October 24 – November 24, 2009
Reception: Thursday October 29th from 5 to 7 pm.
Printed Matter is pleased to announce an exhibition with artist Josh Smith. Although Josh Smith is perhaps best known as a painter, he is also a bookmaker, and his output of books has been varied and prodigious. The exhibition features a broad selection of his books together with prints, drawings, and other surprises. Join us for the opening reception on Thursday, October 29th, 2009 from 5:00 to 7:00 PM at Printed Matter, which is located at 195 Tenth Avenue (between 21st and 22nd Street) in New York City.
In putting together this encyclopedic and kaleidoscopic exhibition, Josh admitted that Printed Matter has been a source of ideas and inspiration for his art for a very long time. In the somewhat chaotic excesses of Printed Matter's inventory of over 15,000 titles, perhaps Josh found a mirror to the profusion of ideas wrestling for attention within his own creative imagination. Ira Wool says it best in the recent Parkett Magazine No. 85:
“The making of books has continued to concentrate (capture) a significant portion of Josh's attention—production is high, indeed ever higher. The books are not easy to categorize: Most contain reproductions that run the gamut from fine drawings to quick sketches, to variations on one or more patterns, to just scribbles; others are simply collections of catalogue pages. Books of drawings predominate and the images most often are faces, fish, or his name. Not all the books are equally successful. The best, however, are smashing triumphs, able to hold their own with the best of the species.”
Josh Smith not only makes books, he publishes them too, through his 38th Street Books: these will also be on display and available for purchase. In addition to popular editions of his own books, such as Tennessee Fish, 38th Street Books has published such titles as Dispersion by Seth Price, already a classic, and two different bootleg editions of a group catalogue from the Kunsthalle Zurich, titled Guyton / Price / Smith / Walker.
This exhibition is a chance to see the books in their element; all different types of books will be displayed, from the abstract to the pictorial, from the hand bound to the mass produced.
Printed Matter Inc. is an independent 501(c)(3) non-profit organization founded in 1976 by artists and art workers with the mission to foster the appreciation, dissemination, and understanding of artists'' books and other artists'' publications. Printed Matter, Inc. has received support, in part, through grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York State Council on the Arts, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, the Milton & Sally Avery Arts Foundation, The Cowles Charitable Trust, the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, the Erste Foundation, The Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation, The Gesso Foundation, The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation, Tekserve, The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, and individuals worldwide.
Printed Matter, Inc.
195 Tenth Avenue
New York, NY 10011
www.printedmatter.org
T: 212 925 0325
F: 212 925 0464
