Black Market Type and Print Shop
July 9 - August 14, 2009 Opening July 9, 6-8pm
This installation is guest curated by Joseph del Pesco. He has created font alphabets based on the handwriting of famous contemporary artists, which are available for use by visitors.
Image is from Black Market Type and Print Shop Installation
The Black Market Type & Print Shop starts with a collection of 30+ type-fonts extracted from the artwork of an international array of artists. Scanned and converted into working computer fonts, these letterforms are available for use by visitors to the exhibition via a free print shop.To take advantage of the free printing services visitors are obliged to use the types in at least part of their design. Through this process the visual language of contemporary art is subtly distributed beyond the gallery through street-level ephemera such as rock-show flyers and for-sale notices. Other material produced in previous iterations of the exhibition include personal letters, out-of-order signs, and 'free kittens to a good home' posters.
Utilizing the Black Market Type, a group of 15 artists have been invited to make a text-only poster, to be posted in the public area surrounding the gallery. These include a small line of text at the bottom that quietly points back to the gallery. In the gallery these posters serve to incite the imagination of the visitor, offering possible formats and outcomes for their own ideas to take shape in the print shop.
Artist types included in the project: John Baldessari, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Mel Bochner, R. Crumb, John Cage, Henry Darger, Julie Doucet, Jimmie Durham, Marcel Dzama, Tracey Emin, Howard Finster, General Idea, Thomas Hirschhorn, Chris Johanson, Jasper Johns, Ray Johnson, Mike Kelley, Margaret Kilgallen, Duane Michals, Chris Ofili, Laura Owens, Gary Panter, Raymond Pettibon, Adrian Piper, William Pope.L, Richard Prince, Ad Reinhardt, Dieter Roth, David Shrigley
And the artists making posters using the type:
Mike Arcega - SF Anne Walsh - Berkeley Gareth Spor - SF Aurelien Froment - Paris/Dublin Stanislao Di Giugno - Rome Chris Sollars - SF Dan Seiple - Berlin Germaine Koh - Vancouver Arnold Kemp - NY/SF Jan Estep - Minneapolis Marisa Olson - NY Michael Mandiberg - NY Amanda Ross Ho - LA Matt Keegan - NY/SF Lee Walton - North Carolina
Richard L. Nelson Gallery: Black Market Type and Print Shop.