Emil Lukas @ Hosfelt Gallery, San Francisco

Friend and Durham Press artist Emil Lukas is among ten artists featured in “Outside the Box,” a group show at the Hosfelt Gallery in San Francisco. The gallery is located at 430 Clementina Street and “Outside the Box” will be on display through February 2, 2008.

The Hosfelt Gallery website features the following bit of information regarding the show:

OUTSIDE THE BOX

So there’s this old visual puzzle of a nine dot grid (3 dots by 3
dots). You’re probably familiar with it. Or, if not, the graphic
(complete with its solution) is likely attached to this release
or on an announcement card nearby, depending upon where
you’re reading this. But in the case that you aren’t or it isn’t,
the task is to connect all nine dots with only four straight
lines, each line starting from the end of another such that the
puzzle can be solved without lifting your pen or pencil from
the paper.

The puzzle inspired both a terribly clichéd catchphrase and
me to notice a wide variety of ways contemporary artists are
looking beyond the frame. To cite some examples…

Marco Maggi allows his graphite and drypoint drawings to
cleverly escape from their typical circumstance.

And Paul de Guzman brings the insides of books and
magazines out in a process where the architecture of art is
revealed.

Emil Lukas takes familiar material, such as thread or his own
dried-out paint mixing cups, and allows them dominion
beyond the canvas into our, the viewer’s, space.

A similar thing happens in Liliana Porter’s work where her
objects and figurines are literally off the page and stepping
into our world.

Jim Campbell cooperates with Alan Rath to instead bring
things from the outside world into his digital “page.”

Working outside the box in an abstract way, Gay Outlaw and
Felipe Barbosa each create objects that play with the spaces
where two and three dimensions meet.

Sometimes thinking outside the box just requires letting it all
hang out — such as Byron Kim’s paint and encaustic works
that hang off the canvas surface to surprising effect.

Jonathon Brand’s take is literally a box that unfurls itself like
a blossoming flower.

And Rebecca Goldfarb has found that she’d rather leave the
question of what’s outside the box to you to surveil.

To be clear, in no case are these artists explicitly thinking in
corporate terms. Their outside-the-box tendencies are
features of artworks that address a wide range of other
issues and aesthetic concerns. But within the context of this
theme, we are afforded a perspective on the myriad, creative
methods artists find to expand the traditional boundaries of
artistic practice.

Curated by Hosfelt Gallery Assistant Director Jay Auslander.

For more information, please visit www.hosfeltgallery.com or call 415.495.5454.

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)

Alison, her husband Andy and their cat headed home late Wednesday night, and Thursday morning, Emil Lukas arrived to continue working on his two new incredible editions. In the first photo, JP, Jason and Emil discuss a proof of Emil’s new multi-color screenprint, and, unfortunately, the photograph doesn’t really do the work justice. The image, generated using the string element common in Emil’s sculpture and mixed media wallworks, is at once tranquil and frantic, as dozens of layered colors coalesce in to one subtle, harmonious end product. If you are in the New York area, Emil’s show One to the Other will be featured at the Hosfelt Gallery through October 27th, and it is definitely worth checking out.

Emil, Jason and JP discuss proofs of Emil’s new multi-color screenprint

Jason printing proofs of Emil’s new screenprint