Hello Minnesota

Play Money - ©William Evertson 2010 - collage game box

I have several pieces in the Minnesota Center for Book Arts exhibit Fluxjob: Purging the World of Bourgeoisie Sickness Since 1963 which opened Friday, February 7th in Minneapolis, MN. The show which runs through July 6th is described on the MCBA website; 

"In the 1960s, George Maciunas urged a small group of artists to purge the world of bourgeois sickness and dead art. The result was Fluxus, a non-movement that expanded the definitions of what art can be. Fluxjob is an exploration of contemporary artists who continue to create interdisciplinary anti-art that is ephemeral, inexpensive, and interactive. The exhibition is co-curated by MCBA Executive Director Jeff Rathermel and noted Fluxus artist, publisher and performer Keith Buchholz."

I created a series of game boxes in 2009 and 2010 based on tic tac toe. Tic-tac-toe is most often played by young children. Players soon discover that best play from both parties leads to a draw.  In my version the boxes refer to unequal opponents, or advantaged and disadvantaged player. The boxed set, aside from having prints and an "instruction book" also contain small stamping tools in the shape of hands that are used to mark the tic-tac-toe grid. In Play Money the instructions are a poem referring to our bankers, the men of great appetites. The carved images used for stamping are a child at play and Mr. Monopoly.  Link to more on Play Money.

Power Play - ©William Evertson 2010 - collage game box

The second game box, Power Play is a similar format. Prints line and collage the boxes interior while an instruction manual and game pieces complete the piece.  Power Play instructions references and contrasts the innocent non-structure of the play ground with institutional violence. Link to more on Power Play.

Three Little Kittens Re-Kindled - ©William Evertson 2013 - artist book

Also included is my analogue version of the Kindle.  The interior contains digital pigment prints of the kindle version of the popular children's story scanned from a Kindle.  A previous blog post contains information concerning the various copyright issues at work in this piece.

Kalicorp Art Mysteries, Issues #1-8, Collaboration - William Evertson, Susan Shulman (and Ria Vanden Eynde on issues #1-5)  Ongoing comic book series

Finally, the collaborative series of comics lately produced by Susan Shulman of Montreal and myself is on display.  The comic, which was funded by a successful Kickstarter, is a satirical look at the process of making art.  The comic is set in the fictional ArtWorld, which closely resembles todays art market. It often features cameo appearances by artist friends and the endless series of controversies surrounding market conditions form the backstory of each issue.  Art Mysteries Blog link.

Link for Fluxjob at the Minnesota Center for Book Arts - now through July 6th.

2013 North American Print Biennial

The 2013 North American Print Biennial runs through Dec. 20th.

808 Gallery, 808 Commonwealth Ave, Boston

Juror Denis Michael Jon, Associate Curator of the Minneapolis Institute of Arts selected prints from a rather large pool of 900 contemporary artists and considered over 2400 works for inclusion into this edition of the Biennial.  As an artist under consideration when we are not included we tend to shrug off rejection and move on with our work but when our work is selected we tend to think of the curator as possessing a keen eye indeed to recognize our genius.

Since a good deal of my time is spent on proposals, residency applications and grants I receive rejection emails often enough that I almost overlooked the one notifying me of inclusion in this years Biennial. I think it was only after hearing Jon's lecture prior to the opening of the Biennial that I realized the daunting task of coming up with 135 works representative of contemporary printmaking.

Additionally, Jon's lecture helped solidify some of the problems I have with identifying with the description "Printmaker". I've always thought of myself of artist first and at any one time may have works in progress that span a variety of media. Interestingly enough Jons' spoke of selecting works that not only were representative of the various techniques of printmaking but also looked for pieces that help expand the definitions.  If I'm gleaning his context, it is one of recognizing some push back of artists against print based works being considered a secondary or lesser discipline due to their nature as multiple originals, smaller and generally grounded on paper.

The same qualities that may make a work appeal to young collectors or a wider audience acts as a double edge sword as a marginalizing factor in an art market driven by the unique, very large and very expensive.  Boston Universities 808 Gallery was a large venue that provided space for artists who were pushing scale and working with more sculptural forms.

First view of the Biennial

Jon's selections for the 2013 Biennial included both examples of technical mastery and experimental.

Stephen McMillan - Misty Morning - aquatint

Philip Laber - House of Cards - intaglio and inkjet

If the crowds at the opening were any indication, works on paper and the continuing evolution of printmaking is still prized.  As pointed out by Jons' in his opening remarks; innovation, risk taking and the ability of non specialized artists making use of new technologies to make surprising strides in re-defining the print is evident in this years Biennial. 

Denis Michael Jon - Curator Profile link

Slideshow link of 2013 North American Print Biennial

Biennial Link - gallery directions, hours 

Photobooth Kabuki at the 2013 North American Print Biennial

Chelsea Wrap Up

Photo of Tipping Point in Chelsea, NYC during the High Line Open Studios
Woodblock print- 24" x 80"

It's bigger, it's looser, it got a great reception during the High Line Open Studios Chelsea.  It was great to see Tipping Point framed and on a wall with some breathing space.

High Line Open Studios ran last weekend Oct. 18th, 19th and 20th in the Chelsea gallery district of NYC with 50 plus artists opening their studios and project spaces to the public.

My project space is a small subdivision of Ayn Choi's Gallery 304/ASC Projects in the Chelsea Arts Building at 526 W. 26th St. in NYC.  In the picture above I've got both sides of that partition wall plus the rest of the alcove I'm standing in to the left.

Directly behind me is an older (c 2004) digital collage Stamp Collector.  The space is large enough that I was able to exhibit many of my latest works plus several older pieces that show the transition of my interest in transparency, imagery overlap and layering from digital pigment prints to a more physically robust woodblock technique. 

Turn out was fantastic with several hundred visitors each day.  Most I was able to introduce to my art for the first time and some contacts via social media I was able to meet in real life for the first time. 

Artist George Rodart looking at Moses; another of my earlier digital collages on view.  Most of my digital collage pieces were created ten years earlier when Photoshop was a much newer tool for artists. Although I began the process of learning woodblock techniques around the same time, it's only been in the last couple of years that it's become a focal point of my art.  Although my concerns with layering of imagery remains the same in woodblock, I have an increased interest with the physicality of the surface of the paper.  

The Photobooth Kabuki series received a lot of positive attention; including this one I'm posing with that is included in the North American Print Biennial.

Tipping Point

Tipping Point - woodblock print - 22" x 80" - © William Evertson 2013

A confusion of watery abstractions, gyotaku style fish, melting globes, music from sea shanties, a reference to an incised bone from Tikal and a character from my shadow theater combined to form my latest woodblock print.

As I shared the progress of the piece with other artists several mentioned that it seemed to be a breakout work. Often we don't realize in mid work what is progress and what is place-holder.  In this work I was busy exploring the details of layering that I found compelling when Photoshop was in its infancy. 

Bringing that kind of digital play, where overlaps produce interesting chance encounters of color or shape into my woodcut work required a certain amount of unlearning. Too often registration issues when working large on multiple blocks and the need for clearly blocked color areas kept me from trying for a "looser hand". 

Detail of Tipping Point - lower left

This piece along with other recent woodcuts, an artist book and several of my earlier digital pieces are on view this weekend during the Hi Line Open Studios Chelsea in NYC.  

I'll be in my project space at 526 W. 26th St. Room 304, NYC on Fri. Oct. 18 from 6-8pm and again on Sat. the 19th and Sun. the 20th from 12 - 6pm.  A downloadable map of the artists participating in open studios is up on the Hi Line link above.  Please stop by if you're in NYC.

October is Exhibition Month

Tipping Point, my latest woodblock print is shown here in the trial proofing stage; right edge folded and clamped in place to aid with registration.  This large format print (24" x 80") should be ready to exhibit during the open studio weekend in Chelsea.  I'll be at my NYC project space with this and other prints October 18, 19 and 20.

High Line Open Studios Chelsea - Gallery 304, 526 W 26th St. NYC - Oct. 18, 6:00-8:00pm, Oct. 19-20, 12:00-6:00pm  New Works/Works in Progress.

One of my Photobooth Kabuki pieces has been selected for inclusion in the North American Print Biennial.

Boston University - 808 Gallery, 808 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, MA.  October 27th - Dec. 20th.  The opening is Oct. 27 3:00 - 5:00pm (I'll be in Boston for the reception)

Meanwhile in Japan this Photobooth Kabuki (in addition to the one above is on exhibit for the Awagami International Miniature Print Exhibition ('A.I.M.P.E') 2013, October 12 - Nov. 10th. Venue: Inbe Art Space
 (Tateishi 116, Yamakawa-cho,Yoshinogawa City, Tokushima)

Fog of War is among the pieces included in Book About Death Australia - Tweed River Art Gallery, NSW, Australia, Oct. 18 - Nov. 24

Rusi and the Axman is included in A Book About Death bound and submitted by curator/ artist LuAnn Palazzo for the Islip Art Museum: New York Bound - Sept.22 - Dec. 29

Page on left showing my signature glyphs from the back of Rusi and the Axman.

From NYC to Long Island to Boston to Japan to Australia; covering the globe one print at a time!

Busy Being Busy

Sharing work with friends during the recent Chelsea Art Walk. (Photo by AnnMarie Tornabene)

July has turned into a very busy month.  I remembered a Times article from a year ago about our self imposed busyness and thought back a few month to when I had July pegged as downtime; perhaps a time to begin some new works in the studio.  It's turned into exhibition month and that's meant busy work.  Busy framing works, writing press releases, busy packing art, busy traveling and busy trying to PR it all.  All the things that go with exhibiting and that's part of the artist's job... exhibiting.  I'm part grumpy hermit artist and so I'm starting to long for a few free mornings in front of blank paper and slightly restless for beginning new works.  

My entire four print series of Photobooth Kabuki woodcuts was complete in time to exhibit during the Chelsea Art Walk last Thursday.  I was able to display them in a project space in Ayn Choi's new venture, Gallery 304 at 526 W 26th st. in Chelsea.

The picture on the left shows a thumbnail of the woodcuts paired with the photo booth self portrait that is the first layer in each print.  The first layer is a solarplate etching followed by between 5 and 8 color blocks.

The series is traditional mokuhanga, with water based inks and printed with a baren on kizuki hanga, an extraordinary 100% kozo handmade paper, printed in editions of 12.

The bottom piece will be included in the 2013 North American Print Biennial this fall and I'll go into more detail on that closer to the opening at 808 Gallery, Boston University on October 27th.

Posing with my Kabuki series at the Chelsea Art Walk 

The last exhibit I need to get ready for is not strictly an art exhibition, instead Susan Shulman and I will be showing our collaborative comic, Kalicorp Art Mysteries at the Boston Comic Con on August 3rd and 4th.  Thanks to our small but loyal followers who supported our recent Kickstarter we've completed 7 issues to date, all of which we'll be displaying in Artist Alley.

For more about Kalicorp Art Mysteries you can visit our dedicated Art Mysteries blog.

Chelsea Art Walk

This July has been hotter than most and I've been particularly fortunate to have exhibition opportunities heat up.  Just back from installing art in New Hampshire last week, I'm working on preparing pieces that I'll be showing during the Chelsea Art Walk on July 25th. This is the fourth annual Art Walk that features extended hours for galleries plus open studios throughout the Chelsea area.

I have a modest project space in Ayn S Choi's recently opened Gallery 304 at 526 W 26th street where I'll be showing recent woodblock prints.  I'll be at the gallery from 5pm until 8pm. Works by Eugene J Martin are also on display and I'm honored to be sharing wall space.

Two of the prints relate to an ongoing collaborative effort that combines Exquisite Corpse writing with images to provide alternative endings to the unfinished novel Mount Analogue by Rene Daumal.  René Daumal was a French spiritual para-surrealist writer and poet, most known for this posthumously published novel that used mountain climbing as a metaphor for spiritual quests.  The novel ends in mid-sentence and for several years a small group of artists have contributed to the Analogue Narratives blog with their thoughts and images.  The two moku hanga woodcuts I have on display relate to my recent contributions to this project.

All four parts of the Photobooth Kabuki series that I've blogged about over the last couple of months is finally editioned.  All four will be on display along with the black key blocks that begin each print.  The Photobooth Kabuki pieces were inspired by purikura photo booth machines that come with edit­ing screens so you can dec­o­rate and cus­tomize your photo after it is taken.  This ability to bring Photoshop abilities to a photo booth to make your eyes larger, nose smaller, perfect skin, more anime and add captions led me to redo my own photo booth picture by adding bits and pieces from Utagawa Kuniyoshi's warriors and kabuki actors to my features.

Photobooth Kabuki 1 - ©William Evertson 2013

Chelsea Art Walk link for other open studios, special events and participating galleries.

Wrap Up from Gordon-Nash

LAYERS is installed at the Nash Gallery and on view until the end of July.  I would like to thank curator and  Head Librarian Cathy Nolan Vincevic, her staff and board of directors for their help and encouragement.

In a one person show you can see a comprehensive body of work and where an artist has been.   I believe that an artist can also use the opportunity to see where to go next.

In this exhibit I selected several works from each year of my last decade's production.  Ten years ago I was immersed  in the possibilities of combining scanned images in the (then) relatively new artists tool Photoshop.

Stamp Collector and Meltdown on the end wall combine a variety of scanned material; letters, photographs, stamps and drawings.  Completed in 2003 and 2004 these digital pigment prints reflect an interest in the layering of a personal iconography to construct visual narratives.

Working with ink on paper is a discipline that developed during that period, almost as a counter-point to the computer driven works.
I participated in an artist residency in Thailand. I became aware that the Asian artists who were not so enamored of contemporary Western trends in art came from a tradition of rigorous attention to art 'basics'.  I realized probably for the first time the gulf between my New York centric view of conceptual, pop and minimalism, the pressure for gallery representation, and the longer view of an artist's career that concerned my Asian friends.

There seemed to me to be a certain respect for incorporating past tradition into the contemporary, while the Western arc involved new 'movements' usurping art world interest.

I was inspired (or perhaps a bit chagrined) during certain times when interpretors weren't around and we fell into drawing for communications.  My friends had used brushes for writing since childhood and their drawing seemed to flow effortlessly between writing and image.  Mine left a bit to be desired; a skill that had gone fallow.

After I returned to the States I began to work with a renewed interest into cross-cultural referencing.  The exploration of archetype and myths that find expression in disparate cultures became an influence that I continue to explore.

During this time period I also became aware that a Japanese printmaker I admired had begun to teach at nearby Wesleyan University.  The moku hanga woodcuts that are part of this exhibit are a result of several years of study in this technique which complimented the ideas I was working with digitally.

In the library proper, the mixed media game boxes from my Ox and O's series found a home in display cases.

The Nash Gallery where the most of my work was installed also housed the original collection of the library, donated by Judge Nash, along the entire length of one wall.  A very concise and interesting history of the library can be found at the libraries "History Link".

A portion of the several thousand volume collection forms a backdrop for my accordion book, Today Only, which is part travelogue and part documentation of performances in Belgium and France in collaboration with artists Susan Shulman and Ria Vanden Eynde.

LAYERS is on display in the Nash Gallery in the Gordon-Nash Library through July. 

For more information visit the Gordon-Nash Library's blog.

Art of Armor

As the name implies, Art of Armor recently opened at Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, gives us a broad look into the aesthetics of samurai armor.  The exhibition features more than 140 objects from the Ann and Gabriel Barbier-Mueller collection, including armored horses carrying combat-ready samurai in full regalia.
Having come to appreciate armor through my love of ukyio-e prints I was aware of how artfully they were portrayed in print media but I wasn't prepared for the staggering detail observed in a large scale exhibit of actual examples. 

Kuniyoshi - The last stand of the Kusunoki at Shijô-nawate under a hail of arrows in 1348 (1857)

Nor would I have been surprised to learn that artists had taken liberties to embellish the amount of decoration to add drama to the action of a print. Nothing could be further from the truth as the detail and elaboration of each samurai's armor was a masterpiece of collaborative efforts that would difficult to capture in its entirety. 

Breastplate detail

Artisans required to manufacture these armors included metal workers both forgers and decorative, braid makers and embroiderers, painters and sculptors, in short an army of artists to make the suit of one warrior.  Each suit in the collection is a riot of color texture and the style of each is unique, which is perhaps partly due to the preferences of the curators and the original collectors Ann and J. Gabriel Barbier-Mueller.

faceplates

Some items are clearly ceremonial and some purpose built as protection or weapon but all show an attention to artistry that have helped the samurai to transcend cultural roots and become embedded in our collective consciousness.

The other purpose of the ornamentation is identification.  While rank and file warriors needed little more than a badge on the helmet or breastplate and perhaps a flag on their backs the men of high rank wanted to be identified, both to their men but also to be recognized so that their deeds of valor could be noted.  In times of peace samurai of wealth and rank could commission highly eccentric designs.

helmet

Although far removed from the era of the samurai and now subject to our romantic notions gleaned from popular culture this exhibition is certain to raise a renewed interest in the actual lives and times of samurai in feudal Japan.

Samurai - Armor from the Ann and Gabriel Barbier- Mueller Collection on view in Boston at the Museum of Fine Arts through August 4th.

m the Ann and Gabriel Barbier-Mueller Collection

Laying Track

Palmer Hayden, from John Henry series.

I recently read a story about building the first railroads. How each day material would get ferried forward and new track laid. Then the train backs up and picks up more material. Next day, start over.

Some days it's like that when I'm making art. I'm backing and then I'm laying new track this week because making art isn't just paint on canvas or ink on paper; sometimes I back up and write.

This morning as I set out to write I came across an injustice, seemingly small in our world of appropriated images becoming commonplace. I was looking through my images to illustrate the blog post title of laying track and then decided to google laying track.

Palmer Hayden, The Janitor Who Paints

I came across the picture above that was being used to promote a workshop "Sounds of American History" based on an authors book on John Henry. I searched for an attribution to the work, found none, but was just able to make out the artist signature.  Palmer Hayden it turns out spent more than his share of backing up to move forward. He focused on the African American experience with works from the urban background of Harlem as well as his (now) famous John Henry series of paintings created over 10 years. Link to Hayden on Wikipedia.

Please folks, if you are going to use an artist's work (even a deceased artist) to promote or illustrate something online, how about an attribution?

So....many days are filled with satisfying the preconditions to that studio time when you are actually at work on art. this past week was one of them.

First of all, PR and kudos for a great exhibit  curated by Cathy Nolan Vincevic for the Gordon Nash Library.  The exhibition titled, The Book Remade" is focused on books re-worked, re-organized, painted, cut ornamented or embellished. I'm happy to have my artist book, "Three Little Kittens Rekindled" included in this international group of altered books.


Curator and Head Librarian Cathy Nolan Vincevic

I wrote a blog post about the construction of the book back in March. My book was constructed with traditional hand binding techniques but made to resemble Amazon's Kindle.  That post has more of my thoughts on the distribution of literary material, our embrace of electronic media and the copyright of that material originally found in oral tradition.  The Gordon-Nash Library's blog contains the complete listing of artists. On display through April.

Preparation is underway for spending the weekend in Boston at ComicCon where Susan Shulman and I plan on exhibiting Kalicorp Art Mysteries.  Although as I write this the fallout of Mondays bombing of the Boston Marathon is still playing out. My heart goes out to those injured and lost loved ones in this horrific violence.

We'll Be at the Hynes Convention Center on Saturday, April 20th from 10am -7pm and Sunday, April 21 from 10am - 5pm.
(Email from the organizers indicate this will go on as planned - and artists are donating to the Red Cross for the Boston Marathon victims relief effort)

Gathering the promotional material for Artist Alley

Link to the latest from the Kalicorp Art Mysteries Blog

Self Fulfilling Prophecy

Handing off Issue #4 of Kalicorp Art Mysteries to Hennessy Youngman (aka Jayson Musson)

Sure enough our Kalicorp Art Mysteries is in that big fancy Artworld show thanks to Jayson's YouTube call out for works to fill the new Family Business Gallery in Chelsea.  The tiny 125 s.f. Family Business gallery is a walled off  section of Anna Kustera at 520 W. 21st. recently opened by Maurizio Cattelan (retired?) and New Museum curator Massimiliano Gioni.

Jayson in his Hennessy Youngman persona invited the world wide web to drop off art for his show.  As fans of his video observations on Artworld and in part because our Kalicorp Art Mysteries is about this kind of high drama we wrote him into the story line and brought a comic for the show.

We even got it there in just in time because Jayson was receiving a ton of art and 125 s.f. of space is...well...tiny.  The shutters were coming down for a regrouping but the comic is in. (see top photo)  and despite being just a little distracted he did mention he was a comic fan.

But for anyone not lucky enough to get in, there was some consolation.

Hennessy Youngman's Itsa Small Small World open April 3 and runs through the 16th at Family Business.