meta name="verify-v1" content="zZsm2YVWmloQ+jEs+L30d2PdBVfVaktIpYdtWF0QaQg=" /> Magnolia Editions Blog: October 2009

Friday, October 30, 2009

Hung Liu reviewed in NY Times

Hung Liu - Richter Scale, 2009
oil on canvas, 80 x 160 in. (click to enlarge)

In The New York Times Arts section from October 22, Holland Cotter reviews Hung Liu's "Apsaras" show at Nancy Hoffman Gallery:
[Her] mural-size paintings at Nancy Hoffman [...] combine documentary immediacy with myth. In one picture a young woman sits, holding a child in the ruins of a building that may have been their home. A flock of pigeons, white and graceful against the wreckage, flies toward her.

In a painting titled “Rescue,” a line of people in hospital scrubs and military camouflage struggle to carry a figure on a stretcher up a rocky slope. A giant butterfly coasts along beside them, as if marking the way.

Other winged creatures hover in a close-up image of a girl’s bandage-swathed face. They are Buddhist angels called apsaras. Ms. Liu has lifted them from the walls of ancient cave temples and monasteries at the Silk Road city of Dunhuang near the Gobi Desert, where she spent time in the 1970s copying and conserving religious images.

Evocations of protection and mourning recur. The form of a dead deer floats angelically in space. Memorial candles flame against a dark ground. A bird descends. An old woman weeps. It’s easy to imagine such paintings turning sentimental. In Ms. Liu’s hands they never do. Everything — the images, the overlays, the forthright brushwork, the pictures as a group — is soberly judged, deeply felt, mature. It’s hard to ask for more.

Wild Wild West.Show closing at Wirtz Gallery

Tomorrow is the last day to see Deborah Oropallo's "Wild Wild West.Show" at Stephen Wirtz Gallery. Don't miss it!

Here are two video walk throughs of the show, courtesy of Donald Farnsworth and the Magnolia Editions YouTube Channel:



Wednesday, October 28, 2009

New and improved books from Magnolia Editions

Resident writer Nick Stone has updated and expanded two of Magnolia Editions' made-to-order books – The Magnolia Tapestry Project and Chuck Close: Tapestries. Please check out our Blurb bookstore for details, full book previews, and order information, or click below to go directly to each book:

The Magnolia Tapestry Project, 154 pp.
A comprehensive survey of the tapestry editions published by Magnolia to date, with full color images of over 100 woven editions and commentary by Nick Stone.

Chuck Close: Tapestries, 58 pp.
An exclusive look at Chuck Close's 15 (and counting!) tapestry editions, with notes by Nick Stone.

Monday, October 26, 2009

Tree Thangka I at Greens Restaurant

photo by Donald Farnsworth- click to enlarge

Visitors enjoying creative vegetarian cuisine at Greens restaurant at Fort Mason in San Francisco may be curious about the artwork on the north wall of the airy Greens dining room.

It's Donald and Era Farnsworth's Tree Thangka I tapestry, published by Magnolia Editions in 2008:

Donald and Era Farnsworth - Tree Thangka I, 2008
Jacquard tapestry, 96 x 75 in. Ed. of 6

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Rick Dula at Denver Art Museum

Rick Dula, master printer at Magnolia for nearly 20 years, is one of the artists included in "Embrace," an exhibition of 17 unique, site-specific installations opening Nov. 17, 2009 at the Denver Art Museum.

Dula is currently at work on a photorealistic, true-to-scale painting that appears to give visitors a view inside the walls to the steel girders and underpinnings beneath the finished interior:

photo: Alex Dominguez

Rick Dula prints from Magnolia Editions
Flickr: More photos of Rick working on his mural
Rick Dula's website

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Nancy Spero (1926-2009)

photo by Abe Frajndlich; source: Galerie Lelong


Nancy Spero, Codex Artaud VII - 2, 2003
Jacquard tapestry, 82 x 50 in.


Nancy Spero, Azur - 2, 2003
Jacquard tapestry, 82 x 17 in.


Nancy Spero, The Black and the Red III - 3, 2003
Jacquard tapestry, 47.5 x 82 in.

Monday, October 19, 2009

The Missing Peace at Frost Art Museum


Donald and Era Farnsworth's Dharmakaya tapestry, Lewis deSoto's giant inflatable sculpture Paranirvana, and works by William T. Wiley and Chuck Close are included in "The Missing Peace: Artists Consider the Dalai Lama," a traveling exhibition on view at Miami's Frost Art Museum until January 10, 2010.

The Farnsworths were in Miami to attend the opening and were thrilled with the installation of this ambitious show, featuring 88 works from artists representing 30 countries. Above and below, some photos from the opening and of deSoto being interviewed for the program ArtStreet on Miami public television.



And just for fun, here are Donald and Era relaxing Miami-style after the opening, courtesy of an anonymous Magnolia associate:

Friday, October 16, 2009

Hudson/Wiley/Shaw at San Jose State University

Sculptures by Robert Hudson and Richard Shaw are on view as part of "Collaborations: Robert Hudson and Richard Shaw with William Wiley" at San Jose State University's Natalie and James Thompson Art Gallery. "Collaborations" runs October 6 through November 6, 2009.

The show also includes a selection of mixed-media prints created with William Wiley at Magnolia Editions in 1997, such as Dead Ringer(below). Click the image to see more prints from Hudson, Shaw, and Wiley:


Robert Hudson, Richard Shaw, and William Wiley
Dead Ringer, 1997
Collagraph and mixed media, 30 x 22 in.

Monday, October 5, 2009

Enrique Chagoya at Cantor Arts Center

"From Their Studios" at Stanford University's Cantor Arts Center features work by 13 artists currently teaching at Stanford and includes work such as New Illegal Alien's Guide to Critical Theory by Enrique Chagoya. Published by Magnolia Editions, this 12 by 94 inch work is made up of pigmented ink and acrylic on multiple layers of plexiglas and amate paper.


Enrique Chagoya - New Illegal Alien's Guide to Critical Theory - Detail, 2008
Pigment and acrylic on plexiglas and amate, 12 x 94 in.

"From Their Studios" runs from September 16 through January 3, 2010, and each artist will give a Thursday night lecture about their work. Chagoya's lecture is scheduled for December 3, 2009 at 7 pm.


Cantor Arts Center website
Magnolia Editions: Enrique Chagoya - New Illegal Alien's Guide to Critical Theory