New York on Paper

Ai WeiWei, New York (From Papercut Portfolio), 2019

Cey Adams / Ai WeiWei / John Baldessari / The Connor Brothers / Sofia Cianciulli / Chuck Close / FAILE / Bob Gruen / Richard Hambleton / Keith Haring / Gary Lichtenstein / Damien Hirst / Robert Indiana / KAWS / David LaChapelle / Robert Longo / Raphael Mazzucco / Harland Miller / Rammellzee / RISK / Ed Ruscha / Kenny Scharf / Swoon / Peter Tunney / Vhils / Tom Wesselmann / Yue Minjun / Lisa Yuskavage / Zao Wou-Ki / Zhang Xiaogang / + More

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INDEX FOREWORD .................................................................................................................................................. 1 - 4 CEY ADAMS.................................................................................................................................................. 5 - 6 AI WEIWEI....................................................................................................................................................... 7 - 8 JOHN BALDESSARI................................................................................................................................... 9 - 10 THE CONNOR BROTHERS..................................................................................................................... 11 - 12 SOFIA CIANCIULLI...................................................................................................................................... 13 - 14 CHUCK CLOSE............................................................................................................................................. 15 - 16 FAILE.................................................................................................................................................................. 17 - 18 BOB GRUEN................................................................................................................................................... 19 - 20 RICHARD HAMBLETON........................................................................................................................... 21 - 22 KEITH HARING.............................................................................................................................................. 23 - 24 GARY LICHTENSTEIN .............................................................................................................................. 25 - 26 DAMIEN HIRST............................................................................................................................................. 27 - 28 ROBERT INDIANA....................................................................................................................................... 29 - 30 KAWS................................................................................................................................................................ 31 - 32 DAVID LACHAPELLE................................................................................................................................ 33 - 34 ROBERT LONGO......................................................................................................................................... 35 - 36 RAPHAEL MAZZUCCO............................................................................................................................ 37 - 38 HARLAND MILLER...................................................................................................................................... 39 - 40 RAMMELLZEE............................................................................................................................................... 41 - 42 RISK.................................................................................................................................................................... 43 - 44 ED RUSCHA................................................................................................................................................... 45 - 46 KENNY SCHARF.......................................................................................................................................... 47 - 48 SWOON............................................................................................................................................................ 49 - 50 PETER TUNNEY............................................................................................................................................ 51 - 52 VHILS.................................................................................................................................................................. 53 - 54 TOM WESSELMANN................................................................................................................................. 55 - 56 YUE MINJUN.................................................................................................................................................. 57 - 58 LISA YUSKAVAGE..................................................................................................................................... 59 - 60 ZAO WOU-KI................................................................................................................................................. 61 - 62 ZHANG XIAOGANG................................................................................................................................... 63 - 64 PAPER GLOSSARY.................................................................................................................................... 65 - 72

Foreword West Chelsea Contemporary is proud to present New York on Paper, featuring over two dozen modern and contemporary artists from across its collection creating paper-based art. This medium-driven exhibition explores the many ways in which paper is utilized from screenprinting, lithography, and papercut to mixed-media collage and photography. New York on Paper illuminates the varied and intricate nature of paper-based artwork while exploring its historical and experimental use over the 20th and 21st centuries.

While typically WCC curates and displays artworks by theme and artistic movement, this exhibition situates works throughout the gallery while keeping technique and medium at the forefront. By considering material process rather than subject matter, works that are not often displayed together offer new discoveries and unique relationships. With the material of paper connecting works from disparate

geographies,

time

periods,

and

movements,

this

exhibition aims to encourage education on types of techniques while inspiring consideration for the varied methods of art-making and their distinct visual impact.

1

Paper—whether employed through printmaking or used as the sole vehicle for creation—is a historic medium that continues to be reinvented and reimagined. Screenprinting or silkscreen printing was originally used for commercial purposes in the early twentieth century and popularized in its use for fine art in the 1950s by Pop artists such as Andy Warhol. Today, it remains a dominant mode of printmaking and is favored for its graphic style and accessibility.

Master printer Gary Lichtenstein has worked with numerous artists from Rock and Roll Photographer Bob Gruen to Pop Art Icon Robert Indiana, using the silkscreen process to translate the artist's initial design or photograph into a distinct new work of art.

Additionally, contemporary artist Harland Miller uses silkscreen printing to create large-format editions of his painterly and sardonic paintings of book covers.

Another printmaking technique commonly regarded as the most difficult method to learn and master is lithography. This mode involves drawing with an oil-based implement onto a smooth stone or slab of aluminum that is then run through a press. Its invention allowed for a much wider range of marks and areas of tone than possible with earlier printmaking methods. These tonalities are evident in the smooth gradients of Zhang Xiaogang’s portraits and in the shadows of Yue Minjun’s figures. Lithography allows for the overprinting of colors onto the same sheet; the inks used can be fully transparent resulting in a blending of colors as seen in Lisa Yuskavage’s multicolored surrealist scenes.

2

Arguably

the

most

popular

medium

in

contemporary

art,

photography’s use of paper is relatively new when compared to the tradition of lithography and etching. Contemporary portrait photography is explored by Sofia Cianciulli to evoke emotion and blur the lines between fantasy and reality. Robert Longo uses photography as a means of capturing his large-scale hyper-realistic charcoal drawings that consider power, authority, and the natural world. Through photography each of these artists flattens their observed environment, transforming the three-dimensional into two.

Collage, papercut, and painting on paper all directly manipulate the paper support. Fragments of both found and handmade paper are incorporated into the collage works of Cey Adams who sources vintage ephemera from the twentieth century to explore the American fascination with branding and symbolism. Similarly, NeoPop artist Peter Tunney mines culture as source material to upcycle remnants of societal consumption into dynamic, textural compositions branded with empowering slogans. Because collage often incorporates mass-produced images, the practice is often inseparable from its historical and political context, making it a mode of powerful social commentary.

3

Dissident

artist

Ai

WeiWei

explores

links

between

the

contemporary world and traditional Chinese culture by employing the Chinese art of papercutting. The artist’s Papercut Portfolio features a limited edition of eight works that reflect on his own life through meticulously cut large-format works. Contemporary artists The Connor Brothers combine printmaking techniques with painting on paper to create texturally rich pin-up style portraits of women with blocks of solid color and deadpan snippets of text.

Multi-hyphenate graffiti pioneer RISK adorns paper with his iconic color wash fades and aerosol tags, often using scrap material from past creations to weave together the foundation for future pieces.

Through this exhibition and within both avenues–prints and original works on paper–the viewer is encouraged to consider process first.

Printmaking as a discipline relies heavily on the relationship between the printer, the publisher, and the artist. It creates an alternate value proposition as it introduces the viewer to a new artist,

the

printmaker,

through

the

collaborative

endeavor.

Alternatively, original works on paper afford artists another chance to investigate the canon of their work whether through collage, papercut, or painting. New York on Paper engages the viewer in a discussion of process while educating on the varied techniques employed.

4

Adams, Cey American, b.1962

New York City native Cey Adams emerged from the downtown graffiti movement to exhibit alongside fellow artists JeanMichel Basquiat and Keith Haring. He appeared in the historic 1982 PBS documentary Style Wars which tracks subway graffiti in New York. Cey’s work explores the relationship between transformation and discovery focusing on themes ranging from pop culture to race and gender relations. His practice involves dismantling various imagery and paper elements to build multiple layers of color, texture, shadow, and light. Cey draws inspiration from 60’s pop art, sign painting, comic books, and popular culture. As the Creative Director of hip hop mogul Russell Simmons’ Def Jam Recordings, he cofounded the Drawing Board, the label’s in-house visual design firm, where he created visual identities, album covers, logos, and advertising campaigns for Run DMC, Beastie Boys, LL Cool J, Public Enemy, Notorious B.I.G., and Jay-Z. He exhibits, lectures and teaches art workshops at institutions including: MoMA, Brooklyn Museum, Walker Art Center, and MoCA Los Angeles.

5

Cey Adams Pan Am (Flag Series), 2021 Silkscreen on 320g Coventry Rag paper 18 x 15 in

Cey Adams Pan Am (Flag Series), 2021 Silkscreen on 320g Coventry Rag paper 18 x 15 in

6

Ai

Weiwei

Chinese, b. 1957

A cultural figure of international renown, Ai Weiwei is an activist, architect, curator, filmmaker, and China’s most famous artist. Open in his criticism of the Chinese government, Ai was famously detained for months in 2011, then released to house arrest. “I don’t see myself as a dissident artist,” he says. “I see them as a dissident government!” Some of Ai’s best known works are installations, often tending towards the conceptual and sparking dialogue between the contemporary world and traditional Chinese modes of thought and production. For Sunflower Seeds (2010) at the Tate Modern, he scattered 100 million porcelain “seeds” handpainted by 1,600 Chinese artisans—a commentary on mass consumption and the loss of individuality. His infamous Coca Cola Vase (1994) is a Han Dynasty urn emblazoned with the ubiquitous soft-drink logo.

Ai also served as artistic consultant on the design of the “Bird’s Nest” stadium for Beijing’s 2008 Olympics, and has curated pavilions and museum exhibitions around the globe.

7

Ai WeiWei New York (From Papercut Portfolio), 2019 Papercut on colored fine art paper 23.60 x 23.60 in

Ai WeiWei Zodiac (From Papercut Portfolio), 2019 Papercut on colored fine art paper 23.60 x 23.60 in 8

Baldessari, John American, 1931–2020

It is hard to characterize John Baldessari's varied practice— which includes photomontage, artist’s books, prints, paintings, film, performance, and installation—except through his approach of good-humored irreverence. Baldessari is commonly associated with Conceptual or Minimalist art, though he has called this characterization “a little bit boring.”

His two-dimensional works often incorporate found images, composed in layers or presented as distinct pieces with an element of surprise, like a brightly colored geometric shape in the place of a face or a starkly printed sardonic caption.

Baldessari has demonstrated a lasting interest in language and semantics, articulating these concerns through the use of puns or the juxtaposition of seemingly unrelated images and words, as in his 1978 work Blasted Allegories. His selfreferencing photomontages and use of text have been sources of inspiration for countless artists, including Cindy Sherman, David Salle, and Barbara Kruger.

9

John Baldessari Table Lamp and It's Shadows (A1-A6), 1994 Monotype, photo intaglio, cut-out and hand-colored acrylic additions on handmade paper, laminated for thickness 38.25 x 27.25 in

10

THE CONNOR BROTHERS British, b. 1968

The Connor Brothers are known for their paintings and prints featuring vintage pin-up beauties and Old Hollywood starlets in seductive poses, paired with captions that exude a dry sense of humor. The Connor Brothers—a pseudonym for the British artists Mike Snelle and James Golding—initially retained anonymity under their fictional guise. They posed as fictional twin brothers Franklyn and Brendan Connor, who had escaped from a California cult (called “The Family”) by running away to Brooklyn at age 16 to become artists. Today, Snelling and Golding have shed their guise, and align their work with social causes such as the European refugee crisis.

11

The Connor Brothers Call Me Anything But Ordinary, 2020 Gicleé, screenprint, acrylic, oil paint, and varnish on paper 57.50 x 36 in

12

Cianciulli, Sofia

Italian, b.1993

Sofia Cianciulli is a multi-disciplinary body artist from Florence, Italy. Cianciulli grew up surrounded by Renaissance art history’s sexual connotations, and later was influenced by the individualism and diversity of New York feminism. After completing her MA in Fine Art and Central Saint Martins, Cianciulli was shortlisted for The Ingram Prize. Cianciulli combines painting, performance, digital media, and augmented reality to consider the female body in the postfeminist media age. Her work reflects upon the entangled and co-dependent nature of millennials and the internet, responding with absolute transparency to modern narrative conventions that are an inextricable part of her reality.

13

Sofia Cianciulli Digital Feelings I (/50), 2020 Digital Print on Canson rag photographique 310g Epson 46.90 x 33.10 in

Sofia Cianciulli Digital Feelings II (/50), 2020 Digital Print on Canson rag photographique 310g Epson 46.90 x 33.10 in

14

CLose, Chuck American, 1940 - 2021

In the 1960s, Chuck Close pioneered Photorealism with his monumental, exquisitely detailed portraits, whose subjects he took from photographic sources. Playing with ideas of color, scale, and form, he later gained renown for gridded paintings that appear abstract from up close and highly realistic and pixelated from afar. Close has exhibited extensively since the ’60s and enjoyed solo shows at the Walker Art Center, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the State Hermitage Museum, and the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, among other institutions. He has featured in group exhibitions at the Venice Biennale and Documenta on multiple occasions. At auction, his work has sold for seven figures. Close has often depicted his family and friends, including fellow artists Robert Rauschenberg, Cindy Sherman, and Richard Serra. His work links him not only to other Photorealists such as Richard Estes and Audrey Flack, but also to the Conceptual art movement.

15

Chuck Close Roy Lichtenstein (PP/Aside Edition of 12), 1999 Digital inkjet prints on Somerset paper, four panels 92 x 69 in

16

FAILE

American, Founded 1999

Since 1999, Patrick McNeil and Patrick Miller have collaborated under the name FAILE (an anagram of “a life”) to create kinetic, image-saturated paintings, prints, sculptures, and installations. Their democratic street style features fragmented mash-ups of comic book and cartoon characters, advertising and propaganda slogans, bright patterns and colors, and historical and pop cultural references. At the beginning of their career, FAILE’s work appeared on the streets as stickers, posters, and stenciled images. Since then, the duo has enjoyed exhibitions at Tate Modern, the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, the Brooklyn Museum, the Central Academy of Fine Art Museum in Beijing, and the Mima Museum in Brussels, among other institutions. FAILE has also produced large-scale murals and staged participatory public interventions in cities including New York, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and Lyon, France—further blurring the lines between “high” and “low” culture.

17

FAILE Untitled, 2008 Acrylic, silkscreen and coffee staining on canvas 79 x 92.50 in

18

Gruen, Bob American, b. 1945

Bob Gruen is one of the most well-known and respected photographers in rock and roll. By the mid 1970s, he was already regarded as one of the foremost documenters of the scene. While living in New York, he notably befriended John Lennon and Yoko Ono and captured intimate moments from their personal lives. Gruen is perhaps best known for an iconic photograph of Lennon wearing a New York City t-shirt.

He also photographed major acts such as Bob Dylan, Tina Turner, The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Elton John, Kiss, and others, while also covering the emerging New Wave and Punk bands including The New York Dolls, Patti Smith, The Clash, The Sex Pistols, The Ramones, and Blondie. Among his many books of photographs are "The Sex Pistols - Chaos," "The Rolling Stones Crossfire Hurricane,""The Clash," "John Lennon - The New York Years," and "Rock Seen." Gruen’s work has been exhibited widely, including at the Brooklyn Museum, Pearlstein Gallery at the Drexel University Museum, Blender Gallery in Sydney, and the Beit Hatfutsot Museum in Tel Aviv, among others.

19

Bob Gruen Mick Jagger, NYC, 1972 (29/50), 2014 Silkscreen on 2ply Rising Museum Board 52.37 x 38.87 in Printed by Gary Lichtenstein Editions

Bob Gruen John Lennon, NYC, 1974 (34/50), 2014 Silkscreen on 2ply Rising Museum Board 54 x 40 in Printed by Gary Lichtenstein Editions

20

Hambleton, Richard Canadian, 1952 - 2017

Richard Hambleton, referred to as the “godfather of street art,” was a pioneering Canadian street artist. He is recognized as a pivotal intermediary between Abstract Expressionism and the popular “art for the masses” graffiti that boomed in the 1980s. Hambleton is best known for his grisly “Shadowmen” and “Horse and Rider” figures, which he tagged in alleyways and drug-dealing hotspots in Lower Manhattan throughout the '70s and ’80s. Despite finding early success in New York and showing at the Venice Biennale in 1984 and ’88, Hambleton was largely forgotten in the ’90s and early 2000s, when his personal battles with addiction alienated him from the art world. Hambleton’s work saw a resurgence in the 2010s, with solo shows, major museum retrospectives, and documentaries taking a new look at the seminal role he played in the history of street art.

21

Richard Hambleton Untitled, 1985 Acrylic and Gel on Paper 71.50 x 29.50 in

22

Haring, Keith American, 1958 - 1990

American artist and social activist, Keith Haring, is best known for his illustrative depictions of figures and symbols. “I don't think art is propaganda,” he once stated. “It should be something that liberates the soul, provokes the imagination and encourages people to go further. It celebrates humanity instead of manipulating it.” Haring was inspired to draw from an early age by Walt Disney cartoons and his father who was an amateur cartoonist. After briefly studying commercial art in Pittsburgh, Haring came across a show of the works of Pierre Alechinksy and decided to pursue a career in fine art instead.

He moved to New York in the late 1970s to attend the School of Visual Arts, and soon immersed himself in the city’s graffiti culture. By the mid-1980s, he had befriended fellow artists Andy Warhol, Kenny Scharf, and Jean-Michel Basquiat, and collaborated with celebrities like the singer Grace Jones.

Haring’s prodigious career was brief, and he died of AIDSrelated complications on February 16, 1990 at the age of 31.

23

Keith Haring Untitled (from The Valley) (48/80), 1989 Etching on Twinrocker handmade paper 14.25 x 12.62 in

24

Lichtenstein, Gary American

Over the course of his remarkable 45-year career, Gary Lichtenstein has produced a wide range of silkscreen editions and multiples with artists including Cey Adams, Charlie Ahearn, Janette Beckman, Richard Corman, Bob Gruen and Eric Orr. He has printed for industry legends including Marina Abramovic, Robert Indiana, and Ken Price. Lichtenstein’s prints have been exhibited and collected by, among others, New York’s Museum of Modern Art, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Smithsonian, and the Chicago Art Institute.

Gary Lichtenstein Editions is a publisher and printer of fine art silkscreen editions, located in Jersey City, NJ. Eighteen-foot ceilings and gallery-lit exhibition space allow for an everchanging display of work from both recent projects and their extensive print archive. In addition to custom screenprinting services, GLE frequently curates exhibitions, produces events and cultivates site-specific projects and educational programs.

25

Robert Indiana HEAL (red, green, blue variation) (5/5), 2015 Silkscreen on 2ply Rising Museum Board 32 x 32 in Printed by Gary Lichtenstein Editions

Bob Gruen Led Zeppelin, NYC, 1973 (27/50), 2014 Silkscreen on 2ply Rising Museum Board 40 x 50 in Printed by Gary Lichtenstein Editions

Cey Adams American Flag (Black), 2021 Silkscreen on 320g Coventry Rag Paper 28 x 48 in Printed by Gary Lichtenstein Editions

26

Hirst, Damien British, b. 1965

Damien Hirst is a British Conceptual artist known for his controversial take on beauty and found-art objects. Along with Liam Gillick, Tracey Emin, and Sarah Lucas, Hirst was part of the Young British Artists movement that rose to prominence in the early 1990s. “I have always been aware that you have to get people listening before you can change their minds,” he reflected. “Any artist's big fear is being ignored, so if you get debate, that's great.” As a student at Goldsmiths College in London, his work caught the eye of the collector and gallerist Charles Saatchi, who became an early patron. Hirst’s The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living (1991)—a large vitrine containing an Australian tiger shark suspended in formaldehyde—was financed by Saatchi and helped to launch the artist’s career.

Hirst went on to win the coveted Turner Prize in 1995. In 2012, he showed what went on to be one of his most controversial work in decades, the installation In and Out of Love, which consisted of two white windowless rooms in which over 9,000 butterflies flitted around and died.

27

Damien Hirst Lysergic Acid Diethylamide (LSD) (111/300), 2000 Lambda inkjet print in colors on gloss Fujicolor professional paper 45 x 53 x 2.25 in

28

Indiana, American, 1928–2018

Robert

Robert Indiana was an American Pop artist whose work drew inspiration from signs, billboards, and commercial logos. He is best known for his series of LOVE paintings, which employed bold and colorful letterforms to spell out the word “love.” Following the advice of his friend Ellsworth Kelly, the artist relocated to New York after receiving his BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1954. It was here that Indiana became acquainted with a number of prominent artists, including Agnes Martin, and James Rosenquist. Over the following decades his work became increasingly popular, with both his LOVE and HOPE motifs transformed into a number of public sculptures. In September 2013, the Whitney Museum of American Art opened “Robert Indiana: Beyond LOVE,” the artist’s first retrospective in New York. Indiana died on May 19, 2018 in Vinalhaven, ME. Today, his works are held in the collections of The Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Tate Gallery in London, among others.

29

Robert Indiana Love Is God (6/25), 2014 Silkscreen on 2ply Rising Museum Board 60 x 60 in Printed by Gary Lichtenstein Editions

30

KAWS American, b.1974

KAWS, born Brian Donnelly, is a multi-faceted artist straddling the worlds of art and design in his prolific body of work that ranges from paintings, murals, and large-scale sculptures to product design and toy-making. His iconic “XX” signature has its roots in the beginning of his career as a street artist in the 1990s, when he began altering found advertisements by incorporating his own masterful paintings. KAWS studied illustration at the School of Visual Arts in New York and went on to work as an animator at Disney after graduating. Evoking the sensibilities of Pop artists like Andy Warhol and Claes Oldenburg, KAWS possesses sophisticated humor and thoughtful interplay with consumer products and collaborations with global brands. He often draws inspiration and appropriates from popular culture animations to form a unique artistic vocabulary and influential cast of hybrid cartoon and human characters.

31

KAWS What Party (Red) (65/100), 2020 Screenprint on Saunders Waterford 425gm HP hi-white 22 x 22 in

KAWS What Party (Grey) (65/100), 2020 Screenprint on Saunders Waterford 425gm HP hi-white 22 x 22 in

32

LaChapelle, David American, b. 1963

Discovered by Andy Warhol at the age of 17, David LaChapelle began working for Interview Magazine at the threshold of his prolific career. Soon to be known for his hyper-real, distinctly saturated depictions of celebrity culture —Paris Hilton, Muhammad Ali, Britney Spears, Madonna, and Tupac Shakur figuring among his subjects—LaChapelle’s earliest work explored themes of mortality and transcendence through fine art, black-and-white photography. After tremendous success in commercial photography, music videos, and filmmaking, LaChapelle has returned to the gallery settings where he first began. His work today explores the metaphysical themes of his earliest work, referencing art history and religious iconography to make profound commentaries on the contemporary world. “I reintroduce my personal ideas of transfiguration, regaining paradise, and the notion of life after death,” says the artist, who now calls a remote farm in a Hawaiian jungle his home.

33

David LaChapelle Andy Warhol: Last Sitting (1/10), 1986 Photograph on C-print, paper, diasec 23 x 17.50 in

34

Longo, Robert American, b. 1953

Robert Longo is an American artist best known for his detailed photorealistic drawings of jumping figures, sharks, tigers, and guns. Drawn in charcoal, graphite, and ink, his monochrome series Men in the City renders businessmen and women in a state of suspended animation, and brought the artist critical acclaim in the early 1980s. Born on January 7, 1953 in Brooklyn, NY, Longo studied sculpture with Cindy Sherman at the State University College in Buffalo, NY where he received his BFA in 1975. “I always think that drawing is a sculptural process,” Longo has explained. “I always feel like I'm carving the image out rather than painting the image. I'm carving it out with erasers and tools like that.” He has gone on to have his work shown at the 1983 and 2004 Whitney Biennial in New York and the 47th Venice Biennale. Longo currently lives and works in New York, NY. The artist’s works are held in the collections of the Albertina in Vienna, the Art Institute of Chicago, The Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Tate Gallery in London, and the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, among others.

35

Robert Longo Untitled (Tree) 17/25), 2018 Archival pigment print on wove paper 36.25 x 59.75 in

36

Mazzucco,

Canadian

Raphael

Raphael Mazzucco travels the world, shooting fashion, advertising, and celebrity portraits for leading brands, businesses, and magazines. He has shot bikini-clad models for the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue; celebrities ranging from Adrien Brody to Olivia Newton John for a book project; and fashion spreads for publications including Vogue and Marie Claire. Though his schedule is constantly full of such commissions, he also finds time to pursue his own projects.

Like his commercial work, his personal work is based in photography and centered upon gorgeous women. He begins with photographs of women in all manner of dress and undress, captured in the midst of action or still and posing.

Over these images, Mazzucco paints, sketches, and splashes colorful pigment, creating an exuberant overlay of marks and brushstrokes in celebration of beauty and expression.

37

Raphael Mazzucco Simone, 2017 Mixed Media, Photography, encased in resin 40 x 60 in

38

Miller, Harland British, b. 1964

Writer and artist Harland Miller explores the relationship between words and images—and the process of producing meaning—in his paintings, sculptures, and mixed-media works. Interested in canonical authors like Edgar Allan Poe and Ernest Hemingway and drawing influence from Ed Ruscha, Mark Rothko, Anselm Kiefer, and Robert Rauschenberg, Miller pointedly combines text and images to comment on the frequent disconnect between representation and reality. For one series of paintings, he transformed canvases into satirical Penguin book covers, inventing keenly witty titles—like The Me I Never Knew (2009) —to send up classical literary motifs. The (often torturous) process of writing itself is the subject of another series, in which Miller covers vintage typewriters with splashes of paint, giving the works titles like, Writing is easy—all you do is feed in a sheet of white A4 paper and stare at it till your forehead bleeds (2009).

39

Harland Miller The Me I Never Knew (4/50), 2013 Silkscreen print in colors on wove paper 49 x 39 in

40

Rammellzee American, 1960 - 2010

First known as a graffiti artist, Rammellzee also recorded and performed as a musician and later worked in sculpture and assemblage. His self-titled Gothic Futurism style was distinguished by the use of bright colors, barbed letters, and its symbolic campaign against standardization. Rammellzee’s self-given name is an esoteric derivation of a math equation.

He first began tagging subway cars during the late 1970s.

Rammellzee went on to release the hip-hop single “Beat Bop” with K-Rob in 1983, and exhibited alongside Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring. In the decades that followed, the artist continued to produce experimental music, costume-like sculptures, and spray painted work. In 2004, Rammellzee collaborated with the design brand Supreme to create a release of 20 hand painted backpacks. The artist died on June 27, 2010 in New York, NY.

41

Rammellzee Untitled, 1986 Spray paint on cardboard 17.72 x 39.37 in

42

RISK

American, b. 1967

Multi-talented fine artist, sculptor, and graffiti pioneer RISK was one of the first artists to exhibit graffiti and street art in galleries. Born Kelly Graval, the artist moved to Los Angeles with his family and made his new high school his personal canvas. He has participated in a number of street art crews, most famously West Coast Artists (WCA) and the Seventh Letter. In the course of his nearly 30-year career, RISK has become one of the most influential figures for subsequent generations of graffiti artists, particularly in Los Angeles. He is also considered one of the first artists to have painted on freight trains, as well as a pioneer of “painting in the heavens”—a graffiti term referring to highly elevated surfaces like billboards, rooftops, and overpasses. His art can be seen in music videos by everyone from the Red Hot Chili Peppers to Michael Jackson.

43

Risk Peaceful Buddha Woven #1, 2021 Acrylic, spray paint on handwoven strips of Coventry rag archival paper with burned edges 58 x 36 in

44

Ruscha, Ed American, b. 1937

Despite being credited with a Pop sensibility, Ed Ruscha defies categorization with his diverse output of photographic books and tongue-in-cheek photo-collages, paintings, and drawings. Ruscha’s work is inspired by the ironies and idiosyncrasies of life in Los Angeles, which he often conveys by placing glib words and phrases from colloquial and consumerist usage atop photographic images or fields of color. Known for painting and drawing with unusual materials such as gunpowder, blood, and Pepto Bismol, Ruscha draws attention to the deterioration of language and the pervasive cliches in pop culture, illustrated by his iconic 1979 painting I Don’t Want No Retro Spective. “You see this badly done on purpose, but the badly-done-on-purpose thing was done so well that it just becomes, let’s say, profound,” he once said.

Equally renowned were his photographic books, in which he transferred the deadpan Pop style into series of images of LA —apartments, palm trees, or Twentysix Gasoline Stations (1962), his most famous work.

45

Ed Ruscha Sin Without (C.T.P. 1/2), 2002 Lithograph printed in yellow-green on wove paper 26.75 x 46 in

46

SCHARF, Kenny American, b.1958

Muralist, painter, sculptor, and installation artist Kenny Scharf is best known for his fantastical, large-scale paintings of anthropomorphic animals and imagined creatures. Though Scharf’s brightly colored imagery is generally playful, he has remarked that darker themes exist beneath the surface of his works, visible upon closer inspection. Scharf moved to New York to receive his BFA, where he became a part of the 1980s East Village Art movement alongside Keith Haring. The artist says he has been influenced by all 20th-century art movements, including Abstract Expressionism and Pop Art, the latter reflected in his appropriation of cartoon characters from television shows like the Flintstones and Jetsons and his humorous depiction of snack food. Scharf’s oftentimes dense and frenetic compositions also echo a Baroque sensibility.

47

Kenny Scharf Flores Blue (8/12), 2020 Archival pigment ink print with silkscreened high gloss varnish and diamond dust on Innova Etching Cotton Rag 315 gsm fine art paper 37 x 30 in

48

SWOON American, b.1977

American street artist Swoon is best known for her large-scale wheatpaste prints and paper cutouts. Often depicting portraits of her friends and family, her work involves a wideranging practice that includes installation and performance.

Using reclaimed materials whenever possible, Swoon’s images are often printed on recycled newspaper and glued onto abandoned buildings, bridges, and street signs around the world. “There is power on the walls of the city, and I fell in love with every part of that,” said the artist. Born Caledonia Dance Curry, Swoon moved to New York to received her BA in fine arts at the Pratt Institute in 2002. Her work gained recognition after a solo show at Jeffrey Deitch’s Soho gallery in 2005, quickly attracting the attention of gallerists and museum curators. The artist’s site-specific solo show Submerged Motherlands at the Brooklyn Museum in 2014 was the museum’s first exhibition dedicated to a living street artist.

49

Swoon Braddock Steel, 2013 Mixed media on found door 79.25 x 30.25 x 1.75 in

50

Tunney, American, b. 1961

Peter

Peter Tunney is a Neo-Pop artist working with language and text. His large-scale paintings are created from collaged packing materials and newspapers. Drawing imagery and phrases from popular media sources, he created block-letter aphorisms such as “DON’T PANIC” and “THE TIME IS ALWAYS NOW.” This technique references the language-based works of both Christopher Wool and Mel Bochner. Born in 1961 in New York, NY, the former Wall Street executive, and friend of Peter Beard currently lives and works between New York, NY and Miami, FL.

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Peter Tunney Grattitude, 2020 Acrylic paint, hand-pulled silkscreen, and extensive collage of mixed media on canvas 36 x 48 in

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VHILS Portuguese, b.1987

Vhils, the pseudonym of Portuguese street artist Alexandre Farto, has become synonymous with his signature approach to street portraiture. Working both outdoors and indoors, his large-scale, detailed images are achieved by scratching, drilling, and using bleach to tear away at billboards, walls, and found panels. The subjects therefore become one with the architecture and detritus that Vhils uses as both substrate and medium. His groundbreaking bas-relief carving technique has been hailed as one of the most compelling approaches to art created in the streets in the last decade. Challenging the notion that graffiti art is socially disruptive, Vhils sees the medium as a force to push the boundaries of the politics of communication in the social arena. An avid experimentalist, Vhils has been developing his personal aesthetics in a plurality of media besides his signature carving technique: from stencil painting to metal etching, from pyrotechnic explosions and video to sculptural installations. Since 2005, he has presented his work in over 30 countries around the world.

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Vhils Dicey Series #22, 2019 Hand-cut and laser-cut advertising posters 70 x 47 in 54

Wesselmann, Tom American, 1931–2004

Tom Wesselmann is considered one of the major artists of New York Pop Art, along with Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol. Best known for his 1960s series “Great American Nude,” which featured flat figures in an intense palette of red, white, blue, and other patriotic colors, Wesselmann, in an effort to reject Abstract Expressionism, made collages and assemblages that incorporated everyday objects and advertising ephemera. In the early 1980s, he produced his first "Metal Works,” in which he shaped canvases and cut metal to create abstract three-dimensional images. In his final years, Wesselmann returned to the female form in the “Sunset Nudes” series, where the compositions, abstract imagery, and sanguine moods recall the odalisques of Henri Matisse.

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Tom Wesselmann Judy on a Blue Blanket (AP 20/20), 2000 Screenprint in colors 23 x 34 in

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yue

Chinese, b. 1962

Minjun

In his oil paintings, Yue Minjun often inserts himself in iconic moments in art history, painting exaggerated self-portrait figures in candy colors. The figures bear wide smiles with gaping mouths as they enact poses from the works of Caravaggio and other artists from the Western canon.

Transforming himself into an icon, the artist has said, “was not meant as a self-portrait in its traditional sense, but something more like a movie star acting in different roles.” Surrealism was an early influence on Yue, who shot to the top of an explosive Chinese contemporary scene as a member of the Cynical Realist movement, his serious political criticism and social commentary hidden behind the mask of his smiling faces. In another series, Yue turned his practice on its head, recreating famous Western and Chinese socialist paintings as empty settings with their subjects removed.

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Yue Minjun Untitled (from The Giants of Contemporary Chinese Art Portfolio) (17/99), 2005 Lithograph 21.90 x 29.40 in

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YUSKAVAGE, Lisa American, b. 1962

Lisa Yuskavage is known for the thin-armed, big-breasted, wide-hipped women in her paintings who are both childlike and sexually brazen, painted in a palette of mostly pastel colors. Flourishing in lush, magical landscapes underneath dramatic skies, Yuskavage’s languid figures seem filled with desire for themselves. The inclusion of an occasional onlooker in the background adds an additional element of transgression to the narrative and incorporates voyeurism into the paintings themselves, such as in her 2011 work Lauren with a Traveller.

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Lisa Yuskavage Hippies. 2015 Eight color giclée with offset lithography in two colors 36.5 × 32.5 in

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Zao Wou-ki Chinese-French, 1921–2013

A master of postwar art and the highest-selling Chinese painter of his generation, Zao Wou-ki applied Modernist artmaking techniques to traditional Chinese literati painting. Zao moved to Paris in 1948, rejected his Chinese heritage, and immediately began painting in the style of Paul Klee, whose own style was influenced by Chinese landscape painting. By 1954, Zao had developed a unique style that was marked by contrasting colors and lyrical abstraction and that merged Chinese art, as viewed through the lens of European abstraction, with traditional Chinese landscapes. Zao remained wary of objectively Chinese-influenced art and avoided using ink for much of his career, preferring to work with oil paints in a calligraphic style. Like traditional Chinese landscape painting, Zao’s paintings function as fragments of a larger scene, possessing fluidity, transparency, and a graceful luminosity representative of the artist’s interior energies.

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Zao Wou-ki Sans Titre (9/15), 1956 Lithograph 16.25 x 19.25 in

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Zhang Xiaogang Chinese, b. 1958

Relying on memory to recreate a highly personal version of his country’s history, Zhang Xiaogang makes art that is as much about himself as it is about China’s past. The grim imaginary families in his “Bloodlines: The Big Family” paintings of the 1990s and his 2005–06 series of grisaille portraits in oil reveal countless narratives about the aspirations and failures of the Cultural Revolution as well as Zhang’s own emotions.

Like the blank visages of the individuals in these paintings, Zhang’s brass and concrete sculptures of figures, as well as implements used for recording history (such as fountain pens, notebooks, and light bulbs, all 2009), appear compressed and distorted by memory, age, and some unknown force.

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Zhang Xiaogang Untitled, from Bloodline: Big Family (17/68), 2007 Lithograph in colors on Arches paper 36.50 x 51.50 in

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Glossary

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Collage “Collage is the cut, the tear, the rupture and the overlay of our contemporary culture. It is the hybrid language of urbanity—remixed, re-contextualized, and wholly built from the fragments of daily life.”

– Pavel Zoubok Derived from the French verb coller, meaning “to glue,” collage refers to both the technique and the resulting work of art in which fragments of paper, photographs, and other ephemera are arranged and affixed to a supporting surface.

Though long a popular pastime amongst scrapbookers, the technique’s art-historical beginnings are generally traced back to the early twentieth century, pioneered by French Cubists Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque. The development of collage in art ran parallel to experiments in poetry and literature in the early 20th century, where aesthetic principles of fragmentation, reassembly, and multiple meanings reflected the rapid societal and technological changes ushered in by modernism and urbanization. Because collage often incorporates mass-produced images, the practice is often inseparable from its historical and political context, making it a powerful mode of social commentary. Contemporary artists continue to explore the richness of collage in their efforts to question assumptions, biases, and pressing political crises.

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Etching Etching is an intaglio printmaking technique that uses chemical action to produce incised lines in a metal printing plate which then holds the applied ink and forms the image. The plate, traditionally copper but now often zinc, is prepared with acid-resistant ground. A fine-pointed etching needle called a diamond stylus is used to draw on the plate through the ground exposing the metal. The plate is then immersed in acid and the exposed metal is “bitten,” producing incised lines. Stronger acid and longer exposure produce more deeply bitten lines. The resist is removed and ink is then applied to the sunken lines and the excess ink is wiped from the surface. The plate is then placed against paper and passed through a printing press with great pressure to transfer the ink from the recessed lines. Sometimes the ink may be left on the plate surface to provide a background tone.

Etching was used for decorating metal from the fourteenth century but was probably not used for printmaking much before the early sixteenth century. Since then many etching techniques have been developed, which are often used in conjunction with each other: soft-ground etching, also known as dry-point, is a technique used to create a more painterly effect, which produces lines with fuzzy velvety edges by leaving the residue “burr” inside the incised lines; spit bite involves painting or splashing acid onto the plate; open bite in which areas of the plate are exposed to acid with no resist; photo-etching (also called photogravure) is produced by coating the printing plate with a light-sensitive acid-resist ground and then exposing this to light to reproduce a photographic image. *see Intaglio 67

INTAGLIO Most likely developed from the decoration of precious metals in medieval times, intaglio printmaking refers to all printmaking in which an acid or pointed tool is used to incise a metal matrix generally composed of copper, iron, steel, or zinc. The word comes from the Italian intagliare, meaning “to incise” or “to carve.” In intaglio printing, the lines or areas that hold the ink are incised below the surface of the plate, and printing relies on the pressure of a press to force damp paper into these incised lines or areas to pick up ink, resulting in characteristically raised lines. Intaglio techniques include etching, engraving, aquatint, photogravure, mezzotint, and drypoint; oftentimes used in combination, these techniques can produce variations in both tone and contrast.

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LITHOGRAPH Commonly regarded as the most difficult printmaking method to learn and master, lithography was invented in Germany in 1796. The term is derived from the Greek words for stone (litho) and drawing (graph). The technique involves drawing with an oil-based implement (typically a greasy crayon or liquid called tusche) directly onto a smoothed surface, traditionally limestone but now often aluminum. When the greasy image is ready to be printed, a chemical mixture is applied across the surface of the stone or plate in order to securely bond it. The surface is then dampened with water, which adheres only to the non-marked area. Oil-based printer ink, applied with a roller, sticks to the greasy imagery and not to areas protected by the film of water. Damp paper is placed on top of this surface and run through a press to transfer the image. In addition to the traditional method described here, other types of lithography include offset lithography, photolithography, and transfer lithography. Offset lithography involves printing the image onto an intermediate surface before the final sheet. The process is ‘offset’ because the plate does not come in direct contact with the paper, which preserves the quality of the plate.

Lithography was invented in the late eighteenth century, initially using 1500 pound Bavarian limestones (one for each color used) as the printing surface. Its invention made it possible to print a much wider range of marks and areas of tone than possible with earlier printmaking relief or intaglio methods. It also made color printing easier: areas of different colors can be applied to separate stones and overprinted onto the same sheet. Each sheet must be hung to dry for 24-hours before an additional color can be applied.

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PAPERCUT Papercut refers to handicrafts made by cutting paper with scissors or an engraving knife to form different patterns and images.

Chinese paper cutting originated in the practice of worship to both ancestors and gods, a traditional part of Chinese culture dating back roughly two millennia. According to archaeological records, papercutting can be dated to the 6th century, although some believe that its history can be traced back to as far as 3 BC, long before paper was invented. Papercutting as an art form matured during the Tang dynasty, where it became considered not only a type of handicraft but also a type of artwork, as ideas and concepts were expressed through the pattern cut into the paper.

In contemporary Chinese culture paper-cutting is used to decorate doors, windows, and walls to show happiness and celebrate festivals such as Chinese New Year, weddings, and childbirth. Typically papercuts are created from red paper, a color that is associated with happiness and luck.

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Photography Since its invention in 1839, photography has served as a medium for documenting, understanding, and interpreting the world. The word photography is named after the Greek word for light (phos) and drawing (graphê), translating to drawing with light. The medium has radically contributed to the evolution of visual representation, in part by allowing for the documentation of a moment in time, and, because of its inherent reproducibility, by enabling the wide circulation and distribution of images.

Photographs are forms of representation, shaped by a series of decisions made by the photographer. Moreover, the way we interpret a photograph is influenced not only by the photographer’s intention, but also by the ways in which a picture is produced, edited, and circulated. Photography has been used throughout history and into the present day as a tool for science and exploration; as a means of documenting people, places and events; of telling stories and recording histories; and as a mode of communication and critique in our increasingly visual culture. The medium is being continually reinvented and rethought, shaped as much by technological advances as it is by the ever-changing dialogues surrounding photography’s use.

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Screenprint Screenprinting is a stencil-based printmaking technique in which an ink-blocking stencil is applied to a screen allowing ink that is wiped across the screen to selectively pass through to a printing surface.

The screen itself is created by stretching a woven fabric (originally silk, now more commonly synthetic material) tightly over a wooden frame. Areas of the screen that are not part of the image are blocked out with a variety of stencil-based methods, including painting on glue or lacquer or by applying adhesive film or paper.

Ink or paint is then forced through the unblocked areas of the screen with a rubber blade, known as a squeegee, directly onto the paper. Multiple colors are achieved in a single screenprint by using a separate screen for each color, a process that requires extreme precision. Screenprints typically feature bold, hard-edged areas of flat, unmodulated color.

Originally used for commercial purposes in the early 20th century, the technique was then termed “serigraphy” in the 1940s to denote its use for fine art. The term “silkscreen” is also commonly used to describe this technique noting the origin of the screen material. The technique has been widely used by artists as a printmaking technique since the 1950s and artists of the 1960s, most notably Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein, incorporated screenprinted images from mass media into their work.

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