Guest-post by Jena Osman, A Friend of Printeresting

The Medium Resistance show now at the Ice Box in Philadelphia is subtitled “Revolutionary Tendencies in Print and Craft.” From the Carl Pope’s wall of “Bad Air” to Leslie Mutchler’s “Manufactured Utopias,” the show is pretty breathtaking. One of its pleasures is a distinctly psychogeographical [...]]]>

Guest-post by Jena Osman, A Friend of Printeresting

The Medium Resistance show now at the Ice Box in Philadelphia is subtitled “Revolutionary Tendencies in Print and Craft.” From the Carl Pope’s wall of “Bad Air” to Leslie Mutchler’s “Manufactured Utopias,” the show is pretty breathtaking. One of its pleasures is a distinctly psychogeographical strain running through it.

To read an in depth review of this exhibition following Jena Osman’s line of investigation follow the jump.

An Atlas of Radical Cartography, a series of maps and essays collected by Lize Mogel and Alexis Bhagat, is on display, and a flatscreen hidden behind a wall at the back lets the viewer browse through a series of provocative maps by Bill Rankin. Two of his maps of Philadelphia—one coded by income and one coded by race—are particularly compelling.

Colette Fu also forays into the Philadelphia landscape with three jaw-dropping pop-up books. The books present three-dimensional deconstructions of the Academy of Music, City Hall, and the city morgue. Make sure to read the wall labels for these works.

Francesc Ruiz—who has a great piece in the Temple Gallery “lobe” of the Graphic Unconscious —has an equally impressive contribution here. Two 400cm x 200cm digital prints titled “Don Quixote” cover one wall.

The figure depicted here in duplicate is a sculpture that sits at an intersection near the Crane Building (where the Ice Box gallery is located). The sculpture itself is a replica of a 1967 piece by Joaquin Garcia Donaire that was given to Philadelphia by the Spanish city of Ciudad Real in 1996. In Ruiz’s replication of this image, a thought balloon emanates from Don Quixote that says “I am the one that fame speaks of, and not the unlucky one that has attempted to usurp my name and deck himself out in my ideas.” Cervantes’ Don Quixote was a blockbuster bestseller by early 17th century standards. It was released in two volumes, but in the decade between the two parts an imposter released his own second volume—a situation which then caused the “true” Don Quixote to proclaim his authenticity in the “real” second volume. In this 21st century moment where appropriation is mucking up all originary auras, Ruiz’s piece gives the viewer a lot to chew on in regards to role of the multiple.

We were just sent these great installation photographs of Eva Wylie installing her work at Gallery Joe in Philadephia. The exhibition, titled appropriate manipulate duplicate is a group show of print/digital-related work. With the recent posting about Eva’s work here, I thought it would be fulfilling to see these in progress [...]]]>

We were just sent these great installation photographs of Eva Wylie installing her work at Gallery Joe in Philadephia. The exhibition, titled appropriate manipulate duplicate is a group show of print/digital-related work. With the recent posting about Eva’s work here, I thought it would be fulfilling to see these in progress shots of her site specific screen print work.

The exhibit features the work of William Betts, Gil Kerlin, Ati Maier, Andrew Millner as well as Eva Wiley, and I should have a post covering all the work in the show in the coming weeks. This exhibit will be up until April 25th, so if you are in town for Southern Graphics try to catch this one.

Thanks to Holly Holly Hobby Hobby’s Anni Altshuler for this scoop.

The Medium Resistance exhibition, probably one of the largest Indepent projects associated with Philagrafika, just opened in the Ice Box space of the Crane Arts building. Co-Curated by Richard Hricko, Philip Glahn and Nick Kripal. The three Tyler faculty have each drawn from their own expertise and interests to put together [...]]]>

The Medium Resistance exhibition, probably one of the largest Indepent projects associated with Philagrafika, just opened in the Ice Box space of the Crane Arts building. Co-Curated by Richard Hricko, Philip Glahn and Nick Kripal. The three Tyler faculty have each drawn from their own expertise and interests to put together a show that draws from a gamut of talent, ranging from art start to local favorite. The curators describe the show as:

Medium Resistance examines contemporary works of craft and print that resist old-fashioned divisions of high art and artisanship, reassessing the mediums’ expressive, communicative, and material possibilities. Ceramic multiples and posters, digital images and books, to name just a few examples, straddle the lines between art, craft, and mass production, exploring each format’s potential for participation and dissemination, aesthetic, social, and technical labor.

This is very compelling show; in truth I’ve gone to see it three times and there is enough thought provoking work in the show to keep even my addled attention span engaged. Some of the work fits awkwardly into the cavernous Icebox space but for the most part the bulk of the show occupies the space better than anything in recent memory.

To see artist by artist shots follow the jump.

Marc Herbst, co-editor of the Journal of Aesthetics and Protest.

Below is Francesc Ruiz, a printeresting favorite.

I was totally blown away by these pop-up books and photographs by Colette Fu.

These cool ceramic/photographs are by David Rhys Jones.

Some great relief prints by Martin Mazorra of Cannon Ball Press.

I stand in awe of Piper Shepard’s three insane tapestries.

Andree-Anne Dupuis Bourret’s great installation you first read about here.

A few pictures from the Cut and Paint installation.

Snappy printed things by artists who worked at the Women’s Studio Workshop.

International Design Clinic’s enigmatic projection box project.

Above and below are images of Leslie Mutchler’s digital collage prints.

Work from the Atlas of Radical Cartography, below.

The collaboration between Jason Scuilla (on the wall) and Dylan Beck (on the Floor).

Carl Pope covered this large wall with his iconic textual broadsides.

The prolific Eva Wylie created these fabric print quilt-like forms.

Old salty snacks himself, Chris Kline made a poster for the exhibit.

If you are coming to town for Southern Graphics try to make it out to see this one.

]]> http://www.printeresting.org/2010/03/14/philagrafika-2010-medium-resistance/feed/ 0 http://www.printeresting.org/2010/03/14/evolution-of-obamagraphics/ http://www.printeresting.org/2010/03/14/evolution-of-obamagraphics/#comments Sun, 14 Mar 2010 19:02:20 +0000 Jason Urban http://www.printeresting.org/?p=12508 Andrew Romero shares some fascinating news over at his Newsweek blog…

How Master Information Designer Edward Tufte Can Help Obama Govern recaps the Obama administration’s decision to add Edward Tufte to the independent panel that advises the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board. For any unfamiliar with his work, the phrase “Master Information Designer” is [...]]]> Andrew Romero shares some fascinating news over at his Newsweek blog…

How Master Information Designer Edward Tufte Can Help Obama Govern recaps the Obama administration’s decision to add Edward Tufte to the independent panel that advises the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board. For any unfamiliar with his work, the phrase “Master Information Designer” is perhaps an understatement when reflecting on Tufte’s impact on the discipline of information design.

It’s not surprising that a President whose election campaign was in part fueled by the power of graphics would see the potential benefits in going to a professional to help in explaining the recovery plan. Tufte seems like perfect person for the job…

“This is about visual thinking and visual evidence,” Tufte says. “It’s not about commercial art. The last thing in the world that’s needed here is a designer. What’s needed is an analytical, statistical, quantitative approach. Reporting is different from pitching. Artists who design for marketing purposes inherently have problems with credibility. This is something very different in spirit. It’s about accountability and transparency—with heavy, heavy amounts of data.”

Okay, so it’s not as flashy as Fairey’s iconic image but it’s probably a lot more useful… and overall good news for any of us in the business of visual culture.

All you designers-turned-printmakers and printmakers-turned-designers should pay attention to this one. The good people at Rockport Publishers were kind enough send us a review copy of their 2009 release, Dirty Fingernails: A One-of-a-Kind Collection of Graphics Uniquely Designed by Hand by John Foster. As the subtitle suggests, the book is a survey [...]]]>

All you designers-turned-printmakers and printmakers-turned-designers should pay attention to this one. The good people at Rockport Publishers were kind enough send us a review copy of their 2009 release, Dirty Fingernails: A One-of-a-Kind Collection of Graphics Uniquely Designed by Hand by John Foster. As the subtitle suggests, the book is a survey of artist/designers working with “old” media to arrive at interesting (and commercially viable) results. While the book doesn’t focus on printmaking specifically, it is about the current embrace of the human hand in design and by default, plenty of hand-printing is included.

Lots of Printeresting favorites are featured in the book… The Little Friends of Printmaking, The Small Stakes, Ellen Lupton, Tyler Stout, The Decoder Ring Design Concern, and Yokoland to name a handful. Rather than delving deep into the psychology of The Hand-Made with essays, Foster gives us a quick intro about the importance of tactile experience and then let’s the work do the talking. Each piece featured in the book is accompanied by an insightful paragraph or two of exposition explaining the what why, and how.

Can’t go wrong with a Boston by Little Friends.

The book is broken up into five chapters: Typography for the People, These Hands Were Made for Drawing, When Each Piece Needs Your Magic Touch, Puzzle Pieces, and Kicking It Old School and each chapter starts with a brief summary of its guiding principle. Foster makes the case though his editorial choices that while the computer is a valuable tool, in a world full of digital homogeneity one way to stand out is to allow your hand to be part of the conversation. We couldn’t agree more.

Some Decoder Ring and BankerWessel.

This looks familiar.Stefan Sagmeister… designing with bananas.

Choosing work for the book must have been a blast- no doubt with the size constraints a lot of good stuff didn’t make it into the final edit. The book’s subject, analog approaches to design, is incredibly broad. No one volume could cover it in its entirety but Foster does a good job of summarizing the current state of hand-made design from his point of view. This is a decent book on any number of levels: a nice source of inspiration in the studio or classroom but good for a coffee table, too.

Jason Munn of The Small Stakes.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I think I’m going to go and cut a rubylith stencil.

It’s March in Austin and SXSW excitement is palpable. Some people come for the music, some for the films, some for the interactive media but what I’m most excited about (print nerd that I am) is Flatstock 24. Started by the American Poster Institute, Flatstock is traveling poster show that hits Austin [...]]]> Sean Simmons

It’s March in Austin and SXSW excitement is palpable. Some people come for the music, some for the films, some for the interactive media but what I’m most excited about (print nerd that I am) is Flatstock 24. Started by the American Poster Institute, Flatstock is traveling poster show that hits Austin every year for SXSW. It’s a huge exhibition where everything is for sale. With an average price of $20 for a hand-printed poster, almost everyone leaves with something. Established poster veterans and young upstarts are on the scene showing work and mixing it up with each other and fans alike. All and all a great sense of community permeates the giant, table-filled hall. Here’s a full list of the more than 100 exhibiting artists who’ll be in Austin Thursday through Saturday of next week(3/19-3/20).

The big event at this year’s Flatstock 24 will be the a Smokey Robinson/Shepard Fairey poster signing in conjunction with the release of Fairey’s new Robinson poster.

Also, Serie Project, Inc is teaming up with Andy MacDougall of Squeegeeville to do live screenprinting demos for the public. As I understand it, one of the posters they’ll be printing is Sean Simmons’ winning design from The Great Texas Rock Poster Contest (see the picture above). Sean is a student at the Art Institute of Austin. Nice work, Sean!

A great Flatstock tradition is that many of the artists who show their work make posters to commemorate Flatstock itself. Here are pics pulled straight from the gigposters.com Flatstock 24 forum.

The venerable Jay Ryan’s Flatstock 24 poster.

Charlie Hardwick

Crosshair

Luke Drozd

Landland

John Vogl (the Bungaloo)

Stackmatic

I’ll have pics from Flatstock in a week or so. In the mean time, you can check out my Flatstock post from last year.

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More here. There are some really astute juxtapositions; this could be a great little museum show.

(Thanks to Christine for the tip.)

“There’s Something Very Important I Forgot To Tell You” was a 2009 exhibit in Milan by Berlin-based artist Riccardo Previdi. The title of the show is a line from Ghostbusters; this piece is called Test. Printer calibration patterns culled from the Internet were printed on paper, which was crumpled and photographed. The photos were then [...]]]>

“There’s Something Very Important I Forgot To Tell You” was a 2009 exhibit in Milan by Berlin-based artist Riccardo Previdi. The title of the show is a line from Ghostbusters; this piece is called Test. Printer calibration patterns culled from the Internet were printed on paper, which was crumpled and photographed. The photos were then reproduced on a plank of plywood.

Previdi’s work references print and pop culture in a cheeky exploration of mediated imagery, reproduction, and representation. The following images are taken from a 2008 show called  C_YK – Black To The Future:

From the press release:

C_YK – Black To The Future connects an associative web around the culture- and design-history of print technology…Architectural interventions like the magenta coloured transparent foil on the gallery´s showcase changes the original perception of the gallery as a display for art. Looking through the foil, the magenta coloured surface merges with its surroundings as if the foil did not exist. The inner space of the gallery is divided by an additional yellow foil that changes the view of the wall beyond where “convolutions” of paper are installed. Only the mobility of the viewer allows the “real” consistence of the single elements that at the same time changes the view on the “Gestalt” of the others to be seen. The neon writing “C YK” is visible also from outside the gallery. The coloured and shiny letters C YK become a point of attraction, a cryptic code which simultaneously influences its surroundings…

All the single elements of the exhibition “C YK – Black To The Future” are autonomous objects, but seen as one whole, as an architectural intervention, they start to play with the idea of a constructivist stage of perception: C- M-Y- K.

Other projects of interest include Fraktur, an installation that references Gutenberg’s 1455 Bible, and The Last Desire, a series of public billboards.

We’ll be hanging out and making copies at Art in the Age from 6-9. [...]]]> Just two short weeks til Copy Jam! For the event, we are producing a small-run, commemorative t-shirt that will be available for purchase. The shirts were beautifully printed by Philadelphia’s own Outlaw Print Co. Get ‘em while supplies last.

We’ll be hanging out and making copies at Art in the Age from 6-9. It’s free and all are welcome! AITA is generously supplying bottles of their Root liqueur for all to sample at our event and will be hosting a Root Happy Hour next door at Charlie’s Pub from 8-10. Anyone up for an after party? It’s going to be fun so definitely stop by.

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