Exhibitions: Aziz + Cucher, Kiki Smith, Don & Era Farnsworth

Donald and Era Farnsworth - Shadow (Cinderella), 2017
pigmented inkjet on Hahnemuhle photo rag paper, 58 x 40 inches
Curator Randy Rosenberg's Art Works for Change will present "The True Stories Project" from May 1 through May 31, 2017 at the Patan Museum, a Unesco World Heritage site in Kathmandu, Nepal.

"The True Stories Project" began as a series of interactive workshops over a six-month period, as Art Works for Change, in collaboration with the Kathmandu-based Siddhartha Gallery, used the arts and storytelling activities to help empower victims of sex trafficking and those at risk for exploitation in Oakland, CA and Nepal.

The project has since grown into an exhibition that combines artwork produced in the project with artworks created by invited artists whose work resonates with the show's themes of exploitation and empowerment.

Participating artists include Donald & Era Farnsworth, Hung Liu, Lin Tianmiao, Parastou Forouhar, Thomas L. Kelly, Ang Tsherin Sherpa, Grassroots Girls Book Club, Hit Man Gurung, Stacy Leigh, AWARE/OWARE Game for Female Empowerment, Natalie Naccache, Sheelasha Raibhandari, The Ugly Truth Campaign, Gabriela Morawetz, Girls Inc, Siddhartha Gallery, and others.

Aziz + Cucher with curator Mizuki Takahashi at MILL6 in Hong Kong
In other international news, Brooklyn-based artist duo Aziz + Cucher recently exhibited four tapestries created with Magnolia Editions in a show titled Line of Times at the MILL6 Foundation's Pop-Up Space at the Annex in Hong Kong, alongside works by Yin-Ju Chen and Morgan Wong.

Curator Mizuki Takahashi with work by Aziz + Cucher at MILL6 in Hong Kong
The works in Line of Times explore various perspectives on the concept of time in both the metaphysical and physical sense. MILL6 Senior Curator Mizuki Takahashi writes: "the multi-disciplinary artworks exhibited resonate with the fluidity of interpreting the subject, a universal yet subjective experience, with immeasurable impact on human existence, shared knowledge and evolutional civilization."

Aziz + Cucher tapestries at MILL6 in Hong Kong
For this exhibition – the artists' first in Hong Kong – Aziz + Cucher produced four large-scale Jacquard tapestries with Magnolia Editions, three of which were commissioned and will become part of MILL6's permanent collection.

Aziz + Cucher tapestries at MILL6 in Hong Kong

Aziz + Cucher tapestry at MILL6 in Hong Kong
Finally, Kiki Smith tapestries published by Magnolia Editions are currently on view at Robischon Gallery in Denver, CO from March 16th through May 6, 2017.

Tapestries by Kiki Smith at Robischon Gallery in Denver, CO
"Kiki Smith: Selections from the Jacquard Tapestry Series" includes four tapestry editions by Smith, installed so that they can be seen from the street and at night.

Tapestries by Kiki Smith at Robischon Gallery in Denver, CO

Tapestries by Kiki Smith at Robischon Gallery in Denver, CO

Tapestry by Kiki Smith at Robischon Gallery in Denver, CO
More art by Donald & Era Farnsworth from Magnolia Editions

More art by Aziz + Cucher from Magnolia Editions

More art by Kiki Smith from Magnolia Editions

Opening this Saturday, Dec 12 at the Art Museum of Sonoma County

Time-lapse video by Ezequiel Narcisi of the "Innovation and Collaboration" exhibition going up at the Art Museum of Sonoma County

"Magnolia Editions: Innovation and Collaboration," curated by Randy Rosenberg, opens at the Art Museum of Sonoma County in Santa Rosa, CA this Saturday, December 12, 2015 with a public reception from 6-8 pm.

The museum is located at 425 7th St, Santa Rosa, CA 95401 (click for directions). Please note that this museum is in Santa Rosa – not to be confused with the similarly named museum at 551 Broadway in Sonoma.

"Magnolia Editions: Innovation and Collaboration" includes work from the last three decades by artists such as Robert Arneson, Squeak Carnwath, Don Ed Hardy, Enrique Chagoya, Chuck Close, Guy Diehl, Aziz + Cucher, Mildred Howard, William T. Wiley, Mary Hull Webster, Hung Liu, Richard Wagener, Doug Hall, Faisal Abdu'Allah, Kiki Smith, Donald and Era Farnsworth, Inez Storer and Andrew Romanoff, and more, representing a host of media ranging from etchings, collographs, and other more traditional printmaking technologies to Jacquard tapestries, UV-cured acrylic prints on handmade paper fabricated from clothing, and electronic mixed-media sculpture.

Time-lapse video by Ezequiel Narcisi of the "Innovation and Collaboration" exhibition going up at the Art Museum of Sonoma County

Stay tuned for exhibition-related programming in the coming months, including a talk with William T. Wiley and Mary Hull Webster, and a walk-through of Magnolia featuring presentations from Donald Farnsworth and Guy Diehl.

We hope you'll join us at the opening in Santa Rosa this Saturday!

Time-lapse video by Ezequiel Narcisi of the "Innovation and Collaboration" exhibition going up at the Art Museum of Sonoma County

Art Museum of Sonoma County website

Works on handmade paper from Awagami Factory

Extra large sheets of washi being made at Awagami Factory in Tokushima, Japan for Chuck Close prints at Magnolia Editions; photos by Craig Anczelowitz

Proof of a watercolor print by Chuck Close on custom-made Awagami handmade paper

Detail of proof by Chuck Close on Awagami handmade paper
Recently, Magnolia received a generous offer from the Awagami Factory in Tokushima, Japan. Magnolia has been printing on Awagami paper for many years; in 2014, on the occasion of the Southern Graphics Council's 42nd annual conference here in the Bay Area, Craig Anczelowitz and Aya Fujimori of Awagami reached out to our Oakland studio about providing paper for new projects to be shown during the conference.

The Awagami paper mill has a remarkable history spanning seven generations of traditional washi papermakers; they now produce a variety of exceptional handmade papers, including washi types that are specially formulated for inkjet printing.

The mill sent samples of dozens of different kinds of washi to Magnolia, where we distributed them to interested (and interesting) artists. William T. Wiley used his samples to create new year's cards; Hung Liu hand painted a small rat in sumi ink on each sample (these irresistible miniature paintings can currently be seen at Magnolia). After Liu and other artists such as Bob Nugent, Mary Hull Webster, and Mildred Howard each made their own selection of papers with richly varying degrees of texture, weight, and opacity, Awagami generously bundled and shipped the papers to us from Tokushima, and the artists immediately set to work printing, drawing, painting, and even sewing on the sheets of handmade washi.

The resulting works are as wonderfully eclectic as the Magnolia community itself, ranging from the solid, woody naturalism of Bob Nugent's prints mounted on panel to the intimate ink painting of Buddha's hand fruits by Hung Liu to the seductive surrealism of Mary Hull Webster's ghostly, colorful portrait prints.

A 2014 print on Awagami handmade paper by Mildred Howard, published by Magnolia Editions
Mildred Howard's series of Gold Dust prints on Awagami paper incorporate black-and-white portraits of the artist into the design of an early 20th-century box of washing powder; the appealingly tactile grayscale texture of Howard's braided dreadlocks and her Miles Davis-esque stance (facing away from the viewer) introduce new elements -- arresting, unexpected, and quietly subversive -- into the archaic Gold Dust packaging, into which the artist has also embedded subtle new details including Booker T. Washington half dollars and Sacajawea dollar coins.

We encourage interested parties to visit Magnolia where you can see these works, many of which are still on display here, and can also check out samples of Awagami paper for your own projects. And of course, make sure to keep in touch with Awagami Factory via their website.

Magnolia continues to partner with Awagami on upcoming projects: currently, Awagami Factory is creating custom washi for new watercolor prints by Chuck Close, as seen in the photos above. These works incorporate custom made paper and custom ICC color profiles developed specifically for the washi being used.

To Craig, Aya, and everyone at Awagami – we sincerely thank you for your generosity in sharing your seven generations' worth of papermaking brilliance with our studio!

More art by Mildred Howard from Magnolia Editions

More art by Hung Liu from Magnolia Editions

More art by Bob Nugent from Magnolia Editions

Recent Projects exhibition at Magnolia Editions

Mixed-media work by Mary Hull Webster on Awagami paper, 2014; see more new work at our "Recent Projects" exhibition, open to the public April 1st.
We are pleased to announce an exhibition of new editions and unique works at our recently renovated gallery: "Magnolia Editions: Recent Projects" will be on view beginning April 1st here at our West Oakland warehouse location.

"Magnolia Editions: Recent Projects" features new tapestry works by Chuck Close and Kiki Smith, as well as recent editions by Inez Storer, Guy Diehl, and Masami Teraoka, and new woodcuts by Mel Ramos.

We are also pleased to feature work on handmade Japanese papers from the Awagami Factory in Tokushima, Japan. The Awagami paper mill has a rich history spanning seven generations of traditional washi papermakers; they now produce a variety of exceptional handmade papers, including washi that is specially formulated for inkjet printing.

Craig Anczelowitz and Aya Fujimori of Awagami Factory have generously supplied us with Awagami papers for this exhibition, which have been printed, drawn, painted, and even sewn on by artists including Mildred Howard, Bob Nugent, Mary Hull Webster, and Hung Liu.

"Recent Projects" coincides with the 42nd annual conference of the nation's largest and most prestigious print organization, the Southern Graphics Council Institute, which will be held in the Bay Area this Friday, March 28th.

The SGCI will award Magnolia director Donald Farnsworth an award for Innovation; Farnsworth and other award winners are featured in a show at UC Berkeley's Worth Ryder Institute, and Magnolia Editions will be hosting two tours on March 28th for registered SGCI attendees.

Registered tour attendees will be able to meet Craig and Aya of Awagami Factory at the studio during the tours on the 28th; the works on Awagami paper will remain on view as part of the "Recent Projects" show through April.

We invite you to sign up for the SGCI tours on the 28th, or else please visit us after April 1st during business hours (10 am to 6 pm) here at 2527 Magnolia Street in Oakland to see "Recent Projects" featuring work on Awagami paper.

Awagami Factory on the web

More information about the SGCI conference

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.

Hung Liu at Mills College Art Museum

Hung Liu in front of Music of the Great Earth II, a mixed-media mural with elements printed at Magnolia Editions, at Mills College Art Museum. Photo by Doug Duran/SJ Mercury News staff
Hung Liu's "Offerings" will be on display at the Mills College Art Museum in Oakland through March 17, 2013. The show is a companion to Liu's upcoming retrospective at the Oakland Museum of California (opening March 15, 2013) and features several large-scale installation works, including Old Gold Mountain (1994), a mound of 200,000 fortune cookies atop a crossroads of railroad tracks.


Jiu Jin Shan (Old Gold Mountain) by Hung Liu at Mills College Art Museum. Photo by Doug Duran/SJ Mercury News staff
The back room is devoted to Liu's installation of antique Chinese dou (food containers), Tai Cang (Great Granary), as well as a large-scale mixed-media mural and a suite of prints, both created by Liu at Magnolia Editions.

Hung Liu - Music of the Great Earth VI, 2008.
Pigmented inkjet on paper, 18 x 90 in. Edition of 20
The mural seen at Mills was originally realized in 1981 as Music of the Great Earth, a 50 foot wide painting in the Foreign Students' Dining Hall at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing, where Liu received her graduate degree. In 1978, the artist had attended an exhibition in Beijing featuring centuries-old musical instruments unearthed in a recent excavation in the Hu Bei province. In a 2,400 year old tomb, archaeologists had discovered a 125-piece orchestra and 25 musicians. The ensemble of Chinese string, wind, and percussion instruments on display included a set of Bian Zhong bells (visible toward the left hand side of Liu's composition) ranging in size from eight inches to five feet tall; the set of bells is so enormous that players must stand and strike them with large mallets. Liu’s studies and drawings of the Hu Bei instruments became the basis for Music of the Great Earth.

In 1993, when Liu revisited China, she found that the former Dining Hall had been relegated to storage space; her mural, neglected for years, sat silently behind stacks of chairs and tables. In later years, Liu was told that it had finally been destroyed.

Hung Liu - Music of the Great Earth III, 2008.
Pigmented inkjet on paper, 18 x 90 in. Edition of 20
Liu used the large-scale printer at Magnolia Editions to create a new mural based on her earlier design, Music of the Great Earth II, which she further layered with hand-painted, autobiographical elements. She also printed a series of smaller Variations, which introduce new passages of color, texture, and figuration to her 1981 composition, on Hahnemuhle cotton rag paper at Magnolia Editions in 2008. Music...II and all of the Variations series are included in "Offerings."

We highly recommend experiencing this show by Liu, hailed as "America's most important Chinese artist" and one of our favorite people!

Hung Liu - Music of the Great Earth Line Drawing, 2008.
Pigmented inkjet on paper, 18 x 90 in. Edition of 20
Mills College Art Museum visiting hours and information

More art by Hung Liu from Magnolia Editions

Opening: Donald & Era Farnsworth at Red Barn Gallery

Bob Yogura is moved by 3-D prints by Donald and Era Farnsworth
Donald and Era Farnsworth's Specimens & Glass Houses recently opened at the Red Barn Gallery at the Pt. Reyes National Seashore Visitors Center in Pt. Reyes, California.

The glass houses of the exhibition's title refer to diatoms, single-cell organisms found in nearly every body of water on Earth that build delicate shells for themselves out of silica. Diatoms are major sources of oxygen in our atmosphere and are estimated to be responsible for 25% of the carbon fixation (conversion of carbon dioxide to organic compounds) in the ocean.

William Wiley with Donald and Era Farnsworth
By enlarging these microscopic life forms and rendering them using an eye-catching, stereoscopic 3-D process, the Farnsworths invite us to consider both the beauty and the ecological importance of these otherwise invisible creatures.

Mildred Howard, Margo Hackett, Bob Yogura and others enjoy the Farnsworth's 3-D prints
Specimens & Glass Houses runs from January 25 through April 1, 2013. Please visit the Pt. Reyes National Seashore website for visiting information.

William Wiley, Donald Farnsworth, and Hung Liu

Mary Webster with 3-D prints by the Farnsworths

Mary Webster, Barbi Anne Reed, William Wiley, Donald & Era Farnsworth (photo by Dallas Saunders)

Donald Farnsworth and Kevin Rowell with the irresistible Hung Liu (photo by Dallas Saunders)
More art by Donald & Era Farnsworth at Magnolia Editions

New Hung Liu editions

Hung Liu - Madame Shoemaker, 2012. Jacquard tapestry, 56 x 72 in. Edition of 12.
Chinese history has always been the essence of Hung Liu’s work: raised in Beijing during Mao’s Great Leap Forward and trained in the Social Realist tradition, Liu now uses painting as a means to reanimate historical photographs. “I hope to wash the subject of its exotic ‘otherness,’” she writes, “and reveal it as a dignified, even mythic figure.” Liu’s tapestry Madame Shoemaker finds the exalted and the serene in a forgotten moment from the first half of the 20th century, revealing the beauty and heroism in the labors of an anonymous woman from China’s past.

Like many of Liu’s works, this tapestry edition is based on a painting which was in turn based on a historical photograph: in this case, a scene of women from a village in the Chinese countryside, who made shoes, clothing, and other supplies for anti-Japanese fighters during the second World War. For Madame Shoemaker, Liu singled out one of the women, finding a personal connection: “Making shoes for your family is a Chinese tradition,” explains Liu, “my grandmother made shoes for me when I was young: I remember watching her slowly make each part by hand from a tough, strong hemp and sewing them together, little by little.” The artist likens this activity both to a meditative state and to the practice of making art in general: putting time in day by day, slowly accumulating work to see a project through to completion. The woman depicted thus becomes an avatar both for Liu herself and for the universal power of feminine creativity and strength.

The tapestry’s title, explains Liu, was inspired by the butterflies surrounding the figure; these colorful creatures are based on traditional Chinese paintings of butterflies on silk from the 10th and 12th centuries, and reminded the artist of the opera “Madame Butterfly.” However, Liu is quick to point out that her Madame is “more blue collar, stronger and happier” than that opera’s helpless, tragic heroine. She is demure, but no less strong and significant than the soldiers who will receive the shoes she makes: “It’s important to remember when looking back at the war,” says Liu, “that there was not just a ‘band of brothers’ but also a whole band of sisters standing behind them.”

Hung Liu - The Lifter, 2012. Woodcut with acrylic, 23.25 x 34.75 in. Edition of 25.
Magnolia also recently published two editions of woodcut prints with acrylic, The Lifter and The Reader, which may initially surprise Liu enthusiasts with their unusual line quality and pictorial simplicity but which deserve a closer look: there is more going on than first meets the eye. Liu based these innovative works on imagery from illustrated patriotic stories in the xiaorenshu, or Chinese picture books, that she read as a child and which she likens to the Dick and Jane primers supplied to American children in the 1950s.

Hung Liu - The Reader, 2012. Woodcut with acrylic, 23.25 x 34.75 in. Edition of 25.
Exhibited as part of Liu's "Happy and Gay" show at Rena Bransten Gallery in San Francisco, the imagery in these prints is "at once charming and eerie," says the exhibition's press release: "Seen from an historical perspective, the propaganda angle strongly supplants the fable or entertainment factor." Incorporating her extraordinary sense of color and signature brushwork via layers of printed acrylic, Liu adds a dimension of historical inquiry and bittersweet, even ironic reflection to the crisp woodcut lines and straightforward, storybook imagery of the xiaorenshu: these works "can be understood, in part, as homage to all the artists who lost their art to propaganda during China's revolutionary epoch."

Liu's exhibition "Happy and Gay" is on view at Rena Bransten Gallery through January 12, 2013.

Press release for Madame Shoemaker (PDF, 408Kb)

More art by Hung Liu at Magnolia Editions

New Hung Liu tapestry edition

Hung Liu - Above the Clouds, 2012. Jacquard tapestry, 57 x 76 in. Edition of 6.
Chinese history has always been the essence of Hung Liu’s work: raised in Beijing during Mao’s Great Leap Forward and trained in the Social Realist tradition, Liu now uses painting as a means to reanimate historical photographs. “I hope to wash the subject of its exotic ‘otherness,’” she writes, “and reveal it as a dignified, even mythic figure.” The subject of Liu’s recent tapestry edition Above the Clouds possesses a double layer of this perceived exoticism – he is Lu Zo, a young Tibetan from the borderlands of China, where minority nationalities practice a spiritual tradition long associated with mystery and rebellion. Liu’s tapestry combines Zo’s beatific countenance with symbols from traditional Chinese iconography and her own uniquely expressionistic brushwork to reflect on this tiny, enigmatic figure’s journey of reincarnation.

Liu found the source photograph of Lu Zo in Lamas, Princes, and Brigands, a compilation of pictures taken by National Geographic photographer Joseph Rock in the 1920s and 30s. The caption identifies Zo as “last son of the ruler of Yongning, declared by authorities in Lhasa to be the incarnation of a high lama of Drepung Monastery.” It is an arresting image; where Liu’s 2009 tapestry Little Lama depicted an exalted young lama crowned with an elaborate headdress, Zo looks rather like a poor monk in his bare head and simple robe. Yet compared to his brother and sister, Zo’s face has an uncannily worldly look, as if centuries of reincarnation have already endowed him, says Liu, with an old soul.

Joseph Rock’s 1926 photograph of lama incarnate Lu Zo (center) with his elder siblings. © Joseph Rock & China House Gallery.
Liu remarks that the Tibetan people and other outlying minorities have long held an exotic quality for the Chinese majority, likening their relationship to the limited Western understanding of Muslim peoples today. “Tibetans looked different, spoke a different language, and lived far away,” says Liu; “when the Dalai Lama escaped from China, he was treated by Han Chinese as a foreign invader.” The photograph, she explains, is from a world at a distance – geographically, culturally, linguistically, and across time. Zo’s physical body has long since passed away, but his status as a reincarnated lama and his curious, knowing expression suggest a spiritual longevity which transcends time and borders, a timelessness to which Above the Clouds pays a poetic tribute.

The tapestry’s palette is dominated by a faded, rusty red evocative of old bricks, the Chinese Imperial Garden walls and Tibetan robes; Liu calls it “a noble color,” one that suggests age and honor. The washes and drips of her original brushwork create an uneven, tumultuous surface; the shift to tapestry further complicates this surface by introducing the tension of vertical and horizontal threads, as if mirroring the complex layers of untold story and forgotten history that catalyze Liu’s practice. Zo is surrounded by lotus flowers, which are homonyms for “peace” in Chinese, and by a siege of hovering white cranes, which Liu reveals were inspired by a painting by a Song dynasty emperor famous for his calligraphy. The crane is an auspicious messenger from heaven in Chinese folklore but is practically unknown in Tibetan art: to combine the cranes with a Tibetan lama is “a cultural and religious collision,” says Liu, “but they look harmonious, as if they could remain that way forever.”

Press release for Above the Clouds (PDF, 346Kb)

More art by Hung Liu at Magnolia Editions

New Hung Liu edition

Hung Liu - Winter Blossom, 2011
Woodcut with acrylic; 23.25 x 23.5 in. (32.25 x 29.75 in. sheet)
Edition of 25
In Winter Blossom, Hung Liu uses the latest in hybrid digital-analog printmaking technology to summon a mysterious and beautiful figure from China's imperial past.

The face wreathed by plum blossoms and crowned with a tasseled headress in Winter Blossom belongs to Imperial Concubine Zhen Fei, popularly known as "the Pearl Concubine," who died in 1900 at the age of 24.

A lively and independent woman, Zhen was the favorite consort of the Emperor Guangxu, and encouraged his attempts at reform and his interest in foreign languages. The story goes that Zhen also invited foreigners into the Forbidden City to indulge her interest in photography, which explains the extant photographs of Zhen – unusual for an Imperial Consort (and, according to Liu, mostly faked).

Unfortunately, Emperor Guangxu's modernizing attempts to reform China angered the country's de facto ruler, Empress Dowager Cixi. When it was revealed that Zhen had supported the Emperor's coup attempt against the Empress in 1898, Zhen was imprisoned.

Two years later, as the Court fled an invasion of the Forbidden City, Zhen was summoned from prison to meet with Cixi. In a move of backhanded concern, the Empress Dowager ordered that the Pearl Concubine throw herself down a well behind the palace, rather than suffer the fate awaiting her at the hands of invading soldiers. The story is especially unreliable after this point; no one can say for sure how Zhen passed – only that she died during the invasion.

As with the many colorful figures from this period to appear in Liu's work, the historical record of Zhen's life and death is not necessarily to be trusted; over time, legendary tales have assumed the veneer of truth, and many dubious photographs have appeared posthumously. It is fitting, then, that Liu would combine two media to create a print with a shifting surface, wherein Zhen's face is seen as an apparition, partially masked by the black lines of the woodcut.

In fact, Liu based her print on a photograph which historians agree is the actual Zhen – although here again, things are not quite what they seem. "She looks very beautiful," the artist told me, "but the photo is very highly touched up, almost artificially rendered, to the point that it has become a surreal image." Liu added: "Her tragic life makes it even more mysterious."

The artist's sympathy for this unique and forward-thinking young woman is evident throughout Winter Blossom's composition. The ghostly trace of a butterfly sits atop the red tassel on Zhen's headdress (such tassels indicated one's rank in the Imperial court). The branches which encircle her face, Liu explains, are "a certain kind of plum that blossoms in the cold, with flowers like translucent wax." These plum blossoms symbolize both a resilience against the cold and a tragic evanescence. "I offer this image," says Liu, "as a tribute to a short-lived woman about whom we still know very little."

Winter Blossom is a hybrid of two processes, incorporating both traditional and unorthodox printmaking techniques. The image was first cut into a block of wood using a laser, after which further edits were hand-carved by Hung Liu. The woodcut was printed on a Takach etching press using traditional black relief ink; all of the colors in each print (digitally manipulated by the artist) were then registered and printed using a UV-cured acrylic inkjet printer.

Winter Blossom is a limited edition of 25; please contact Magnolia Editions for pricing and availability.

More art by Hung Liu from Magnolia Editions

Rainmaker

Hung Liu - Rainmaker, 2011
Jacquard tapestry, 71 x 78 in. Edition of 12
Hung Liu's latest tapestry edition, Rainmaker, gracefully translates Liu's virtuosic washes and drips of oil paint into warp and weft threads.

In her paintings, Liu primarily uses 19th and 20th century photographs of Chinese laborers and courtesans, which she surrounds with a unique mixture of traditional Chinese symbols, calligraphic flourishes, and dripping veils of linseed oil. Liu’s husband, the writer and curator Jeff Kelley, describes her paintings as an alchemical marriage, in which “the fresh, luscious poetry of the “mineral period” (painting) presses against the dry atrophied plates of the “chemical period” (photography).

Hung Liu - Rainmaker (detail)
Liu’s tapestries, then, are the grandchildren of this marriage. Pixels containing the DNA of those paintings are ‘bred’ with the tapestry medium to produce a new hybrid, in which the singular texture and familiar physical presence of the “textile period” are infused with the precise values of the “digital period.” The photographs, whose authoritative gaze is literally disintegrated by the artist's strokes of oil, are practically lost; the ensuing compositions exist in a space somewhere between painting and textiles, pigment and threads. Her tapestries disavow an inherent truth in any one form of mark-making, weaving together diverse media to tell their dreamlike tales.

Hung Liu - Rainmaker (detail)
In keeping with its title, Liu's Rainmaker is resplendent with splashy, dripping trails of painted color; two dragonflies, Chinese symbols of summer, crown the head of its enigmatic, anonymous subject.

More art by Hung Liu from Magnolia Editions

Exhibitions and installations

Tapestries by Hung Liu and Donald & Era Farnsworth at the Fresno Art Museum in 2006
Just a reminder to check out the Exhibitions and Installations section of Magnolia's website, which features photo galleries of artworks from Magnolia in a variety of settings worldwide.

Magnolia publications have appeared at museums and venues all over the country, from Santa Barbara to Seattle, Reno to Chicago, and in international exhibitions from London to Romania.

Sylvia White Gallery has even created an interactive, panoramic view of a 2008 show of Magnolia tapestries that is the next best thing to being there.

The Exhibitions section also includes a gallery of artists such as Rupert Garcia, Chuck Close, Mildred Howard, David Best, Mel Ramos, Hung Liu, Deborah Oropallo, and Enrique Chagoya working at Magnolia; even emerging artists such as Kamau Patton and Tauba Auerbach make an appearance!

Don Farnsworth and Chuck Close at Close's studio, 2010
Please enjoy and since many of these galleries have been recently revamped, let us know if you experience any technical difficulties.

An Open Studios visit

Hung Liu signs prints at Magnolia Editions Open Studios
while Don Farnsworth looks on; photo by Jan Dove
Thanks to all the visitors who came, saw, bought art, and learned about Magnolia this weekend! It was great to meet everyone and we hope you will keep in touch.

Artist Jan Dove and her friend Oola have posted a very detailed blog entry here, documenting their visit to Magnolia's Open Studios. Please have a look!