Wonder Fair

Posted by on December 13, 2011 | 1 Comment
Guest post by Julia Vice Versa.
After happening upon Wonder Fair screenprinting studios/gallery/shoppe in downtown Lawrence, Kansas, I was pleasantly surprised to see printmaking support and retail in full swing for the holiday season. Specializing in in the creation and sale of handmade artist-editioned merchandise, whilst holding monthly art openings; Wonder Fair is one of the sole D.I.Y. goods retailers on the bustling Lawrence retail strip.
Offering a wide selection of ‘zines, limited edition prints, conceptual print pieces, and much much more, Wonder Fair is a must-stop spot for printmaking in Lawrence. Originally created by Eric Dobbins, Wonder Fair is now run by Meredith Moore and Paul DeGeorge who proved not only to be print enthusiasts and ‘zine connoisseurs, but excellent meal and travel guides as well.

Upon our visit, Wonder Fair had just received a large shipment of printed goods from sister shop in Kansas City, Hammermill Press. Some artists featured at Wonder Fair include Christa Dalien, Dan McCarthy, Jonathan Metzger, Jason Barr, Lee Piechocki, Jimmy Trotter, Aaron Storck, Bill Fick and MORE.
Print is surely not dead in this sometimes sleepy college town. A more complete list of artists who work with Wonder Fair plus a few more pics after the jump!

Wonder Fair’s Local Print Champs (artists living/working in Kansas and the Lower Midwest):

Jonathan David Metzger, a graduate student in the Printmaking Department at University of Kansas, and also one of the Shoppe volunteers! Jonathan’s work is mainly intaglio, full of rich narrative and obsessively teeny line-work: (http://jonathandavidmetzger.com/prints/)

Grace D. Chin, an undergraduate student at KU, and also a WF volunteer (“we’ve got an ace staff!”).  Grace is a great draftsman and colorist, so her water-based monotypes are especially baller.  She’s going places– hopefully, grad school!: (http://gracedchin.com/#1755374/water-based-monotypes)

Wonder Fair also sells small-scale works by KU professors Yoonmi Nam and Michael Kreuger, both of whom are known entities to the Printeresting folk.  (http://www.yoonminam.com/) (http://www.michaelkrueger.us/)

Justin Marable is one of their straight-up regionalist artists, whose work is about the changing landscape of the Midwest, or in his own words,  “loss and growth within the Midwest” as demarcated by its architectural structures.   (http://justinmarable.com/gallery/)

And of course, they show Hammerpress, Kansas City’s finest letterpress print shop, and probably one of the vanguard letterpress shops in all of the USA.  (http://hammerpress.net/)

Wonder Fair’s Favorite not-so-local Artists:

They also like to honor friendships with print artists who work outside their corner of the world!  So, they carry and promote the work of artists like…

Dan McCarthy (http://www.danmccarthy.org/), who is a cult hero in the poster world and one of Wonder Fair’s favorite people in the regular world.  

Daria Tessler (http://www.animalsleepstories.com/main/art/archive/newprints/), who is somehow both incredibly prolific and never boring.

Marty Allen (http://www.martystuff.com/sock-puppet-portraits-2), a mad genius who designed a lovely series of Kansas sock puppets for Wonder Fair (“we’re the only Brick and Mortar store to carry his work, crazy!”)

and they keep a small stash of ‘zines and comics on hand from:
Liz Prince (http://lizprincepower.com/)
Alec Longstreth (http://www.alec-longstreth.com/)
Alex Lucas (http://www.alexlukas.com/)

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One Response to “Wonder Fair”

  1. Nicole says:
    December 13, 2011 at 9:34 am

    Wow, I didn’t know this was there! Thanks for the write-up about this place.

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