Coming Up in the New Year

We're already coming up on the new year and I'd like to let you know what is in store for the first few months of 2012!

Sake barrels, Heian Shrine, Kyoto

In January I will be making my first trip to Japan where I'll be staying in Kyoto for a couple of weeks.  I'm really looking forward to it and am excited to take in the sights and the food, and I know I will find a lot of inspiration in the landscape, the rich printmaking history, and the textiles.

As soon as I get back I'll be jumping right into a busy period of shows, and will be starting a part-time apprenticeship at the Fabric Workshop and Museum where I'll be learning about large-scale silkscreen printing on textiles and techniques in color mixing, repeat patterns, and many other things I never learned in school.  I can't wait for the challenge!

Also in January, IPCNY's exhibition New Prints 2011 will be traveling to Austin, Texas where it will be on view at UT Austin's Visual Arts Center (VAC) from January 27th - March 10.  Presented in collaboration with the Department of Art and Art History’s Printmaking Convergence Program, New Prints 2011 features sixty-seven prints by fifty-one emerging to established artists and printers. Selected from a pool of over 2,500 submissions, New Prints 2011 is the fortieth presentation of the International Print Center New York’s (IPCNY) New Prints Program. This series of juried exhibitions organized by IPCNY several times each year features outstanding prints made within the past twelve months by artists at all stages of their careers. This year’s selection committee included Anders Bergstrom, artist; Beth Finch, Lunder Curator of American Art, Colby College Museum of Art; Christopher Gaillard, president, Gurr Johns, Inc.; Sarah Kirk Hanley, independent print curator and specialist appraiser; Diana Wege Sherogan, artist and collector; and Bruce Wankel, master printer, ULAE.

The End of Escapism, part of the New Prints 2011 Exhibition

Artists featured in the exhibition include: Norman Ackroyd, Erika Adams, Golnar Adili, Polly Apfelbaum, Rosaire Appel, Miguel A. Aragon, Isabelle Ayotte, Trevor Banthorpe, Curtis Bartone, Jarrod Beck, Grace Bentley-Scheck, Marcin Bialas, Shawn Bitters, Nicholas Brown, Rachael Browning, Susan Goethel Campbell, Alejandro Chen Li, Elaine Chow, Matthew Colaizzo, Terry Conrad, Erin Diebboll, Marie Yoho Dorsey, Odette England, Rick Finn, Yuko Fukuzumi, Isabel Gouveia, Libby Hague, Takuji Hamanaka, John Himmelfarb, Charles Hinman, Gary Justis, Alex Katz, Jane Kent, William Kentridge, Anne LaFond, Sharon Levy, Michael Loderstedt, Whitfield Lovell, So Yoon Lym, S.V. Medaris, Michael Neff, Serena Perrone, Ian Ruffino, Ed Ruscha, Soledad Salamé, Bob Shore, Joan Snyder, Preeti Sood, Jessica Stockholder, Tomi Um, and Pete Williams.

In February, I am excited to be part of a three-person show, Volcano/Kaboom, featuring the work of myself, Hiro Sakaguchi, and Alina Josan.  Volcano/Kaboom will be on view from February 9 - March 9 at Rosemont College's Lawrence Gallery, with a reception on February 9.

collaborative drawing, Hiro Sakaguchi, Alina Josan, Serena Perrone

As February is the month of love, I've been invited by Detroit-based artist Chido Johnson to participate in his on-going project Let's Talk About Love:

Love Library Schematic

In this exhibition the object of affection takes the form of a book -- individual artist’s interpretation of “love” concealed and superficially homogenized as romance novels. The installation can employ the basic structure of a bookstore or library. The space has shelves containing the fabricated romance novels with each visually uniform title presented on the shelves and accessible to the viewer. Lounging chairs or sofas are available to encourage individuals to comfortably sit, read and become more active participants. Unable to judge the books by their covers, the viewer has have the opportunity to scroll through titles and authors (artists) choose a book and engage with the actual content.

This installation could be read in various ways – the entire collection a simulation of a global context – masses of people, organized and shelved. Yet, at the point of engagement, as one picks up a book and opens it, apparent is a person’s individual desires and insight. Even as we are divided ideologically, economically and culturally, we are united with the most beautiful, yet confusingly complex and so easily misunderstood thing called love. This year's incarnation of Let's Talk About Love will open at MOCAD on February 10.  Details to follow!

Also in February, I will be teaching Seriality and Narrative in Intaglio at Second State Press!  The class will meet four Saturdays in February from noon - 2:30 pm. If you are interested in participating, you can contact me or Second State Press anytime before February 1 to sign up. 

image courtesy Second State Press

Seriality and Narrative in Intaglio: In this class students will employ intrinsic techniques of the intaglio printmaking process to create a series of prints that result from an original plate that evolves and is altered over the course of three weeks.  Beginning intaglio techniques will be taught incrementally and the copper plate will be reworked and printed multiple times allowing for imbued narratives to arise and evolve through each successive state.  Students will learn how to prepare a plate, transfer imagery, and use a range of techniques including drypoint, line etch, aquatint, spit bite, and sugar lift to create their imagery.  Students will also learn how to handle paper and edition their prints, as a small edition will be pulled from each state, resulting in an editioned series of prints.

More details on all this and more will follow soon.  Happy New Year everyone!