Exhibitions in October

Enrique Chagoya - Time Can Pass Fast or Slowly, 2009
Mixed media with acrylic on gessoed amate paper
40.5 x 40.75 in. Edition of 10
October will be full of shows featuring work from Magnolia Editions at venues all over the world!

In Spain, Enrique Chagoya's exhibition at the Fundacion Artium de Alava, "Enrique Chagoya: Palimpsesto caníbal" will open this Friday, October 4th and remain on view through January 12, 2014.

Here in Oakland, Joyce Gordon Gallery's ten year anniversary show "Then is Now" includes work by a host of Magnolia-affiliated artists including Mildred Howard, Hung Liu, Squeak Carnwath, Enrique Chagoya, and Mel Ramos. Bay Area residents are encouraged to check out "Then is Now" this month; the show comes down October 26, 2013.

Meanwhile, at Hong Kong's 10 Chancery Lane Gallery, several tapestries published by Magnolia Editions are included in Hung Liu's "Mid Autumn Moon" exhibition, on view through this Saturday, October 5th.

In Berkeley, California, Magnolia directors Donald and Era Farnsworth and longtime Magnolia collaborator Rupert Garcia are among the artists featured in "New Media Combinations: Traditional - Digital," which runs until November 16, 2013 at the Berkeley Art Center. Artists in the show will also participate in a panel on October 26 where attendees will have more opportunities to hear about the inspiration and processes behind each work.

Finally, our friends in Oregon have the opportunity to see numerous tapestry editions by Chuck Close at the Oregon Center for the Photographic Arts / Blue Sky Gallery, where "Chuck Close: Tapestries" runs through October 27, 2013.

Papermaking workshops in October & November

Donald Farnsworth demonstrating a Japanese washi papermaking technique (artist's rendition)
UPDATE: Due to popular demand we will hold a second session of Introduction to Papermaking with Michelle Wilson on November 16th from 10 am to 4 pm! Email papermagnolia@hotmail.com to sign up.

We are pleased to announce that Magnolia Editions will be hosting papermaking workshops in our newly renovated paper studio! Please reserve your spot by emailing papermagnolia@hotmail.com, and don't hesitate to pass this info on to anyone you know who might be curious about how paper is made:

• Introduction to Papermaking with instructor Michelle Wilson (special appearance by Donald Farnsworth!) will meet on Saturday, Oct. 19 from 10 am to 4 pm:
  

  Learn the basics of creating your own handmade paper in the European tradition with Cotton and Abaca fibers. From the linter and beating stage to finished sheets, you will learn the process for making paper with different moulds and in a variety of colors. Students will learn to set up vats, pigment fibers, form and embellish sheets of paper. We will begin with a brief introductory lecture and spend the rest of the day making paper. Students are encouraged to bring items to use as inclusions such as dried flowers, lace, fabric, or old printed materials that will not bleed when wet. Please note: this is a wet class – participants are encouraged to wear clothing and shoes that can get wet.
  
  Instructor Michelle Wilson is an artist in whose work handmade paper plays a central role, whether in printmaking, book arts, or installations. She teaches throughout the Bay Area, most recently at San Francisco State, the San Jose ICA Print Center, and the Kala Art Institute.

• Japanese Papermaking with instructor Carol Brighton will meet on Saturday, Oct. 26 from 10 am to 4 pm:
  

  Japanese paper (washi) is world famous for its beauty and strength. Learn to make traditional washi step-by-step from cooking and beating the fibers to sheet formation and drying. We will make sheets on sugetas (Japanese moulds) and Western style moulds, learn to laminate inclusions in collage, and explore other techniques for decorative papers. Students are encouraged to bring items to use as inclusions such as dried flowers, lace, fabric, or printed papers that will not bleed when wet.
  
  Instructor Carol Brighton is an artist whose handmade paper expertise can be seen in her printmaking and pulp paintings. Brighton teaches papermaking at the Academy of Art and also conducts printmaking workshops in her own studio.

The fee for each workshop is $120 per person; classes will be limited to 8 participants each, so early reservations are recommended.

Again, to reserve a place in these workshops, please email papermagnolia@hotmail.com.

Review: Chuck Close at Guild Hall

Installation view of watercolor prints by Chuck Close, printed and published by Magnolia Editions. Photo by Gary Mamay
Artist and writer Mike Solomon offers a considered and appreciative assessment of Chuck Close's current exhibition at Guild Hall in his review for Hamptons Art Hub.

Solomon singles out the watercolor prints created at Magnolia Editions for special attention, writing:

Other works in the east gallery at Guild Hall show how Close has confronted the newest of media challenges, digital printing, which has since its inception revolutionized the art world. His archival watercolor pigment prints — large portraits of Cindy, 2012, Kiki, 2012, Cecily, 2012, and Zhang I, 2012 — are among the most sumptuous of his works I have ever seen.

Playing with the techniques of watercolor, in which tonalities are made when light penetrates the medium and then reflects back to the eye, carrying with it the color and tone the medium has bestowed, Close brings to bear in these absolutely gorgeous works all the associations a viewer might have about watercolors. There are echoes here of Cezanne, Turner, Homer and Klee.

Through the computer, he is able to assign tinted values in each square of the grid and, I suspect, to print these “washes” in layers, through multiple passes, to arrive at the tones he wants. Through this technology, he achieves the same effects earlier artists developed manually, with a brush.

The use of the digital domain to reinvent watercolor is the kind of thing many in the art world hoped for when the digital revolution started, but there have been too few examples of this kind of innovation. These works certainly change all that. I suspect an entirely new genre of watercolor painting will be derived from them. They are that important.

Notice the size of the grid, too, as its variation determines the kind of focus the viewer experiences of the image. In Cindy, 2012, the grid size is about one and half inches, so the abstraction of the work dominates until the viewer moves back quite a distance from the surface. Cecily, 2012, has an even larger grid of about two inches, so the “immediate splendor” (Alfonso Ossorio’s wonderful phrase) is what the viewer gets from its abstraction until moving to the opposite side of the gallery. Then the representation finally comes into focus. In Kiki, 2012 and Zhang I, 2012, the grid is smaller, about three quarters of an inch. In these two, the images are tighter and the focus moves closer to the surface of the work.

This choice of grid size is another one of those areas that Close plays with, and it begs, along with the beauty of the watercolor tints, the kind of contemplation that keeps one involved in the work.

To read the full review, please visit the Hamptons Art Hub website.

Tapestries by Chuck Close, published by Magnolia Editions, at Guild Hall. Photo by Gary Mamay
For more details on the show and associated events, please see this entry; for information on visiting Guild Hall, please check their website.

More art by Chuck Close from Magnolia Editions

More photos: Chuck Close at Guild Hall

Following up on our earlier coverage of Chuck Close's VIP opening at Guild Hall come these candid shots, courtesy of Hamptons Art Hub; all photos below by Pat Rogers.

“Chuck Close: Recent Works” continues through October 14. Guild Hall is located at 158 Main Street, East Hampton, New York; for visiting information please check their website.

All of the artworks pictured can be seen in detail on Magnolia Editions' website.

Chuck Close, art dealer Beth McNeill Muhs, and artist/model Sienna Shields with Close's 2012 print Cindy (smile), printed and published by Magnolia Editions.

Artist Cindy Sherman and Close in front of watercolor prints from Magnolia including Self-Portrait (Yellow Raincoat), 2013, and Kiki, 2012.

Actor Alec Baldwin with Close's 2013 Self-Portrait (Pink T-shirt) tapestry, published by Magnolia Editions.

Tapestries by Chuck Close including Lou, a 2012 portrait of Lou Reed, at Guild Hall.

Lou Reed himself at the opening.

Chuck Close, Cindy Sherman, Robert Storr, and others pose in front of Close's 2013 Self-Portrait (Pink T-shirt) tapestry.
More art by Chuck Close from Magnolia Editions

Photos: Chuck Close at John Berggruen

Watercolor prints by Chuck Close at John Berggruen Gallery; photo courtesy John Berggruen Gallery
"Chuck Close: Important Works on Paper from the Past Forty Years" opened Thursday night at John Berggruen Gallery in San Francisco. The gallery website explains:

This exhibition focuses on several bodies of Close’s extensive oeuvre: rare drawings from the 1970s, important early prints, Polaroid maquettes, and two bodies of recent work, watercolor prints and felt hand stamps.

Stephanie Wright Hession of the San Francisco Chronicle writes that the show reflects Close's "adventurous nature" as an artist; visit the SFGate website to read her interview with Close regarding the inspiration and methods behind the portraits being exhibited.

The watercolor prints in "Important Works on Paper" were printed and published by Magnolia Editions. The exhibition also provides an opportunity to see the debut of a project Close and Magnolia have been proofing for several years involving an innovative ceramic tile technique.

Photos from the opening below courtesy of John Berggruen Gallery:

"Important Works on Paper" will be on view through November 2, 2013; please check the Berggruen Gallery website for more information.

More art by Chuck Close from Magnolia Editions

Chuck Close at John Berggruen Gallery in SF tonight

Chuck Close - Inka, 2012
Archival watercolor pigment print on Hahnemühle rag paper, 75 x 60 in. Edition of 3

"Chuck Close: Important Works on Paper from the Past Forty Years" opens tonight at John Berggruen Gallery in San Francisco from 5:30 – 7:30 PM.

The watercolor prints in "Important Works on Paper" were printed and published by Magnolia Editions; the exhibition also provides an opportunity to see Close's well-known tapestry portrait of Brad Pitt, as well as the debut of a project Close and Magnolia have been proofing for several years involving an innovative ceramic tile technique.

Chuck Close - Brad, 2009
Jacquard tapestry, 104 x 78 in. Edition of 10
The gallery website notes:

This exhibition focuses on several bodies of Close’s extensive oeuvre: rare drawings from the 1970s, important early prints, Polaroid maquettes, and two bodies of recent work, watercolor prints and felt hand stamps... Among the highlights of Chuck Close include an impression of Close’s first print of his career, Keith, which he produced at Crown Point Press, here in San Francisco, in 1972. Other highlights include three drawings from the 1970s whose intimate scale demonstrate both Close’s technical mastery as well as express the conceptual foundations of his grid-based compositions.

Close’s relationship to photography and the historical innovation inherent in its usage is explored in Self-Portrait (Maquette) as the viewer witnesses the beginning of what will become a visual relationship between technology (the Polaroid) and painting. The watercolor prints and felt hand stamps each introduce a new technique; together, the two create a new conversation between the digital and the analogue, between the human and the mechanical.

This show marks the artist’s second solo exhibition at the gallery and the first since 1999, and will be on view through November 2, 2013.

We hope to see you at the opening reception tonight!

Huffington Post interviews Guy Diehl

Guy Diehl - Still Life with Rothko, 2013
acrylic on canvas, 24 x 36 in.
Bay Area still life master Guy Diehl, who has been publishing prints and tapestries with Magnolia since the late 1980s, was recently interviewed by Huffington Post arts blogger John Seed on the occasion of his upcoming show at Dolby Chadwick Gallery in San Francisco.

In this in-depth conversation, Diehl discusses his background, becoming an artist as a means to harness his dyslexia as a strength, and the diverse intents behind his work in various media from painting, printmaking, and mixed-media multiples to murals and tapestries.

Please have a look at the interview over at the Huffington Post and don't miss "Guy Diehl: A Dialogue with Tradition," on view at Dolby Chadwick Gallery from September 5 - 28, 2013 with an opening reception on Thursday the 5th from 5:30-7:30 PM.

Dolby Chadwick gallery website

More art by Guy Diehl from Magnolia Editions