Durham Press @ INK Miami

We’re on our way to INK Miami next week, the show runs from December 2nd though the 6th.

INK Miami is located at 1850 Collins Avenue in Miami Beach, only a couple of blocks from Miami Basel, and admission is free- so we look forward to seeing you there!

It’s a great little fair that is dedicated only to prints. This year the participants are going to make an effort to bring some printmaking materials to give visitors a little insight into how prints are made. We are going to bring one of the jigs and all the woodblocks from one of our new Apfelbaums, as well as a great little slideshow of behind the scene at Durham Press!

We will be exhibiting a selection of our lastest prints including Hurvin Anderson, Polly Apfelbaum, Beatriz Milhazes, James Nares, Allison Elizabeth Taylor, and Ray Charles White.

And, as always, we will have monoprints and editions of many more artists to browse through. For more information on our artists, see our website.

Deborah Ripley’s Paper Chase 11-6-09

We got a nice mention in the Artnet Magazine – Deborah Ripley’s Paper Chase

http://www.artnet.com/magazineus/reviews/ripley/prints-new-york11-6-09.asp

Thanks and thanks IFPDA ladies for making it such a great event!

James Nares back @ Durham Press

James Nares, long-time Durham Press friend and collaborator , returned to the studio recently to complete work on his new screenprint, THUMP. This new edition is the 13th print James has created at Durham Press, and he and JP (the master printer here) continue to push the dynamic dimensionality of his painted brushstrokes into amazing, rich, vibrant screenprinted editions. When asked recently about his experience of working at Durham Press and with JP on this process, James said:

Working at Durham Press is really a pleasure. JP’s knowledge of, and experience with the silkscreening process is second to none, and working with him is a collaboration, as with another artist. He has come up with an ingenious method to create screen prints of my brush strokes which have all the body and tones of an actual, painted brush stroke, but without the use of half-tone…

For those maybe unfamiliar with the screenprinting process, creating a halftone is the process of turning all the tone in an image into various sized and spaced dots in order to create the tonal variation. This allows all of the tone to be printed at once and is what you are looking at when you see a black and white photo printed in the newspaper, for example. What gives James’ prints the fluidity, the subtle shift in tone and the overall richness of color is that is is not printed as a halftone, but is rather broken down into 10-15 layers of varied tone and color and then rebuilt, through printing each layer one on top of the other. It is a complicated process, but creates a seamlessness in the color and tonal shifts that would not be possible otherwise.

To see THUMP as well as some of the other work James has produced with Durham Press, please visit our booth at the IFPDA Print Fair in New York City. The fair is held at the Park Avenue Armory and runs from November 5th – November 8th, 2009.

Also, James film Rome in ‘78 is currently being shown at MOMA as part of the film exhibition, Looking at Music: Side 2. The next screening will be on Saturday, November 28th at 7:30 p.m. The film, according to the MOMA website, is “a narrative about the Roman emperor Caligula set in a shabby Manhattan apartment, proposes an analogy between ancient Rome and modern America as cultural empires. The image below is a still from the film.

INK Miami 2007

This week we will be heading to the INK Miami Art Fair in Miami Beach, Florida. This year is the second year of INK, and if last year’s fair is any indication, it is going to be an amazing week. Like last year, the fair will be held at the Suites of Dorchester located at 1850 Collins Avenue in Miami Beach. We will be in Suite #156 on the first floor, so please stop in and visit us. The fair runs from Wednesday, December 5th to Sunday, December 9th and the hours of the fair are: 12 p.m to 6 p.m on Wednesday, 10 a.m to 7 p.m on Thursday, Friday and Saturday and 10 a.m to 3 p.m on Sunday. Below are several photos from our suite at the 2006 INK Miami fair.

IFPDA New York Print Fair

It has been two weeks since the IFPDA Print Fair in New York, and things have been non-stop around Durham Press ever since. This year’s fair was the most successful one Durham Press has ever been a part of, and everyone around here is trying to keep up with all of the people interested in the new editions we debuted this year. Throughout the weekend, our booth saw a steady stream of visitors from all corners of the artworld and beyond, and friends and Durham Press artists, Lisa Stefanelli, Polly Apfelbaum, Emil Lukas, Tom Slaughter, Lydia Dona and Ray Charles White all came by to show their support. In the next couple of weeks, we will be preparing for INK Miami, but for now here are some photos from this year’s amazing IFPDA New York Print Fair. If you are ever in the city and need a recommendation for hotel, restaurant or something to do, please check out My Urban Sherpa, our friend Alison Curry’s online guide to New York City.

Ann and JP discussing the work with visitors to our booth

Exterior shot of our booth

JP discussing work with a visitor to the booth

IFPDA New York Print Fair

This week we will be heading to the IFPDA New York Print Fair, where we will debut many of the new editions you can see in progress below. The Print Fair is unique among the world’s major art fairs for its focus on fine prints from all periods. This year the fair runs from November 1, 2007 to November 4, 2007, with an opening night reception on October 31st from 5:00pm to 9:30pm. We are very excited about the new work we will have to show, and we’re looking forward to seeing the work the other exhibitors have on display.

In the photo below, you can see our space at the 2006 New York Print Fair. From left to right, the work hanging in the booth is Beatriz Milhazes’ Summer Night, John Giorno’s Welcoming the Flowers, Beatriz Milhazes’ Fig and Delancey Street by Ray Charles White.

At this year’s fair, we will be launching new editions by Alison Elizabeth Taylor, Roland Fischer, Polly Apfelbaum, James Nares and Ray Charles White, as well as debuting new monoprints by Polly Apfelbaum and Emil Lukas. We will also have on hand a number of amazing older works from our inventory. Please join us at the Fair located at The Park Avenue Armory, 643 Park Avenue at 67th Street. The open hours are 12:00 pm to 7:00 pm on Thursday, Friday and Saturday and 12:00 pm to 6:00 pm on Sunday.

Ray Charles White was out at the Press all last week working on proofs for three of his new editions. In the photo below, you can see one of his new photogravure prints being revealed. The print will be included in a series of three, titled Gravure Bubble Studies, and will be on display in our booth at the IFPDA New York Print Fair.

Making photogravure plates is a very exacting and in-depth process. The photogravure.com website does a very good job of explaining the steps that are involved and relating the photogravure process to the origin and evolution of the medium of photography. In keeping with this tradition, Ray has chosen to print his photogravures in an ink color very similar to the tone of a cyanotype print. In the photo below, Ray and Chris discuss the new proof while Chris cleans the plate.

Ray also has several other new editions that will be debuting at the Fair. Below is an image of Pericu Palms, a series of three screenprints on anodized aluminum. House and Garden Magazine recently published an article about Ray’s work on aluminum and his ongoing collaboration with Durham Press. To read more, click here.

Emil Lukas returned this week to work on the etchings that will become the second piece of his new monoprint diptychs (you can see the in-progress screenprints in the Emil Lukas post below). The printed image is generated by dozens of etched coins that are individually inked and placed into a copper matrix.

Emil placing inked coins into the copper matrix

Once the matrix is filled with inked coins, it is run through the press. In the second image below, you can see Chris and Jason reveal one of the first prints in this new series.

Etched coins that have been individually inked and are ready to print

Chris and Jason revealing one of Emil’s new etchings

Each diptych is comprised of a unique screenprint to be hung on the left and a unique etching to be hung on the right. In the image below, you can begin to see how each print relates to and alters the other when they are placed in close proximity. Colors that were nearly invisible before, are pulled out and brought to the forefront when they are prominent in the other print, and there is an overall shift in what your eye picks up on when looking at the prints as a pair. The first in this new series of diptychs, U.M.R = L (#0906), will be on display in our booth at the IFPDA New York Print Fair. For more information on Emil Lukas and his work, please visit his website here.

U.M.R=L (#0906)