Lots of nice press for 20x200 in the media this month, here's a look at some of the love we've been getting lately:

New York Times: Julie Scelfo's Easing the Pain of Collecting is a great long feature about our Jen Bekman and how she came to start both her gallery and 20x200: "The whole thing was crazy," she said. Opening the gallery "was so impulsive," she continued. "It was literally me sitting in my living room drinking Scotch with friends, and I was laughing — wouldn’t it be funny if someone picked up the phone and said Jen Bekman Gallery?"

Houston Chronicle: Lisa Gray was one of the lucky people who got to Carlo Van de Roer's Astoria Park swimming pool 20x200 edition before it sold out in December; she caught up with Jen while she was in Houston for FotoFest and wrote a nice long piece about us, On the Internet, it's real art for $20: "I want to demystify art," Bekman says. "I want to make it OK for people to say, 'I like that because there's a lot of green, or because there's a bird in it.' And then they can look at it longer, and see more, and have a deeper experience."

Lest you think only newspapers love us, there are some rather lovely shout outs in magazines, too! Wired shows us some love in this month's issue, calling 20x200 the best choice for "art patrons who want gallery quality without gallery attitude" on their shortlist of places to buy original art online, and New York Magazine—in their prestigious annual Best of NY issue, even—named us Best Starter Art Collection, which is wonderfully flattering. Oh, and I haven't gotten my hands on a copy yet, but we're even in this month's Redbook!

Embedded, by Aili Schmeltz

Dreary Tuesday greetings, collectors. A special hello to all you brand new subscribers, coming to us from some fine accolades we've received in the press as of late. Today's a good day to get started! I'm presenting our second edition with artist Aili Schmeltz, using a technique that's a particular fave among our old-school subscribers, and me: the IM conversation.

First things first though: Embedded is an archival pigment print available exclusively through 20x200 in our 3 wonderful sizes. The print is based on an original 55"x42" mixed media on paper painting. As of this typing, the original is still available. Feel free to drop a line to collector at 20x200 dot com for more information.

My art critic friend and I had a good long IM conversation about LA, Ms. Schmeltz, her art and childhood memory this morning. Read on, if you dare:

Jen Bekman: Hello Buttercup
Art Critic Friend: hi there.how are you?
JB: Getting inspired for newsletter writing... Want to see today's edition?
ACF: I finished up that magazine article at a ridiculous hour last night. Yea!
JB: http://www.20x200.com/art/2008/04/embedded.html
ACF: It's about the accessibility of art viewing opportunities for the public
JB: : Noice, I like it...Can't wait to see
ACF: I talk about the various ways in which art fairs can actually limit the public's opportunities to view art as opposed to expand it.
JB: Right, it really is the pits. Not to mention that fairs are not exactly serene art viewing environments. As you know, art for everyone is what I always say! Did you look at the image?
ACF: Hey that's nice!
JB: Thank you! OK can I use you an abuse you? You are going to be my IM conspirator for this newsletter.
ACF: Sure.

detail 1:

JB: So, you and I are both on art overload from a weekend of the fairs. How many fairs did you attend total? I think I hit about 4.
ACF: 7 and I know a bunch of people who saw that many I saw Volta, Pulse, The Armory, Scope, Red Dot, The Dark Fair, and Art LA.
JB: You put me to shame! Except I'd say that as a critic it's your job to go. (and to know!) Which fair would be the most likely to have a painting like Aili's do you think? I'd say Pulse, perhaps. Although I'd love to see a one person show of hers a la Volta. She does installation work as well. Don't know if I've ever shown it to you.
ACF: Pulse possibly. I'd probably go with Art LA though.
JB: This is the most recent thing she did: Goucher Glacier, it's up at Rosenberg Gallery in Baltimore right now.

ACF: It's Richard Heller Gallery type stuff.
JB: : Ah you taunt me with the mention of his name! I have a complex about Richard Heller.
ACF: LOL how come?
JB: Because I love the work he shows.
ACF: those are really nice sculptures btw
JB: : And also, one of his artists, Amy Bennett, showed me work years ago and I didn't move on it quickly enough.
ACF: oh that sux
JB: : And now she is constantly in demand and never has work available! Of course, I am thrilled for her, but kicking myself.
ACF: Well, that was then though.
JB: : It was very early on, and I had little confidence in my instincts, especially when it came to painting. With photography, I just trusted myself from Day One. Other media have been harder, and part of what I've loved about 20x200 so far is that it's allowing me to get to know my own taste better and articulate why it is what it is.
ACF: It's funny. The process is continuous in the same way a blog is, so you grow because of that.
JB: : Right being forced to write everyday makes you a better writer. Sometimes it's grueling, but overall I'm happy for the obligation.
JB: Anyway, back to Art LA. Sure, she'd be perfect there. I just wish that Art LA didn't happen during the madness of Armory weekend.
ACF: It's a small fair -- smaller than last year, so it is a little frustrating that it happens in the middle of Armory madness.
JB: I didn't get to it. I didn't even know that it was happening until you told me about it. And it's too bad because you know that I love me some LA art.
Here are more Aili paintings btw:
JB: : Ah, yea that is too bad. I'm really kind of smitten w/ the LA art scene. I like the idea of a world class city that artists can afford to live in.
ACF: me too
JB: : And also I like the diversity of places to look at and make art. I need to get my butt out there and do studio visits soon. And rent a convertible too, of course.
ACF: with GPS!
JB: : A MUST HAVE.

detail 2:

JB: I love the blue rock crystals in the lower right of Aili's painting. It reminds me of the rock specimens I coveted at the Museum of Natural History when I was a kid.
ACF: Yeah, we used to place them in bowls on our bureaus and stuff
JB: I had one, I'm pretty sure, that was like a cantaloupe cut in half
ACF: I remember getting a bunch of those kind of things with puter wizards attached to them for my grandparents at Christmas one year.
ACF: The circular patterns of those cut rocks mimic the linear patterning of placemats...funny. Just sort of average placemats or table cloths you might find at Crate&Barrel, you see the pattern a lot these days.
JB: Aili might not like that association, but for me I love being able to connect things I see in art with mundane everyday things, and I love when art stuff presents itself in those contexts.
ACF: Maybe not, I always liked it though. It shows up everywhere in fact, that pattern even ended up at the Whitney Biennial four years ago.
JB: I am seeing here that when I wrote the newsletter for her first piece, Radar I was in LA France...re: Biennal: link! link!
ACF: An artist who had made these acrylic paintings that were without a support, the paint hung over a towel rack - it's shape remained perfectly square. Lemme see if I can find it...
I like the pattern a lot - not sure that the work itself has deep connections to this stuff though - just the pattern.
JB: : Ooh I see which placemats you mean now, the ones with scalloped edges? You're talking about the wavy lines to the left of the rock crystals?
ACF: Yeah, and above.
JB: : It's a great palette I think. Also I do like the way all the different angles and layers play off each other. Its an incongruous assemblage, but not too belabored if that makes sense. And I can't tell if we're looking at elevated freeways or roller coasters back there among the palm trees, which I also like.
ACF: For me I really like the way she treats the surface, the city in the background is barely worked up at all.
JB: Yes, I really like that too, just enough to place you, but you're really focused on what's going on beneath the surface.
ACF: It has a very gritty feel to it, while the foreground is a little more polished and refined.
JB: : I also love that huge slab of orange, although I'm not sure why.
ACF: An interesting juxtaposition with the depiction of still raw minerals.
JB: : Right the raw minerals make you want to look at the whole landscape scientifically somehow, even though you're clearly looking at an impossible assemblage of materials and angles. It's like fantasy archaeology!
ACF:Well, further than that, I think there's some connection with the skeletal framework of the roller coaster, and the alchemy of the foreground.
JB: How do you see it...I mean I think I know, but I love it when you get all art analytical. It makes me swoon!
ACF: Both represent the structural components the landscape, while also containing ideas of magic or transmutation. Typically the idea is that the transmutation turns a common substance into something more valuable. I was going to say more, but I actually think it's enough and not go into the transmutation crap.
JB: I love this, this is what I really want 20x200 to do, and it's one of the reasons why I love talking about art with you. You take me beyond the "oooh, it's pretty" and call bullshit when it's JUST pretty. And show me different ways of looking at stuff.
ACF: Thanks!
JB: I want more people to do that, but I also know that without the vocabulary, or the dialogue, it can be awfully tough to do.
Oh, hey, what things are you talking about here:
"I remember getting a bunch of those kind of things with puter wizard"
Did you mean those rock things?
ACF: Oh the crystal formations you were talking about, that looked like a fruit when sliced open.
JB: Yes, yes.
ACF: It made me think of similar crystal formations that would appear to have grown right off the rock. I remember a merchant selling a number of these rocks with wizard figurines attached, with canes, and crystal balls... it can be very cheesy stuff. I bought a bunch when I was ten for my grandparents at Christmas, thinking they would love the stuff. I never did see it displayed in their house. But you know, those kinds of objects have a kind of nostalgia to them for people of my generation I think, so it's hard to think of them too negatively. And of course, while the wizards may be a very literal representation of the "magic" or trans-mutative powers of the crystals, it ties into the dilapidated theme parks, which tend to have similar connotations. There's a kind of false hope to both representations of the landscape.
JB: Were you able to find a link for that biennial artist?
ACF: Ah found it! It was actually 2000 Biennial. Linda Besemer is the artist. Artnet has a really bad scan of the work - way too putrid yellow. I have the catalogue.
JB: Since I can't scan the catalog in time, that putrid .jpg will have to do! It drives me absolutely mad that it is so freaking difficult to find good artist info online.
I know that it's for a reason, namely that it's still way too hard to build/maintain a good website. But still! Grrr. Of course, that's a whole other conversation and you and I both have busy days before us...
~THE END~

ACF and I continued on, and will continue to continue, as we always do. Hopefully you will too - I'm always curious to hear how you all respond to work, so if you've got something to add, drop a line to hello at 20x200 dot com and let us know.

Now I'm going to scramble off to a meeting that I'm already late for. I'll be back tomorrow with a photograph which speaks to me of how I feel about all of you. See you then!

Manshroom, by Amy Ross

If you're in Seattle tomorrow, April the 3rd, you really should drop by PUNCH Gallery for the opening of their latest show Animal Spell, featuring the work of Justin Gibbens and Amy Ross: "Referencing early wildlife and botanical illustration, both artists demonstrate their own distinctive versions of a subversive natural history."

Amy, who is represented by Jen Bekman Gallery, did one of our earliest 20x200 editions, last year's strange and awesomely compelling Manshroom. It's completely sold out in the small size (I am still kicking myself for missing it) but still available in both medium and large—the latter is an especially wonderful bargain because instead of a print, you'll be getting a completely original collage! 20x200 is all about the great deals, you know, but this one is almost too good to be true.

Anyway, you can see many examples of Amy's work and read about her process on her blog Nature Morph, and even get a sneak peek at some of the pieces that will be in Animal Spell tomorrow! The watercolors are all beautiful, delicate and weird (my favorite is called Birch with Birdshrooms) but oh, how I love the collages...

You Are Important, by Stephanie Cinelli

Good Wednesday greetings to you all, Important Collectors, each and every one. Yes, you! You Are Important.

Today's edition comes to us from Stephanie Cinelli. She first showed You Are Important at the gallery waaaaay back in 2005, when Hey, Hot Shot! made its big debut; it's remained a favorite of mine since then.

There's a melancholy tone to this image, which makes total sense considering that it's from a body of work which explores "the changing landscape of a household divided," but for me it's always been about hope's triumph over despair. My inner cornball believes in the power of optimism, in part because I've experienced its healing effects first hand.

I've had a sticker on my apartment door for years that reads I <3 MY SOCIAL SKILLS. It's from a set of stickers that my friend Ryan McGinness produced for Web1.0 art site RSUB. On the side of my fridge is another from the series, proclaiming I <3 MY ATTENTION DEFICIT DISORDER (albeit in a much smaller font.) Ryan surely had his tongue in cheek when producing these items, but I am not ashamed to admit that their presence soothes me.*

The ADD affirmation isn't the only feel-good verbiage on my fridge. A while ago, a friend staying at my house shifted all the front-of-my-fridge clutter to its side and arranged just two pieces on the freezer door: a postcard from my beloved Jeffrey Teuton proclaiming in big block letters YOU ARE THE BEST and directly below it a tattered snapshot of four year old me. (Said friend is decidedly OCD, rather than ADD. Naturally, I have a sticker for that as well!) It's been years since he did that, but they're still there. Sure, I run the risk of giving the impression that I'm an utter narcissist, but it's well worth the reminder of my friend's affection for me and the overall feel-good results of their presence.

So I see that "You Are Important" and imagine that it's working for whoever is looking at it every day, whether they realize it or not. It also doesn't hurt that there's a strong pull of nostalgia. The array of tzotchkes and products atop the Formica counter-top conjure fond memories of my grandparents' house: the allure of my grandmother's red lipstick, the smell of my beloved grandfather's Vitalis and the exotic mystery of that which can only be explored on tippy-toes.

OK, basta with memory lane and Stuart Smalley patter! There are other important matters to attend to. We've got some super special stuff brewing for next week. Until then, browse our archives for any must-haves you might have missed and remember that you can get a steady stream of 20x200-related miscellany via our blog.

*I long ago embraced my ADD and not-exactly-a-wallflower personality as a couple of the key things that add up to me being me. What's the use in fighting it? I might as well enjoy their unexpected benefits - the ADD makes me capable of doing a million things at once and the gregariousness means that rarely is a question left un-asked.

Bags, by Beth Dow

Photolucida hasn't updated their website to reflect the results of this year's Critical Mass competition yet, but judge Lisa Snow recently posted a list of winners on her blog and everyone at Jen Bekman World Domination HQ is ecstatic to see Beth Dow's name as one of six on the book prize short list. Congratulations, Beth! She's represented by Jen Bekman Gallery, and she released a 20x200 edition last October. Her spare, melancholy Bags is now only available in medium and large.

Beth is not the only member of our extended family to do well in Critical Mass 2008—Hot Shots Colin Blakely, Daniel Traub, James Rajotte, Ian van Coller, and Sarah Small are all in the Top 50, so many congratulations to them as well! Colin's piece for 20x200, The Seeming Impenetrability of the Space Between, came out just last week and is already completely sold out save for the large edition.

And now, a brief peek into some of the minds at Jen Bekman World Domination HQ, as seen through our IM conversations

Lia ok, i think this has got to be my favorite news story of the day
Lia http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/apr/04/france.britishidentity
Lia France "currently preoccupied with the fate of its ailing semicolon."
Jen omg
Jen BEST THING EVAR
Lia i know!
Jen there's more wacky news from france too
Jen http://edwardwinkleman.blogspot.com/2008/04/interest-free-loans-to-buy-art.html
Jen "the French government is proposing interest-free loans (up to $10,000) to less wealthy people toward the purchase of art"
Jen i just think it's so FRENCH
Jen and also kind of cool

Okay, so having art on your walls is never going to be an addendum to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and it's not like France doesn't have its fair share of problems far more urgent than sluggish art sales, but stop for a moment and think of how great a future would be in which humanity gets its act together enough that people not having enough access to art in their daily lives can qualify as a pressing concern for governments. I can only hope it does not involve jumpsuits! In the meantime, we'll keep doing our part to make fine art more accessible to everyone (not just the "less wealthy") with awesome prints that start at an affordable $20.

Hyper No 04 by Denis Darzacq

The city of Fremantle in Australia is currently hosting the largest photography festival in the southern hemisphere: FotoFreo 2008 is a "biennial international festival of photography lasting a full month to showcase the work of photographers, to generate an awareness of and a discussion about their work, and to create a forum for the exploration of ideas and issues relating to the practice and art of photography." It's a very long and horribly expensive series of plane rides from New York to Fremantle, which is unfortunate because FotoFreo's list of core exhibitions looks amazing, there are so many photographers whose work I'd love to see in person.

Chief among them is Denis Darzacq, whose work I first encountered through his 2007 World Press Photo prize-winning series La Chute, in which he captures young people seemingly falling at high speed, in the moment before they hit the ground. The photograph above is from his show Hyper et Casqués, now open at the Perth Centre for Photography; "For Hyper," Darzacq says, "I asked young dancers and sportsmen to jump for the camera, inspiring themselves from the aggresive setting of the hypermarket as well as the body language found in mannierist paintings, unreal and exaggerated, futile. A form of resistance against an increasingly rampant consumer society."

Other highlights: Agnès Dherbeys' photos of the ongoing turmoil in East Timor, Chen Nong's hand-colored black and white prints of his recreated terra cotta armies at the Three Gorges Dam, and Wang Gang's portraits of the Yi people in remote China.

(Warning: many bad baseball puns ahead.)

Greetings sports fans, collectors! Welcome to our special Tuesday double header*, brought to us by Don Hamerman.

Hemi and Mossball are just two of many Found Baseballs that Don and his pooch have collected from the park near his home in Stamford, Ct.

I've had my eye on these since Design Observer MVP William Drenttel featured them back in February. With baseball season about to go into full swing, it seemed like the perfect time to hit a few of these out of the park and into our collectors' hands.

The 20x200 All Star team spent a lot of time huddled around a monitor, trying to figure out the best line-up. Everyone had their favorites; right off the bat, it was obvious that we'd never be able to choose just one.

I'm not a huge fan of baseball myself, so the almost totally abstracted Mossball was my first round draft pick. We decided to round things out with Hemi, a baseball at its core that looked more and more like some angry creature as we stared at it.

This edition should warm you up for the week ahead, which features an extra inning. Up at bat tomorrow is our fine art edition, an offbeat homage to another all-American staple created with a decidedly New Yorker point-of-view.

On Thursday, we'll announce a special bonus edition to benefit Blind Spot, in conjunction with its annual benefit auction event @ David Zwirner that same evening. As is fitting for a publication of its caliber, the edition is out of this world and super special.

I can't wait - I'm really looking forward to announcing the edition and attending the benefit, which features tons of great work by some absolutely amazing photographers. Right now, it's time for me to suit up and strike out into the world. I'll be back before you know it, with more art for everyone.

* If you want us to combine shipping on these prints, just respond to your Google checkout email and we'll ship together and refund the difference. Please note that a small per-print handling fee still applies.

Untitled, Winter 2006 by Gregory Crewdson

One of my most vivid memories from my first few months in New York is standing in front of Gregory Crewdson's Twilight series at the Guggenheim and finding bits and pieces of myself in the photographs; despite being too perfectly staged, set in places I'd never go and featuring no one who looks anything like me, there was something so primal about the loneliness and longing in all the unerringly lit scenes that spoke to the part of me terrified I wasn't going to make any friends or get anywhere in the city. It's such a strange, painful thing to remember, and I guess it's why I have such a love/hate relationship with his work—I appreciate the beauty of the photographs and I enjoy the exercise of making elaborate stories in my head around the moment they present, but they always leave me so cold inside.

Having said all of that, I'm excited to see Crewdson's new show at Luhring Augustine here in NYC, Beneath the Roses, which opened this past week and runs through May 3rd. Amy Larocca talked to Crewdson about his process and approach for New York Magazine recently; the most interesting thing to me in the piece is finding out that someone who creates photographs with such a cinematic feel—using about the same manpower as a film crew to make his work, even— has zero desire to ever direct a movie himself. He says, "I think in terms of single images. My work is profoundly connected to that tradition. I really don’t know what happens before or after an image. I really have no clue."

20x200 artist Linzie Hunter has posted some of her lettering sketchbooks on flickr. Great stuff if you are into hand lettering. Her flickr stream is one of our favorites around here. (via Coudal)

Linzie's 20x200 prints: Say Goodbye, Boundless

Hot Dog and I, by Fernanda Cohen

Wednesday greetings, my collector friends. Looks like yesterday's double header was a home run, even among the upper crustiest. I was at a posh event at The Whitney last night and ran into quite a few people who were very pleased with their most recent 20x200 acquisitions. Go team!

I thought we'd follow up yesterday's hit with a curve ball from exuberant artist and illustrator Fernanda Cohen. (That's my final baseball pun for the week, promise.) We're all holding our breath at 20x200 HQ to see how our collector crowd responds to Hot Dog and I.

I think it's pretty great. Hilarious, in fact. Look how happy that dude is, eating his hot dog with his junk blowing in the breeze. He'd probably get arrested in Central Park, but I have a feeling he'd insist on finishing off his afternoon snack before he allowed himself to be cuffed.

Fernanda has a distinctive illustrative style, one that you may well recognize from the pages of The New Yorker. This particular piece is from a series she did called The Food Affair which features a variety of zaftig sensualists in the throes of rapturous repasts. Of all the pieces Fernanda submitted, this was the one that struck me as being so New York for a million reasons (public nudity not being among them.) New York + Food + Love = Edition Awesomeness in my book, so we went with it.

While I saw no naked men munching on wieners in the NYC of my youth, something about this illustration that connects me to, and makes me sentimental for late 20th Century NYC. It reminds me of weekend trips to the museum followed by strolls through the park and special treats of street food. It reminds me of The New Yorker before Tina Brown and of the city itself in a time when it wasn't a place largely inhabited by hedge fund managers and well-moneyed international tourists.

I am probably reading way too much into it, but I'm always glad to have these happy associations triggered and with Hot Dog and I, they're triggered with a giggle.

And what about his apologetic nakedness? This unselfconscious unfurling of a figure that can only be described as rubenesque? Totally great! A well-toned Adonis taking his afternoon meal with such casual aplomb would not have nearly the same effect. There's an uncanny allure to someone who is fat and happy and in love with their lunch. Don't you think?

Speaking of being in love with lunch, I need some of that my own self. Probably something less salty and starchy than what hot dog guy is having. I need to do justice to the fantastic frock that I've picked out for tomorrow's Blind Spot benefit. More on all of that tomorrow morning, when we announce our extra special edition in their honor.

Someone browsing a piece by Dan Perjovschi at the Armory Show, photo by Harry Swartz-Turfle

Friend of 20x200 Paddy Johnson's L Magazine column this week is on how art fairs are actually making it harder to see art:

Every time a series of works is exhibited for the first time at an art fair, its sale shrinks the public viewing time, while charging us for something we’d have previously seen for free. Sure, this art may be seen again on the secondary market or in exhibition, but tracking down a complete suite of works that may have been sold to a number of different clients often requires more resources than a space has at its disposal.

That's not something I'd ever thought about, but the increasing popularity and importance of art fairs, with their pricey admissions and exclusive off-site parties and viewings—Art Basel and its Miami offspring being the two most prestigious/notorious examples—mean that more than ever before, art is making it way into the hands of moneyed collectors without ever being seen by the public, i.e. the likes of you and me. Sad.

Kate Bingaman-Burt and Mike Perry from Ethan Bodnar on Vimeo.

Design Notes says of Ethan Bodner's film about 20x200 artists Kate Bingaman-Burt and Mike Perry, "Finally a design film worth watching." Read more on Design Notes.

Prints available: Mike Perry's Optical 01 and Kate Bingaman-Burt's I Bought All of These

Congratulations to Preston Gannaway, who won this year's Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography for Remember Me, an incredibly intimate chronicle of a dying woman's last few months and her family's subsequent struggle to get through the death of a parent. I've been sitting here trying to write about the photographs and the journey they document for a long time but I have no words; anything I could possibly say seems trite and inconsequential whenever I think of this photo.

20x200 artist Kelly Shimoda was recently featured in a Blue Eyes Magazine piece titled Last Saturday Night. It documents the closing of New York's last remaining roller skating rinks. This documentary work has a somewhat different feel than some of the other elegant enigmatic sets found on her personal website. More on Shimoda can be found on PDN where she is called a 'rising star'.

Prints in her 20x200 edition Hanoi #2 are still availalbe

Ky Anderson is one of my favorite 20x200 artists. Her work manages to be simultaneously funny and formal. Dale Conour interviews Ms. Anderson on his blog Emerson (which he states is devoted to finding the New Romantics). It's a super interview on landscape painting, the nature of inspiration, storytelling, dreams, sex, and Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Don't miss it.

Ky Anderson's website
Many Mountains, Ky's 20x200 edition.

20x200's just a few months old and we've already put out so much work by so many amazing artists, and so many of you have purchased prints that we'd love to see who you are and what you've done with them, so please join the newly-created 20x200 Group on Flickr and let us know where our lovely prints have gone home to! In your hands, on your desk or on your wall—just show us what you've got.

Upload your photos now! Operators are standing by.

Structure of Thought 6b, by Mike and Doug Starn

Structure of Thought 6a, by Mike and Doug Starn
This image will be a future 20x200 edition.

Structure of Thought 6a layered over 6b

Not-just-any-Tuesday greetings, collectors. I'm awfully pleased to be announcing today's special photograph, which kicks off a week's worth of arty goodness featuring not one, but two bonus editions for discerning collectors established and emerging.

We start the week off with Structure of Thought 6b, an edition created exclusively by the Starn Twins for 20x200, to benefit Blind Spot.* The Starn Twins! Doing editions with us! How cool is that?

100% of the profits of this edition will contribute to the support Blind Spot's innovative and ambitious photography programs, which include its fabulous magazine, editions, books and public forums.

As you can see, Structure of Thought 6b is gorgeous in its own right. It can also be layered beneath the upcoming Structure of Thought 6a, another edition from Mike and Doug which will be printed on a vellum paper. The third image shown here gives you an idea of what they look like when they're layered, but as is often the case, the effect is much better when viewed in person. (We're still putting the finishing touches on the other edition, and we'll introduce it as soon as it's all done.)

Eric Recktenwald, 20x200 printing wizard, is producing both prints, which have been closely supervised by the Starns. Today's edition is printed on smooth archival cotton fiber paper that's opaque. The upcoming edition's archival vellum surface is semi-translucent, which gives it a dreamy ethereal effect when viewed on its own; when layered over today's edition, the limbs become, in the Starns' words "separate and connected, like capillaries in your body or in a leaf."

Working on this project with the Starns has been an amazing experience, reconfirming my belief that I have the very best job in the world. Figuring out how to produce these prints has been a formidable and incredibly fun challenge. Sarah and I spent a few hours out at the Starns' studio last week; Mike, Doug and Gaudéricq Robiliard, their wonderful project director, looked over Eric's proofs with us and we made our final selections. We talked about how ably Eric had met this printing challenge, their upcoming exhibitions and their other art-for-everyone undertaking, a monumental installation they're completing for the South Ferry subway station as part of the MTA's Arts for Transit program. (That is going to really be something and I can't wait to see it.)

The Starns are long-time supporters of, and collaborators with, Blind Spot; I'm proud and honored to have had the opportunity to add another layer to that support with this edition. And of course, it's not just Blind Spot they're supporting — doing an edition with 20x200 signals Doug and Mike's commitment to making art available to a broad audience. Such a commitment can be seen as renegade or risky, but its one that they've honored with enthusiasm and uncompromising standards. In other words: they are awesome.

To top off this extravaganza, Blind Spot publisher Dana Faconti is offering a 10% discount to 20x200 collectors who subscribe to Blind Spot Magazine. It's a totally delicious, beautifully printed publication that's collectible itself, so I encourage you to get a subscription. (To get your discount, enter code 20x200 when you check out.)

A few words about this edition:

- It's only available in the $20 and $2000 sizes.
- Purchases are limited to one print of each edition per collector and/or mailing address. We reserve the right to refund purchases if we determine that a single collector has acquired multiple prints.
- It's not going to ship right away. We expect to be able to ship it well within two weeks, which is not our usual speedy standard. (It's worth the wait, promise!)
- While you can layer this with the upcoming edition, each edition is a separate piece. You don't need one to complete the other.\
- All prints are sold on a first come, first serve basis. Buying today's edition doesn't guarantee that you'll be able to get the second one.
- We absolutely cannot combine shipping on these prints. Our apologies!
And with those notes, I take my leave until tomorrow, when I'll be back with this week's fine art edition. See you all then!

*Yes, this is the edition I promised you last week! It took a little longer for us to finalize all the fine details, in spite of lots of hard work and our very best intentions.

Yesterday we introduced a print by the Starn Twins. Within 20 seconds all the slots had been filled and within 7 minutes all the orders were processed. I wanted to respond to some of the common emails we received yesterday from people who were disappointed that they missed out.

Can't you produce another edition?

One of the reasons 20x200 works for artists and collectors is that we close editions. Once we've sold out, there are no more prints.

I saw 25 prints remaining. Why did it say sold out when I put the order through?

We only update pages once after you land on the site, so in fast selling editions it's possible that 25 more orders started being processed after you arrived. Even if you hit refresh, sometimes numbers get cached in memory depending on the browser you're using. So sometimes the numbers are misleading.

I had google problems. What can I do to make those go away?

If you want to move quickly, the best thing you can do is to set up your google checkout account beforehand. You can do this at http://checkout.google.com. When setting up an account google charges you $1 and then credits you $1. Usually this is instant, but sometimes the procedure takes hours. Most people with google problems are stuck waiting for that transaction or one of the other credit checks google runs to clear. Also make sure your address and phone number are up to date. Google verifies your credit card info against them.

Why wasn't the new edition up at 2:00PM EST as promised (and why did the email go out after 2:00PM EST)?

We're a small company and we're human and things don't always make it out the door on time. All this said, we're trying to be better and more predictable.

Why was the edition sold out when I checked my email?

Depending on how your email is set up it might check the server every minute, every ten minutes, or every thirty minutes. People whose email programs check their servers more frequently get their emails faster than those who have it set at longer intervals. Also depending on the vagaries of the internet some emails take longer to be routed to their destinations. With a fast selling edition this can mean the difference between getting a print and not getting one.

Generally speaking emails go out before the edition is posted live on the site, so if we're running late we'll post first to the email and then post to the site 30 minutes to an hour later. You can buy as soon as you get your email. If you have some problem reading the email in your reader you can always go to ttp://www.20x200.com/email. Buyin g early is the big advantage of being on the email list. For fast selling editions being on the list is the only way to get an edition as they are starting to sell out before we post to the live site.

What happens with cancellations? Is there a waiting list?

Cancelled orders go back into the pool and show up on the site. This is why inventory sometimes fluctuates. We don't have a waiting list because quite frankly it would be too hard to keep track of.

How do I know my order went through and what's the best way to contact you about an order?

If you receive a Purchase receipt email from Google Checkout with a order number, you order went through. In that email is a link to request a change in the order. You can also just reply to the Purchase receipt.

Is there nothing I can do?

If you like the work of one 20x200 artist, the odds are that you'll like others. We have new editions every week. So if you don't manage to get one today, you'll get one in the future. If things get too crazy and editions regularly sell out so fast that most of our list is disappointed, we'll release editions more frequently. There's nothing we enjoy more than connecting artists with collectors!

Untitled (Geese), by Dana Miller

We're great fans of Dana Miller here at Jen Bekman World Domination HQ—one of her photographs was on the very first postcard for the Jen Bekman gallery's first exhibition, she had her third solo show there in 2004, and released the photo you see above as a 20x200 edition last October—so we're more than happy to say that she's just this very week released a book of her work through Blurb: analogue is a 72-page hardcover book of photographs "about the relationships between things", available now for $34.95. Congratulations, Dana!

If you like Dana as much as we do, we've still got her Untitled (Geese) available in all sizes, so pick one up while you still can; know that the intense green of the algae in the print is not done justice by our newfangled computer screens, it's striking and unbelievably beautiful in person.

Chamonix, by Ian Carpenter

Yesterday was a record-breaking day in 20x200's short history. Our Blind Spot benefit print, the first of two editions from Starn Twins, was gone in seven minutes! I had a feeling it'd be popular, but we didn't anticipate just how fast it would go. Lucky for the disappointed many, there's another edition from Mike + Doug in the works that we'll be announcing any day now; as usual, list subscribers will be the first to know.

For the moment, let's turn our attentions to the colorful Chamonix, an archival pigment print based a gouache on wood original by NYC painter Ian Carpenter. Ian's inspiration might be coming from the snowy mountains of Chamonix-Mont-Blanc in Eastern France, but run through the technicolor filter of his imagination it becomes a valley town from another planet.

His own inspirations aside, the use of color and his playful juxtaposition of forms inspires in me an utterly random and enjoyable stream of consciousness, touching upon many of my favorite things, some far away, and some nearly forgotten: the Southwest, candy, a beloved acid-green jacket that I wore in high school (it was the 80s, shut up), looking down at cityscapes from airplanes and the decaying World's Fair structures out in Queens. These are just a few things which have presented themselves to me while looking at this painting.

What can I say? The mind works in mysterious ways. As a firm believer in the idea that there are no wrong answers, I like that Ian's approach and its results encourage my mind to wander.

Currently, I'm wanting to wander over to eBay to see whether I might be able to unearth an 80s vintage Kikit jacket, and, wouldn't you know it? I'm craving some candy. So, I'm going to take my leave and try to satisfy those urges, leaving you to your own wanderings.

Need more inspiration? Browsing our inventory will prime your imagination and keep things humming until I return tomorrow with the aforementioned photography edition. See you then!

20x200 artist, and favorite person who hangs around the office, Jason Polan is featured on Cool Hunting today. They spotlight his 20x200 Hand Project among many of his other excellent artistic ventures. The still above is from Jason's video How to Draw an Apatosaurus.

Goucher Glacier, by Aili Schmeltz

LA-based artist Aili Schmeltz has been kind enough to grace us with not one but two beautiful 20x200 editions examining her love/hate relationship with the city she lives in: last November's Radar and the piece that opened this month, Embedded, both now only available in the medium and large sizes. If you like Aili's work as much as we do and find yourself in Baltimore this month, please stop by the Rosenberg Gallery, where she's installed her large piece Goucher Glacier as part of the group show Ethnography of No Place. The exhibit is open weekdays from 9 to 5, and closes Friday, May 2nd.

Untitled (Bondi Baths, Sydney, Australia) 2007
by Carlo van de Roer

Is it Spring yet? It just might be. We're being teased mercilessly here in NYC, where it's been brilliantly sunny, yet not quite warm enough, for seemingly forever (and today.) I have a feeling that it'll switch over to swelter overnight, and swimming season will be upon us.

Untitled (Bondi Baths, Sydney, Australia) 2007, our second offering from Kiwi shutterbug Carlo Van de Roer's Swim series, is a well-suited accompaniment to this line of thinking, wouldn't you say? (Note: I just can't help myself with the puns, it's practically a sickness. Brace yourselves, there's more.)

Carlo's first edition, Untitled (Astoria Park, Queens, New York), made quite a splash when we introduced it just before Christmas. The entire edition sold out in short order; clearly, everyone was into the pool.

20x200 collectors have been thirsting for more ever since, so while Carlo and I were hanging out at Fotofest in Houston, we fished out another fine specimen to offer from the series. We chose Untitled (Bondi Baths, Sydney, Australia) 2007 because aside from having pools and swimmers in common, this image is clearly the best mate to Astoria's composition.

Ok, basta with puns. I've got a huge backlog of email to dive into and schedules to synchronize. I set sail for San Francisco on Tuesday, so the crew and I are rushing to get everything ship shape before I go. (Of course I'm not sailing, but you know...)

Ahoy till next week, mateys!

Untitled (from Sub Rosa), by Birthe Piontek

À nos amis Montréalais, we're pleased as punch to say 20x200 edition maker, Hot Shot! Ne Plus Ultra, and newly-minted PDN 30 Birthe Piontek will be one of ten photographers showing their visions of home in Bienvenue, a show opening at your lovely city's Maison de la culture Frontenac this coming Thursday, April 24th. We've still got prints of Birthe's moody, beautiful Untitled (from Sub Rosa) available, and think it would be a vision in your home!

Palms, by Ian Baguskas

Let's start the week out right with congratulations to Ian Baguskas, the 20x200 edition maker and Hot Shot Ne Plus Ultra recently named to PDN's 30, whose current show at the Jen Bekman Gallery just received a lovely review by Peggy Roalf in the AI+AP's Design Arts Daily newsletter; Roalf says his Sweet Water is "one of the most beguiling exhibitions on view in New York."

If you're in the city, you really should go see it—if you think Ian's images look amazing on your screen, know that you'll find them absolutely mesmerizing in person. Sweet Water has been extended to May 3rd, so you've got time! We've still got prints of Ian's 20x200 edition Kamping Kabins available in all three sizes; I'm sure one of them would look great on your wall.

Structure of Thought 6a, by Mike and Doug Starn

Structure of Thought 6b, by Mike and Doug Starn

Greetings collectors and welcome to Starn Twins for 20x200: The Sequel. This is a special bonus edition, coming hot on the heels of last week's Blind Spot benefit edition.

Structure of Thought 6a is printed on translucent vellum and is a beautiful print on its own, so if you didn't get the first one, don't hesitate to click through and grab a print. And of course, it can be layered over Structure of Thought 6b. I sat in the studio with Mike and Doug and we experimented with the proofs, trying to decide the best way to layer them effectively. The objective is twofold: creating a little space between the two layers allows the light to move through the vellum, illuminating the lower print, and when the vellum is suspended it also creates some ripples in the paper, mimicking the texture of their works done on varnished papers. We came up with two solutions:

- The nothing fancy solution: Small plain tacks set in a bit from the corners of the bottom layer.

- The somewhat fancier pro-framer solution. Your framer can use archival paper hinges to affix the vellum layer to the cotton rag layer, creating the same effect as if by magic. (Since the hinges won't be visible.)

Are you still reading this?! Come back and finish up later, this edition is sure to sell out quickly so go ahead and buy one now

I'll be back on Tuesday and Wednesday with regular fine art and photography editions. See you then!

A few words about this edition:

- It's only available in the $20 and $2000 sizes.

- Purchases are limited to one print of each edition per collector and/or mailing address. We reserve the right to refund purchases if we determine that a single collector has acquired multiple prints.

- It's not going to ship right away. We expect to be able to ship it well within two weeks, which is not our usual speedy standard. (It's worth the wait, promise!)

- While you can layer this with our previous Starn edition, each edition is a separate piece. You don't need one to complete the other. And there is no guarantee that people who bought the first will receive the second.

- All prints are sold on a first come, first serve basis.

- We cannot combine shipping with this edition. Our apologies!

Tote Bags by Dustin Hostetler (left) and Fernanda Cohen (right)

20x200 edition makers Dustin Hostetler (a.k.a. UPSO) and Fernanda Cohen are two of the many artists with pieces in OPEN SPACE Beacon's current Tote / Bag show, which aims to raise environmental awareness and encourage us to "switch from a disposable society to one which reduces, reuses and recycles."

Dustin created one bag for the show and Fernanda made two (1, 2); all three are available for $100 and proceeds from the sale of the show will be donated to Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, a non-profit which conducts environmental education, advocacy programs and celebrations to protect the Hudson River, its tributaries and related bodies of water.

P.S. We've still got prints of Dustin's Color Study #4 and Fernanda's Hot Dog and I available, if you'd like to see more of their work! I think they're both splendid, they're two of my all-time favorite 20x200 editions.

Trucks, Seattle, by Tommy Perman

Tuesday greetings collectors! After a week of Starnmania, things are getting back to normal around here. Which means that today is fine art day, tomorrow is photo day and I'm about to hit the road.

Trucks, Seattle is based on an original drawing by Scottish renaissance fella Tommy Perman. I first came across Tommy's work back in January, via one of the countless art and design blogs in my RSS feed. I was really taken with his drawings of cityscapes and cars and I was very pleased to discover that he too was interested in making affordable versions of his artwork. I immediately snapped up one of his postcard packs and after that we decided to do an edition together.

As per usual there's a random assortment of things that make this drawing particularly appealing to be. The trucks are gathered together in a way that reminds me of a herd of elephants, and it just so happens that I am fascinated by elephants. The red and blue Tommy uses in the drawing are a close approximation of the colors in my gallery's logo. But first and foremost, I look at these cement mixers all lined up and imagine one of my friends' kids, most likely a boy of 3 or 5, lighting up at the sight of trucks. There's something about the pure joy that a little kid can summon at the site of a roaring hunk of metal that really warms my heart.

A roaring hunk of metal of the airborne variety will be transporting me to San Francisco later today. I'm participating in a Small Business Hacks roundtable at Web2Open, which is the unconference that coincidences with the bigger, more conference-ier Web 2.0 Expo. Aside from conference-related stuff, art will be seen, meetings will be had and newsletters will be written. For now, I'm off to try to undo the over-packing I've done. Look for me tomorrow, when I'll write from the left coast to introduce this week's photo edition.

Every Chair At the Visual Studies Workshop, by Luke Strosnider

The image above is the medium sized print in this edition. It includes 45 of Luke's favorite chairs.

The small prints are of individual chairs:

And the large 30"x40" print is of all 521 chairs:

Greetings from the West, collector friends! I write to you from San Francisco, bundled up in a cozy wrap to ward off the delicious chill of morning fog. I love the cozy, and I love today's photography edition by photographer, writer and all around smart guy Luke Strosnider.

Our editions of Every Chair at the Visual Studies Workshop are a shining example of why doing 20x200 is so much fun. I love figuring out interesting ways to experiment with our format without breaking it; Luke's project provides an excellent avenue for such an inquiry.

His typology of chairs is so good - simple, funny and somehow really touching. As with all typologies, his treatment of his subjects speaks simultaneously to sameness and difference. We've structured the edition in a way that allows collectors to look at them the same way.

Our edition of 200 is comprised of 200 unique chair portraits - every collector will receive a different, randomly chosen photo. In treating his subjects as though he is shooting traditional portraits, he anthropomorphizes them; considered singly, each seems imbued with its own character. Certain chairs elicit from me the cooing and aww-ing I normally reserve for the sight of otters holding hands. Others are velveteen rabbits well-used, but taken for granted. Every single one is unique, selected from the pool of 522.

Our medium edition is a well-thought out grid, representing the variety of chairs Luke's documented. Considered together and carefully arrayed, this version speaks to my design-jones, delivering a deft, populist and decidedly contemporary response to the Vitra Design Museum's iconic chairs poster.

Our largest edition drops science. Consider it the periodic table of 522 chairs of the Visual Studies Workshop. Luke explained to me via email that the ordering (L to R, starting in the upper L) is the order in which I made the photographs. It was important to me that this project reflect some measure of the passage of time: my own time, "photographic time," and the history of the Visual Studies Workshop. At first blush it seemed off-kilter, but then I came to realize that its asymmetry spoke directly to the project's authenticity, intelligence and charm.

Luke has been one of my internet (and less frequently, in-person) pals for a while now, connecting with the gallery in various ways. Two of his Visual Studies cohorts, Kirby Pilcher and James Rajotte, are Hey, Hot Shot! alumni. Luke himself has been a frequent visitor to the gallery and has written intelligent commentary about several exhibitions. His response to Nina Berman's debut at my gallery was thought-provoking and his review of Photographs from the New World for Afterimage was one of the best things written about the show. (And a lot was written about that particular exhibition.) When Luke debuted his chairs project on Flickr, I was totally thrilled, because I knew that it was the perfect opportunity for us to finally work directly together on something.

I couldn't be more pleased with the results. The edition has a lot in common with other interactions I've had with Luke - it's been fun and inspiring and it's made me look at things a little differently. Exactly what art and artists should do, so very well done by Mr. Strosnider.

And with that, I take my leave till next week, when I'll be back with more art and tales of the West. Have fun out there!

Kate Bingaman-Burt is all about Obsessive Consumption—she's made a personal brand out of drawing her purchases and credit card bills—so it only makes sense that she was last week's Featured Buyer over at Etsy, the online marketplace for handmade things.

I love the graphic she made to go with the Etsy piece, which incorporates her drawings of things she's bought off the site, just as I love her blog (everyone should have one, and hers is great!), her 20x200 editions Carts #1 and I Bought All of These, and her solo show at Jen Bekman Gallery last fall; everything Kate puts out has this amazing energy and sense of fun and whimsy that makes me so happy just to look at them. Sounds cheesy, I know, but it's totally true.

http://www.christinamuraczewski.com/
If you happen to be one of our dedicated Los Angeles collectors be sure to stop by 20x200 artist Christina Muraczewsi's space at Open Studio 2008.

May 3rd-4th 12pm-6pm
Santa Fe Art Colony
2401 South Santa Fe Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90058

Christiana's prints on 20x200 are almost sold out but there are still a few medium and large sized prints of Daisy and Polly available. The Polly original is also still available.

Muraczewski has just launched a brand new website.

ny.07.#34 by Jennifer Sánchez

Fans of Jennifer Sánchez*, if you find yourself in Chi-town this coming weekend for Art Chicago 2008, please make sure to check out her work at its newest sibling NEXT: The Invitational Exhibition of Emerging Art, which will be occupying the entire 7th floor of the same venue. Here's a bit more about it: "More international than any other young fair of contemporary art to date, NEXT boasts galleries from every important art city in the world, including Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, Toronto, Mexico City, Sao Paulo, London, Paris, Berlin, Frankfurt, Leipzig, Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Tokyo, Warsaw and Bucharest."

Alas, Jennifer won't be in town herself to press the flesh, but her mesmerizing paintings will be on display at Kinsey/DesForges, booth #7-9038.

*I know there are lots of you out there because both her 20x200 editions are completely sold out, save the two large prints + the original of ny.07.#34—so grab one while you still can!

Pollution Post Unlimited by Andrew MacRae

Friends, if you're all OMG! TGIF! today because you've been cooped up working indoors all week while the weather's (finally) been lovely outside, I feel your pain. Before letting you go for the weekend though, I feel like it's my duty to point out that if you still haven't signed up to receive our fantastic newsletters yet, you're missing out. I mean, our newsletters, all missives straight from our fearless leader Jen Bekman, alert you to our newest editions before they appear on the site! We've had some recent editions sell out almost immediately after the newsletter started hitting inboxes—Luke Strosnider's Every Chair At the Visual Studies Workshop, Carlo van de Roer's Bondi Baths, two pieces by the Starn twins were all gone within minutes—so signing up for our early warning system is the only way to ensure you have a chance greater than zero of getting particular pieces.

Our Raul wrote some notes on quick selling editions last week and it's well worth a read, especially if you missed out on one of those pieces I mentioned earlier! And if you did, maybe you will take some consolation in the fact that I did too—so when I say I know how you feel, I really really do. There are precious few prints left of Andrew MacRae's beautiful Pollution Post Unlimited (view larger image), maybe snapping one up right now before anyone else does will assuage the pain.

Wave Fade by Todd St. John

20x200 edition maker Todd St. John has two pieces in the Big Kids/Little Kids travelling show that ends its run in Brooklyn's Cinders gallery on May 4th. Curated by John Freeborn, the show focuses on current work by 38 artists represented in Freeborn's Big Kids/Little Kids book as helping shape and inspire the first eight years of Philadelphia's underground arts scene by working or showing in its spaces.

Todd created a limited edition hand-screen printed dust jacket of Big Kids/Little Kids; each of the 50 copies of the 120-page book is signed and numbered by Todd, and is available for $30 + shipping, which is a great deal. Perhaps even better: we still have prints of his super stylish 20x200 edition Untitled (Black Blocks) available in all sizes, and our prices start at just $20.

Giraffes Thing by Jason Polan

The super awesome Mr Jason Polan and his equally amazing friend Derek Erdman have a two-man show opening today in Chicago, and here are three reasons why you should go:

1. Jason's Hand Project manages to be both one of the most fun and most interesting 20x200 editions—each print is actually a one-of-the-kind original! As Jen said in her newsletter: "Thinking about my hand, and everything (yes, everything!) it allows me to do, thinking about a photocopier as an artist's tool, recognizing the immediacy, intimacy and authenticity that springs from the in-person interaction required for an actual handshake - these are all things I'm happy to notice and to honor."
2. I've never met him or even had an online conversation with him, but the stuff Derek puts online cracks me up. Check out one of his drawings from last month, for example: Jason Polan in a Pith Helmet.
3. There will be a book accompanying the exhibition, which you can get there. Or you can email the artists, but if you're in town you should just go to the show—you'll see their stuff in person and save postage too! Win-win.

Oh, and one more thing: Jason says there will be snacks! Art + snacks, what more could you possibly want? So here are the details:

ART SHOW

All new work by Derek Erdman and Jason Polan

Tuesday, April 29, 2008 5-7pm

Hollander Fireproof Warehouses
1624 W. Milwaukee
Chicago, IL

Corner Light Monadnock, by Amy Park

Greetings from the West Coast, my collector pals. I'm still visiting San Francisco and have been enjoying all kinds of arty goodness during my trip. More on that later, because really the main point of this missive (as you well know!) is to introduce today's edition.

Corner Light Monadnock is based on an original watercolor painting by NY-based artist Amy Park. All of Amy's gorgeous architectural paintings render the solidity of bricks and mortar with a precision one would never expect to be coaxed from watercolor. (Well, this one would never expect it, at least.) As a medium, watercolor can be inconsistent and difficult to contain; their use in Amy's work gives the buildings a dreamy, cinematic intensity well-suited to the feeling I get when walking through the deserted caverns of Wall Street on a weekend afternoon.

There's a theoretical future version of myself who lives in a cottage in the woods (somewhere near Point Reyes, preferably.) Future me rides her bike into town in the morning to pick up her mail from the PO and kibbitz with the locals over coffee. Future me is more like fantasy me, however, because really I'm a city girl at heart - more at home in the wilds of Manhattan than amongst the redwoods. Amy's work speaks to past, present and yes, future me as well. It captures the majesty and menace of the urban landscape and transports me into it from wherever I may be. And in spite of its foreboding, I really want to be there.

Most of my San Francisco trip has been spent downtown and South of Market, amongst its own glass and brick towers. On Saturday, I caught the last day of America by Car, a very fine Friedlander show at Fraenkel Gallery. I also got a sneak peak at their upcoming Christian Marclay exhibition Stereo which is going to be totally amazing, I promise.

I've found lots of prints of the not $20 variety to covet along the way - a couple from Marclay, a little something from Chris Johanson printed by Paulson Press and later on today I'll pop into the venerable Crown Point Press to ogle their Amy Sillman and Julie Mehretu prints. Not to mention the fabulous and funny Los Francisco San Angeles prints from Ed Ruscha. After that I'll get my SFMOMA on, where I'm hoping to have time to get a closer look at their current Friedlander exhibition, an incarnation of which I saw all too briefly when I was at Foam in Amsterdam over the holidays.

Tomorrow's a toss up. Future me wants to squeeze in a trip to Pt. Reyes. But art fiend me wants to head to the East Bay and visit those prints at Paulson Press in person. Decisions, decisions! I'll let you know what the plan is in the morning, when I'll be back with a photo edition most fine, my last San Francisco dispatch before heading home to the sidewalks of New York on Thursday.

We here at Jen Bekman World Domination HQ are by nature rather excitable when it comes to people making their art affordable and therefore accessible, so it's pretty great that Tommy Perman's got a pack of postcards for sale. For £8 you get 16 tiny prints of drawings he's made over the past five years—including a small version of his recent 20x200 edition, Trucks, Seattle, which we'd be more than happy to send you a 8.5" x 11" print of for just $20. Bargains all around!

P.S. Not to gender-stereotype or anything—especially since I was the kind of little girl that had collections of GI Joes and Micro Machines—and hopefully this isn't an overshare but: wow, writing this post + my biological clock = totally making me fantasize about having a little boy and hanging Tommy's Trucks and postcards in his bedroom. How cute would that be? Pretty darn cute, I say.

Towards Christiana (Copenhagen) by Rachel Sussman

Wednesday greetings, collectors. You're going to have to forgive me for keeping it brief — it's my last day in SF and in spite of my best intentions, yesterday's ambitious plans went uncompleted. To make matters worse, I am already way behind, as evidenced by the lateness of this dispatch.

Fortunately, today's photography edition, Towards Christiana (Copenhagen), is so gorgeous; a song and a dance from me isn't needed to convince you of its aesthetic merits. That said, I'd be doing you all a disservice if I didn't call attention to photographer Rachel Sussman's rigorous and adventurous artistic practice.

Like today's edition, all of Rachel's images are unfailingly stunning — they're lush, epic and beautifully composed — but she creates these tableaux in the service of some big ideas and ambitions that have, quite literally, taken her all over the world.

One special note about this edition: It's offered in our three standard 20x200 editions, but we also have an edition of 3 prints available at Rachel's normal exhibition size of 44"x 54". They are amazing! You can mail collector at 20x200 dot com for more information about those.

Rachel showed another photo from her Lost in Paradise with me back in 2005 as part of the very first Hey, Hot Shot! showcase. Since then, she's gone from being a photographer with a day job to someone who spends most of her time making pictures.

All her hard work has paid off! Her solo show, The Oldest Living Things In The World opens @ Michael Steinberg Fine Art in Chelsea tomorrow and it promises to be a real treat.

As for me, I've got some San Francisco treats to stock up on. I'm off until next week, when I'll be coming to you live from New York. See you then!