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I am so excited to be a part of the Reading.Writing. exhibition at galleryHOMELAND in Portland, Oregon from August 5 to September 9, 2011.  Reading.Writing. is curated by Lisa Radon and includes an incredible roster of artists.  Additionally, the exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue with an essay from Anne Marie Oliver and a poem by David Abel.  As Lisa reveals in her curatorial statement, “Reading.Writing. is an exhibition about the intersections between the practices of reading and writing and art making. It is the möbius strip where writing is a kind of reading is a kind of writing.”

I will be showing a project titled ‘BOOK-KIT (for copying Bouvard & Pécuchet / Dictionary of Accepted Ideas, New Directions, 1954)’ that includes new print- & book-works based on Gustave Flaubert’s final novel and written works.  The specific 1954, New Directions volume is at the heart of the Personal Libraries Library; this exact edition was in Robert Smithson’s personal library & the novel was collected by both Jorge Luis Borges and Italo Calvino.  BOOK-KIT continues the conflation of reading, writing and printing that is at the center of my work as an artist and PLL librarian.  It posits copying as the combined act of reading and writing.

Reading.Writing.
August 5 – September 9
galleryHOMELAND
2505 SE 11th Avenue / 97202 / Portland, OR / Ford Building

Opening Reception
Friday / August 5 / 6 – 9 PM
Gallery Hours
Monday – Friday / 12 – 6 PM

Panel: Reading Art, Writing Art
Lisa Radon / Pat Boas / Abra Ancliffe
Saturday / August 13 / 1 PM

The Artists
Abra Ancliffe / Lindsay AuCoin / derek beaulieu / Justin Bland / Pat Boas / Sean Joseph Patrick Carney / Patrick Collier / Carmen Denison / Emily Ginsburg / Anna Gray & Ryan Wilson Paulsen / Sarah Greig /  Sydney S. Kim / Sam Korman / Katarina Petrovic / McIntyre Parker / Lisa Radon / Helen Reed / Namita Gupta Wiggers / James Yeary

Curator Talk at Research Club Brunch
Sunday / August 28 / 12 PM
Poetry Reading
David Abel / Rodney Koeneke / Lisa Radon / James Yeary
Thursday / September 1 / 7 PM

I am so proud to be part of the w/ w/o rds exhibition at *snowflake in St. Louis.  The show is curated by the amazing Leslie Mutchler and is centered around “printed works on paper, from traditional letterpress to digital output, that focus on our temporal use of language in combination with the printed image.”

w/ w/o rds also includes the work of Tate Foley, Jimmy Luu, Sonnenzimmer, and Emily Sullivan.

w/ w/o rds
February 19 – March 19
Gallery Hours / Saturdays / 11 am – 3 pm
SGC Hours / March 16 – 19 / noon – 10 pm
Closing reception / Friday, March 18 / 7 – 10 pm

*snowflake
3156 Cherokee Street
St. Louis, MO 63118

Please go to ultra to read a review by Lisa Radon of the American to Icelandic Dictionary / Íslenska til Bandaríska Orðabók.

American to Icelandic Dictionary / Íslenska til Bandaríska Orðabók

No. 2 Print Shop

3317 SE 21st Avenue / 503.360.4105

December 2010 – January 2011

Closing / Friday / January 28 / 6 – 9 pm

Please join us at No. 2 Print Shop for the closing of the American to Icelandic Dictionary / Íslenska til Bandaríska Orðabók.  Each translation was culled and compiled by watching Icelandic subtitled American television during the cold, dark winter months in Iceland.  The result is a letterpress printed dictionary filled with inherent gaps, mistakes and mistransliterations.  At its heart, it is a joyous exploration of language and its slippery nature.

The Dictionary / Orðabók was funded in part by a grant from the Regional Arts & Culture Council.

American to Icelandic Dictionary / Íslenska til Bandaríska Orðabók
No. 2 Print Shop

3317 SE 21st Avenue / 503.360.4105

December 2010 – January 2011

Opening/ Sunday / December 5 / 5 – 9 pm
Closing / Friday / January 28 / 6 – 9 pm

After a year of printing, the American to Icelandic Dictionary / Íslenska til Bandaríska Orðabók is finished!  The Dictionary / Orðabók explores language, translations, and the futility of attempting to understand another culture through the lens of your own culture’s exported entertainment.

I am exhibiting the work (both bound & unbound) for the months of December and January at No. 2 Print Shop:

American to Icelandic Dictionary / Íslenska til Bandaríska Orðabók
No. 2 Print Shop

3317 SE 21st Avenue / 503.360.4105

December 2010 – January 2011

Opening/ Sunday / December 5 / 5 – 9 pm
Closing / Friday / January 28 / 6 – 9 pm

Please come on by to see the work and chat on Sunday, December 5th.

More images and details to come about the book itself.  The Dictionary / Orðabók is funded in part by a grant from the Regional Arts & Culture Council.

I cannot praise the Frans Masereel Centrum residency program and everyone there who make it possible enough.  My three weeks at the Centrum were amazing.  Besides the beautiful land & people of Kasterlee, Belgium, the residency is packed with presses and incredible artists.  I was lucky enough to work in the same studios with artists & printmakers from all around the world, from South Africa to Japan and Germany.  The atmosphere of hard work and camaraderie propelled all of us to create.  I was inspired not only by my physical and geographic location, but by the amazing prints that others were pulling off the presses.  I completed a portfolio of 18 letterpress prints using the footnotes of Borges’ short story Tlon, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius, an AZERTY keyboard, and naive Flemish Translations (images of the project to come!)

The “C. Fremaux & Fils, Bruxelles” press that I used during the residency.  This all-manual press gave quite a work out, but we bonded nonetheless.

Fellow resident Chris Diedericks at work on a litho stone.  Chris made an amazing trio of litho prints which were a joy to watch being created.  Chris was just one of the bunch of residents that were inspirational and fun to work alongside.

The print shop of the Plantin-Moretus Museum in Antwerp.  This famous print shop was the longest running in history (1550′s – 1875) and is now a mind-blowing museum.  It has two of the oldest letterpresses to exist, alongside drawers of type that were cast in the foundry just upstairs.  I could rave for hours about this museum, if you go to Antwerp, it is a must.

I also went, twice, to the Nationaal Museum van de Speelkaart (National Playing Card Museum) in Turnhout.  It has a huge building full of beautiful lettepresses and litho presses.  It also has all of the other steam- and man-powered machines to make cards since the 1700′s.  Playing cards factor heavily in the history of printmaking and this museum shows a good part of that history.  Another recommended spot!  Below is an image of one of their letterpresses (which a boy of 14 would run all day during production.)

The travel and fees for my residency at Frans Masereel Centrum were funded in part by the Regional Arts and Culture Council.

I am so happy to be leaving soon for an Artist Residency at the Frans Masereel Centrum in Belgium.  As the Frans Masereel website states:

The Flemish centre for the graphic arts ‘Frans Masereel‘ is a dynamic, varied and forward-looking international centre for the contemporary visual arts and focuses on the printed image.

The Frans Masereel Centre is a centre for creation, but also for the communication of knowledge, international collaboration and research.

I will be working in the Letterpress area on a series of prints that will, most likely, explore circular buildings, book spines & ink splotches.  I do plan to update the News section while I am at Frans Masereel and my subsequent travels to Amsterdam &  throughout Belgium, including the Plantin-Moretus Museum in Antwerp.

The travel and fees for my residency at Frans Masereel Centrum are funded in part by the Regional Arts & Culture Council.

PROOF:
a group show / ART : SCIENCE
beppu wiarda gallery
319 NW 9th Avenue / Portland OR / 97209 / 503.241.6460

March 2010
Opening / First Thursday / March 4 / 6 – 8 pm
Gallery / Wednesday – Sunday / 11 am – 6 pm
Discussion led by Abra / Sunday / March 21 / 3 pm

I am so pleased to be a part of the PROOF: exhibition at beppu wiarda in March.  The group show includes multiple artists that focused on female scientists and mathematicians for the content.  I have continued my exploration of 19th century astronomer, suffragist, librarian and educator Maria Mitchell.  My work, “An Explanatory and Annotated Legend and Accompanying List, Utilizing the Path of Venus as Seen from Earth to Discuss the Connections between those in Maria Mitchell’s Personal Library as an Addendum to the Personal Libraries Library of Portland, Oregon.” includes a grid of nine letterpress prints (pictured above) and a take-away stack of offset posters.

Alongside the show, there are a series of discussions led by the contributing artists, art historians, scientists and mathematicians.  There is a discussion every Sunday at 3 pm in the gallery.  I will be leading a discussion on Sunday, March 21 that will involve Maria Mitchell and the Personal Libraries Library.

Other artists and their “collaborators” include:
Katie Ammons : Louise Arner Boyd / Kate Copeland : Zoe Rodriguez del Rey / Kate Fenker : Marcia Ascher / Bean Gilsdorf : Suzanne Gahl / Kim Hamblin : Chrystal Bell / Kim McKenna : Sophie Germain / Sara McKenna : Ada Lovelace / Lorna Nakell : Sophie Brahe

and do not miss:

COPY JAM!
A Printeresting Curatorial Project
Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction
116 North Third Street / Philadelphia PA / 19106

One Night Only:
Thursday / March 25 / 2010 / 6 – 9 pm

I am also so pleased to be a part of Printeresting‘s curatorial project Copy Jam! As the Copy Jam! website relates:

‘”COPY JAM!” will be an interactive print event. During the party, fifty works by fifty artists will be displayed in a grid on the wall. Upon arrival, each guest will be handed a complimentary ticket that can be exchanged for one black & white photocopy of any work the guest chooses. There will be no sales; one ticket equals one copy. Copies will be made LIVE in the gallery for one night only!’

This exciting “show & take” runs in conjunction with SGC’s Mark & Remarque and the inaugural Philagrafika in Philadelphia. I wish I could be there for all of the incredible art, discourse and ephemera!

No. 2 Print Shop
3317 SE 21st Avenue
Portland, Oregon 97202
(just south of SE Powell Blvd on 21st)
January 8-31, opening Friday, January 8, 5-8 pm

No. 2 Print Shop is an amazing local etching studio that also exhibits contemporary artworks. They are allowing me to exhibit the Asbury Memory Floorplans (silkscreen & letterpress) for the first time outside of the Asbury & Harwood buildings in Albuquerque. Come on out for a look!