October 2, 2014

Twelve members of the Arts Center of Northern New Jersey joined me on Thursday, October 2nd for a tour of print galleries in Chelsea. Print-making is one of the least understood art forms and our object was to learn more about the various kinds of print making and to see as many examples of print making as we could. To that end, we visited The International Print Center New York, Pace Prints and Gemini G.E.L as well as a stop at Taglialatella Gallery. Anne Coffin at IPCNY gave us a short talk about the gallery, it’s history and mission, and some background on the present exhibition. She then turned us over to several members of the staff who described and demonstrated different printmaking techniques before turning us loose to explore the wonderful collection on the walls. We were also provided literature, produced by The Museum of Modern Art, which explains printmaking of all kind.
Our next stop was across 26th street to Pace Prints, where Jennifer Brown explained the extraordinary paper-making technique used in the creation of the latest works by Kenny Scharf. She also gave us a look into the stacks and the back room, where we could see examples of other kinds of printmaking done in Pace’s own print shops in New York. At Taglialatella we browsed the Warhols, the Banksys and other contemporary examples of print making adorning the walls and then headed for Gemini G.E.L on West 24th Street. Chris Santa Maria introduced us to the present exhibit, new work by John Baldesari, and then opened some of the file drawers to show us some exquisite Richard Serra prints. He even brought out the plate on which Serra worked to produce one of the prints and explained the technique involved in the process.
Our time in the print galleries was over much too soon, but I encouraged the group to join me for one last stop before leaving Chelsea. Lehman-Maupin Gallery is showing a new project by the Korean artist Do Ho Suh that, I think, shouldn’t be missed. There are some “drawings” that are quite wonderful, done with thread, but the better part of the show are rubbings done of the apartment he lived in in New York some years ago. ALL of the apartment. Walls, ceiling, stove, air conditioner….There’s also a film of him doing the rubbings of a house he occupied in Korea. I think the group was happy to see this work and I was pleased to be able to share this with them. It’s what doing this kind of work is really all about.
Our next planned tour is of galleries on The Lower East Side selling “affordable” art. Looking forward to it.

Anne Coffin of IPCNY

Jennifer Brown at Pace

Chris Santa Maria of Gemini G.E.L.