Fair Enough: Ink

The posts so far:

Fair Enough: And I'm Off
Fair Enough: Traveling Incognita?
Fair Enough: All Over But the Posting
Fair Enough: Art or Trash?
Fair Enough: Prologue to the Report
Fair Enough: ABMB, Part 1
Fair Enough: ABMB, Part 2
Fair Enough: Aqua Art
Fair Enough: Pulse
Fair Enough: Seven
Fair Enough: Scope
Fair Enough: NADA

Welcome to Ink

Below: What a relief to visit a small fair!

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Ink is the smallest of the art fairs, held in a suite of rooms clustered around the courtyard of the Dorchester Hotel. Eleven publishers gathered to show and sell their prints and works on paper. I was in and out in about an hour on Sunday morning, and I had plenty of time to take it all in.

Let’s peek into a few of the suites and look at some prints.

The suite of Neptune Fine Art, New York City

Above: I'm not a fan of Alex Katz's work, right, but I love the James Siena print, which faces you as you walk in: Forty-Six Combs, signed and numbered edition of 28. (Indeed, it's my favorite print in this show.) Price: $10,000 unframed. Yo, these ain't posters

Below, another view into the room with glimpses, which you'll see in the next images, of Jennifer Bartlett in the small room left, and Mel Bochner in the bedroom

Jennifer Bartlett, Conversations, three screenprints on steel plates, from an edition of 30

Mel Bochner, Floating World, woodcuts, edition of 40

Each one of the doors leads to a suite full of prints

The suite of Dolan/Maxwell, Philadelphia

Prints by David Shapiro, left, and Steven H. Ford, center.

The combination of daylight and incandescent coupled with the glazing makes for difficult shooting

Below:  Cheryl Warrick

We're in the suite of Jim Kempner Fine Art, New York City

Clockwise from top left: William Kentridge, two Thomas Nozkowskis (I think) and Mel Bochner, king of the blah, blah, blah

If you've been to Chelsea, you know Kempner's gallery occupies the contemporary structure at the corner of 10th Avenue and 23rd Street. In addition to publishing prints and art dealing, Kempner is the creator, and usually the star, of a series of hilarious videos about the New York art world. When I was threading my way through the suites, he was shooting a few of his colleagues for an upcoming Miami video. I mentioned that I was a fan of the videos.  "Would you like to be in this one?" he asked. I'll bet it would have been fun, but on this last day of the fairs, I had an itinerary that would take me over to Aqua for a third visit, to ABMB for a third visit, and then up Collins Avenue to NADA. Regretfully I declined.  Check out Kempner's Vimeo site, The Madness of Art. Sooner or later the Miami video will be on there (without me).

Also at Kempner: I don't know who created this print, but it's part of a strong showing of central-core images, two more of which you can see below and below that

Below: At Kempner,  Deborah Kass

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At Dranoff Fine Art, New York City

This Damien Hirst print is related to his assemblages with real butterflies that I saw at Gagosian at ABMB. It's titled Palais des Papes, a 48-x-48-inch screenprint with glazes and--wait for it--diamond dust. It's an edition of 50. Pony up $52,500 if you want one

At Tandem Press, Madison, Wisconsin

Judy Pfaff, Year of the Dog #9, woodblock, collage with hand painting, varied edition of 20. I'm telling you prices when I've made note of them. This one is $16,500 framed

Also at Tandem, below: Suzanne Caporeal banded print. Looove it.

Having recently created my first print edition since art school, I have a much better understanding of how difficult it is not just to make a print but to create an edition—and more, for artists and publishers to create editions that each is happy to have produced. These print publishers, many with commercial galleries, work with artist after artist, year after year, producing large prints and large editions of superb quality.

At The Old Print Shop, New York City

I didn't see too many conventional books, but this publisher had several that were beautiful to look at and beautifully crafted

Volumes above and below 

Graphicstudio, University of South Florida

Seven prints, five of which are shownhere, constitute a folio titled Herbarium, by Mark Dion.  (I don't know if the three pink sculptures are part of the edition or not; guessing not). I liked the images and the presentation.

Marlborough Graphics, New York City

I can't tell you who the artist is, only offer you a glimpse of one suite's arrangement

At Verne Collection, Cleveland

This gallery specializes in Contemporary and antique Japanese prints, and prints by Americans who have studied in Japan.

The big print above and below is by Daniel Kelley. That's Michael Verne, the gallery's owner, showing the prints to collectors (I horned in to photograph)  

More from Graphicstudio

I saved this one to close out the post. It's Trenton Doyle Hancock's 10-color screenprinted wallpaper made with fluorescent inks. Did I mention that it's 3-D? I used the glasses, shown below, and damn if  those red elements didn't pop about two feet off the wall. Gimmicky but great. Don't plan to paper a large area, though. It's $1500 a roll

Next up (on Monday evening or Tuesday): Art Miami. It's going to be a big post