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Posted by Jason Urban on August 28th, 2010 | 
Some sad news… Stephen Kinsella, the St. Louis-based paper company, will be closing their operation down this September. Their closure is a real loss to the print community and they will be sorely missed by many of us. They are in the process of liquidating their inventory so you may want to get in touch and see if they have anything you need. Here’s a statement they sent…
Stephen Kinsella Paper Company has been providing fine art papers to artists for over 30 years. Regrettably with the economy and competition as they are, we will be closing. Our final day in business is not set, but hope to close mid to late September. We have priced our current inventory of papers for liquidation. For those in or near St. Louis, there will be a warehouse sale on Friday September 3rd from 9am to 4pm.
We would like to let everyone know how much we have appreciated you support. Artists are wonderful customers and people to deal with. All of us at Kinsella have enjoyed sharing our enthusiasm for paper and will miss each and every one of you.
With warmest regards,
SKinc Emeritus
1-800-445-8865
Having bought paper from Kinsella many times in the last ten plus years, I’ve always found them to be a great company to deal with. More than once, they helped me meet a looming deadline by shipping paper out the same day that I placed the order. Hopefully the whole crew at Kinsella will be going on to other rewarding ventures- thanks for thirty years, Stephen Kinsella.
 Continue reading Stephen Kinsella Paper Closing
Posted by Jason Urban on August 26th, 2010 | For those who need a healthy dose of counter culture with their prints, check out the Blotter Barn. Mark McCloud, acid blotter art historian and 60s archivist, has been collecting LSD blotter art for more than thirty-five years. He shares some of his collection on the site and offers prints of the designs for purchase (minus the hallucinogenic effects, of course).
 Gorby, this print depicts a four-way hit that was originally issued circa 1988.
 Black Cats, this print depicts a four-way hit that was originally issued circa 1981.
 The Mighty Quinn, this print depicts a single hit that was originally issued circa 1978
I think this one above is my favorite. So simple but so full of drama and implied narrative. A lone figure stares out into the distance at a boat. Someone could write a novel based on this scene. The design is inspired by the Bob Dylan song but looks like it’s pulled from an issue of Tintin to me.
Oh, and check out the Blotter Barn annex for some interesting images of the pre-press sheets…
 Detail of image.
(Thanks, Luther.)
Posted by Jason Urban on August 20th, 2010 | 
You don’t need to watch Enemy of the State to know that you’re being watched. The signals are all around us. In his new piece, Smile!, German-born artist Stefan Hoffman draws more attention to our surveilled world but rather than communicating a sense of ominous paranoia in the Orwellian tradition, Hoffman’s orange iconography seem almost happy. Big brother packed in fun bubbles. Using a pre-existing surveillance warning as a starting point, Hoffman multiplies the iconography and takes it to an absurd extreme.
Smile! is currently on view in the exhibition Hot Plate at Phoenix Brighton in Brighton, UK. By its very nature, Stefan Hoffman’s work is in dialogue with its environment- he silkscreens directly onto glass and walls making site-specific pieces. Often, he takes cues from the space and an allows its to inform his decisions. According to Hoffmann…
I just like signs! When I visit a city I can’t help taking photo’s of the restroom signs, warning signs….any signs. They have something what art essentially doesn’t have (anymore). They have an information value. They give clear directions……potentially saving your life…or let you feel safe…or watched. I just like to play with them and suddenly they start looking strange. They are much too big, they are arranged in a formal rythm reduced to basic shapes, with strange shadows, or result in an overdose of conflicting messages. I am looking for that brief moment of emptiness, where the former notion is lost and a new one is yet to be found.
Look for more of Hoffmann’s work this Fall at Printopolis in Toronto.
 This shot shows one of Michael Loderstadt’s house constructions hanging inside the Hot Plate exhibition.
Posted by Jason Urban on August 15th, 2010 |  Stephen Eichhorn’s photo-collages have gotten some internet attention having been featured on all kind of sites including booooooom, kitsune noir, ffffound, you are an animal, and aucoti. While in Chicago, we stopped by Eichhorn’s solo exhibition at Leviton A+D Gallery of Columbia College. The show was the culmination of his work as the Photography Department’s summer digital artist-in-residence. The variety of pieces in the exhibition were cohesive as a group but meandered enough to keep it interesting.
 Eichhorn’s collages hold up to close scrutiny and have a real presence in person. It’s nice when you come across work that you’re familiar with from online sources and discover that it looks as good, if not better, in real life- that was the case here. See more pictures after the jump.
Continue reading Stephen Eichhorn at Leviton A+D
Posted by Jason Urban on August 12th, 2010 |  In conjunction with the Printers’ Ball, a section of the Luddington Building’s ground floor was cordoned off as a showroom of sorts. On sale was a wide range of merchandise produced largely (I think) by Columbia College students- prints, cards, jewelry, apparel, and all manner of hand-printed product. It seemed like a decent way to put some money in student pockets- a celebration of academic cottage industry. We didn’t have time to get the details on the work in these pictures but if you know anything about it, you can add credits in the comments. Speaking of which…
One Printers’ Ball attendee emailed us to ask us if we knew anything about an item that was for sale- “a small poster with a phrase that started with “Everything is going to be all right . . . “” We didn’t see it but maybe a Printeresting reader can help him out? Feel free to add a comment…
 Continue reading Merch at the Ball
Posted by Jason Urban on August 10th, 2010 |  Audubon’s legendary first engraving discovered! From the PR Newswire…
Now, after a decade-long search by an Audubon scholar from Philadelphia’s Academy of Natural Sciences and a numismatic historian from St. Louis, Audubon’s first published illustration of a bird has been discovered. In a forthcoming article in the Journal of the Early Republic, Robert M. Peck, curator of art at the Academy of Natural Sciences, and Eric Newman, an authority on American money, reveal their discovery and explain how Audubon’s entry into the world of commerce took place. The find is important not only for solving the puzzle of the missing engraving, but also because it illustrates Audubon’s development as an artist and provides a rare, contemporary view of the now extinct Heath Hen, a subspecies of running grouse.
It’s not exactly Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom but still pretty exciting stuff for old school print enthusiasts. Of course, it is possible that Peck and Newman had to rescue the engraving from a Thuggee religious cult practicing child slavery, black magic and ritual human sacrifice. Be sure to read their Journal of the Early Republic account this Fall to get the full story.
(Thanks, Mary!)
Posted by Jason Urban on August 9th, 2010 |  Thanks for taking us on the shop tour, April! I’m not even going to try to narrate this post except to say that every once in a rare while I really wish I could go back to school. Walking through Columbia College Chicago Center for Book & Paper Arts was one of those times.
 Continue reading Printshop Tour: Columbia College Chicago Center for Book & Paper Arts
Posted by Jason Urban on August 5th, 2010 |  Hell yeah, that’s a red carpet… welcome to the sixth annual Printers’ Ball! Best estimates are somewhere around three thousand for this year’s attendance count. Not bad for a dying industry, right? The Luddington Building was crawling with all manner of artists and artisans, writers and revelers- a packed house indeed. The Conway Center (i.e. the ground floor) was full of take-away printed matter, free booze, and loud music (not to mention the sweet sound of one hard workin’ copying machine). Upper floors featured various demonstrations related to letterpress printing, book arts, and papermaking compliments of the Columbia College Center for Book and Paper Arts. 
 Chicago can turn out the crowds for free printed matter. Many of the first through the door were clearly on a mission… more than a few people were filling up a roller bags with a life time’s worth of reading material.
 Icy Demons warming up before the doors opened.
Continue reading The Printers’ Ball
Posted by Jason Urban on July 29th, 2010 | 
Not sure if the average Printeresting reader normally follows the Tour de France but here’s something that might peak your interest in competitive cycling. This year Nike has employed mobile printing technology to share inspiring messages on the road. From Random Pattern…
Built by DeepLocal and StandardRobot in partnership with Nike and Wieden+Kennedy, Chalkbot is like a giant self-contained pneumatic dot matrix printer that is mounted to a trailer pulled by a truck and can print messages and graphics of varying types on the road. Users can submit their own inspirational messages by Tweeting them @chalkbot, texting “LIVESTRONG,” followed by your message, to 36453 or directly at the official Chalkbot website.
We’ve seen some projects like this before, most notably Josh Kinsburg’s bikesagainstbush, but in terms of scale, polish and interactivity (albeit mediated), this seems to take it to a new level.
(Thanks, Luther.)
Posted by Jason Urban on July 26th, 2010 | These posters were all over 798 Arts District in Beijing. Graphically, they stood out from a lot of the other street ads so I followed them to Stefan Eck’s exhibition, Raw, at the Pickled Art Center.
 Eck was a rare fix of graphic art in what felt like a sea of refined, representational oil painting. He was hanging out the gallery when I passed through so I got a chance to talk for a while. He hails originally from France though he’s something of a nomad having spent the last ten years living in Canada, Germany, Japan, and now China. His work seems to take its cues from a range of sources from underground comics to various modern art -isms. It was the tension between the different influences that made the work dynamic. “Raw” seemed like a well-chosen title.
When you’re done looking at the pictures here, you should go spend some time on Eck’s website.
 Continue reading Dispatches from China: Stefan Eck
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