Booklyn, Kerry Downey, Heliopolis

Last week, The class took a trip down to Greenpoint, Brooklyn and visited two very different studios. and a gallery put together by my professor.

The first studio we went to was the studio of a really great organization called Booklyn. This group has over 500 members and counting. The organization helps artists all over the world create publications, cataloging them, and finding ways of getting the work out to the public. They have many gallery shows in their space in Greenpoint as well as around the world at book fairs, craft fairs, art shows, and even in libraries and museums. 

Our tour guide was really great. I don't remember her name but she was hilarious and so down to earth. She told us the history of Booklyn and how she reluctantly became the person in charge of going to museums and libraries to try and sell different books. I loved her attitude towards us, she spoke to us as equals and was just bullshitting with us at the end of the visit. She also told us to get a day job that won't interfere with out art making (if anything it should help with it!). 

So many books!

View from a window in Booklyn's studio

A few blocks away was the studio of Kerry Downey. This was a very interesting artist to visit. Unlike many of the artists that we have spoken to, Downey never plans on selling any of her work. 

This seemed crazy! One of the many topics of this class has been how to find a way to make a living from your work. Instead, she makes her living by teaching. She said it was probably because she gets too attached to what she makes. It was kind of refreshing to hear. I really relate to her because of that. I have a really hard time detaching from a piece I spent forever working on just for someone to hopefully hang it on their wall to look at occasionally.
It is very easy to understand why she would be so attached to every drawing or print she makes. A lot of what she does deals with very personal issues, such as phantom limb. Her work also deals a lot with the idea of failure and elderly people. She explained that she grew up in Florida and has been surrounded by and working with elderly since high school. Most of her work stems from an obsession with self help magazines trying to sell you mostly junk that you really don't need and a few things that might be helpful to a handful of people. So, there is a strange humor in all of her work that I really enjoyed. 

Her deck had a beautiful view!

Some of Downey's work.

Basically around the corner was a gallery called Heliopolis. The show that was currently there was put together by my professor, Bill. The show consisted of proofs, works that didn't actually work, notes, and other forms of planning. It was a really interesting show. I was very surprised by the fact that if I wasn't told what the show was about, I would have just guessed that everything was a final, well thought out piece.

The Whitney Museum of American Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Last week the class went to the upper east side and visited two art museums.

The first museum we visited was the Whitney Museum of American Art. There we went to one of their new exhibitions of the artist Wade Guyton. Personally, I really wasn't a fan of this show. After our small class discussion after seeing it, I could totally understand why other classmates enjoyed it. But it didn't do anything for me. While walking through the exhibition, I was really trying to like Guyton's work, but found myself saying "oh, here's some more stripes on a huge canvas... oh and some more circles... ok." Although I didn't enjoy the work there, I did appreciate the thought and process behind it. The only thing that actually sparked my interest was how he managed to put this huge piece of plywood into an inkjet printer to print on it. 
I thought the exhibition was laid out well. As my professor had mentioned, you look through it the same way a printer head moves. I thought that was pretty clever. Yet, there was a few things in the exhibition that caused me to as "what? why??" There was a huge pile of found wood just propped against a wall in the first room. Apparently Guyton just flipped the pile... There was another moment that really didn't fit. There was a wall with just two digital photographs of the inside of a cave. There was no description of them or really any reason for them to be there at all.

I managed to get these two pictures before getting yelled at.

The second museum we visited was my personal favorite, the Metropolitan Museum of Art. We saw a great exhibition called: Regarding Warhol: Sixty Artists, Fifty Years.  I'm not a huge fan of Warhol. But this exhibition allowed me to see prints that I've never seen before. The show also consisted of contemporaries to Warhol and other artists that he influenced. There was work by Jeff Koons, Kelley Walker, Cindy Sherman, and Chuck Close to name a few. I was extremely happy to see the Chuck Close painting, "Phil" in person, I think I stood infront of it for like ten minutes, just staring at it. It was a huge, slightly over whelming show, yet it was very well put together. But I expect nothing but the best from the Met!
The exhibition was really fun to go to. There was a pile of candy for the audience to eat (there was actually a darker undertone to it - every piece of candy that was taken was representing the closer to death a person was getting), there was a room of tv screens showing clouds from Super Mario, and a room playing the velvet underground full of balloons we got to hit. The guard looked like he really enjoyed himself in the balloon room. But aside from how fun it was, it was really amazing to see how many people Warhol influenced, during his lifetime, while still making art, and after his death.

After seeing the Warhol show, I went to the European painting wing of the museum. The contrast between the work was amazing. I'm still more envious of the 16th century European painters than I am of anyone in the Warhol show.

Since I wasn't allowed any picture in the Warhol exhibition, have some 16th century European paintings.

Paul Ramirez Jonas, Gowanus Studio Space, Axelle Editions

Sorry for the late blog post! I was computerless for a good portion of last week (apparently Mac's aren't as reliable as I thought.)

Two weeks ago (10/4) the class went to Gowanus, Brooklyn. I heard awful things about this part of Brooklyn; my brother had been working with the D.E.P. to try and clean up the Gowanus Canal. But, I really didn't think it was that terrible.

So our first stop was the studio of Paul Ramirez Jonas. Although Jonas is not a printmaker, he does work with the idea of multiples and "easily accessible" art. These themes are a very common thing to come up in a discussion about printmaking. All of his work that he showed to us deals with interaction., whether it be between the artists and audience, two member of the audience, or the audience and art. I found that particularly interesting because I never really think of the audience that much when I'm working on a piece.
One of his works I particularly enjoyed was a piece where one person was given a key to the city. Along with the key, the person got a book that showed them where to go and what the key opened, such as a mailbox, cemetery gates, a secret garden, and many other things in all 5 boroughs. I wish I was able to get a key and explore all the different places. He also had a giant horse sculpture, made out of cork. During his installation of this piece, the audience covered the horse in personal notes and messages.

Our second stop was the Gowanus Studio Space. This space seemed like a great place to have a studio. Its a small community of artists working in all different mediums (drawing, sculpture, painting, ect.). They had their own printmaking studio in the back of the main floor. There was a large variety of equipment, allowing artists who work in that shop to explore all types of printmaking; silkscreen, intaglio, relief printing, and lithography.
This space is seemed like it was a really nice community. Our professor was telling us that artists working there are constantly hoping back and forth between mediums since theres such a wide variety there. A printmaker could go to the studio right next door and start making a sculpture to incorporate in their print show. Or a painter can come in and make some prints one day.

Our final stop was Axelle Editions. This shop was another commercial print shop. They mostly worked in silkscreen, but had a few etching presses. Our tour guide was very knowledgable about the silkscreen process. He clearly isn't afraid of experimenting. He told us that the shop had printed with everything from glitter to chocolate to even blood. He explained to us that all of that is possible depending on the mesh of the screen and amount of pressure when pulling the print.
He also told us that we, as future printmakers, are extremely important to society. He said there was such a high demand for printmakers and that everything we see everyday is a print. Although, I don't know how much I believe him with his whole "you guys are the future!" speech, it's a nice thing to think about!

These were two of many of the bigger screens.

Wall of tons and tons of ink containers!

Kevin's Collection (9/30)

Kevin's Collection this week was very entertaining!
I pretty much loved everything he sent.

• meetyourprintmaker
• This blog is really cool and I'm definitely going to be a blog I check frequently! I love that it shows work from all different types of printmaking, which many blogs I've found don't.
• Bagel Head??
• Um, what. Seriously, why would anyone do that?! Worst idea ever... but at least it gave me a good laugh after my immediate "ew!"reaction.
• http://androphilia.tumblr.com/
• Really cool tumblr page. I liked how they combined posts of current political issues in the Middle East, beautiful artwork, and ridiculous gifs of Big Ang from Mob Wives. ( I only know that because I was forced to watch the show against my will! )
• Hue Test
• This was so fun! It was also pretty difficult. But I think I scored pretty well. I got a 12! I really want to know what everyone else scored!

• Terence Hannum
• His work was very interesting. I wish his descriptions of his work was layed out better. It got confusing as to what work he was describing. I also wish he had better pictures of his work in general. 
• Michael Cina
• His work is really beautiful. I love all the colors he uses and how his work is abstract but still have a feel of a landscape in a few.

MoMa, Brand X, Alpha Price

Thursday, September 27th, the class visited two studios in Long Island  City, Queens and MoMa.

The first stop was Moma. We saw a new exhibition of the Slavs and Tatars. The exhibition was behind two huge beautiful rugs that opened as curtains. Inside, was a very dark room light up by four neon green lights hanging from the ceiling and some black lights on the underside of benches. The benches ran along two walls and were covered in literature based on the Slavs and Tatars. In the center was a fountain and on the far walls were two huge prints.

While there, I flipped through two of the books on the benches. One text spoke about a certain noise in a language formed by the sounds of the letters "Khhhhh". They explained that it had special meanings in different languages and how only people who spoke certain languages were able to make that noise. I believe thats the whole idea behind the "MOTHER TONGUES & FATHER THROAT" print.

I found the exhibition to be very interesting space. The benches, sound of the fountain, and reading was very meditative. Yet, if you stop focusing on those things and just looked around the room, it was extremely chaotic due to the lighting  and agressive prints. I found that if you tried to look near the floor or at people's feet,  your eyes couldn't focus on anything due to the lighting. I'm not sure if that was on purpose or just a coincidence. But there was a really interesting duality being created between  meditation and chaos.
After that exhibition, we went to MoMa's permanent print collection. That was a big change. This collection had your "normal" prints. The collection contained work by Warhol, Bourgeois, Matisse, Jasper Johns, Picasso, Clemins, Turrell, and many others. It was really nice to see less well known work by artists like Warhol, Matisse and Picasso. I also fell in love with a few pieces by Celmins and Turell.

Turell

Celmins

After that exhibition, I snuck away from the group for a little while and checked out an exhibition going on across the hall of the Quay Brothers. That exhibition was so awesome, for lack of a better word. When you walk in theres huge birch trees in the room and one of their silent films playing. The Quay brothers, I learned, did tons of films. Most starred many of their extremely creepy puppets they created. They also made absolutely beautiful drawings and prints. I really wish the rest of the class had gone to see it!

Our second stop was the studio of Brand X Editions. This studio was very different compared to the others we have been to so far. Unlike the past studios, Brand X does only commercial printing. Unlike other studios, they do oil based silk screening and use tons of chemicals and solvents. We got to see the extremely strenuous, time consuming process they go through to create silk screen prints for other artists. These prints are exact copies of the artist's work. It was really amazing to see how they are able to figure out how to create the same textures and brush strokes and imitate the hand behind each painting so exact. 
I learned about tons of hints for silk screening that I never would have thought of. For example, having (at least) two people pulling a print if the screen is too large and taping down little pieces of foam to stop the screen from sticking to the print.

They also had two printshop cats! Unfortunately I didn't get to meet them, but I saw them from afar and they were adorable. But I really don't see how they could survive there with all the chemicals in the air.

Our final stop was the studio of Alpha Price. Her studio was half of a tiny room in a beautiful old building. 

Her work was very interesting. I really enjoyed the piece she did with cutting an old iBook in half and carving into the screen. I wish she had shown more of her work though! I feel like we only saw four different things she had done, which was pretty disappointing.