Thanks to everyone who attended our Opening Reception on Wednesday, July 9!

It was a great evening, as you'll see from these pictures, and we look forward to seeing you again for upcoming related events:

Artist Talk: Artist as Publisher
Wednesday, July 30^th , 6:30pm
Suggested donation: $10/$5 CBA members

Artist Talk: Fun and Games (and Such)
Wednesday, August 6^th , 6:30 pm
Suggested donation: $10/$5 CBA members

The Center's upcoming exhibition Artist as Publisher has been featured on ArtCal's Zine. The full article is copied below:

"Who writes? For whom is the writing being done? In what circumstances?," Edward Said said, asking after the intellectual conditions of production proper to a humanist criticism. (A modifier about which he confessed to have "contradictory feelings of affection and revulsion.") Though Said was invested in a slightly different field his observations apply equally to a a bumper crop of art writing. With regards a given professional constituency: "Once again we are back to the quandary suggested by the three thousand advanced critics reading each other to everyone else's unconcern... what is the acceptable humanistic antidote to what one discovers, say amongst sociologists, philosophers and so-called policy scientists who speak only to and for each other in a language oblivious to everything but a well-guarded, constantly shrinking fiefdom forbidden to the uninitiated?" Well one such prescription might be opening at The Center for Book Arts this Wednesday; Artist as Publisher includes a great number of artists who have "embraced independent publication as a means to bypass the gallery system, to produce new artwork affordably, and to distribute their artwork widely and on their own terms." Of course it remains to be seen which direction Omar Lopez-Chahoud's curation will emphasize - and though its hard to imagine a discourse more oblique than the one currently on offer; that's precisely the appeal of this show, insofar as we don't know what art writing might look like when pulled out from behind the lens of an overheated industry.

We have a new catalogue for Mapping Correspondence: Mail Art in the 21st Century! This publication is a beautifully produced overview of Mail Art and the works included in this exhibition.

The catalogue features:

• Essays by writer John Held, Jr., and exhibition curator Champe Smith
• Complete index of contemporary and historical works in the exhibition
• Numerous color photographs
• Detailed timeline of the evolution of Mail Art
• Relationship chart of contemporary artists in the exhibition

Click here to purchase the catalogue. $20 ($17 for members of the Center).



Click below to see large-scale photographs:

• Cover
• Essay 1
• Essay 2
  
• Index
• Timeline
• Diagram
  

We are pleased to welcome five major figures in the Mail Art movement to speak about this unique and vital art form at a panel discussion on Friday, June 13, 2008, at 6:30pm.

The panel discussion is entitled: "An Authentik and Historikal Panel on the Phenomenon of Mail Art," and will focus on the origins of this art form and how it continues to be a critical and subversive medium in a society where modes of communication are undergoing rapid upheavals.

Panelists will include:

John Held, Jr. (Moderator) has been involved with Mail Art since 1975. He has written extensively on Mail Art and is viewed as a leading historian of the art form. He has had dozens of solo and group exhibitions in America and Europe, has appeared in multiple Performance Art pieces, has guest-curated and lectured widely, and has direct connections and long-term collaborative partnerships with many major figures in Mail Art.

A.A. Bronson is an artist whose work has spanned multiple genres and various modern media. He is currently Executive Director of Printed Matter, an organization in New York that is dedicated to the cultivation and dispersal of the artist’s book. He was also a founding member of General Idea, an artist collective from Canada.

John Evans has collaborated with almost every major Mail Arts figure of the last thirty years. His involvement with the movement began in the mid-1960s, and he continues to show in New York and in Europe. Evans uses the tool of collage and the philosophy of inclusion to express his personal sense of irony, humor and shifting aesthetic and socio-political ideas.

Barbara Moore is an art historian, writer, and former rare-book dealer specializing in avant-garde art of the 1960s, '70s, and '80s. She was first editor at Dick Higgins's seminal Something Else Press. Since then she has written essays on and curated exhibitions of artist's books, multiples, and alternative media. She curated the first Fluxus exhibition in New York.

Martha Wilson is the Founding Director of Franklin Furnace Archive, Inc., an artist’s center in New York which since its inception in 1976 has presented and preserved temporal art: artists’ books and other multiples produced internationally after 1960; temporary installations; and performance art. Trained in English literature, Ms. Wilson was teaching at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design when she became fascinated by the art field in which text and image intersect.

William S. Wilson is a historian, art critic, and novelist. He has written extensively on Mail Art and is regarded as an authority on Ray Johnson, a major figure in the New York artistic community. He received his PhD in English Literature from Yale in 1961.

One of our current exhibitions, Mapping Correspondence: Mail Art in the 21st Century, has just been featured as a "Critic's Pick" on Artforum.com!

As Courtney Martin writes, this exhibition "posits a mail-art history that is as aesthetically nuanced as it is literal and literary."

Click here to read the article in full - and to read more about Mapping Correspondence and see pictures from the opening, please click here.

On Friday, April 11, The Center for Book Arts held an opening reception for its new exhibition, Mapping Correspondence: Mail Art in the 21st Century.

This exhibition invited artists, who in turn invited additional participants, to submit work via the postal service, creating a network of communication that reflects the complex and varied meaning of the book, mapping, and social networking in the 21st century.

Mail art is a democratic genre outside of the traditional system of art consumption through commercial galleries.

In addition to the contemporary work, the exhibition features work by some of the most influential artists and collaboratives of the movement, including Ray Johnson, Buster Cleveland, Diter Rot, Albert M. Fine, May Wilson, Dick Higgins, General Idea and vintage Anna Banana. Historical work is on loan from various sources, including Scott McCarney, Barbara Moore, Gordon Simpson, Marilyn R. Rosenberg, Franklin Furnace Archive, the Davi Det Hompson Archive at Virginia Commonwealth University, and the Center for Book Arts' own collection.

Featuring new work by : Abner Trellis • Adam Lowenbein • Aijung Kim • Alison Josephs • Amanda Thackery • Amelia Grohman • amk • András Böröcz • Andrea Poulsen • Andrew Krieger • Anna Banana •Anonymous • anticham • Arthur Cravan • Asha Ganpat • b.saved • Beverly Sokol • Bill Thomson • Bob Holman • Bo DuVall • Bob & Roberta Smith • Brad Birchett • Bruce Licher • buZ blurr • Buzz Spector • Carol Davis • Carol Stetser • Cathy Cullen • Chae Ho Lee • Charlotte Cooney • Cheryl Solomon • Chip Duyck • Chris George • Clarissa Sligh • Craig Saper • Cris Katearee • Dale Roberts • Delphi Basilicato • Diego Sanchez • Dikko Faust • Doug Beube • Doug Michael • Ed Varney • Edward Shalala • Emily Barrows • Eric Knutzon • Esther Smith • Felicia Gilman • Luc Fierens • Francis Duchamp • Franticham • Genie Shenk • Georgia Luna Smith Faust • Heather Green • Heidi Cody • Ina Archer • ivarykeith • Jack Cook • James Prez • Jamie Hart • Jane Gardner-Clayson • Jennifer Magee • Jeremy Schmall • Jessie Voorsanger • Jill Conner • Joanna Gardner • Joe Zane • John M. Bennett • Jon Esser • Josh Werner • Joshua Blank • Joy Cox • Judith Hoffberg • Christopher Gordon •Julia Featheringill • Justin Lincoln • Karen Zimmermann • Kat Bridges • Keiichi Nakamura • Kelly Dobson • Kelly Lonergan • Ken Montgomery • Kevin Guinn • Kevin Madill • Kimberly Purser • Kirsten Nelson • KK Kozik • Kym Olsen • Laura Ferguson • Laura Kikauka • Lauren Marsella • Leonard Seastone • Ligorano/Reese • Lissi Erwin • Mailarta • Mark Bryant • Mark Wagner • Matt Knannlein • Meg Belichick • Michelle Dussault • Miguel Jimenez Zenon • Mika Dashman • Minny Lee • Miriam Schaer • Nancy Loeber • Noelle Tan • Peter Fillingham • Peter Kruty • Phil Zimmermann • Pistol Pete • Polly EllaNora Smith Faust • Rachel Wiecking • Ramak Fazel • Richard Kostelanetz • Richard Tipping • R. J. Eck • Robbin Ami Silverberg • Robert The • Rod Summers VEC • Ronald Baatz • Roni Gross • Ruth Lingen • Sally Gardner • Sarah McCarry • Sarah Owen • Sayre Gaydos • S. C. Durkin • SCOTTATUKS • Sheila Lanham • Shinsuke Aso • Snappy • Stacie Birchett • Steven Dressler • Sue Gardner Smith • Sue O'Donnell • Tae Won Yu • Tom Butter • Tony White • Victoria May • Vittore Baroni • Vittorio Bacelli • Warren Lehrer • Willym Rowe • Zabeth Loisel-Weiner

Support for the Center for Book Arts Visual Arts Programs–Exhibitions, Featured Artist Projects, and the Artist-in-Residence Workspace Program–is provided by the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, the Lily Auchincloss Foundation, Inc. and the Foundation for Contemporary Arts. Additional support for the Center’s exhibition program is provided, in part, by the Department of Cultural Affairs of New York City and the New York State Council on the Arts.

Many thanks to those lenders, the participating artists, and for the assistance of Ken Chu.

Mapping Correspondence: Mail Art in the 21st Century
April 11 - June 28, 2008

at

The Center for Book Arts
28 West 27th Street, Third Floor
(Between Broadway and Sixth Avenue)

Telephone: 212-481-0295

Opening hours:
10am-6pm, Monday-Friday
10am-4pm, Saturday


Mapping Correspondence opening reception, April 11, 2008


Mapping Correspondence opening reception, April 11, 2008


CBA Founder Richard Minsky (right) speaks with artist
Richard Kostelanetz, artist Sally Gardner (far left), and friends.


Mapping Correspondence opening reception, April 11, 2008


Artist Marilyn Rosenberg (center)


Artist Richard Kostelanetz


Artist Skuta Helgason


Artist Craven (left) and Tom Richard

We're all hard at work on installing the first exhibition of the new year, Skipping the Page, organized by Graham Parker. This exhibition takes as its starting point the idea of tempo as it relates to the printed page. In doing so it invites us to consider the technology of the book as a device to depict and respond to the passing of time, at a time when other technologies are more often foregrounded as appropriate to the task.

All of the art works in this exhibition invoke an idea of rhythm, of mean tempo – in many cases invoking that rhythm only to compromise it with acts of ambiguity, failure, culture jamming, disruption, acceleration and deceleration from an expected tempo of an action or process. Including works by: Michael Baers, Svetlana Boym, Beth Campbell, Julie Chen/Barbara Tetenbaum, Tim Etchells, Hugo Glendinning, Neil Goldberg
Karen Hanmer, Ryan Holmberg,Vlatka Horvat, Sam Lewitt, Marie Lorenz, Richard McGuire,
Trong Nguyen,Lean Oates, Mark Orange, Garrett Ricciardi, Marco Roso, Seth Price,
Lan Tuazon, Uwasa Masato, Chris Ware, and 432a (Nami Matsuo & Lars Niki).


We're planning on having an artist talk in February with some of the artists in the show, as well as a screening on March 7th at 6:30pm; We'll be featuring some of the video projects related to the exhibition that night.

We're all anxious to see how these ideas will take form once the installation is complete. I hope you can join us for the opening this Friday.

Click here for pictures from the exhibition