20x200 Blog

SFJAZZ Benefit Edition: Mark Ulriksen

2008-05-15T19:21:31Z

Bonus Thursday greetings with a special shout out to the Bay Area. As close readers of this newsletter know, today's special edition is to benefit amazing arts organization SFJAZZ. In other West Coast news, Allison Arieff published a wonderful write-up about 20x200 on the Sunset magazine's blog. As a former writer about design, I have worshiped Ms. Arieff from afar for some time, so glowing accolades from her are especially flattering. Today's edition Monk, is by jazz-loving artist Mark Ulriksen. If his distinctive style looks familiar to you, it's likely because his work has been featured on many covers of The New Yorker. I have always had a strong affinity for jazz and was fortunate to have my taste shaped by some amazing jazz musicians; Thelonius Monk was always core to the canon, as he well should be. I had an amazing friendship with tenor great Joe Henderson who encouraged me to give the music business a try. I spent a while working at a jazz publishing house in the Flower District that also doubled as a rehearsal studio for folks like Ben Riley, The Manhattan Transfer and T.S. Monk who I came to know as Toot. Another highlight: holding the original copyright certificate of 'Round Midnight in my hands. My career there was short-lived but my love of jazz is a lifelong passion. I carried that passion with me when I moved to San Francisco in 1996, and The San Francisco Jazz Festival kept that passion well tended to. One of my sweetest SF memories is seeing Sonny Rollins at Masonic Hall. As producers of the Festival, SFJAZZ is an organization that I have held in high-esteem for years. Combine that with the piece of my heart that I left in San Francisco, and you can see how doing an edition to benefit them is a no-brainer. I am bringing this edition to you on the eve of their big 25th Anniversary Gala. The event, at the Fours Season in San Francisco tomorrow night, will honor yet another jazz great Wayne Shorter. While I can't be there for the main event, I am most honored to celebrate this fine organization from afar, and I'm very grateful to Mark Ulriksen for making the celebration such a sweet one. So with a toast to Mr. Ulriksen, you fine collector people and SFJAZZ, I'll say so long till next week when I'll be back to serve up some more fine editions to you. See you then! -- About SFJAZZ SFJAZZ is an international leader in jazz creation, presentation, and education. The San Francisco-based organization's 25th Anniversary Gala (May 16, 2008) honors legendary saxophonist and NEA Jazz Master Wayne Shorter in his 75th birthday year. This elegant evening, a benefit for the artistic and education programs of SFJAZZ, will feature performances by Shorter with members of the SFJAZZ Collective, the SFJAZZ High School All-Stars, and an after-party with the Tommy Castro Band. For more information on the Gala and SFJAZZ's many programs, visit sfjazz.org.

PDN's 46 Reasons to Love Photography Now

2008-05-15T18:50:52Z

Photography's paper of record, PDN, has included 20x200 in it's list of "46 Reasons to Love Photography Now." If you don't subscribe we have a pdf of the page available here. We have only quibble with the piece. PDN writes,

"Often the best ideas are the simplest, and the simplicity of 20x200 has generated a lot of buzz from magazines such as Dwell and ReadyMade, and sites such as Boing Boing and ApartmentTherapy. It’s also generated plenty of sales:In March, small-size prints by Colin Blakely and Bert Teunissen sold out in less than a week."

While it's true the prints sold out quickly, it didn't take a week, both of those prints sold out in less than an hour.

20x200 in Sunset Magazine

2008-05-15T18:15:04Z

The Sunset Magazine blog has a nice piece on 20x200 this week. Click on over.

Wednesday Edition: Curtis Mann

2008-05-14T19:13:26Z

Tree Tops, from the series Somewhere in Israel, by Curtis Mann

Good Wednesday, collectors. I am rushing off to a jam-packed day so I'm going to keep my introduction to today's edition relatively brief. (Shocking, I know.) Treetops from a series by Curtis Mann called Somewhere in Israel, is another body of work that explores the idea of photographs as objects . (Last week's edition by Kent Rogowski dealt with similar themes, producing an entirely different result.) Curtis does a great job of explaining what he's up to in his statement, so I'll let him speak for himself: ...found photographs of unfamiliar and conflicted places throughout the Middle East and Northern Africa are subjected to a process of selection and erasure. By simply painting on enlarged color photographs with clear acrylic and then bleaching the image with household Clorox bleach, a new and abstract meaning is being forced out of these family snapshots, travel photographs and casual documentations.

The photograph is physically and contextually altered; as a result, the work has the ability to oscillate between image and object, photography and painting, real and imagined. I am constantly trying to force the medium to function outside of its initial utility and use its malleable nature as a way of coming to an ulterior understanding of the complex and the unfamiliar. This new reading attempts to shift and expand the limits on how we perceive and understand the fragmented world in which the photograph attempts to represent. Today is a big day for Curtis; in addition to making his 20x200 debut, he's got a big opening in New York tonight. The Ubiquitous Image, curated by Aperture publisher and Hey, Hot Shot! panelist Lesley Martin, includes several images from this series. The show is one of the four main exhibitions that are the centerpiece of The New York Photo Festival. Tonight's opening is the first of a flurry events happening over the next few days, including the aforementioned Curating 2.0 panel that I'm participating in on Friday. Curtis is a Hot Shot who first showed with me back in Fall 2005 and is, as of this writing, a 20x200 artist. In other words: he's a perfect example of my 2.0 curatorial practice. I couldn't think of a better day to introduce his work to all of you! Having introduced you, I'll take my leave till tomorrow. That's right tomorrow! In case you've forgotten (or didn't read that far) we're doing a special bonus edition tomorrow to benefit SFJAZZ. This means even more art for everyone, and that should be music to your ears.

Tuesday Edition: Sarah McKenzie

2008-05-13T19:19:48Z

Site, by Sarah McKenzie

Greetings, collectors near and far, on this most lovely of Tuesdays. NYC is bright and breezy today, which is quite a relief after a Monday on which I considered it might be time to build an ark. With that project back-burnered for the moment, I can focus on the buildings of others. Or the paintings of buildings of others. Or is it the prints created from the paintings of buildings of others? Yes, that one! Let's get on with it shall we? Today's print edition is Site, by Colorado-based painter Sarah McKenzie. I am particularly proud, excited and pleased with this edition as it's the result of my museum-related edition scouting. I first saw Sarah's work in February, when I was in Minneapolis and attended the opening for Worlds Away: New Suburban Landscapes at The Walker. (Incidentally, I am totally nuts for both that show specifically and the museum in general . Highly recommended!) Since the advent of 20x200, I wander through galleries, museums and art fairs jotting down the names of artists I like in my Moleskine. I am convinced that pretty much every artist should do an edition with us, every artist I like at least, and given the opportunity I will ask accordingly. I'm not afraid of "No", nor am I inclined to accept it as an answer. See how hard I work for you people? During my Walker wanderings, I saw Sarah's amazing painting and her name and the painting were jotted down in my notebook with high hopes.* Flash forward to a few months later, and here I am presenting you fine people an edition from Ms. McKenzie! A museum piece, no less! (Thanks to the Walker for accommodating us to shoot the piece.) Site got to be in the museum for a reason - Sarah wields a paint paintbrush deftly, giving us a fresh view of the banality of suburbia. I shift through different impressions each time I look at it. At first glance it seemed photorealistic, in part because it reminds me of the ground well-trod by many of my favorite fine art photographers. But look closely and it's clearly not quite real -there is a flatness in both her paint and perspective that has the primitive feeling of folk art. Take that flatness in and allow yourself to focus on the lines, angles and grids of her work; suddenly you're fully immersed in geometric abstraction, a la the 20th century Modernists. The familiarity of the subject matter allows me to travel through these genres with ease, unencumbered by that uptight "Do I really get it?" feeling. Of course I get it! I've been driving past it my entire life, as have many of you, I'd imagine. I've always found that being able to move through something with ease can lead to a deeper understanding of a subject. If I can shed the weight of what I don't know, I learn more. (Insecurity and uncertainty are a drag.) Sarah's paintings have instant appeal and familiarity, so they're immediately engaging. Once engaged, I look closer at everything: the subject, how she paints it and the history she's building on. What I don't know is more interesting, and less intimidating; it helps me enjoy what I do know even more by giving me greater insight and connecting my experience to a larger world. So, thanks Sarah, for giving me a fresh perspective and making my world bigger. I hope that she does the same for you. I'll be back tomorrow with some boundary-broadening photographic work from an artist who's been evolving and growing before my very eyes. We've also got a special bonus edition coming on Thursday, so: Mark your calendars! We'll be introducing an edition to benefit SFJAZZ on the eve of their 25th Anniversary Gala honoring jazz great Wayne Shorter. I've never wished I could be in more than one place at once more than I am wishing it this week. I am missing the gala, which I'd love to attend for sentimental reasons having to do with both jazz and San Francisco. I just couldn't get away, however, since New York City is positively jumping with The New York Photo Festival and its attendant parties, exhibitions and events. On Friday evening, as part of Apeture Presents at the NY Photo Fest, I'm on a panel called Curating 2.0 with Laurel Ptak of i heart photograph and Tim Barber of tinyvices.com. Another not-to-be-missed event this week: the annual benefit for Rhizome supporter, lover and uniter of art and technology. Lots to do! * I actually wrote down a lot of names from that show because, like I said, it's a great one and it's full of amazing contemporary artists many of whom I was unfamiliar with until I saw the exhibition. So much 20x200 goodness is in store, yesiree!

Wednesday Edition: Kent Rogowski

2008-05-07T19:55:15Z

Untitled #9, by Kent Rogowski

Frenzied Wednesday greetings, collectors! I'm sitting in the gallery typing away as the crew puts the finishing touches on Love = Love, an exhibition of large scale photographs and puzzle montages by Kent Rogowski. Today's edition, Untitled #9, is photographic print based on a unique puzzle montage that is being hung in the gallery right this very second. An edition of 3 exhibition-sized (44"x57") prints are available as well. Back in my days of Disney toil, we'd call this synergy. I gotta say though: synergy then was never so much fun as all this. I have two major thinky obsessions related to photography, the relationship between photographer and subject in portraiture is the first; the second is the consideration of a photograph as an object rather than as a document. (The latter topic has become especially fascinating since I started doing 20x200.) Kent's project really pushes the topic of object vs. document. He's taking objects made from photographs, deconstructing them, reassembling them, documenting those reassembled objects and then to top it all off, these documents become different objects entirely when you present them at different sizes. Which is what the exhibition is all about. Doing a 20x200 edition is the meta-est manifestation of the concept; the effect of the grid-like fault lines of the puzzles varies enormously depending on the dimensions of the print. Their presence is most obvious at its smallest and largest sizes, but in totally different ways. As I say in the exhibition's press release, I fell in love with Love = Love immediately. I have a practically Pavlovian response to the bright and shiny, so they had me at hello. Throw in nostalgia (puzzle making seems awfully old-fashioned in these days of Wii) and the thinky parts, and I was goner than gone. Ask anyone who knows me — I have basically not shut up about the damn things since I finally saw them in person at Fotofest in March. Bert Teunissen and I had a long discussion about all of this on Monday evening, over wings and margaritas at Great Jones Cafe. (First class treatment for my international friends: always guaranteed.) He himself is the king of the photograph as a document, so the conversation was particularly intriguing. I can't wait to hear what he thinks when he sees Kent's photos at the opening tonight.* I'd love to know what you think too - I hope to see a good showing of 20x200 collectors at tonight's reception. The gallery's located at 6 Spring St, just off the Bowery, festivities commence at 6. As an aside, you can stay up to date on gallery happenings by signing up for our mailing list. I'm off to attend to the last details of the day. See you later, ok? OK! *Confidential to Bert: You are so totally on the hook to show up now, just like you promised.

Tuesday Edition: Chi Birmingham

2008-05-06T19:53:20Z

Studio Apartment, by Chi Birmingham

Like Alice's White Rabbit, I'm late, late, late for a very important date. So my fine collector friends, I will give you the briefest of free-association introductions to today's wonderful fine art edition from Big Sur born, Brooklyn dwelling artist Chi Birmingham. Studio Apartment brings to my mind a few disparate things: - The movie Rear Window - A recurring dream that I have wherein I suddenly discover a whole extra room in my apartment. (Bummer waking up to reality from that one, let me tell you.) - My waking dream, hope, most fervent wish that one day soon I'll get to move to an apartment on a high floor, better yet the top floor, flooded with natural light. (I am currently cave-dwelling underneath what must be a herd of elephants. My beloved art is all crooked on the walls from the continuous rumble.) - Wood grain and sage green are most pleasing to my eye. - Perhaps I should consider a house plant? One that doesn't require much natural light. And now back to my preparations for Kent Rogowski's solo show, Love = Love, which opens tomorrow at the gallery . It's so freaking great, I can hardly stand it. More on that in my next dispatch. Until then: adieu!

Rachel Sussman Solo Show @ Michael Steinberg

2008-05-04T14:30:50Z

Welwitchia Mirabilis #0707-22411 by Rachel Sussman Unsurprisingly, Rachel Sussman's 20x200 edition from earlier this week, Towards Christiana (Copenhagen), is sold out in all but the largest sizes already. The collectors who get the large ones are lucky ducks though — it just so happens that Rachel's photographs are particularly fantastic as big prints. Of course you should take my word on it, but why not see it with your own eyes? If you're a NYer, or are planning on visiting our fair city any time this month, make your way to Michael Steinberg Fine Art over in Chelsea where you can see ginormous, delicious prints from Rachel's ongoing The Oldest Living Things in the World series. For over a year now, Rachel's been "researching, working with biologists, and traveling around the world to photograph living organisms, aged 2000 years old and older." I love that she's chronicling her adventures on her project blog, as well as accepting frequent flier mile donations to offset what must be tremendous travelling expenses—if you've got any to spare, please consider sending them her way! "You'll receive a special limited edition print," she says, "in addition to my undying gratitude." Places still on Rachel's list include Tasmania, Southern Australia, Greenland, Sri Lanka, Antarctica, Ibiza, Crete, Sweden and Northern California, so she's still got lots of flying to do. Frequent Flier miles aside, adding the work of an emerging artist to your collection is a meaningful and lasting form of support. We've still got those two 30"x40" prints of Rachel's available for purchase and we're also offering an edition of 3 prints at her above-mentioned ginormo exhibition size of 44"x54". Drop an email to collector at 20x200 dot com to learn more about those. The Oldest Living Things in the World Solo Show @ Michael Steinberg Fine Art
May 1-31st
526 West 26th Street, Suite 215

Jennifer Sánchez in Intricacies

2008-05-04T14:20:54Z

ny.08.#05 by Jennifer Sánchez Atlanta collectors, you're in for a treat: Jennifer Sánchez is showing three of her newest paintings at Soho Myriad's group show, Intricacies, which opened just this past Friday in your fine city. If you think her 20x200 prints ny.07.#20 and ny.07.#34 look amazing online, just wait till you see her paintings in person; I guarantee you'll be knocked out. P.S. We've got the originals of both her 20x200 editions for sale—please email collector AT 20x200.com if you're interested. ny.07.#20 is all sold out, but we've still got two prints of ny.07.#34 in large, so grab one while you still can. Intricacies @ Soho Myriad 1250 Menlo Drive Atlanta, Georgia 30318 May 2 to September

Wednesday Edition: Rachel Sussman

2008-04-30T19:00:03Z

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!

Postcards by Tommy Perman

2008-04-30T18:16:33Z

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.

Tuesday Edition: Amy Park

2008-04-29T19:32:03Z

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.

Jason Polan in ART SHOW

2008-04-29T18:46:18Z

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:

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."
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.
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

Todd St. John in Big Kids/Little Kids @ Cinders

2008-04-28T17:42:37Z

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.

Sign Up for Our Newsletter!

2008-04-25T17:56:02Z

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.