Print Week: Editions/Artist’s Books Fair

Printmaking feels miles away on a day like today. But for those of you who are trying to get your game face back on after last night’s exciting and emotional election, here’s my round-up of E/AB Fair last weekend in Chelsea. The fair was a very nearly perfect event. With sixty exhibitors, a live band, and snack bar, hammocks were about all that was missing. While all the exhibitors presented stunning work that fully engaged my limited attention span, a few endeavors stood-out with work that was a bit more printeresting than others. In a fully subjective fashion and in no particular order, here are my picks for 10 Print Ventures to Watch-out for, 2008 Edition:

Dieu Donne Papermill- No surprise here, the papermill has been a standard bearing of innovative paperwork since it’s inception. They had strong work on display by Ernesto Caivano, Jon Kessler, some compelling and vaguely gross objects by Richard Tuttle and a paper bucket by an unidentified artist.

 

Esopus Magazine- The Esopus Foundation was founded with the lofty goal of connecting ‘creative people’ to ‘the general public’ (who it seems are uncreative). Published twice annually, the magazine has a distinctly interdisciplinary vision and a minimally intrusive editorial hand; all of which to say it is choc-full of visual and textual material designed to stimulate. 

Booklyn- The Booklyn Artists’ Alliance is an artist run organization, not surprisingly based out of Brooklyn, NY. In their own irony-infused press materials, “We publish and deal the new hot freshness in unique and small edition artists books, prints and multiples… Booklyn in the House…and you won’t find our shiznit anywhere else… WORD UP!” They had some charming books and objects by such notables as, Xu Bing, Eugene W. Smith, Aaran Noble, Kottie Paloma, Raymond Pettibon and Jessica Stockholder.

Brodsky Center-The Brodsky Center for Innovative Editions is based out of Rutgers’ scenic New Brunswich, NJ campus. It would be fair to put the emphasis on the Innovative. Their small booth was packed with back-lit prints, cut & shaped paper the only thing the lacked was space. Their both was very small and with the crowd of slow-moving, Charmin-squeezers this some couldn’t get near enough the work to really look at their projects up-close. 

Highpoint Editions- Based out of Minneapolis, Highpoint has been a force to reckon with since their impressive inaugural edition by Julie Mehretu in 2003. Their showing this year was no less strong. The two most striking works in their booths both made claim in monumentality in very different ways. The first was by Adam Helm, who in keeping with his timely interest in extremist organizations produced the triptych, Untitled Landscape, which consists of a flag with a composite heraldic crest on ballistic nylon accompanied by two 18×24″ photo lithos of an off-the-grid shelter near Marfa and a Chechen rebel camp. And Rob Fischer’s DodgeBall, where he worked with discarded gymnasium floorboards, which were wiped intaglio, rolled relief and later screen printed to hint at the old ball court boundaries, which struck me as weirdly haunting, something I wasn’t expecting.

Brand X Editions- Brand X is a lush budget, full service, traditional press, known for their screen printing work. They had a number of eye catching works, like the virtuously technical Forty-six Combs by  James Siena. However the print that caught my eye was not six feet tall nor did it have 33 colors. It was a deceptively concise work by Adam Pendleton that stuck-out as a smart combination of found imagery and polished steel.

 

Neiman Print Center- or the LeRoy Neiman Center for Print Studies at Columbia University really had a few show stoppers, key amongst them the Sarah Sze’s sculptural, off-set litho, laser engraved, victorian wunderplatz, titled, Notepad.

Robert Blackburn- Recently resurrected by the kindness of the Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts, the Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop (or RBPMW -pronounced Rippem-Wa?) has a hybrid mission similar to the Lower Eastside Printshop, with a community print studio and professional press in mutually supporting roles. Under the direction of Phil Sanders, artist and Tamarind trained printer who worked previously with ULAE, RBPMW has been making some pretty cool work, chief among them the work of Glen Baldridge (below) and Michael Krueger.

 

 

The Thing Quarterly – *BEST OF SHOW* TIE - In true SF-style The Thing Quarterly attempted to steal the show, with live music, a sassy both attendant and a small army of art assemblers in their entourage. In their own words, THE THING is a quarterly periodical in the form of an object. Each year, four artists, writers, musicians or filmakers are invited to create an everyday object that somehow incorporates text.” Is that cool or what? Past issues have included work by Miranda July, Kota Ezawa, Trisha Donnelly and more.

 

The Forth Estate - *BEST OF SHOW* TIE - This small publishing & printing endeavor was founded in 2005 by Luther Davis and Glen Baldridge with a distinct mission of printing editioned works by emerging talent in a way that combined traditional and technologically innovative print processes. I’ll admit that starting out with a clever name caught my attention but their Work with compelling young artists (like Alex Dodge, Ian cooper), producing sculptural works, works involving subtle smart insertions of new tech (braille texture, uv inks, new substrates) Forth Estate caught my attention in a big way.

If any of the 10 Print Ventures to Watch-out for, 2008 Edition actually read this and email me by November 12th I’ll send you some authentic Printeresting schwag as your prize. 

And following this page break you’ll find more images of the fair.