing to stake a fortune on an extremely limited edition art runs of sybaritic proportions?

Today we'd like to take a look at what some of our favorite artists have been working on that directly addresses this issue.

Do all photographic books actually have to be books? Bound between two covers? Photographer Shen Wei doesn't believe so: he's released a limited-edition book entitled Almost Naked, and the clamshell book contains an embossed title page, an artist's statement, a certificate of authenticity, 25 individual images and an index page. All images are printed on matte paper, and the title and text pages are on Conqueror paper.

Almost Naked, limited edition artist's book by Shen Wei

The photographs show a wide breadth of the American demographic that can be found in New York City, and the tone of images are startlingly intimate, yet simultaneously reserved. While obviously drawing on the traditions of provocateurs like Nan Goldin, Wei also takes intimacy and nakedness to mean more than just being literally stripped bare: it's also a make-shift altar on a windowsill; the way that two dogs tied to trees might look at you in an alleyway; or a dinner table with a vinyl tablecloth that's set for four with blue plastic disposable plates and cups, plus one very "real" wineglass that's mostly empty.

Stranded Dog, 2005 from Almost Naked by Shen Wei

Shen Wei's Almost Naked is a limited edition of 215, and can be bought online via Paypal right here.

In addition to re-envisioning the concept of "book," another method that artists have been employing is to redefine the traditional path to publication. Chicagrapher Jonathon Gitelson is using the innovative Kickstarter project site to source funding streams for his new publishing venture Scavenger Hunt. The project's concept all stems from a found "to-do" list that Gitelson recovered in the city streets. He then set out to find, or re-interpret where necessary, all of the items on the list and make an art book out of his findings.

inset page from Scavenger Hunt, by Jonathon Gitelson

The books, one-of-a-kind and in a limited-edition of 50, cost Gitleson roughly $250 to produce. His initial Kickstarter goal was to crowd-source fund the publication of five copies of Scavenger Hunt, which are to be presented at Kehrer Art Books of Heidelberg this summer. Being the savvy and likable person that Jonathon is, he has already met his initial Kickstarter goal for the five copies, and now everything else is going towards funding the remaining forty-five copies.

As an incredibly forward-thinking incentive to contribute to his end goal, Gitelson is offering participants a 3-tier prints-for-donations buy-in: For a donation of $25 or more, he is offering an 8"x10" signed print of a page of your choosing from his book. For $50 or more, you can choose a 2-page signed print of any spread from the book. And for the kindest contributors of all who give $450 or more, you get one of the actual limited-edition books.

Scavenger Hunt by Jonathon Gitelson

Among also making video, installation, photographic work and performance art, Gitelson has been creating artist's books for years. Ranging from the obsessively-compulsive autobiographical (I Wave in Front of Every Apartment I've Ever Lived In Except One) to the sweetly whimsical (If I Had a Girlfriend) to the smartly wicked (Dream Job), his books answer, in a beguiling array of permutations, the open-ended question, "I wonder what would happen if..."

Gitelson's books have been purchased by an impressive roster of institutions: Allen Library, University of Washington, Seattle, WA; George Eastman House, Rochester, NY; Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Houston, TX; Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY; Rhode Island School of Design Library, Providence, RI; Victoria & Albert Museum, London, England among many others.

Visit his Kickstarter page to learn more, watch his video or make a donation.

In the realm of Making Your Own Luck, there is always and finally the DIY method: photographer Chad Muthard has a new three-volume artist's book available on his site, the whole series is titled Any Fool Can Take A Picture With a Camera Like That.

inset page from Dialogue with a Self-Portrait, from the series Any Fool... by Chad Muthard

Each of the three books takes a critical look at what Muthard tasks as, "three dilemmas that are inherent in the medium of photography from a contemporary stand point." Attractively priced at $8.00 a piece and again accessibly available through Paypal, supporting artists and their new projects has never been easier. Chad Muthard's books are available for purchase through his website.

Briefly worth mentioning are a few other tomes that some of our most beloved artists currently have a for-sale shingle on:

Austin Kleon (artist, poet, cartoonist) has a new collection of poetry for sale in a volume entitled Newspaper Blackout. You can purchase the book, a very hip t-shirt, or any of our 20x200 editions of his prints from the store on his site.

Artist and recently much-gossiped about William Powhida has a print-on-demand Blurb book of a recent solo show, The Writing is on the Wall. You can preview the entire book and purchase it if you so desire at the blurb bookstore.

Lastly, if you're still in the need of guidance through this whole create-make-publish process, our friend and current 2010 HHS! juror Darius Himes has some pearls of wisdom for you in his forthcoming book (co-authored with artist Mary Virginia Swanson), simply and aptly titled Publish Your Photography Book. From the Princeton Architectural Press release:

Industry insiders Darius D. Himes and Mary Virginia Swanson survey the current landscape of photography book publishing and point out the many avenues to pursue and pitfalls to avoid. This expert guide is organized in six sections covering the rich history of the photo book; an overview of the publishing industry; an intimate look at the process of making a book; a close review of how to market a photo book; a section on case studies, built around discussions and interviews with published photographers; and a final section presenting a wealth of resources and information to aid in the understanding of the publishing world.

Publish Your Photography Book has an expected release date of January 2011 (get started on that New Year's Resolution to make a book early!). Watch Darius Himes' blog for more information.

Searching for the world's oldest living things can seem like a romantic task pursued by explorers of bygone days—the Marco Polos and Ernest Shackletons of the earth who voyaged from sea to sea and pole to pole—not the passion of a Brooklynite with wanderlust and a penchant for aged specimens. But, that is what lights a fire in the curious mind of Ms. Rachel Sussman, who for five years has been tracking centuries-old trees and organisms around the globe and capturing them with her camera. Getting to the locations is an experience and education in and of itself, and then Rachel takes on the task of conveying these livings things' dignity and complexity while out in the desert, underwater, or in the forest.

Left: la llareta #0308-23b26 (up to 3,000 years old, atacama desert, chile); Right: spruce gran picea #0909-6B37 (9,5000 years old; fulufjället, sweden)

Recently featured on NPR's The Picture Show blog, Sussman speaks of being her first ancient discovery:

"I had gone to Japan with no real agenda — just knowing that I wanted to photograph. And ... people kept telling me, 'You have to go visit this tree that's called Jomon Sugi that's 7,000 years old."

After a two-day hike, Sussman found the tree. When she relayed the story to friends back home she realized that if she combined her interests of photography and art with nature and science it would make a great series.

Sussman finds subjects through both coincidence and deliberate pursuit, contacting researchers studying underwater forms, fungi and rare plants—and in one instance, serendipitously meeting a biologist at a New Year's Eve party who connected her to lichen in Greenland.

How does Rachel afford to trot the globe in search of these rare specimens, you ask? That's where Kickstarter comes in. Rachel has announced a project to continue funding her work and is trying to raise a goal of $10,000 in the next 66 days. If she meets her goal, the funds will be used to help her pursue 10 organisms on her list to find and photograph so the project can be turned into a book. She writes of her mission:

I'm developing this unique index of living organisms with exceptional longevity at a critical juncture in our collective trajectory: how will the natural world fare in the face of climate change? Part art, part science, part philosophy, I hope to tease out themes of longevity, sustainability, the natural sublime and mortality through the work.

Help Rachel get to the Antarctic Peninsula to find 5,000 year-old moss, go backpacking in Tasmania for 10 - 43,000 year-old clonal shurms and visit a 2,300 year-old Banyan Fig tree in Sri Lanka. Because even if none of us can go with her, wouldn't it be nice to live vicariously through Rachel's explorations and hang a photo of a 9,500 year-old Swedish Spruce Gran Picea tree in our living rooms? We think so.

For those of you armchair travelers, you can also follow along with Rachel's project on the OLTW blog.

p.s. There is just one 30"x40" print left of Rachel's 20x200 edition, Towards Christiana. Snap it up before it becomes extinct!

Untitled from Off Season Sugar Cane Workers by Youngna Park

You might be most familiar with Youngna Park for her street photography, images of light, and—of course—the Candy Cane Intervention. However, Youngna's work spans the breadth from documentary to commercial to quiet daily observations. I was reminded of this today when I saw that Youngna's series Off Season Sugar Cane Workers is currently featured on GOOD's Picture Show series.

About the series, Youngna writes:

One takeaway was just how relative everyone's situation is. What often attracts image making is tragedy, like we saw with Haiti. I was here to witness these people's normal lives, and the living conditions still seem jarring, so it was certainly an education in relative wealth.

You can see the rest of the series at the GOOD's Picture Show and see more work from Youngna on her website. Of her two 20x200 editions only Winter Flags (East Village, New York) (below) is still available.

Winter Flags (East Village, New York) by Youngna Park

Each day since January 1, 2010, artist Lisa Congdon has posted a photograph or drawing of a real or imagined collection. Many feature everyday objects of the home: coasters, brushes, hairpins, spatulas—which she artfully arranges and posts on A Collection a Day, 2010. The May issue of Martha Stewart Living, coming soon to a newsstand near you, highlights Lisa's project in their "Great Finds" feature, noting "Collections have been documented for centuries—but never like this." Lisa makes the old new again, digitally photographing objects from long ago and far away for you to enjoy from the comfort of your office chair.

Lisa Congdon's A Collection A Day on pg 42 of Martha Stewart Living

As I wrote in January in A Collection of Artists as Collectors,

The art of collecting seems an almost intuitive human trait. Whether gathering seashells at the beach, amassing stationery for sending on some future day, acquiring postcards in every city you've ever visited, collecting art (cough cough), or storing an object simply because it's beautiful, the collection re-contextualizes both extraordinary and mundane objects that have been amassed by some trait of sameness.

Lisa's objects go beyond the simple act of amassing, extending the idea of the collecting to a museum-like form of neat and deliberate display. Through her presentation, she offers vignettes of her relationship to the objects, and suggests a curiosity-cabinet-like living environment that I imagine is full of drawers and boxes and cases waiting to be re-discovered.

Vintage orange plastic spoons and spatulas. from Day 82 of Lisa's project

Not merely a gleaner of the gorgeous, Lisa also puts pen to paper to create her own collections—the illustrated ones that are part of her project, and the portfolios of works from which her three 20x200 editions, Lovebirds, Owl No. 1 and Birch Forest No. 7 originate.

Owl No. 1 by Lisa Congdon

Dustin Amery Hostetler (UPSO) at work.

In case you missed it, The Strange Attractor ran a great feature a few months ago on Dustin Amery Hostetler (a.k.a. UPSO) and his wife Jemma as part of their "Creative Couples" series. The interview has hilarious bits about everything from working from home with your better half, to speculation about flying cars.

Here's a bit about their workspace:

Can you describe your creative workspace?

D: My half of the room is covered in piles of papers, bills, books and empty coffee cups. Jemma’s half of the room is like a zen garden.

J: We work out of an old house we bought a few years ago, in spare rooms. We started by working in the attic but that got too hot during the summer. So, we’ve been using one of the bedrooms. Sometimes his junky mess starts to creep into my half… and that’s when I move to another room. I’m all about laptops and mobility. He’ll clean things when he gets lonely, so that I return.

You can read the whole interview and see lots of pictures over at TSA. We've only got 50 prints by Dustin left before they're completely sold out forever, so run, don't walk!

Color Study #4
by Dustin Amery Hostetler (UPSO)

Back to Nature, 2009 by Carrie Marill

We hope you'll join us tonight at 6:00 p.m. for the opening of Carrie Marill's second solo-show at Jen Bekman Gallery. In her newest series, Visual Aides, (from which her two most recent editions were sourced), Carrie expands her signature style to include references of colorful nostalgia of 1950s educational posters. However, her interpretations of these idyllic images have been subtly painted over to account for environmental and social changes in the last 60 years.

Carrie writes:

In 2006, I was traveling through France and found brilliantly colored, printed "visual aides" at a flea market. Originally, these visual aides were didactic drawings used in classrooms in the late 1950s to illustrate different aspects of the world—farming, industry and the natural world—for children.

I scanned and reproduced these images on watercolor paper and updated them to reflect current events that relate to the state of our environment and how humans anthropomorphize the planet. The chosen events were inserted into the drawings using a style similar to that of the original works, so the completed image is a "Where’s Waldo" of what has evolved and devolved environmentally and socially since the 1950s.

If you're interested in reading more about Visual Aides, Allison Arieff, founding editor of Dwell and contributor to GOOD and The New York Times, has written a great essay to coincide with the exhibition titled Be Realistic, Demand the Impossible: Carrie Marill [pdf].

Visual Aides
8 works on paper by Carrie Marill
Opening Reception: Friday March 26, 2010 6:00 – 8:00 p.m.
On View: March 27, 2010 through May 8, 2010
Jen Bekman Gallery
6 Spring Street
New York City, 10012

Flying, Shipping and Selling by Carrie Marill

If you can't make it to NYC and happen to be in Dallas, Texas, another exhibition of Carrie's work features fourteen portraits of animals she has eaten. She writes that is is a "meditation on the factory farming of commodified animals that are a regular staple of the American diet as well as the exotic fare offered more and more on restaurant menus." The Splendid Table, opens tomorrow, Saturday, March 27th at Conduit Gallery.

The Splendid Table
14 works by Carrie Marill
Opening Reception: Saturday, March 27th, 6:00 - 8:00 p.m.
On view: March 27th through April 30th
Conduit Gallery
1626 C HI Line Drive
Dallas, TX 75207

And, if you're not in Dallas either, you can also see lots of Carrie's work online, in addition to her nine (yes, 9!) editions on 20x200 (featuring plenty of birds, colorful abstraction, and house plants).

Be Realistic Demand the Impossible by Carrie Marill

William Powhida's ears must be on a constant burn from all the conversation and commentary he's been generating around the web in the past month. There's a very black-and-white dualism when picking through all of the recent content I've encountered on and about him: His star is on the rise/he's the thorn in our side; he's the whistleblower on the art world/he's the portraitist of the art royals; he's the darling of Jerry Saltz/he's on the hitlist of Walter Robinson. Interestingly, whenever I've come to a face-to-face interview with Powhida, writers invariably comment upon that when they expected a brash hurricane of a man, what they found instead was a composed, soft-spoken fellow.

Does it follow that focused productivity begets anticipated results? Beginning last November, Powhida was commissioned by the Brooklyn Rail to do a cover piece about the New Museum controversy, involving an institution whose stated mission is to showcase emerging talent, but then went on to stage a show with works from the collection of one of its trustees, curated by one of the most non-emerging and famous artists of the century, Jeff Koons. Swooping down on the subject with a sword honed specially from crafty and informed satire, Powhida's drawing became a lightning rod of sorts, generating furor and discussion over matters long tolerated by the art gatekeepers, but seldom questioned so vigorously.

How the New Museum Created Suicide with Banality by William Powhida

Powhida's rendering of the controversy created a controversy of its own, and pitted art bloggers against art critics, while the rest of us sat on the sidelines of our RSS feeds and gaped.

Continue reading "William Powhida as the Reluctant Revolutionary" »

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

Through the pass to the light up ahead, 2008 by William Crump

Often after the initial out-pouring of sympathy and donations in the wake of a great disaster, there quickly follows a sustained silence and collective forgetting as the story leaves the front page news, our radio headlines, and our news feed.

Nearly a month after the earthquake that completely leveled cities and communities in Haiti, there is still great need for both action, support and a promise to not selectively forget in the face of hitting a Paypal button.

Art for Haiti NYC is an auction benefit in conjunction with Doctors Without Borders/Medecins Sans Frontieres. Over sixty works of art are for sale, with 100% of the proceeds going to the charity and relief efforts in Haiti.

Three 20x200 artists have generously donated their work for the auction: Amy Park, William Crump and William Lamson.

If you're in the area, please consider stopping in and possibly purchasing some art for an ongoing and very relevant cause. An online preview of most of the works for sale can be viewed here and you can also see the work from 12 - 6 p.m. today. The auction itself begins tonight at 7:00 PM, Wednesday February 10, 2010, with bidding beginning promptly at 8:30 p.m.

Art for Haiti NYC Benefit Auction
601 West 26th Street (@ 11th Ave.), 8th floor
New York, NY 10001
Email: info@artforhaitinyc.com

Also see our previous posts about how you can buy art to benefit Haitian relief efforts here, here and here.

Noah Kalina has a way in front of the camera.

Gaining international notoriety for his daily self-portraits recorded over six years and uploaded to YouTube as a video (which has now been viewed over 14 MILLION times), 20x200 edition-maker Noah Kalina scored himself yet another 15 seconds of fame when he appeared in a Superbowl spot for the Dodge Charger on Sunday evening. Read in the flat, monotone voice of Michael C. Hall, the camera lingers for long moments over a series of resigned, chastened and, we are given to believe, whipped men.

I will take your call. I will listen to your opinion of my friends. I will listen to your friends' opinions of my friends. I will be civil to your mother.

Hall's voice drifts over Kalina's huge eyes, as the monologue continues to its coup d'cock riposte, "...and because I do this, I will drive the car that I WANT to drive."

Noah writes on his blog that he was the only non-professional actor in the commercial, chosen because of the long video portrait photographer Clayton Cubitt made of him and posted to Vimeo.

Noah has also recently redesigned his portfolio, which, he promises us, contains no flash. (Really, that's a promise I wish more people would make, including the entire country of France).

Untitled (LA20070805) by Noah Kalina

There are only a handful of Kalina's edition left on 20x200, so be sure to take a look-see before they're all gone.

Can You Imagine by Trey Speegle

Last time we checked in with edition-maker Trey Speegle he was returning from a whirlwind trip to Paris, where he had created a gigantic runway backdrop for Stella McCartney's show at Paris Fashion Week. Trey is now the subject of a full-page feature in the current issue of Gotham Magazine. In the article, Trey talks about how his work with paint-by-numbers got started, as well as how his work has intersected with fashion and commerce. On being compared to commercial artist Peter Max, Trey says, "[the 60's were] a different time, people no longer make these kind of distinctions [between art and commerce]. Gagosian has a store." Of Trey's two 20x200 editions only one, Can You Imagine (above), is still available so hurry up and take one home!

Daisy, 2008, Woodgrain series by Christina Muraczewski

Rarely is an artist's statement as enigmatically engaging as the work itself, but Christina Muraczewski's reads like a philosophical text, meaning that you might have to read it and then re-read it again (and then maybe again) to best extract all the nuance and particulars one-by-one. Or, maybe it reads like the journal of someone who strives for as much order in personal articulation as in visual making: What you say about what you do can matter as much as the doing.

Before I leave the house in the morning I go through three sets of four rituals for getting ready to make sure nothing was forgotten. When I go to the store I plan to buy five things or in groups of five so I remember what I was supposed to get. I organize and categorize by a number of different systems...

By employing minimal characteristics, I create formal and informal relationships that...[are] disrupted purposefully by a foreign element: humor. Humor in the form of obsessiveness, senselessness, or sarcasm defines the absurd to serve as a balance to the mundane. The attempt is to fashion a new hybrid: minimalism as the backbone and idiosyncrasy as the fuel. This hybrid is meant to sit in the "in-between", the balance of abstraction and representation, the literal and the conceptual, sincerity and superficiality.

Muraczewski has referred to herself as an abstract painter, but has re-interpreted the label to include a methodology which incorporates a nearly OCD sense of organization, a serious love of ritual and contemporary design elements and a breezy, blink-and-miss it sense of humor. These elements of practice have culminated in her most recent series of work, Woodgrain. Using acrylic markers and glitter on canvas, Muraczewski creates a faux bois background that she then "overpaints" a scene of birds, vines, flora or colorful wallpaper or upholstery patterns. The result intones a whiff of David Salle, if Salle were perhaps more interested in the natural world as opposed to, say, the au natural girl.

We have a great fondness for Muraczewski's work here at Jen Bekman Projects, having shown her in two group shows at the Jen Bekman Gallery (X Marks the Art and Ornithology), and nearly selling out her editions here at 20x200 (you can still purchase the dwindling reserves from her featured editions here, here and here). We couldn't be happier to cheer and chart her current and future successes both in NYC and beyond.

To that end, if you live near or are visiting the left coast in the coming month, Muraczewski's work can be seen live and in person in the group show Woodie, an exhibition featuring art works made on wood, with wood or by wood simulation, at The Attic, 200 S. Ardmore Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90004. The exhibition is part of the Art LA Contemporary Fair programming, which includes a self-guided driving tour of new exhibitions at alternative spaces throughout the city.

The exhibition features: Anthony Brown, Brian Cooper, Craig Deines, Joan Kahn, Jared Pankin, Brian Mallman, Christina Muraczewski, Sharon Ryan, Klutch Stanaway and Noah Thomas and was curated by Cherie Benner Davis.

Woodie
On view: Jan. 31 - Feb. 28, 2010
The Attic, 200 S. Ardmore Ave.(cross streets: Normandie & 2nd St.)
Los Angeles, CA 90004
For more information or to view by appointment, call: 323-292-6029, or write: cheriebd@gmail.com.

Untitled, Santa Barbara by Liz Kuball

20x200 edition-maker Liz Kuball just sent word that she is offering a print with 100% of proceeds going to benefit the people of Haiti. The print is for sale through wall space gallery's collection life support, alongside other photographers' works also selected to benefit the relief effort. Liz's photograph, Untitled, Santa Barbara (pictured above), is available at an 8.5"x11" size in an edition of ten for $50.

Liz's two editions, Untitled (Santa Barbara) (2009) and Untitled (Santa Barbara) (2008) are also both available in four sizes on 20x200.

We're thrilled to see the ongoing efforts to provide relief efforts to Haiti by artists, galleries and other art organizations. See other places to buy art + design to benefit Haiti on the blog here and here.

Engadget is live-blogging today's release of the long-awaited Apple iPad. We were pretty darn thrilled when we saw Jorge Colombo's recent New Yorker cover pop up on the screen while Steve Sprang, creator of the app Brushes, did a demo.

Congrats, Jorge!

The art of collecting seems an almost intuitive human trait. Whether gathering seashells at the beach, amassing stationery for sending on some future day, acquiring postcards in every city you've ever visited, collecting art (cough cough), or storing an object simply because it's beautiful, the collection re-contextualizes both extraordinary and mundane objects that have been amassed by some trait of sameness.

It seems only fitting that visual artists—people inspired by aesthetics—are often collectors and that these objects often become the basis of their own work. Walker Evans collected picture postcards, Diego Rivera collected iconic religious paintings and Pablo Picasso collected the artwork of his contemporaries.

Stephen Shore's A Road Trip Journal contains a collection in the form of documented daily living. While on his 1973 month-long cross-country road trip, he collected postcards, saved receipts, and recorded the minuscule details of his everyday, including what he ate, where he stayed and how much TV he watched. His notes have become a time capsule, both of the era and of the transformation of these everyday objects.

Photo of Waste Not by Song Dong from 16 Miles of String’s Flickr Photostream

Also in line with collecting the contents of everyday life, Projects 90, a recent exhibition at MoMA by Beijing-based artist Song Dong presented the work Waste Not in the museum's atrium. For the piece, the artist brought the contents from his mother's apartment, amassed over fifty years, ranging from dishware to blankets to plastic bottles to empty toothpaste tubes. As both artifact and document, the collection is both preposterous and exceedingly humble. The act of hoarding was his mother's mechanism for handling grief and a way to hold onto the tangible after her husband passed away.

Pine cones by Lisa Congdon

Several 20x200 artists are also working with, and finding inspiration in collections. San Francisco-based Lisa Congdon* started A Collection A Day on the first of the year dedicated to photographing, drawing or painting a collection for 365 consecutive days. She writes, "Since I was a young girl, I have been obsessed both with collecting and with arranging, organizing and displaying my collections. This is my attempt to document my collections, both the real and the imagined." Already on day 25, she has painted buoys, photographed eucalyptus leaves and drawn twigs amongst the many objects in her home or studio. Ranging from the fantastical to the purely functional, the objects are arranged and re-imagined as beautiful vignettes of things in her life.

Danish stamps on Clifton Burt's Folk Object

Edition-maker Clifton Burt also recently launched Folk Object, a reference page where he describes as "an ongoing collection of ornament and utility." Rife with pictures that celebrate craft, color and the handmade, he records knots, gloves, creating a collection out of found objects on the web, in books and from many other resources. Click here to see his growing set of folk discoveries.

28 Camera Drawings by Christine Berrie

Greg Krum, Christine Berrie, Jane Mount and Jason Polan also take to collecting—or creating visual groups of objects that look awfully god together. Through Christine's 28 Camera Drawings, Greg's Nymphenburg, Jane's Ideal Bookshelves and Jason's rocks, dinosaurs, birds, insects and sea creatures, we can see how the amassed is also interpreted, rearranged and made completely one's own through the art of collecting itself.

Do you know of other artists who are collectors or collection-based art? Let us know!

*Look for new work by Lisa Congdon on 20x200 this week!

Drawings from The Exquisite Book by Mike Perry, Camilla Engman, Lab Partners, and Nick Dewar.

Have you ever played the game Exquisite Corpse? It's not as morbid as it sounds—I swear! The Exquisite Book is a drawing project based on this age-old game, which will culminate this fall with a book release and exhibition. There are lots of ways to play, but in this instance, 100 artists were asked to create a page for a book that continues the story of, and is based solely on the page that comes before their own.

I might've made that sound complicated, but it's actually really simple and fun. You may not realize it at first glance, but if you look at some of the key visual elements in the image above, they all connect in unexpectedly beautiful ways. The result is a book packed full of wildly different styles of illustration, made coherent by a simple set of rules.

What's more, a handful of 20x200 edition-makers were asked to contribute to the project. Inside you'll find pages by Kate Bingaman-Burt, Jill Bliss, Lisa Congdon and Mike Perry. Take a look at the list of artists, because you're sure to spot some more of our favorites on there.

For more information, check out Julia Rothman's blog post announcing the project and then swing by the official website. Congratulations to Julia and the team at ALSO for putting together The Exquisite Book, which will be published by our friends at Chronicle Books this fall.

Interior 6 (Coil), 2009 by Sarah McKenzie

JBP artist and 20x200 edition-maker Sarah McKenzie has work featured in Edition 84 of New American Paintings.

The issues is already out to subscribers, and should be arriving at bookstores and newsstands shortly. Copies can also be purchased for $20 online here.

See more on Sarah McKenzie:
+ Installation shots of Sarah's work from 2009's NEXT Art Fair in Chicago
+ Installation photos from Sarah's solo show at the JBG, Building Code
+ An interview with Sarah by Eva Hagberg on Edificial about Building Code.
+ Sarah's three editions on 20x200: Lift, Support and Site (only one print left!).

Recognize anything about the video above? It was created for FUEL TV by edition-maker Dustin Hostetler (a.k.a. UPSO) who says it was "partly inspired by his 20x200 prints."

Color Study #4 by Dustin Hostetler

The animation, which started airing last week, is part of FUEL TV's Signature Series IDs, a group of 100 artist-designed interstitials inspired by iconic skateboard decks.

About his animation Dustin writes,

I wanted to show the excitement I get out of things like riding bikes with friends. When life gets too crazy or stressful, it's things like friends and fun that get me out of my funk. It doesn't matter if it's paintbrushes or snowboarding, it's all about expressing yourself. I've always been amazed by the support action sports gives art, from skateboards to t-shirt designs and shoes, it all comes full circle.

Artists who have contributed to the FUEL TV Signature Series IDs include Dalek, Andy Jenkins, Saiman Chow, Chris Yormick, Trevor Graves, Andrew Pommier, Yogi Proctor, Dean Bradley, The Clayton Brothers, Todd Francis and others.

Dustin's edition, Color Study #4, still has prints available. To see his 20x200 favorites make sure to check out his awesome illustrated gift guide!

See it split, see it change, 2008 by Doug and Mike Starn

Acclaimed artist duo and 20x200 edition-makers Doug and Mike Starn have been awarded the Municipal Art Society's (MAS) Brendan Gill Prize for "capturing the spirit of the City of New York" with their permanent subway installation, See it split, see it change. The award was created in the memory of Gill, a renowned New Yorker theater critic and former MAS president.

A multi-part, site-specific work, See it split, see it change (2005-2008), presents a trilogy of images which draw on the artists' ongoing fascination with themes of impermanence and transience. Images of a uniquely-altered historic New York City map, intertwined tree branches, and a single pristine leaf, reproduced in strategic locations along the station's walls, reference the artist's commentary on the subway station as a place of passage where meanings and people remain in a constant state of flux, and influence passengers to consider elements of time, space, the natural, and manmade.

If you didn't snap up the Doug and Mike's two editions when they were released, you are unfortunately out of luck as they have both completely sold out. However, thanks to our magnificent city and the MTA Arts for Transit program you can take in their award-winning work every time you ride the subway to the South Ferry Station (on the 1 line).

Additional information and photos of the installation can also be found at the Starns' website.

Untitled 10 by Katie Baum

Earlier this year we offered two editions from California-based photographer Katie Baum. Both images were from her series, Chasing Memory, which, in Katie's words, "remember the past and record it" by documenting and creating scenes rife with childish whimsy. Katie has recently completed a new body of work, Fragments, which feels equally dreamy exposing fingertips and toes and the shoulder blades of faceless subjects. Of the work, Katie writes:

We get lured in by the mysterious calm of landscapes, and then, without warning: mind wanders. Curiosity rises. Trust subsides. When out in the wild, my first thought is often: This is exactly where I want to be. Pure contentment. A few steps later, new thoughts: What happened here? What is about to happen here? Is someone watching?

View the complete series on Katie's website.

Katie's two editions, Peeps and Gumball Machine, are available in dwindling supply, so make haste!

Prolific iPhone sketcher and six-time 20x200 edition-maker Jorge Colombo has posted an interesting look into the process behind his drawings called "Night Lights". The New Yorker, for whom Jorge does one iSketch a week, has also covered the process, but here we hear from the artist himself.

On capturing the likeness of a city, Jorge writes,

My Finger Paintings series, running in thenewyorker.com since last June, or published as prints by 20x200.com, has been a road map to plunder icons from the city I've lived in for the past eleven years. They're a bit of likeness portraits: stripped of recognizable indicators, what makes a landscape feel like New York and not like somewhere else? I don't shy away from famous buildings or vistas, but I'm happy when a non-descript stretch of street bears the details, proportions, light, and feel, that clearly brand it as Manhattan. A series I started last summer in San Francisco worked the same way: what's the shorthand to best convey this city? What does it really look like here?

On how drawing on a iPhone has changed his work, he writes,

It has been widely reported that my drawings are now made on an iPhone... Considering all the sketches and watercolors and photographs I have done in the USA for the past twenty years, my output in the Brushes app since I bought a G3 last February is still rather small...In the process, something has changed in my drawings. I discovered a brushstroke looseness I could have embraced ages ago, were I not busy with my precise watercolors. It all came from tailoring one's approach to better suit the tool. Sharp line work and controlled coloring are not that easy when you're drawing with your finger on a surface smaller than a credit card. But loose smudges, and bright layered colors, are naturals. So I simply embraced the language suggested by the equipment.

To read the rest of the piece, head over to Drawger and then stop by 20x200 to grab your very own iSketches.

Untitled by Kate Bingaman-Burt

20x200 darling (and Summer '06 Hot Shot) Kate Bingaman-Burt has been documenting her daily consumption for close to a decade. Now, she wants our help with a new side project.

Kate clarifies:

I want to draw your mixtapes. I want your sad songs, you love jams, your sing at the top of your lungs car tunes, your break-up tape, your make-up tape and your BFF-4evah cassette.

I am only drawing the tape. If you want to participate, please snap a picture of the best side of your favorite tape and email it to me (see my profile) or upload it to your flickrstream and let me know.

If only I still had that mixtape that Ryan Butler made me in 6th grade! I am happy to think that it changed my life. Kate seems to deeply understand the nostalgic power of the nearly outmoded mixtape, so if you still have a mixtape collection, be sure to help Kate out!

See more of Kate on her site, Obsessive Consumption. Her editions, I Bought All of These, Drawings from July 2009 and Plattsmouth, Nebraska, Carts #1 are also both still available on 20x200. Kate is also featured in the recently released documentary, Handmade Nation: The Rise of DIY, Art, Craft, and Design. Then, last but certainly not least, you can also see Kate's mixtapes in our upcoming show at Jen Bekman Gallery opening at the end of November!

Lisa Congdon, 20x200 edition-maker and co-owner of Rare Device, one of our very favorite San Francisco stores, will be exhibiting her work in the gallery area of the shop. Lisa and Amy Ruppel will share the space, paying homage to the "cloven hoofed, horned, furry" animals of the family Bovidae.

Both Amy and Lisa have chosen five different Bovids to articulate in their own styles, including the Yak, Duiker, Bongo and Chamois. Not to be limited to the 2-D, the installation will also include horns, antlers and a fake fur chandelier.

GENTLY BY THE HORNS: NEW WORK BY AMY RUPPEL AND LISA CONGDON
Opening: Friday, November 6, 2009 7–9 p.m.t
Rare Device
1845 Market Street
San Francisco

Knick Knacks by Tamara Thomsen

20x200 artist Tamara Thomsen will be happy to host you in her studio in Brooklyn this Saturday and Sunday, October 17th and 18th from 1-6 p.m. Tamara is a participant in this year's A.G.A.S.T. (Annual Gowanus Artists Studio Tour) which organizes over 100 artists to share their spaces and their work.

From the A.G.A.S.T. mission statement:

The mission of the Annual Gowanus Artists Studio Tour is to provide the public a unique opportunity to visit and engage one-on-one with working artists for the purpose of gaining a broader appreciation of the various types of visual art media. The intimacy of the in-studio experience encourages an educational dialogue between the visitor and the artist. The visitor is able to see the process and methods of making art in the environment in which the art is created. We believe the artists and their work constitute a vital piece of the fabric of urban life by linking community together through the arts. By opening his/ her studio free to the public, an artist affords a community member a chance to encounter a new stimulating artistic environment, ask questions, and expand his/ her appreciation of visual arts as they are being created in the Gowanus section of Brooklyn.

You can find Tamara and her studio here:
94 Ninth Street, 4th Floor, Studio 48
Cross Streets: 3rd Ave and Nevins
Brooklyn, NY

13th Annual A.G.A.S.T. Tour
Saturday and Sunday, October 17-18, from 1-6 p.m.
Download a map of the tour here before you set out!

Tamara has two 20x200 editions available to you, Stairway and Winter Kitchen. Additional works from the same series, Chambers, will be on view in her studio this weekend. Sneak a peek here.

20x200 edition-maker, Trey Speegle, just returned from a whirlwind trip to Paris Fashion Week where he was commissioned by designer Stella McCartney to create a runway backdrop in his signature paint-by-numbers style. When Youngna introduced Trey's second 20x200 edition, she gave interesting insight into his process:

Far from abiding to the uniformity of a painting with prescribed colors, Speegle's personal collection of 2,500+ vintage paint-by-numbers is a nearly limitless starting point for unique reinterpretation as he enlarges the picture plane, silkscreens it onto canvas, then mixes an original palette for each work.

At its large size, Trey's YES mural serves as both backdrop and centerpiece to the show. Trey remarks that the message "Yes" was intended to broadcast an aura of positivity, while the figures he painted are dressed in tones also exhibited in McCartney's collection.

Style.com has a video of the show featuring Stella McCartney's full collection and a brief interview with Trey.

Trey's first 20x200 edition, OK, is entirely sold out, but his second, Can You Imagine, is available in all sizes.

Korczowa #2, 15/9/2009 12:14 by Bert Teunissen

Documentary photographer Bert Teunissen has returned from Poland to add 41 new images to his burgeoning index of people and their homes. Thanks to a grant from Blue Earth Alliance in Seattle, Bert will continue to travel far and wide to create more images for his Domestic Landscapes project that he describes in this way:

For the past 12 years I've been driving around Europe, building up an archive of houses whose interiors have not changed for decades. It is a project about light, and the era in which natural daylight dictated the architecture of a place, how it was used, and where you'd find the furniture. And, of course, I need the owners in the picture, because they are the people who keep it the way it is.

Watch the series develop here.

Bert's 20x200 prints Saugnac et Muret #1, 27/12/2005 11:27 and LA ALBERCA #6 1/3/2005 12:56 are available in our largest edition size.

Three Points, 2009 by Ky Anderson

I've just returned from a long visit to Ky Anderson's website, which has been newly updated with archives of her paintings from the past five years. It is an interesting study to see how her past usage of color, line and shape continue to unfold and inform her current body of work.

Ky is also an ardent art collector who has indexed her ever expanding collection here. Her personal archive includes work from 20x200 artists Megan Whitmarsh, Jason Polan, and Beth Dow, so you know she has superior taste!

Three edition prints from Ky are still available to you on 20x200: Fingerprint, Handing, and Many Mountains. Get 'em while they last!

Tree Tops, from the series Somewhere in Israel by Curtis Mann

I've always liked the work of 20x200 edition-maker Curtis Mann, his apocalyptic take on found imagery is graphic and fresh. It's no wonder that he has attracted the curatorial attention of Ms. Jen Bekman, fellow edition-maker Rachel Hulin and the Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago, where he is currently part of a group show.

His images are captivating but how they are made is a bit of a mystery to me. I was super excited to come across a four minute documentary by Alan Del Rio Ortiz on this very subject. Do yourself a favor and take the next four minutes of your life to watch Curtis don a gas mask and get to work on some found photographs:

Curtis's 20x200 edition is almost completely sold out but the remaining $2000 prints are actually original works...tempting! Also make sure to head over to Curtis's website and check out some of his work, such as The Wanderers series using the cool zoom-viewer he has set up.

I'd love to keep entertaining you, but I've got a date with some Clorox, a box of old photographs and the kitchen sink!

Brenda the Elephant by Luke Stephenson

Photographer Luke Stephenson has just completed a new project, Stanelli's Super Circus. The photographs are portraits of puppets made by renowned British puppeteer Stan Parker. The entire project can be viewed on Luke's Flickr stream.

Both of his 20x200 editions are from his ongoing series of portraits of show birds. Only one print remains!

See more of Luke's portraits of birds, dart enthusiasts and puppets on his website.

It seemed fated that 20x200 would have something in common with twenty2wo, seeing as how we have the same affinity for alliteration and the number two. And it turns out, we do!

Designer Adam Beneke has highlighted more than a couple 20x200 artists on twenty2wo, his curated site that features "inspiring visual art from around the globe," with a lot of design and illustration thrown into the mix.

Recently on twenty2wo:

Filter Samples by Jessica Eaton

And do you recognize this artist? Hint: her 20x200 edition can be found here.

Geopolitical Tumescence by Sarah Spitler

Two tips to close:

1. twenty2wo is also a printed magazine and is always looking for artist contributions or creative collaborations. Drop Adam a line at adam AT twenty2wo DOT com if you have some ideas you'd like to share with him.

2. Adam's spotted a few artists we've had our eye on for some time; more overlap is imminent! I can feel it. Stay tuned to see who's next.

20x200 edition-makers, Doug and Mike Starn were recently commissioned alongside the likes of superstars like Jeff Koons, Frank Gehry, Jenny Holzer, and Francesco Vezzoli by the New York Times Style Magazine to reimagine the iconic "T" logo. Their sculpture, shown above, is a spin-off of their massive installation, Big Bambú. Congratulations Doug and Mike!

Worth noting is that the piece is actually built from giant bamboo sticks "and was assembled by a team of rock climbers under the direction of the artists." The NYT posted an exciting timelapse of the process:

Make sure to check out the other "re-imaginings" over at the NYT Style Magazine.

Survival of the fittest by Jonathan Allen

Three cheers for Jonathan Allen who was recently awarded a Lower Manhattan Cultural Council residency. The highly coveted residency will allow him to relocate his studio to Lower Manhattan for the next nine months.

It has truly been an exceptional year for Jonathan. He's had a solo show, been awarded a Pollock-Krasner Foundation grant, was featured in Vogue and he was invited to be part of this year's Whitney Art Party!

Go Jonathan, go!

Jonthan's 20x200 edition, Torn is available here.

Visit Jonathan's site.

The ever humble and eminently talented Mr. Jason Polan had another drawing in the New York Times this week:

You can read the article this image accompanies here.

Jason will have work in a group show, Art—Read, opening this Saturday night at Glenn Horowitz Bookseller in East Hampton. The show features artists who have adopted a "multidisciplinary approach to making work and in every case has made the creation of artists’ books a significant part of their practice". Artists in the show with Jason are: Tauba Auerbach, Fiona Banner, Chris Duncan, Roe Ethridge, Terence Koh, Seth Price, Dean Sameshima, Paul Schiek and Derek Sullivan.

More info here.

Jason also wrapped up five new drawing videos for Hello Health:

Welcome from Hello Health on Vimeo.

Additionally, Jason has illustrations in the current issues of Esquire and GOOD magazines. I'm particularly interested in seeing more of his illustrations of A Visual History of Water Weaponry, so I better find myself a newsstand fast. Here is half of the history of The Evolution of the Squirt Gun from GOOD:

Books and zines that Jason has made of all things excellent are available at Printed Matter.

Jason Polan's 20x200 editions:
Insects and Myriapods at The American Museum of Natural History
Sea Creatures at The American Museum of Natural History
Dinosaurs at The American Museum of Natural History
132 Birds at The American Museum of Natural History
Every Person in New York
Hand Project

Jason Polan's sites:
Jason Polan
The Drawing Project
Every Person in New York
The 53rd Street Biological Society

cover of Threefold Sun by Taj Forer

Jen: Hi there. Love your editions so! I am excited!
Taj: Oh, shucks. Thanks for doing this. I'm very psyched myself.
Jen: Sure thing, I am sorry that we didn't connect sooner. But what's funny is that this weekend I was at the Hawthorne Valley Farm store. So I've had Steiner on my mind.
Taj: No way! That place is amazing.
Jen: And I also got to drink raw milk. For the first time ever. And it is delicioso. Buttery.
Taj: So tasty. Amazing! Amazing that that's the ONLY way milk used to be consumed and now it's the rare exception...
Jen: You moved right? Because before I think you were living upstate?
Taj: Well, I had been living in North Carolina and this winter moved up to CT where I am now. Just north of the city on Metro North which is nice. I love cities but don't think I could ever live in one—especially the Big Apple! You guys are all crazy for living there as far as I'm concerned B-)
Jen: I was imagining you up there all cozy, drinking the raw milk daily.
Taj: ha! Too funny. No, I wish I lived on a farm upstate—someday...
Jen: Yea, I spent a lot of time up there when I was growing up. My granny lives in Hillsdale. And I spent summers up there with her... we'd go to the Steiner school for performances and stuff.
Taj: Nice. It's so gorgeous and always shocks me how close the beautiful, open farmland is to NYC. Really incredible. Wow.
Jen: Long before slow food and sustainability was chic, it was all longhairs and wheatgrass, baby!
Taj: I had no idea you had a Steiner connection. Very interesting. Love it!
Jen: Last weekend, I was up there with my friends Alaina and Anil, and Alaina is the GM of this (awesome) food site called Serious Eats. So they were happy to go foraging with me and go to all the local farm stands, etc.
Taj: Sounds like my kind of weekend.
Jen: And the Hawthorne Valley place was the most store like, but also took first prize because aside from providing us all with the unique and delicious raw milk experience, they also stock a dazzling array of root beers.
Taj: Really? I didn't know that. Do they make their own?
Jen: And I discovered over the weekend that Columbia County has more working farms than any other NYS county! Yes, they are only allowed to sell it directly from the store there, they can't bring it down to the greenmarket even.
Taj: Wow. That's nuts. I guess it makes sense though. Seems to be almost all farmland up there.
Jen: It's super regulated although I can't tell if it's because of real danger or powerful Dairy Industry lobbyists.
So, can you tell me how you connected with Steiner?
Taj: Oh, I would imagine it's all lobbyist pressure. From my experience working on small, sustainable farms when I lived in NC (and my many friends that still run such farms), the 'raw' regulations have almost nothing to do with 'food safety'—it's quite scary and eye opening really. But, to answer your question re: how I connected with Steiner—I attended a Waldorf school when I was a child, K-8 grade.
Jen: Right, we are in such an interesting time in our history. A lot of my techy friends are newly interested in government because of Obama, but as they wade into the bureaucracy with the intention of being part of a big change, their eyes are being opened to a lot of the crazy stuff that is part of our government, lobbies being one of them.
Ah! Right see this is what was part of what was cool about the whole Hawthorne Valley thing, was getting to fire up Wikipedia... And talk to my friends about Steiner and Waldorf etc.
Taj: It was a school located in an old farmhouse and surrounded by fields, forests and streams. Just gorgeous. As I got older and began the process of exploring my own life (rather than the lives of others) through photography, I turned my attention to the landscape of the Waldorf school that I attended as a child.
Jen: I will freely confess that my level of Waldorf-informedness is fuzzy at best. Now though, looking at it as an adult in our current culture, it seems downright visionary in a lot of ways.
Taj: I completely agree that Steiner was a visionary.
No doubt about it. One of the greatest (yet little-known) thinkers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. I don't agree with everything he wrote/taught, but find amazing inspiration in the intention of his work.
Jen: Also I don't mean to be disrespectful in my glibness. I just have that way about me.

Tree house, Taos, New Mexico by Taj Forer

Taj: And do, indeed, find much of his teaching to be timeless and inspirational for sure... ha! No disrespect was felt.
Jen: But ya, I mean a lot of the ethos he puts forth (at least from my recent surface inspection) seems to address a lot of the stuff that we're dealing with today. And seems in sync with the growing sustainability/slow food movement. And you know, YOU were ahead of the curve in working to document them!
Taj: Exactly—and that was at the heart of what Steiner was interested in addressing through his life and work. The fact that society is often, somehow, in opposition to the freedom that we should experience and participate in as human beings.
Jen: Because you did this project a while ago, correct? 2004-5ish? When was the book published?
Taj: Well, ahead of the curve? Not really. What fascinates me about this 'movement' is that it simply suggests a reversion back to practices that sustained agriculture (and much of the human race) for thousands of years. Yes, I produced most of the work in 2006. The book was published in the fall of 2007, the project really began in '04 when I first took my camera back to the school I attended in my youth. Perhaps even '03 now that I think about it...
Jen: Ahead of the curve in the sense that it seems prescient that you started documenting a lifestyle that there's a recent huge interest in. Of course I cast a gimlet eye on that interest... hopefully it won't be a fad!
Taj: Yes, I see what you mean. I too hope this is not a fleeting interest!
Jen: Yea, this summer a lot of people are "farming", even here in NYC! Rooftops and window boxes and stuff. It's kind of amazing.
Taj: As long as these 'natural' (in the truest sense of the word) foods can become ACCESSIBLE, I think the movement possesses the potential to be long-lasting. Now you've hit the nail on the head!
Jen: Right, one of the things that I've found frustrating about some conversations I've had with foodies is that there's a sense that people don't eat organic because they're not enlightened or lazy or something. And the access is the key.
Taj: It's all about empowering people and communities to grow their own food.
Jen: There's no organic at the bodega in the 'hood, last I checked.
Taj: Yup.
Jen: Right, I guess that is what I mean about you being ahead of the curve. Because it's only recently in the spotlight for a lot of people. But you know, what you've documented includes food/farming but it's not just that, at all, particularly the images we selected today.
Taj: And with regards to 'organic', the FDA now OWNS that word and in order to use it, farmers need to pay thousands of dollars and go through an intense certification process. Yet at the same time, the FDA has opened up all kinds of questionable fertilizers, herbicides, pesticides and fungicides that can be used by certified 'organic' farmers, thus further undermining the foundation of the natural foods movement.
Jen: I heard about some new legislation that's being circulated that will make it even harder... is that what you're referring to? Did it get passed? :(
Taj: It's quite scary in my opinion. I'm not sure about the most recent legislation.
Jen: We're back at government stuff again, I think one thing that's so daunting about the idea of change actually happening is how monolithic the government is.
Taj: Amen. I couldn't agree more. But back to your comment about this series of photographs going beyond agriculture...
Jen: Right.
Taj: What I really hoped to get at through producing these images was an exploration of the underlying ideas/concepts that Steiner built all of his work from.
Jen: Well what I get is a sense of community.
Taj: Namely, that through everything we do as human beings, we should seek to better the world, ourselves and society.
Jen: And a connection that goes beyond family.
Taj: Yes, community is central to this process.
Jen: My little armchair theory about contemporary culture is that with religion being less central we've lost a major driver of community responsibility. But I do find it sad/frustrating that our world from Reagan forward—we're all about self-sufficiency.
Taj: Well, I think that it's all about a recognition/realization that we are small pieces of a much larger whole. Now whether or not we define 'whole' as transcending the physical world, is totally up to the individual.
Jen: Sort of broadly speaking. Well I think that's some of the appeal of Steiner to me, it's easier for me to wrap my head around honoring the earth and others around me, rather than thinking about some dude in the sky in flowing robes.
Taj: It's interesting, Steiner's biodynamic agricultural method came out of many of his followers begging him to address the negative effects that farmers in Europe were beginning to notice as a direct result of the beginning of industrialized farming. something affecting everyone...
ha!
Jen: Ok but yea, BIODYNAMIC, that word! Anil, one of the weekend-in-the-country sojourners, is a punny guy. We had a field day with the term. I like how its meaning breaks down. But it's kind of a sitting duck from a make-fun-ability perspective. :D
Taj: Steiner was a devout Christian and often times I felt that his religious beliefs got in the way of more tangible forms of communicating his ideas. Having said this, he was a very open-minded person who borrowed from all of the major faith traditions when formulating various aspects of his philosophy.
Jen: See now I want to dig into more about Steiner because he sounds like a righteous dude. Do you know if there's a good bio about him? One maybe NOT by an acolyte?
Taj: There is a TON written about him but so much of it is very incestuous.
Jen: Right, I got that even from Wikipedia! I will dig around.
Taj: I have read some biographical essays, etc. and can e-mail some to you.
Jen: Yay, thanks. So, let's get back to the pix again
Taj: Anthroposophy is very 'niche' in a way, yet addresses such universal concepts. The irony is thick.
Jen: I said connectedness and community is what I get from them, and you know, I've been looking at the work since the book came out. (anthroposophy: another sitting duck word!)
Taj: I like that that's what you get from the pictures. There is an interesting phenomenon right now wherein Waldorf education is slowly being incorporated into some public charter schools.
Jen: Wow! That is cool... wholesale or in part?
Taj: I love this because it suggests that perhaps the insular nature of the 'movement' is changing, branching out in part. It's experimental right now from what I understand but has been widely successful in the test schools and there is a hope of expansion.
Jen: Right I guess that's the slowly being integrated thing! Seems our education is due for a bit of an overhaul, so that's good to hear.

Meeting space, Santa Fe, New Mexico by Taj Forer

Taj: Yes, I agree. Maybe we can start by reinstating recess for shit's sake!
Jen: Hahah. OK, so we should wrap up for the NL.
Taj: Play is a basic part of child development!
Jen: I myself am agnostic AT BEST, maybe even an atheist, so I don't lament a less religion-focused culture.
What are you working on right now?
Taj: I almost hate to talk about it publicly because it is very difficult to articulate the subtle nature of the work through language (and that's actually part of what drew me to begin making the work) but...
Jen: We don't HAVE to. But now I'm burning with curiosity of course. :D ... the suspense is killing me! :D
Taj: Well, not to get too into it because I could go on all day, but I have been fascinated by the fact that for the vast majority of human existence (taking it WAY back...) our race has sustained itself through practices that we, contemporary people, have termed 'hunter gatherer.' Perceiving industrialization as commencing with the dawn of agriculture, we have only departed from the hunter-gatherer way of existing very recently. So, my work is an examination of this way of life but in a very non-documentary way.
Jen: (I am really glad to hear that someone else is thinking about this crazy stuff). The post-hunter/gatherer way of life you mean?
Taj: My new work is somewhat typological (although I try not to use that highly charged photographic term) in that it represents many of the objects and actions associated with basic survival practices.
Jen: Ah interesting. Hrm. I cannot wait to see!
Taj: I have been spending a lot of time learning how to live off of the land in the most simple ways imaginable and I have been photographing this process so as to suggest, via the visual language (which has the capacity for transcending linguistic barriers) these nearly 'lost' ways of being.
Jen: Nice, it sounds super interesting, and it seems like a natural progression. (or should I say regression?) from Threefold Sun.
Taj: ha
Jen: Oh also just super quick—the boots/raincoats—outside a Waldorf school?
Taj: Yes, an interesting school actually.
Jen: I love that photo so much because on a surface level it's just delicious eye-candy.
Taj: It's an old public school that the city of San Diego no longer wanted to use so it rents to the Waldorf school for a good price.
Jen: But also it has such a wonderful cozy warmth about it, and a nostalgia.
Taj: I find that so lovely and metaphorical...
Jen: I mean it has a soundtrack in my mind, when I look at it.
Taj: Thanks. That image seems to resonate with many.
Jen: That is actually super interesting/great to know. And then of course the chalkboard poem—
Taj: Oh, please tell me about the soundtrack!
Jen: which is ever more charming b/c of its small errors.
Taj: Yes, the flaws MAKE that image for me.
Jen: Well, the soundtrack is that distinctive din of kids in a school yard, and oddly the ocean, for some reason, in the background.
Taj: So representative of the whole movement: beautiful, well intentioned but, like anything worth a damn, also flawed. Like people!
Jen: Which is something I thought of before knowing it was taken in SD.
Taj: Cool.
Jen: And there's a film too.
Taj: That just about sums up the literal soundtrack when I was making the image.
Jen: A tangle of kids and a teacher sitting on her haunches trying to hold a kid still and get her into her slicker.
Taj: You got it.
Jen: It's comfortable and nostalgic, even though it's not something I ever experienced. I mean I think my teacher was kind like that, in pre-school, but I grew up in Queens NYC! heh. OK. This is super fun, I actually love talking to the artist about an image and finding out that the little stories I make up make sense. Sometimes they make no sense at all, which is fine too. But I can't lie, I enjoy being right. ;)
Taj: Nice. I always enjoy talking about the work as it often leads to new discoveries/ways of thinking about my own images and process.
Jen: Well, we can always talk more, right now I am going to write an intro... Yea we're a little late, so I gotta hustle like mad.

Continue reading "Jen + Taj Talk Shop" »

Issue 4 of The Exposure Project book just came out and features the work of two awesome 20x200 edition makers: Carlo Van de Roer and Brian Ulrich (whose essay is included).

Though the name gives it away, here's the official word on the mission of the Exposure Project:

The Exposure Project is a collection of emerging photographers taking an active approach in exposing and promoting new talent through exhibition, publication and online exposure. Formed in the fall of 2005, the goal of the project is to provide support, inspiration and community-based collaboration to emerging talent. Since its inception, The Exposure Project has hosted numerous exhibitions, has had online showcases, and has self-published 3 photo books.

This is a very exciting time for both Carlo and Brian. In addition to being part of the newest Exposure Project release, Carlo's fifth and sixth 20x200 editions were released last week, Brian's one and only 20x200 edition is entirely sold out but his piece Powerhouse Gym is currently on view in the Summer Reading exhibition at the JBG.

Issue Four of the Exposure Project book is available to order online but they also provide an abridged PDF for your viewing-before-you-buy pleasure. Congratulations to the Exposure Project, Carlo, Brian and all the artists involved on a fabulous new issue!

Make that sticky notes, folders and pencil holders all emblazoned with delightful Linzie Hunter illustrations! Check them all out here, and then take yourself on a little trip to her website, and see more of what she's been up to.

Walking through our inventory, I am surprised to see that we still have a small quantity of two of her edition prints available:

Left: Say Goodbye
Right: Boundless
Her latest edition print, Coney, sold out in a hot second.

Linzie also keeps a blog and a bubbly flickr stream.

Sneak peak of one of Fernanda Cohen's Gap (PRODUCT) RED t-shirt designs

20x200 illustrator Fernanda Cohen recently completed designs for 4 t-shirts for Gap (PRODUCT) RED. The shirts will be out this fall, and I'll keep you posted on exactly when. In the meanwhile, visit her site for more brilliant, bold and playful illustrations.

Fernanda's 20x200 edition: Hot Dog and I is available to you here in all three sizes.

Untitled, Jetty (Snow), 2008 by Chris Ballantyne

Just this past Monday Kika let you know that 20x200 artist Chris Ballantyne will be showing at the Mixed Greens 10th Anniversary Exhibition (along with other 20x200 stars Coke O'Neal and Ann Tarantino), and this very Wednesday I'm here to let you know that Chris was featured in the July issue of Guernica Magazine, a biweekly magazine of art and politics.

From Guernica:

With shrewd restraint, Ballantyne accentuates the antisocial effects of our built environment with a hint of humor and plenty of ambiguity. A curious emptiness permeates the work. Graphically rendered buildings, pools, parking lots, and fences take on new meanings and amplified significance, isolated on flat fields of color.

Read the full feature here, and if you're in NYC, don't miss Chris tomorrow at Mixed Greens!

10th ANNIVERSARY EXHIBITION
Opening reception: July 9th, 12-6pm
Mixed Greens
531 West 26th Street, btw 10th & 11th Streets
First Floor | NYC

Chris has two edition prints available to you:
Untitled, Neighborhood (Overgrown) and Untitled, Tidal Bore (Surfer).

Velké Karlovice #1, 21/6/2009 13:48 from Bert Teunissen's series Domestic Landscapes

Nazdar collectors! Dutch photographer Bert Teunissen has recently returned from the Czech Republic to add new photographs to his archive of touching portraits of Europeans in their homes. Bert has been working on this series for over a decade, and describes the project thusly:

It is a project about light, and the era in which natural daylight dictated the architecture of a place, how it was used, and where you'd find the furniture. And, of course, I need the owners in the picture, because they are the people who keep it the way it is.

View the series here.

Bert's 20x200 edition prints Saugnac et Muret #1, 27/12/2005 11:27 and LA ALBERCA #6 1/3/2005 12:56 are available in our large edition size.

Our darling Noah is a blue blood blogger. His popularity on Flickr, YouTube, and Twitter has granted him entrée onto PDN's The Five Biggest Photographers on the Internet list. Noah is in comfortable company with David Hobby, Rebekka Guðleifsdóttir, Christopher Becker and Jim MacMillan. Not sure who they are? Read all about them--and Noah-- here.

See more of Noah's work on his site and on his blog. Follow Noah on Twitter here.

Noah's 20x200 edition print has limited quantities available: Untitled (LA20070805)

Happy Monday, collectors! 20x200 darling (and Summer '06 Hot Shot) Kate Bingaman-Burt has dutifully documented her daily consumption for close to ten years. If you are lucky enough to live in Portland, drop by Reading Frenzy this Thursday, July 2nd at 6pm and Kate will help you start your own consumption collection by drawing something you bought that day for free! The free drawing frenzy is part of Kate's solo show, Obsessive Consumption: What Did You Buy Today?, which will continue for the entire merry month of July.

Obsessive Consumption: What Did You Buy Today?
Reading Frenzy
921 SW Oak St.
Portland, OR

Kate's site, Obsessive Consumption.
Kate's editions, I Bought All of These and Plattsmouth, Nebraska, Carts #1 on 20x200.
Kate in the recently released documentary, Handmade Nation: The Rise of DIY, Art, Craft, and Design.
Kate's exhibit at Jen Bekman Gallery.

Giant Sculpture, 2009 by Megan Whitmarsh

Megan Whitmarsh, the "totally badass, awesome, inspiring and intelligent" artist (as described by Jen) is currently in a group show, Strips, Scripts and Scapes: Contemporary Comix in Southern California, at the Riverside Art Museum. The exhibition features artists who are essentially "uncategorizable" and have "no guidelines to delineate their work beyond their interest in the intersection of contemporary art, storytelling and flirting with comic strip conventions".

The show will have a reception this Saturday, June 27, 7 - 9pm, and will remain on view through August 22nd.

Strips, Scripts and Scapes: Contemporary Comix in Southern California
RIVERSIDE ART MUSEUM
3425 Mission Inn Ave
Riverside, CA

Megan also has a new book, Yeti Logic featuring a yeti who lives in a capricious world available at Spoonbill & Sugartown, or online here.

Megan's two 20x200 edition prints, Trash Mountain and Color Work Station, are available to you in all three edition sizes.

20x200 artist, Todd St. John, has collaborated with Incase to design an iPhone 3G slider case and computer sleeve in faux bois splendor:

HunterGatherer Sleeve and Slider Case available here

St. John's design, illustration, animation and production studio, Hunter Gatherer, was invited to take participate in Incase's exclusive Arkitip line -- "a project aimed at delivering artistically embellished Apple products to users who have an appreciation for the creative arts and technology". Other artists who have designed for Arkitip include KRINK, Steven Harrington, and Parra.

Amazingly, we still have prints of Todd's stylish faux bois 20x200 edition Untitled (Black Blocks) available in all sizes.

Todd's sites:
http://www.toddstjohn.com/
http://www.huntergatherer.net/
http://www.greenlady.com/
http://www.iglooshop.com/

Image of Jason's very own typewriter from his book, Eleven of My Things and One of Yours

Good news for a rainy day! Jason Polan has a new book!

From the press release:

Eleven of My Things and One of Yours is a new zine by Jason Polan that features eleven drawings of the artist’s favorite things and a blank space at the end for one more thing. Adding a performative twist, Jason will complete the book for each new buyer, drawing the buyer's favorite thing on the extra page. The book is not complete until the artist draws an image of the buyer’s favorite thing. After the additional drawing, the book becomes One of My Favorite Things and Eleven of His. On Saturday, Printed Matter will act as a stage for Polan to carry out the final production of this zine. Lemonade and snack cakes will also be served in celebration. Please come and bring one of your favorite things for Jason to draw!

Lemonade, snack cakes and Jason? Um, yes please! I'll see you there!

The books will be sold for a mere $20!
Saturday, June 20, 2009 @ Printed Matter, Inc. | 195 10th Avenue
2:00 to 4:00pm

Jason Polan's 20x200 editions:
Insects and Myriapods at The American Museum of Natural History
Sea Creatures at The American Museum of Natural History
Dinosaurs at The American Museum of Natural History
132 Birds at The American Museum of Natural History
Every Person in New York
Hand Project

Jason Polan's sites:
Jason Polan
The Drawing Project
Every Person in New York
The 53rd Street Biological Society

Howon-Dong by Hosang Park

Hosang Park, talented 20x200 artist whose two images Uman-Dong and Howon-Dong were released on our site in March has just received another much deserved accolade. In addition to being selected as one of two Hey, Hot Shot! Ne Plus Ultras to receive representation at Jen Bekman Gallery at the beginning of this month, we just received word that his work has been chosen for the PDN Photo Annual 2009!

His image Howon-Dong was selected to the Personal Work category in the photography annual alongside Steven Wilkes, Lauren Greenfield, and Christoph Gielen. To view his work as well as many other talented winners, check out the PDN online gallery

A whole-hearted congratulations to Hosang! Also, you can still purchase this winning image, as well as Uman-Dong on 20x200.

Just a while ago I was walking through the archives and wrote about edition prints that shared similar themes. Our collection of art(ists) often have complimentary relationships with others -- be it a penchant for text, color palate, composition, or rhythm. So, in the spirit celebrating similarity (and contrast) I present you with three more twosomes:

Kent Rogowski and Chad Muthard

Untitled #10 by Kent Rogowski
Choose your print size here

The Drive with Christine by Chad Muthard
Choose your print size here

Dustin Amery Hostetler and Superdeluxe

Color Study #4 by Dustin Amery Hostetler (UPSO)
Choose your print size here

Diamonds by Superdeluxe (Adrienne Wong and Karin Spraggs)
Choose your print size here

Don Hammerman and Mark Ulriksen

Rawlings by Don Hamerman
Choose your print size here

The Babe in the Negro Leagues by Mark Ulriksen
Choose your print size here

Moo Cow by Andrew Hetherington

Yesterday Matthew Furman posted a short and sweet interview with Andrew Hetherington in which I read of our shared passions for snow globe collecting and Martin Parr. Read the full interview here.

Torn by Jonathan Allen

Namaste collectors! By now you are well informed about the RIDONK sale. Hopefully you've browsed our archives and have found an edition or two to call your very own. If not, might I suggest the above Jonathan Allen edition -- it is available to you in all three sizes.

Jonathan recently made it into the virtual pages of Vogue in a feature that paired party dresses with fine art:

Jonathan Allen's De plus en plus, 2009 is suggested to be worn alongside this fancy pink frock.

The Vogue feature is in support of the annual Whitney Art Party, a benefit fête for the Whitney Independent Study Program. The festivities will be held this Wednesday, June 17th with a silent auction of original and limited edition work from these illustrious artists. Before you step out, purchase your tickets here.

City Slow Down illustration by Fernanda Cohen for Glamour, Germany

Happy Friday, collectors! Today I'm happy to tell you what is new with one of our wonderfully talented and delightful artists, Fernanda Cohen.

First, Fernanda was featured in 3x3 Magazine's Pro Show, with these two images:

Left: Cross-pollinated Imagination, 2008
Right: Screaming Friends, 2008

Fernanda is originally from Argentina, and was commissioned by the super hip Argentine ad agency, Furia World, to design a poster for the City of Buenos Aires. Fernanda was assigned to illustrate the neighborhood of Agronomia:

Last year I interviewed the bubbly Fernanda, and if you missed it, you can read it here. Fernanda's 20x200 edition print, Hot Dog and I, is available to you here in all three sizes.

Just can't get enough of Fer? Visit her site for more sunshine.

A sampling of sketches that Jason has made for his ongoing series Every Person in New York

Far too many moons have passed since I last wrote about the hugely talented and industrious Mr. Jason Polan. I'm happy to put an end to this dry spell and let you know that Jason was featured in the New York Observer today.

Musing on his ambitious project to draw every person in New York, Jason opined, “It’s kind of forever, and I think I’m willing to work on it forever”. Amen.

Check Jason's blog for news about his latest projects; there's always something awesome going on that will make you wonder what deal Jason struck to get extra hours in his days.

Jason Polan's 20x200 editions:
Insects and Myriapods at The American Museum of Natural History
Sea Creatures at The American Museum of Natural History
Dinosaurs at The American Museum of Natural History
132 Birds at The American Museum of Natural History
Every Person in New York
Hand Project

Jason Polan's sites:
Jason Polan
The Drawing Project
Every Person in New York
The 53rd Street Biological Society

Pool by Katie Baum's series Chasing Memory

Hello California collectors! Last month we offered two edition prints from photographer Katie Baum. Both images were from her series, Chasing Memory, which, in Katie's words, "remember the past and record it". Images from this nostalgic body of work will be featured in a group exhibition, Perceive and Connect, at the Berkeley Art Center.

Perceive & Connect, will open this Saturday, June 13th with a reception for the artists from 5.30 to 7.30 p.m.

Perceive and Connect: Katie Baum, Jeanine Briggs and Indira Martina Morre
Berkeley Art Center
1275 Walnut Street
Berkeley, CA 94709

Katie's two edition prints, Peeps and Gumball Machine, are available in dwindling supply, so make haste! More images can be viewed at Kate's site.

Ciao!
I like contrast, so a little bit of snow in June is perfectly fine with me, especially when it comes in the form of a Paula McCartney photograph. Last year Paula won a McKnight Artist Fellowships in Photography, and has made new work as a result,A Field Guide to Snow and Ice, which she will be showing this month in Minneapolis. The opening reception is this Friday June 12, 7-9 pm, and an artist talk will follow on Thursday July 16, 6:30 pm.

2007-2008 McKnight Artist Fellowships in Photography
June 12-Aug 1, 2009
Franklin Art Works
1021 E Franklin Ave.
Minneapolis, MN 55404

Last year we offered an edition of Snowfall #6 from this series:

Choose your print size here.

More images from the series can also be viewed on Paula's website.

Image from Michael David Murphy's R.I.P. USA series

Buongiorno amici!

Three cheers for Atlanta-based documentary photographer Michael David Murphy! Michael was featured on the Art21 blog yesterday. Read (and see) it here.

Michael has two 20x200 edition prints available to you, Jim Crow Road, and Super Rally, So Help Me.

Michael keeps a photography blog here, as well as an image free blog that chronicles the photographs that he didn't take: Unphotographable. Want more? Read the conversation that Liz Kuball shared with Michael here.

Ciao collectors! 20x200 artist Wendy Heldmann has a show opening this Thursday, June 4 from 6-8 pm at Nancy Margolis Gallery.

From the press release:

Crumbled brick, shattered panes of glass and disjointed buildings against a desolate winter landscape, show the devastation nature can bring to man-made invention. Heldmann used source material from the 1964 earthquake in Anchorage, and the San Francisco Lomo Prieta quake. In Heldmann’s Library series, she paints the interiors of libraries post-earthquake; tomes scattered and strewn open across still-standing aisles. The narrow visual focus of the paintings, leads towards exterior windows, hinting at the calm sky, in contrast to the disordered man-made interior.

The show will run from June 4th - August 15th.

Nancy Margolis Gallery
523 W 25th Street NY

Wendy's 20x200 edition print, Darkness moves, is from her Library series. View more of Wendy's paintings on her website.

Pillar Garden, The Courts, 2004 by Beth Dow

Beloved 20x200 photographer Beth Dow is the star of this week's Full Frame feature on the GlobalPost. Watch Beth eloquently narrate a slide show of images from her English and Italian garden series here.

Beth's 20x200 edition prints:
Bags
Clearing, Wakehurst Place
AAA Editions

Beth is represented by Jen Bekman Gallery. Images from her past solo shows, Fieldwork, and Ruins, can be seen here.

Madison, WI 2005 bu Brian Ulrich

Chicago-based photographer (and recent Guggenheim Fellowship recipient!) Brian Ulrich has a solo show of images from his Copia series, Thrift and Dark Stores, on view now through July 3 at Julie Saul Gallery.

From the press release:

Ulrich began his Copia series after 9/11 when President Bush encouraged Americans to shop as a patriotic gesture to boost the economy. He pictured the abundant merchandise in stores and shoppers' fascination with the goods. As the decade progressed Ulrich has enlarged his theme to embrace thrift stores and finally the new landscape of closed and derelict malls and big box stores. Ulrich's image Madison, Wisconsin 2005 of a retail space filled with empty hangers signals the end of a cycle, and is pictured on the cover of the May 2009 issue of Photograph with an essay by Lyle Rexer who writes, "Ulrich reveals the chaotic ass-end of capitalism”. Thrift looks at the "last -stop repositories" where goods are sent to die at even more discounted prices. These chaotic dumping grounds of discarded computers and gym shoes raise the question, "where do we go from here?" At the same time the Dark Stores have an almost apocalyptic quality signally and end a new beginning.

Brian Ulrich
Thrift and Dark Stores
May 28- July 3, 2009
Julie Saul Gallery
535 West 22 Street | 6th Floor | New York

If you haven't had a chance, have a look at his photo essay, Stores That Are No More, on TIME magazine's website. The essay features images from Brian's ongoing Copia series which "explore the haunted shells of America's devastated retail landscape".

Brian's website.

Noah Kalina's photos almost always make my heart jump, and I was happy to see that the above photo was given just attention as the Pic of the Night on Gawker today tonight. Hooray for Noah!

While I have your attention, allow me to remind you that Noah is a beloved 20x200 artist and Summer '05 Hot Shot, who recently launched an eponymously titled magazine, Kalina Magazine. Each issue will feature new work from Kalina's photography projects.

His first two issues are available here.

See more of Noah's work here and here.

Noah's 20x200 edition print has limited quantities available: Untitled (LA20070805)

UPDATE! I just spied this excellent remix ( I love the idea of a photography remix, don't you?) on yay!everyday by Toko Design:

Image by Michael Lundgren from his series Transfigurations

Three cheers for landscape photographer Michael Lundgren! Michael received a Flash Forward - Emerging Photographers 2009 award from the Magenta Foundation, and will have work in two group shows in the UK this Summer! The first show will be in London's Victoria & Albert Museum: A History of Photography; and the second show, Photography is Dead, will be part of Rhubarb-Rhubarb's 10 year anniversary.

Sales from one of Michael's two 20x200 edition prints, Ironwood at Dusk, directly benefit the wonderful Radius Books, who published Michael's first monograph, Transfigurations, last Fall.

The above image is from a series Michael worked on for the city of Phoenix Public Art Project, entitled Mid-Century Marvels. The work has been published as a postcard booklet, which you can grab for free, so long as you can get yourself to the City of Phoenix's Office of Arts & Culture.

Michael's 20x200 edition prints Yuha Basin and Ironwood at Dusk won't remain in our inventory for long, so make haste, collectors!

View more of Michael’s work at his website

iSketch image by Jorge Colombo

Happy Memorial Day Monday, collectors!

20x200 artist, Jorge Colombo, will see one of his iPhone sketches appear on the next cover of the New Yorker! ABC News interviewed him this weekend, and the New Yorker also has a video of Jorge working and discussing his process. Jorge gives 20x200 a shout out about his four edition prints that are available right here. I suspect they will not be around much longer, so make haste!

From the New Yorker:

Colombo’s phone drawing is very much in the tradition of a certain kind of New Yorker cover, and he doesn’t see the fact that it’s a virtual finger painting as such a big deal. “Imagine twenty years ago, writing about these people who are sending these letters on their computer.” But watching the video playback has made him aware that how he draws a picture can tell a story, and he’s hoping to build suspense as he builds up layers of color and shape.

More good Jorge news--he will have a new drawing each week on newyorker.com.

Jorge's 20x200 edition prints:
iSketch140
iSketch084
iSketch104
iSketch098

Jorge's site

Praia Piquinia 14/08/06 16h04

Bonjour New York collectors!
Photographer Christian Chaize will open a solo show, Praia Piquinia, at Jen Bekman Gallery this Wednesday, May 20th. There will be an opening reception from 6 - 8pm, so be sure to drop by and see the luxuriously lush and large series of Portuguese sunbathers shot unaware.

From Christian's statement:

Five years ago, Portugal did present itself as a new landscape in my life - both literally and metaphorically. Since then, I have photographed exclusively along a very small stretch of its southern coastline. Returning to this specific place, I've sought out its nuances. In doing so, I have peeled back layers of how I see, and how I experience this magical environment.

Read the press release here.

The show will be on view through July 11th.

Jen Bekman Gallery
6 Spring Street | NYC

View more of Christian's photos on his gallery page, or on his site.

Untitled (I'm an island of such great complexity)
by Mike Monteiro

Artist Mike Monteiro is currently in a group show curated by Timothy Buckwalter at Pharmaka in LA. The show, My Certain Fate, features photography, painting, sculpture and text-based works all inspired by the fine art of making a mix tape.

From the press release:

Featuring more than 65 works from 28 U.S. and international artists, My Certain Fate explores and connects the feelings emoting from each piece to create an overarching narrative. Bubbling to the surface of a photo is a mysterious tale of yearning and denial. A drawing begins to crack under the weight of its own smugness. A crisp Miminalist painting offers a space to breathe, a break in the mix. Lurking beneath a sculpture is a less than obvious tale of redemption. The title for the exhibition is excerpted from one of Buckwalter’s favorite songs, “That’s How I Escaped My Certain Fate” on Mission of Burma’s 1982 album “Vs. “ - a track that exudes a boatload of melancholia mixed with the possibility for love through self-sacrifice.

My Certain Fate runs through June 6th.

Pharmaka | 101 West 5th Street | LA, CA

Here is a sneak peak:

The Box (Texas) by Coke Wisdom O'Neal

20x200 photographer, Coke Wisdom O'Neal recently visited Texas to make new work for his ongoing project (which involves a gigantic wooden specimen box). Coke traveled to San Isidro, Texas, at the request of gallery owner, Paige West, and has returned with many new images that are currently on view at Mixed Greens.

In this week's Village Voice, art critic Robert Shuster gives kudos to O'Neal's new work, calling his images "strikingly crisp". Read the review here. Also enjoy the above video hat Coke has posted about the time he spent making the images in Texas.

The exhibition will continue through May 23.

Coke Wisdom O'Neal's The Box (Texas)
Mixed Greens
531 West 26th Street
NYC

Coke's has two 20x200 edition prints available:
Needle-Needle-Nee
Close Call
See more of Coke's work here.

inside the photographers_studio from andrew hetherington on Vimeo.

Photographer Andrew Hetherington has been making clever little videos of the visits he makes to fellow photographers studios. In the video above he drops by Alec Soth's space. Once you watch one, you'll want to watch them all, and you can do so by visiting Hetherington's blog What the jackanory? for more voyeristic goodness.

Happy Cinco de Mayo, collectors! Tomorrow, Wednesday, May 6, there will be a Book Launch and Artists Reception for Nymphoto's new tome, Conversations Volume 1, a compilation of interviews with women photographers. Many of the interviewees have appeared on 20x200 and/or have been anointed Hot Shots.

The reception will feature work from Michele Abeles, Juliana Beasley, Rona Chang, Nina Büsing Corvallo, Candace Gottschalk, Jessica M. Kaufman, Klea McKenna, Michal Chelbin, Talia Greene, Maria Passarotti, Susana Raab, Emily Shur, Tema Stauffer, Jane Tam, Garie Waltzer & Jennifer Williams.

Nymphoto: Conversations Volume 1
Group Show III
Sasha Wolf Gallery
10 Leonard Street
New York, NY
May 6 – 20, 2009

I Bought All of These
by Kate Bingaman-Burt
Choose your print size here

Meighan O’Toole of My Love For You Is A Stampede of Horses makes her curatorial debut with a group show, You've Got Light in Your Eyes, at at Needles + Pens Gallery in San Francisco. Two 20x200 darlings, Kate Bingaman-Burt and Mike Perry are in the mix.

You've Got Light in Your Eyes | A group show curated by Meighan O'Toole
Needles + Pens
3253 16th Street
SF, CA

On display through June 28th, 2009

Other artists include: 1911, Jill Bliss, Will Bryant, Kime Buzzelli, John Casey, Lisa Congdon, Liam Devowski, Bill Dunlap, Kenn Goodall, Maxwell Loren Holyoke Hirsh, Know Hope, Olivia Jeffries, Aidan Koch, Ashley Lande Brown, Jeremiah Maddock, Leslie Martinez, Terri Olsen Von Schaub, Shannon Rankin, and Dan Szymanowski.

Daisy by Christina Muraczewski

Los Angeles collectors, this one is for you. Art and food might be two of the best reasons to exist, and they will combine forces this weekend at the 20th annual Santa Fe Art Colony Open Studio/Artwalk Weekend. 20x200 artist Christina Muraczewski is a resident artist, and will be showing new work for you to ogle this weekend.

From the press release:

It is a truly unique experience to see an artists work within the context of its creation. A glimpse into the creative environment of the artist provides insight to the creative process that cannot be gleaned from a gallery exhibition. Artists are on hand to answer questions, and it is a rare treat to see new works in progress in addition to studies and finished pieces. The Artwalk is an opportunity to purchase work directly from the artist and see what is coming up in the LA art scene.

Santa Fe Art Colony Open Studios
20th Annual Open Studios
May 2nd and May 3rd
Saturday and Sunday, 12 - 7pm

Mike Moneiro's design company, Mule, was inspired excited by Matt Jones to produce a t-shirt of his Get Excited And Make Things design which is available right here on 20x200. The edition print sales will benefit Creative Commons, and every t-shirt sale will raise $5 for families in need on SmallCanBeBig.org.

Buy a t-shirt here; choose an edition print size here.

Image by Noah Kalina

Hello collectors!
In my quest to keep you abreast of news relevant to our 20x200 universe, I've compiled a few things that caught my eye this day. First, there is an interview with Noah Kalina on too much chocolate, another interview--this time with Brian Ulrich--on Chicagoist and an article on his TrashCam series here. There's also a Beth Dow shout out on NYArtBeat (don't miss the videos of her artist talk on the Jen Bekman Gallery blog), and hey, if you want to be in a future roundup one way might be to get our attention by submitting to Hey, Hot Shot! The deadline is looming, so hop to it and apply today!

Grumman by Kevin Cyr

Hello collectors! Kevin Cyr will have work in a group show, It's Only Black and White, opening tomorrow night, Thursday, April 23, 2009 at Raandesk Gallery. As the title of the show suggests only black & white paintings and photographs will be on view. If you are planning to go, allow me to subtly suggest you dress yourself by sticking to the same color scheme.

From the press release:

Color is a fundamental aesthetic that can easily disguise flaws and distract the viewer with its showiness. Through the sole use of "black and white", the artist is forced to rely on other variables that constitute the word "beauty." The featured artists in this exhibition exemplify the grace and art in a world unhindered by color.

It's Only Black and White | Opening reception: April 23, 6.30-8.30pm
Raandesk | 16 W. 23rd Street, 4th Floor

Kevin's two 20x200 edition prints, Koolman and Berry are (unbelievably) still available in very limited quantities.

David Renk 2009, from the series The Box (Texas) by Coke Wisdom O'Neal

Rainy Monday greetings, collectors!

Not so long ago I wrote about 20x200 photographer, Coke Wisdom O'Neal's visit to Texas to make new work for his ongoing project (which involves a gigantic wooden specimen box). Coke traveled to San Isidro, Texas, at the request of Mixed Greens gallery owner, Paige West, and has returned with many new images that will see their debut this Thursday evening at Mixed Greens.

In a continuation of his Box Series, begun in New York City in 2005, O’Neal and his turn-of-the-century camera traveled to the rural border town of San Isidro, Texas, to document its denizens inside a colossal 22-foot-tall sculpture. The result is a photographic study in identity and identification.

In the isolation of South Texas, O’Neal collaborated with the San Isidro community to build and activate his large-scale specimen box. They constructed the sculpture on a ranch and then moved it to the local school grounds, where O’Neal fostered an immersive and interactive art experience. O’Neal taught photography to students and invited local residents to be photographed. Later, the Box returned to the ranch, where workers and livestock were invited in.

Read the full press release here.

A reception for the artist will be held Thursday, April 23, 2009 at 6pm, and the exhibition will continue through May 23.

Coke Wisdom O'Neal's The Box (Texas)
Mixed Greens
531 West 26th Street
NYC

Coke's has two 20x200 edition prints available:
Needle-Needle-Nee
Close Call
See more of Coke's work here.

Last month Mike + Doug Starn showed images and a video of Big Bambú, "a massive, moving construction made out of countless bamboo poles that is in constant transformation", at the Armory Show. Since the colossal structure doesn't lend itself to easy transport, VernissageTV recently interviewed the duo for a two-part video on location in (really) the structure of Big Bambú.

The Starns will open their studio to the public next month for a viewing (on a pedestal designed by Diller Scofido + Renfro), and I'll share details with you just as soon as they are made ready.

Image from Workbook by Ann Tarantino and Kate McGraw

DC denizens, listen up!

Thursday, April 15th, 20x200 artist Ann Tarantino will be participating in a panel discussion at Flashpoint, in conjunction with her show, Workbook, with her collaborator Kate McGraw.

Kate McGraw and Ann Tarantino collaborate on planned and improvised drawings created directly on the walls of the gallery. The artists draw using their own signature styles while also responding and referring to one another’s mark-making. The artists film the process and the resulting video will become a part of the art, rather than just documentation of the process.

Workbook is a video that documents the ten days artists Kate McGraw and Ann Tarantino will spend creating a mammoth work stretching across the walls of the Gallery at Flashpoint. The installation will be on view beginning March 19, 2009 and the film will be projected at the exhibition entrance beginning March 28, 2009.

Financial support for the production of the video will be provided by the sale of prints hand-marked by the artists. Each 7½" x 7½" print will be hand-marked and embellished by Kate and Ann and hand-stamped with a signature seal created by the artists.

By purchasing unique prints, buyers have an opportunity to become art patrons who foster the careers of emerging artists. All patrons will be invited to a special launch event on March 28, 2009 at the Gallery at Flashpoint.

Panel Discussion: Collecting Drawing
Thursday, April 16, 12:30 – 2 p.m.
A panel discussion on collecting, coveting and the connoisseurship of drawing with Kate McGraw, Ann Tarantino and others. Moderated by Philippa Hughes, The Pink Line Project.
RSVP Essential: info@thepinklineproject.com

Images from the collaboration in progress can be viewed here on Kate's site.

Read a 20x200 interview with Ann here.

Ann's 20x200 prints: Breath Portrait (favorite colors), Flying Colors, and Far and Wide have limited quantities available.

ny.09.#07 by Jennifer Sánchez

Hello collectors! 20x200 darling Jennifer Sánchez has new paintings on her website for you to lay eyes on. After having a long look, I'm imagining a party using her color palate as inspiration. I'll serve strawberry tarts with chiffon, wasabi macarons, candied orange mini souffles and a lemon layer cake with blueberries. We'll drink Dubonnet with lemonade under garlands of candy and listen to Esquivel. I hope you can come.

Check Sánchez's blog to see her favorite artists and inspiration behind her paintings: Jennifer Sánchez: news and stuff that inspires my paintings

Not too long ago I spoke with the bubbly Miss S, and you can read (or re-read) the interview here.

Just can't get enough? There's more:
Jennifer's website
Jennifer's 20x200 edition prints:
ny.07.#32
ny.07.#34
ny.07.#20
Jennifer's AAA edition

Powerhouse Gym, 2008 by Brian Ulrich

Hello and happy Friday, collectors! Congratulations are in tall order for photographer Brian Ulrich who was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship this week! Bravo, Brian!

I'll take this opportunity to remind you that Brian has a photo essay, Stores That Are No More, on TIME magazine's website, and that he is also in a group show, Worlds Away: New Suburban Landscapes, at the Yale School of Architecture which will remain on view through May 10th.

Pink Matterhorn by Megan Whitmarsh

20x200 artist Megan Whitmarsh stitches a yeti who lives in a capricious world in her new book, Yeti Logic. Just thinking about yeti makes me smile, because I think about other impossible humanoid creatures like Bigfoot, and then I recall this episode of In Search of ...

One good thing always leads to another.

Yeti Logic can be found at Spoonbill & Sugartown, or online here.

Megan has two 20x200 edition prints available for you:
Trash Mountain
Color Work Station

Kishódos #1, 17/3/2009 13:34 by Bert Teunissen

Jó napot collectors! Dutch photographer Bert Teunissen has recently returned from Hungary to add 41 new images to his ever expanding index of Europeans in their domiciles. Thanks to a grant from Blue Earth Alliance in Seattle, Bert will be traveling to Ukraine, Russia and Moldavia to make more images for the project that Bert describes thusly:

For the past 12 years I've been driving around Europe, building up an archive of houses whose interiors have not changed for decades. It is a project about light, and the era in which natural daylight dictated the architecture of a place, how it was used, and where you'd find the furniture. And, of course, I need the owners in the picture, because they are the people who keep it the way it is.

Watch the series unfold here.

Bert's 20x200 edition prints Saugnac et Muret #1, 27/12/2005 11:27 and LA ALBERCA #6 1/3/2005 12:56 are available in our large edition size.

Each week Design*Sponge indulges our collective desire for voyeurism by posting a sneak-peak into the homes of talented designer folk. Most recently they featured Kate Bingaman-Burt a 20x200 darling and Summer 2006 Hot Shot. Unsurprisingly, Kate's space, which she shares with husband Clifton Burt, also a 20x200 artist, is lovingly filled with colorful art, as every happy home should be. You could say Kate and Clifton personify our 20x200 motto: LIVE WITH ART, IT'S GOOD FOR YOU. Click here to see more.

think-make-think by Clifton Burt is available in our large edition size, I Bought All of These and Plattsmouth, Nebraska, Carts #1 by Kate Bingaman-Burt are available in limited quantities.

Photograph by Don Hamerman

Hooray for 20x200 all star Don Hamerman! One of his photographs is on the cover of a new baseball chronicle, The Complete Game by former NY Mets pitcher Ron Darling. Hamerman is quick to credit 20x200 for this success, as his work was discovered by a 20x200 collector who just happens to be a cover designer at Knopf/Random House.

We've offered you four editions by Don, and all have very limited quantities left:
Hemi, Mossball, Stricken, and Untitled (Elephant)

P.S.
Keep your eyes out for a new 20x200 edition by Don very soon!

Exhibition flyer by Jason Polan

The tireless Jason Polan is in a group show opening in LA tomorrow. If I could, I'd be on my way to the airport to be there. Luckily, many of you faithful 20x200 fans are inhabitants of California, so will be able to step out tomorrow and see I'm so Excited to be Talking to You! at Denizen Design Gallery. The opening is from 6-9pm and will run through May 16th.

Other artists in the show include Alejandro Artigas, Jim Bauer, Sarah Beadle, Heather Bennett, Kristin Calabrese, Peter Contigliozzi, Sian Foulkes, Patrick Lakey, Tim Laun, Robert Levine, Christy McCaffrey, Tommy McCaffrey, Bruce Nauman, Pacific Dissent Company, Tony Payne, Ben Pruskin, Aaron Rose, Casey Ruble, Tom Sachs, Jonathan Schute, Joe Sola, Allyson Spellacy, George Stoll, Lynn Sullivan, and Andre Vipolis.

Denizen Design Gallery
8600 Venice Blvd., LA CA
Culver City Arts District

High Lonesome, 2007 by William Crump

Ciao collectors! Not so long ago I let you Californian denizens know that 20x200 artist, William Crump, opened a solo show, Lonesome Ghosts, at LA's LittleBird Gallery. You might say a line could be drawn from William's exposure here on 20x200, and the attention of the curator at Little Bird. We're pleased to have reccomended him, and yesterday the LA Times did the same:

Crump’s work feels vaguely anachronistic, like the so-called antiquarian avant-garde photographers who favor obsolete techniques but whose images often contain contemporary references. Mainly, the New York-based artist’s L.A. debut reads as a thoughtful meditation on the discrepancies between external and internal journeys, the real and the ideal.

Read the full review here, and if you're in the neighborhood do drop in.

Lonesome Ghosts
March 14-April 8, 2009
LittleBird Gallery
3195 Glendale Blvd.
LA, CA

William's two 20x200 edition prints, The Mountain of Westward Expansion, and The Mountain of Tomorrow's Sunrise, are still available in all three sizes.

Linzie Hunter's Lettering Sketchbook

When was the last time you sang your ABC's? It's likely to have been decades ago unless you have young children or work as a preschool art teacher, like me. I'm sure I've sung my ABC's dozens of times since the start of the year, and I never ever tire of viewing Linzie Hunter's visual rendition of them. I want to sing them aloud now, much to the bewilderment of the small dog resting on my lap. Typography Served scanned all of Linzie's letters up-close for you to ogle here.

Shockingly we still have a small quantity of two of her edition prints available, Boundless and Say Goodbye.

Frank's Nursery, Grand Rapids, Michigan 2008, by Brian Ulrich

20x200 photographer Brian Ulrich has a photo essay, Stores That Are No More, on TIME magazine's website this month. His documentary images "explore the haunted shells of America's devastated retail landscape," and immediately remind me of a youth spent traveling past strip mall after strip mall of abandoned Caldor's, Acme's and Boscov's.

Brian is presently in a group show, Worlds Away: New Suburban Landscapes, at the Yale School of Architecture which will remain on view through May 10th.

Now hear this.
20x200 artist Tommy Perman is also a musician in the Scottish collective / experimental pop band, FOUND. Tommy and his bandmates are on a short US tour, and will be performing two dates in NYC this week. Tuesday, Mach 24th @ Fontana’s, and Wednesday, March 25th @ Rockwood Music Hall. I've been listening to their new EP, The Fidelities, all afternoon and I cannot stop. I invite you to do the same here, or even better at one of their shows. Have a look at their scruffy Scottish adorableness on their flickr stream, then add them as facebook friends.

Tommy also has a 20x200 edition print available for you: Trucks, Seattle

Matthew, Main Street, Binghamton NY, 2008 by Tema Stauffer

Hello NYC collectors! I know I've mentioned it before, but somewhere between now and April 18th you should find time to check out Tema Stauffer and Francesca Romeo's show at DCFA. The show is garnering a lot of praise, including a review by Vince Aletti in The New Yorker this week:

These two young photographers approach portraiture from very different angles, but because their pictures are similarly fraught, complex, and compelling they complement each other nicely. Romeo, whose subjects are mostly friends and lovers on New York’s bohemian fringe, combines intimacy and theatricality in pictures that make the most of available light, dark shadows, and tattooed flesh. Stauffer photographs strangers—young men she meets on the street of Binghamton, New York, who appear at once rebellious and vulnerable. This volatile combination is kicked up a notch by erotic tension, but Stauffer is tender rather than confrontational, and her work looks beyond the boys’ cool affect to something warmer.

Daniel Cooney Fine Art
511 West 25th Street, #506
NYC

View images from Tema's 2004 show, American Stills, at Jen Bekman Gallery over here, read
Tema's blog, and see more of her images on her site.
Purchase Tema's 20x200 edition prints:
Palm Aire
White Ice

Sheila E., 2009, by Fernanda Cohen

Happy Friday, collectors! Spring sprung with snow in NYC today, but I've got some sunshine for you in the form of Fernanda Cohen! I love catching up with Fernanda, especially when Miss Sheila E. is involved! Impossibly Sheila E. has been the topic of more than one conversation of mine this week. Something good must be going on! Fernada made the above illustration of the eternally foxy drumming goddess for the Cut to the Drummer opening in Canada last month.

"Screaming Friends," is from a personal project,"Dog's Best Friend," which earned Fernanda an Honorable Mention from the Society of Illustrators of Los Angeles IW 47 competition.

This illustration was recently completed for Glamour, Germany:

Fernanda has also illustrated a tote bag for the Brooklyn art collective Third Ward:

Presently Miss Fernanda is hard at work designing 4 t-shirts for Gap (PRODUCT) RED. I'll keep you posted on that. In the meanwhile, visit her site for more brilliant, bold and playful illustrations.

Fernanda's 20x200 edition: Hot Dog and I is available to you here in all three sizes.

Breath Portrait (pink drop) by Ann Tarantino

20x200 artist Ann Tarantino and collaborator Kate McGraw are working on an "improvisational wall drawing and video installation" at Flashpoint in DC. The piece will be on view from March 19 to April 17.

From the press release:

Having collaborated on works on paper for the past two years, the artists will now explore the interaction of their work with an architectural space by working directly on the gallery walls. With its focus on process and impermanence, Workbook marks a turning point in their collaboration, while transforming the gallery into a temporary studio. Using techniques both planned and improvised, the artists will engage in a mark-making exchange that will run the entire length of the gallery. Each artist will make marks familiar to her own stylistic vocabulary, but will also borrow materials and stylistic conventions from the other artist. The final, mammoth artwork will stretch across the gallery walls like a book, a nonlinear narrative waiting to be read and experienced by the audience.

Images of Kate and Ann in action

Kate McGraw & Ann Tarantino: Workbook
March 19 – April 17, 2009
Opening reception: Thursday, March 19: 6-8pm
Video Launch: Saturday, March 28: 6-9pm
Gallery at Flashpoint
916 G Street, NW
Washington, DC

Images from the collaboration in progress can be viewed here on Kate's site.

If you missed the lively interview I posted with Ann, read it here.

Ann's 20x200 print: Breath Portrait (favorite colors) has limited quantities available in medium and large edition sizes.

Urban Storm, 2008 by Aili Schmeltz

"Visual mashups" is how Aili Schmetz's work is described in one of the three group exhibitions she is in at this very moment. I love a good mashup, and cannot think of a better way to describe the way her work operates. Presently, Aili is in three shows--two in NY, at Satori in Manhattan and Lumenhouse in Brooklyn, and one in San Francisco at Gallery Arcane. All three shows continue through March 29th.

Invisible Duct Tape
Satori Gallery
164 Stanton Street
New York, New York

Abstractions and Contractions
Lumenhouse
47 Beaver Street
Brooklyn, New York

Sweet & Low: Optimism in a Pessimistic Age
Gallery Arcane
575 Sutter Street
San Francisco, CA

Aili's two 20x200 edition prints, Embedded, and Radar, are available in small supply.

Painting from the Camper-bike Project by Kevin Cyr

Work from 20x200 artist Kevin Cyr will be in a group show opening this Wednesday, March 18th, at Greene Contemporary in the Lower East Side. The show, Welcome to My World, was curated by Jonathan Greene, and will include work by Andrew Junge, Billy Maker, Shawn Pettersen and Jean-Pierre Roy.

From the press release:

The artists in Welcome to My World share similar approaches to their process, inspired by imagination to reinvent personal experiences, cultural identity, and fantasies into a visual language. The ad hoc combination of references and materials invites the viewer to enter both miniature and grandiose imaginary environments and situations, setting off on a journey of their own.

The show will continue through April 19th.

Welcome to My World
Greene Contemporary
9 Clinton Street
New York, NY

Kevin's two 20x200 edition prints, Koolman and Berry are still available in very limited quantities, so hop to it!

The one and only Jason Polan will be drawing live at Partners & Spade today Saturday, March 14th. Everything you need to know about the event is spelled out for you in the darling drawing above by Mr. Polan. The folks behind P&S are clearly clever--I'm already busy thinking about what I'll request Jason to draw for me. I'm also looking forward to seeing what the shop has to offer. Jason's drawing of their complete inventory has me quite intrigued.

See you there, or rather, here:
Partners & Spade
40 Great Jones Street
NYC

Lonesome Ghost, 2008 by William Crump

Californian collectors! 20x200 artist, William Crump, will open a solo show, Lonesome Ghosts, at LA's LittleBird Gallery this Saturday, March 14th. If you're in the vicinity do swing by and say hello.

Reception, Saturday, March 14th, 7-10pm
March 14-April 8, 2009
LittleBird Gallery
3195 Glendale Blvd.
LA, CA

William's two 20x200 edition prints, The Mountain of Westward Expansion, and The Mountain of Tomorrow's Sunrise, are still available in all three sizes.

Trucks, Seattle by Tommy Perman
Buy one now

Ciao collectors! If you are heading to SXSW (surely you're already planning to see Jen Bekman and friends) try and check out 20x200 artist Tommy Perman. Tommy will be performing four shows with his band, Found. Details here.

Tommy's websites are numerous, but start here, I know from past experience that one could spend the better part of a day exploring his projects.

20x200 artists Megan Whitmarsh and Mike Perry have teamed up with 24 artists to collaborate on an Animal Alphabet poster to benefit Unicef. Each of the 26 artists created one letter formed as a real or imagined animal.
Check this site for each letter to be released as a single limited edition poster.

Megan Whitmarsh's 20x200 edition prints:
Trash Mountain
Color Work Station
Mike Perry's edition print:
Optical-01

20x200 artist and Summer '05 Hot Shot, Noah Kalina, recently launched an eponymously titled magazine, Kalina Magazine. Each issue will feature new work from Kalina's photography projects.

Issue #1, Why Won't You Love Me, is available now.

See more of Noah's work here and here.

Noah's 20x200 edition print has limited quantities available: Untitled (LA20070805)

Snezhana Backstage, St. Petersburg, Russia, 2007 by Rachel Papo

On the train going home, Tel Aviv, Israel, 2006 by Rachel Papo

Last month Jen introduced you to the work of Rachel Papo. This month Clamp Art is showing work from two of her series, Desperately Perfect and Serial No. 3817131 through March 14th. Her two edition prints, Nastya Before Class, and Waiting for hand grenade practice, are still available here on your beloved source for excellent and affordable art.

Deperately Perfect and Serial No. 3817131
Clamp Art
521-531 West 25th street
Ground Floor
NY, NY
through March 14, 2009

Todd Heisler/The New York Times

20x200 photographer, Coke Wisdom O'Neal, was featured in the Times this week. The article did not appear in the Arts section, as you might imagine, but rather the Home & Garden section. Coke is succinctly described as "a fine art photographer who builds 22-foot-high wood boxes and shoots people standing inside them," yet the article is focused on the spaciousness and rotating cast of lodgers in his apartment. Coke enjoys an uncommon and enviable home life that reminds me immediately of The Royal Tenenbaums. You see, he lives in an Upper West Side vestige, the Apthorp, with his parents, his son, his son's mother (from whom he is split) a parrot, a dog, and two cats. Now what do you think of that?

Todd Heisler/The New York Times

Watch Coke's mother narrate a slide show tour through their home.
Read Tenants of a Vanishing World here.

Coke's 20x200 edition prints:
Needle-Needle-Nee
Close Call
See more of Coke's work here.

Minds/Mines Don't Care-Daisy Chain of Pipe bombs with self detonator, by Rebecca Loyche

Congratulations to 20x200 artist, Rebecca Loyche, who is currently showing work in a group show, (re)terrain, at vertexList in Brooklyn. (re)terrain will remain on view through April 5th.

From the press release:

(re)terrain examines spaces and places of the heavily urbanized and conflicted world we live in. The exhibition looks at the social production of space as well as the malleable and volatile nature of public space. The works in the exhibition ask us to (re)consider the complex nature of the world we inhabit and the very ground we stand on.

Rebecca Loyche depicts the violent nature of terrain with several large photograms of homemade land-mines and explosive devices. In addition, she delineates the gallery space with blast-kill radiuses of those devices painted directly on the gallery floor- placing the viewer directly in her work.

(re)terrain | March 6th-April 5th
vertexList
138 Bayard Street
Brooklyn, NY

Rebecca's 20x200 edition print:
The Office
Rebecca's site

Big Bambú (detail) 5 x 15 ft (overall), by Doug + Mike Starn

A rare chance to catch a glimpse of the construction and deconstruction of Doug + Mike Starn's Big Bambú will be offered by Wetterling Gallery at the Armory Show this week.

The exhibition offers a keyhole view of the monumental architectural performance they are constructing at their Beacon studio –the former Tallix Foundry. In a constant act of building and dismantling, Big Bambú is erected from 2000 bamboo poles lashed together by a team of several rock-climbers under the direction of the artists. 2 large-scale video wall-projections and a 3D computer generated rendering will show the ongoing construction of the first bamboo tower and its continuous rhizome-like growth.

A series of close-up photographs in various sizes accompany this larger artwork.

Studio image of Big Bambú

The Armory Show
Piers 92 & 94
Twelfth Avenue at 55th Street
New York City
Thursday, March 5 - Saturday, March 7
Noon to 8 pm
Sunday, March 8 Noon to 7 pm

Doug and Mike Starn's edition prints:
Structure of Thought 6b
Structure of Thought 6a

Starn Studio site

Amit Gupta publishes an "insanely great" weekly newsletter about photography called Photojojo. This week 20x200 got some sunny praise in their 20 Photographers Whose Work You Can Actually Afford email. Half of the twenty highlighted were from our extraordinary set of artists! Clearly the Photojojo folks have superior taste!

Here's a recap:


Untitled, Swamp #2
by Dorthe Alstrup
Buy one now

Untitled 5 (wallpaper)
by Dan Boardman
Buy one now

The Pinetum, Wakehurst Place
by Beth Dow
Buy one now

Balloons
by Juliane Eirich
Buy one now

amnh #10
by Joseph O. Holmes
Buy one now

Resting on a Bush
by Yijun (Pixy) Liao
Buy one now

Untitled (Geese, London)
by Dana Miller
Buy one now

Dutch Club, Anaheim, California
by Brad Moore
Buy one now

Nastya Before Class, St. Petersburg, Russia
by Rachel Papo
Buy one now

Untitled (Blue Lagoon, Reykjavik, Iceland)
by Carlo Van de Roer
Buy one now

Surely you're sufficiently inspired now!
Check out Photojojo here. One of my favorite things is their TimeCapsule feature. If you're a flickr fan you won't want to miss it!

Detail of a drawing of the entire inventory of P&S by Jason Polan

20x200 artist Jason Polan is past prolific. I'm sure he's finishing up at least 75 new projects before you will finish reading this sentence. Jason recently made a drawing of every object inside the Partners & Spade shop in NYC. Of course this project is similar in every excellent way to his The Every Piece Of Art in The Museum Of Modern Art Book.

Interior shot of the P&S shop

I'm looking forward to visiting as soon as the snow stops falling!

In other Jason news: McSweeney's Issue 30 boasts a drawing by Jason on almost every page! According to Jason, that amounts to "approximately 198 drawings".

But wait! There's more!

The above illustration was made by Jason for the New York Times last week to illustrate the letters section entitled, Can We Spend Our Way to Recovery?.

Jason, you're the inspiration.

Jason Polan's 20x200 editions:
Insects and Myriapods at The American Museum of Natural History
Sea Creatures at The American Museum of Natural History
Dinosaurs at The American Museum of Natural History
132 Birds at The American Museum of Natural History
Every Person in New York
Hand Project

Jason Polan's sites:
Jason Polan
The Drawing Project
Every Person in New York
The 53rd Street Biological Society

Reflect, 2003 by Todd St. John

20x200 artist, Todd St. John, was interviewed for the art and design blog, My Computerlove. Todd "indulges his fascination with the tension between the manmade and natural worlds" in his creative endeavors, of which there are many. The industrious St. John teaches at Yale in addition to being a designer, animator, and filmmaker. Read the interview here.

Wave Scaffold, 2007, by Todd St. John

Watch Todd's Emmy nominated video, Circle Squared:

We still have prints of Todd's super stylish 20x200 edition Untitled (Black Blocks) available in all sizes.

Todd's sites:
http://www.toddstjohn.com/
http://www.huntergatherer.net/
http://www.greenlady.com/
http://www.iglooshop.com/

image by Jacob Magraw

20x200 artist Jacob Magraw will be showing work from his series Hyperopia in the Project Space at Franklin Art Works in Minneapolis. The exhibition opens tonight, Friday, February 27th, and will be on view until April 11th.

He'll be in fine company; fellow 20x200 artist and Hot Shot, Shuli Hallak will be showing her series, Cargo, in the Main Gallery. It's a regular 20x200 party!
Also on view: an interactive video installation, by MN local Bill Klaila, entitled Pool.

Can't make it to the show? Pick up 20x200 souvenirs instead:

Drawing by Jacob Magraw
AA, 2007 by Jacob Magraw

Hay Harvest, New Jersey by Shuli Hallak
Cotton Field, Mississippi by Shuli Hallak

Red Plastic Plates, 2008 by Ann Toebbe

20x200 artist Ann Toebbe received a fitting nod on the design blog, Cool Hunting. Her paintings are deemed "quite inspirational, giving the feeling of living in a geometric, melancholy collage".

Ann's 20x200 edition prints:
Drying Our Boots by the Stove
Burning Down the Second House
Ann's site

Mike Perry is a man of patterns, so it is no surprise that his first New York solo show at Giant Robot NY is titled The Patterns Found in Space. The exhibit is follows the publication of his 2008 book, Over & Over, featuring a collection of hand-drawn patterns that impress in their complexity, innovation and whimsy. Whether lettering type or finding inspiration in everyday objects like scissors and flowers, Perry's patterns come very much alive on the page.

You can put a Perry on your wall; his 20x200 edition, Optical-01, is still available in several sizes. To see an entire room full of Perry's patterns, stop by Giant Robot NY on March 7th (next Saturday).

The Patterns Found in Space
March 7 - April 8, 2009
Reception: Saturday, March 7, 2009 at 6:30 p.m.

Giant Robot Gallery
437 East 9th Street
Between 1st Ave. & Ave. A

More Mike Perry:
Optical-01 on 20x200.
Mike's website.

Just kidding, although being in Paris under any circumstances is probably never a bad thing! 20x200 illustrator Linzie Hunter was commissioned by Penguin to illustrate the paperback cover of Petite Anglaise. As always, Linzie's style is spirited and lovingly reminiscent of the beloved Jay Ward.

Take yourself on a little trip to her website, and see more of what she's been up to. Here are two of my favorite illustrations from her portfolio:

And of course, her lettering always pleases:

Walking through our inventory, I am surprised to see that we still have a small quantity of two of her edition prints available:

Left: Say Goodbye
Right: Boundless
Her latest edition print, Coney, sold out in a hot second.

Linzie also keeps a blog and a bubbly flickr stream.

Border Watcher with Dogs, Arizona and Mexico Border, 2008 by Nina Berman

Jen Bekman artist and Hot Shot, Nina Berman will be showing works from her series Homeland at Unite and Untie, opening Friday, February 27th at the Houston Center for Photography. She will share the space with photographers Chris Sims, Toby Morris, Mark Bagge and Benjamin Lowy, whose images aim to re-shape contemporary war photography by looking at the effects of war away from combat and the impact of civil unrest in the Middle East on the rest of the world.

Houston Center for Photography
Friday, February 27th, 2009
6-8 p.m.

See works from Homeland, exhibited at Jen Bekman Gallery in the fall of 2008.
Buy Berman's editions 9-11-02 and G.I. Goat on 20x200.
Nina Berman's website.

Image of Mickey Smith's Collocation No. 12 (TIME) installed at Marty Walker Gallery

Three cheers for Hot Shot and 20x200 superstar, Mickey Smith! Mickey is currently part of a group show, there’s something I’ve been meaning to tell you… at Marty Walker Gallery in Texas.

Mickey Smith explores history, knowledge, and a sense of place in her photographs of book spines. Using public library collections for inspiration, the artist composes shelves of imprinted words that float, connect, and refer to universal human experience. Smith’s photographs of books are transformed into color-field abstractions through repetition and a dramatic exploitation of scale, creating books that are four and five feet tall, proportionally dwarfing the viewer in an expanse of color, and bold accentuated text.

Marty Walker Gallery
February 21 – March 21, 2009
2135 Farrington St.
Dallas, TX
Hours: Tuesday – Saturday 11-5 and by appointment

In other exciting Mickey related news--Mrs. Smith will be moving off to China for a month this September for a Red Gate Residency. Woo hoo!

Mickey's 20x200 edition prints:
WORD STUDY
MORE BOOKS
A 20x200 interview with Mickey
Mickey's site

Images from Kate's flickr.

20x200's Kate Bingaman-Burt is the latest artist to team up with Pinball Publishing for the release of this month's offering in their designer card series. Images come from Kate's series of drawings, What Did You Buy Today? documenting daily purchases from the last three years and are printed on chipboard with rounded corners in Pantone 376 (a lively spring green), black, and opaque white. The designer decks are a collaboration between graphic designers, illustrators, and artists with Pinball's team to show-off exactly what offset printing can do.

Princeton Architectural Press will also publish 650 of Kate's daily drawings in a book forthcoming in March 2010. We can't wait.

Kate's site, Obsessive Consumption.
Kate's editions, I Bought All of These and Plattsmouth, Nebraska, Carts #1 on 20x200.
Kate in the recently released documentary, Handmade Nation: The Rise of DIY, Art, Craft, and Design.
Kate's exhibit at Jen Bekman Gallery.

A new exhibit by Megan Whitmarsh, The Fucking Crap of Life, opened Saturday, February 21st at New Image Art in West Hollywood, CA. Whitmarsh, who embraces "entropy" and "visual noise" along with a vibrant color palette and 1970s pop culture, has two editions, Color Work Station and Trash Mountain, currently available on 20x200.

Whitmarsh says of her new work:

I am a child of the 70s whose sense of futurism is informed by Star Wars (fucked-up dusty robots) instead of Tomorrow Land. A future with entropy and drug use and weeds growing in the cracks between the scratched plexiglass windows of the geodesic domes. Bits of yarn and dusty houseplants. If this sounds bleak, I don’t mean for it to. Perhaps the healthiest kind of futurism is one that admits entropy and flux. Perfection is suspicious; worn and dusty can mean well-loved, too. Who loves the Stepford Wife?...

When I make a giant mountain of handmade trash I am lost in the fun of making, and feel like a kid building a fort. In the end I must resign myself to the fact that I have just added more crap to the world, but this seems an inevitable part of being an artist and a human. I try to remain optimistic. I like art that is generous in spirit and amateurish, art that inspires rather than intimidates.

The Fucking Crap of Life will be up through March 21, 2009.

Buy Color Work Station and Trash Mountain at 20x200.
Read Jen's newsletter on Megan Whitmarsh.

20x200 darling (and Summer '06 Hot Shot) Kate Bingaman-Burt is one of many superstars in a new documentary by Faythe Levine, Handmade Nation: The Rise of DIY, Art, Craft, and Design .

Handmade Nation NYC Premiere and Director's Panel TONIGHT!
Tickets can be ordered here
Museum of Art and Design Theater
Thursday, February 12 6:30-8pm
2 Columbus Circle
NYC

P.S.

Kate designed the Handmade Nation logo you see above!

We Just Keep Taking Turns
by Wendy Heldmann

20x200 artist Wendy Heldman will be opening a solo show, Of Course and Never, this Saturday, February 14th @ JAIL Gallery in LA. Like Wendy's edition print, the show features work that reveal to us curious scenes of disarray that alarm as much as they entice. In her artist statement Wendy suggests that the "series of paintings of the interiors of a university library in the aftermath of a natural disaster is not committed to an accurate auditing of the untenable wreckage, but shows what such a site represents- the futility of invention and architecture in such a cataclysmic environmental condition."

From the press release:

JAIL Gallery is pleased to present "Of Course and Never", a solo exhibition of paintings by Los Angeles-based artist Wendy Heldmann. Library aisles appear in Heldmann's paintings as they are never seen. Tomes slump in their shelves, books lie in unintelligible piles on the floor, and periodicals are strewn across aisles, defying the organizing principles that make their contents accessible. The entropic state of these compositions is amplified through a use of paint that further enacts such a state. Whether alluding to the obsolescence of tactile information systems such as libraries, allegorizing the innavigable results of an obtuse google search, or simply documenting the varying degrees of disarray left after a thorough ransacking, "Of Course and Never" oscillates between affirmation and negation of each perspective.

A 32 page book will accompany the exhibition and is available here

Opening Reception: Saturday, February 14th from 6-10PM

JAIL Gallery
February 14- March 14, 2009
965 N. Vignes St., #5A
Los Angeles, CA

Gallery hours :
Wed - Sat, 12-6pm

Wendy's 20x200 edition print: Darkness moves
Wendy's website

20x200 superstars Jason Polan and Jane Mount are at it again! Well, to be clear, they are not sparring (and never really have), but instead are collaborating once more. This time it is for a group show at Syracuse University entitled Land vs Sea: Animals in the Consciousness of America. Looks like they are an art duo that is here to stay. Who could ever grumble about that? Not a soul, dear collectors. Not one.

The show will open next Thursday, February 19th @ Spark Contemporary Art Space.

SPARK
1005 E. Fayette Street
Syracuse, NY

Jason Polan's 20x200 editions:
Insects and Myriapods at The American Museum of Natural History
Sea Creatures at The American Museum of Natural History
Dinosaurs at The American Museum of Natural History
132 Birds at The American Museum of Natural History
Every Person in New York
Hand Project

Jason Polan's sites:
Jason Polan
The Drawing Project
Every Person in New York
The 53rd Street Biological Society

Jane's edition prints:
Bookshelf 29
Bookshelf 20
132 Birds Leaving AMNH (Response to Jason Polan)
Jane's site