Jimin Lee at the studio

Jimin Lee at Magnolia
Artist and UC Santa Cruz Professor Jimin Lee worked at the studio last week.

Lee created a photogravure plate using Magnolia's innovative, gelatin-free method; she also said "so long" to printer Sam Bennett, who had been her advisee at UCSC and who recently embarked on a cross-country move to Brooklyn.

Sam Bennett and Lee

An early proof

Lee works on a plate


Lee and printer Tallulah Terryll
Lee has a long history with the studio; Magnolia published several of her print editions in 1997 - you can see them here.

Geisha in Ofuro

Masami Teraoka - Geisha in Ofuro, 2011
Jacquard tapestry
115 x 78 in. Edition of 8
Geisha in Ofuro, the first tapestry edition by Masami Teraoka, has been more than five years in the making.

Don Farnsworth and Teraoka working on the weave file for Geisha at Magnolia Editions
The image itself has even more history: Geisha in Ofuro (ofuro is the Japanese word for "bath") began as a watercolor on canvas from the artist’s 1988 AIDS Series, described by Sarah Atlee as “an evocative mix of beauty and terror, sensual forms startled into abrupt mortality,” in which Teraoka grappled with the burgeoning AIDS crisis.

Detail from Teraoka's Geisha in Ofuro tapestry; click to enlarge & see the weave structures!
In 2008, Teraoka reworked the image as a woodblock print edition; now his Geisha takes on an especially monumental, heroic cast as a nearly ten-foot-tall tapestry.

A Geisha tapestry proof at Catharine Clark Gallery; photo by Michael Strickland
Teraoka’s reflection on the effect of AIDS on the vast sex industry in Japan (the mizu-shobai, or “water business”) suggests that even in a world of fantasy, awareness is paramount, and a simple act of self-protection can be a measure of strength.

Detail from Teraoka's Geisha in Ofuro tapestry; click to enlarge
“A saint or angel doesn’t have to be a priest, a high-achieving person, or anyone particularly special,” Teraoka told Alison Bing in 2006, “anyone who is decent and civilized and a good person, we should be celebrating.”

A consummate painter, Teraoka mixed paint colors by hand to indicate color corrections on his tapestry proofs (just as Alex Katz did for his 2008 Ada with Sunglasses tapestry edition).

Masami Teraoka working at Magnolia Editions
For more information on Geisha in Ofuro, please see the press release on Magnolia's website:

Geisha in Ofuro press release (PDF)

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Tsunami

Rupert Garcia - Tsunami, 2011
Woodcut with acrylic; 13.75 x 36.25 in. (Paper 29.75 x 41.75 in) Edition of 16
Rupert Garcia’s Tsunami combines one of the most venerated traditional printmaking techniques, the woodcut, with the precision and boundless color possibilities of the digital age.

The work has antecedents in Garcia’s iconic Frida Kahlo woodcut of 2002 and the many mixed-media works he has produced at Magnolia Editions in subsequent years, as demonstrated in the recent “Rupert Garcia: the Magnolia Editions Projects 1991-2011” exhibition at San Francisco’s de Young Museum.

Garcia’s work is often topical, taking inspiration from contemporary events or drawing connections between historical figures and situations. Here his imagery evokes the Touhoku earthquake and tsunami which devastated eastern Japan in 2011, the most destructive natural disaster in the country’s history.

You can read more about both the content and the creation of this edition in the Press Release on Magnolia's website.

More art by Rupert Garcia at Magnolia Editions

A Live Animal & Origin: Specimens

Donald Farnsworth - Bird Skin Tray III, 2007
Pigmented inkjet on rag paper, 22.5 x 40 in.
Magnolia director Donald Farnsworth is among the artists included in "A Live Animal," on view from July 7 - July 30 at Root Division in San Francisco's Mission district.

On Tuesday, July 19, from 7:30 to 9:30 pm there will be an evening of presentations and performance at the neighboring ODC Theater. With topics ranging from "Eating Bugs For Fun and For Profit" to "Bioelectric Venom" and "Kinetic Empathy," this promises to be a stimulating and entertaining evening. The presentations will be followed by a reception at Root Division.

For more details, please visit the Root Division website.

Images from Donald Farnsworth's Origin: Specimens series at the Nevada Museum of Art
Also, for blog readers in the Reno area, Farnsworth's "Origin: Specimens" show at the Nevada Museum of Art will be coming down August 28. If you haven't seen the show, please check it out! More info is available at the NMA website.

More art by Donald Farnsworth from Magnolia Editions

One Hundred Poems

Squeak Carnwath and John Yau - One Hundred Poems (cover), 2010
In late 2010, Magnolia Editions published One Hundred Poems, a collaborative artist's book featuring art pages by Squeak Carnwath and poetry by John Yau.

Pages from One Hundred Poems
This innovative combination of twenty double-sided acrylic prints by Carnwath (richly textured with gesso and marble dust) and one hundred short poems by Yau showcases the wit and lyricism of both collaborators.

Squeak Carnwath and John Yau - One Hundred Poems, 2010
Artist's book: twenty double-sided acrylic prints, eight letterpress pages, clamshell box
13.125 x 9.5 in. prints; 14.25 x 10.375 x 1.25 in. box (closed). Edition of 20
To read an essay by Nick Stone with more information on the book and its contents, please visit Magnolia's website or contact us to request a prospectus.

One Hundred Poems is available now; for pricing, please call or email Magnolia Editions.

More art by Squeak Carnwath from Magnolia Editions

Deborah Oropallo at the studio

Deborah Oropallo painting at Magnolia
Today found Deborah Oropallo once again breaking down the boundaries of painting and printmaking to create works which defy genre.

Donald Farnsworth worked with Oropallo to generate a unique texture on several canvases, which she then printed, painted, re-printed and re-painted with layers of digitally manipulated imagery sourced from fetish catalogues and 18th century portraiture.

Deborah Oropallo and Don Farnsworth; in the foreground, textured canvas on the press
Deborah Oropallo makes digital adjustments
Deborah Oropallo and Don Farnsworth
Don Farnsworth inspects an experimental mixed-media work by Oropallo
(All photos by Nick Stone)