Adriane Herman

A little soft shoe on a little soft ground (tapping out some prints with Kansas City tap dance legend, Billie Mahoney!)

What a treat, to be invited back to the Kansas City Art Institute, where I had the pleasure of teaching in the legendary printmaking department from 1997-2002. In addition to making a four-color silkscreen of this image to be called "A Sorry Print,"

the very kind faculty, students and techs at KCAI helped me realize my dream of capturing the legendary steps of my first tap dance teacher, BIllie Mahoney, on etching plates. In her 80s and still going strong with teaching and tapping, Billie agreed to spend some time in the printshop with us, where we got a little documentation along with marks on three zinc plates,two covered with hard ground, and one covered with soft ground.

She did the "old soft shoe" (of course) on the soft ground plate, proofs of which are visible in the images below the one of mark-maker extraordinaire, Hugh Merrill, inspecting the results.

After a little rehearsal,

Billie got busy on the hard ground! (She only needs spotting on slippery cement floors!)

Steps she employed included the Cincinnati, Cramp Rolls, Time Step, and Paddle and Roll!

Love how the gallery lights are lighting up this star!

Tune in for the results when these proofs turn into prints! Oops--don't forget clean-up!

Thank you, KCAI Printmaking Chair, Miguel Rivera for doing the dirty work when the dancing ended and it was "rag time"!

So good to be back home in Kansas City with Miguel Rivera, Erin Zona (now on faculty and among my first KCAI students, all of whom were dazzlingly brilliant), Hugh Merrill, and Billie Mahoney!

And thanks to Brian Reeves for buying me my first taps, without which Billie would likely not have danced into my life!

It's Alive! opens March 28 at The Compound, Oakland, CA

I'm excited to have work included in the lively exhibition/installation "It's Alive!" at The Compound in Oakland, California.

Curated by the brilliant Jeanne Lorenz.

Portland Museum of Art 2013 Biennial includes "Dually Noted" installation in lobby

The Portland Museum 2013 Biennial: Piecework features more than 70 works ranging in media from painting and drawing to photography and video. Piece Work was curated by Jessica May, the PMA’s Curator of Contemporary and Modern Art.

The subtitle Piece Work evokes the traditional labor-based notion of artisans and factory workers who are paid “by the piece,” but also conjures the image in visitors’ minds of “one thing after another,” a seemingly endless repetition of making, passing, and making again. While the artwork featured in Piece Work spans a broad range of media, the thread that connects the artists is their use of repetition, handcraft, and translation.

This year, the Biennial extends beyond the museum’s main exhibition gallery to envelop the entire campus. Multiple works are installed in the McLellan House, interacting with the historic architecture. Adriane Herman and Brian Reeves' collaboratively created wallpaper installation, entitled "Dually Noted," is located in the lobby of the museum and excerpted on the face of the Museum. The Exhibition runs through January 5, 2014.

Museum visitors can bring home a helping of "Dually Noted," in the form of coffee mugs, mousepads, post-it note cubes, large and small sketchbooks and PUZZLES!

Photographs of installation copyright Justin Lumiere.

Wavy Banners installed on streets in 4 coastal towns in Denmark

(Above is one side of the banner I had installed in Nørre Snoede, Denmark, this summer, which then moved to Humlum. Reproduced below is the catalog essay I was asked to write for ET4U's 2013 Banner Project, installed in four rural coastal towns in western Denmark. See below essay for other side of the banner.)

Upon hearing that this year’s theme for ET4U’s innovative public art project now in its fifth year was “Wavy Banners,” I thought of ripples wind might make in fabric. Perhaps this year’s banners would be secured only along their tops, rather than on four corners, and left to flap in the wind. Such conjecture brought the entertaining thought of those strangely animated inflatable advertisements spasmodically seeking attention along the quiet streets of Humlum, Nörre Snede, Sdr. Nissum, and Vorgod-Barde, mostly in vain. Consistently commercial in nature, those nylon characters distract drivers from dense traffic amidst American strip mall blight, alternately deflating to the point of collapse before violently snapping back to attention, a cycle repeated as long as the power cord is plugged in.

Envisioning these mesmerizingly anthropomorphic dynamos along quiet streets in rural Denmark evoked an absurdity on par with the notion of spending lots of time and money affixing digital prints representing 51 international artists to lampposts in four Danish hamlets. How much energy can one justify expending to seek attention from a few people? Is it more or less significant to make and show work to a small number of people who might see it repeatedly rather than attempting to impact many for even the briefest of moments? Such questions are among those this project asks, and the ephemeral aspect of the project posits an answer by maximizing viewership through rotation between the lightly populated sites. Knowing that something will be present for a short time heightens the urgency potential viewers feel to investigate. Further, the public can tolerate something for a short time that it might protest being permanently installed.

The fleeting nature of these Wavy Banners–like a wave itself–encourage passersby to stop and pause long enough to receive the wave, which requires one to recognize or identify its source. Looking, and looking again, is the order of the day, which might lead us to remove real or metaphorical caps and scratch our heads, wondering: “where is that artist from who depicts a man with what look like gasoline containers tied to his legs that bog him down?” That particular banner reminded me to consider the lives and planet I am impacting every time I choose a car over a bicycle, or fail to carpool to work. Is Sumedh Rajendran's’s banner itself enough of a wave to pick me up and “beach” me somewhere else in terms of my use of fossil fuels? One cannot anticipate what leads us to change our behaviors or pass along to others what might shift their lives despite our own resistance to change.

Going back to first impressions before any banners yet waved, I was somewhat relieved to read in the fine print sent to participating artists this year that the concept of the “Wave” was “a quite open theme for free interpretation – ‘not only related to the water-waves.’” I considered cycles and repetition, directing me back to the basis of my work for the past eight years – our “to do” lists, and how their contents never seem to abate. Waves of tasks advance upon us, sometimes washing over us, and we [try to] keep acting, even in the face of the knowledge we simply can’t “do it all.”

Sometimes our work loads ebb, but more often they flow, so I decided to use the banner’s two sides to share my own then current “to do” list, which contained the very items that kept me from delivering my digital files on time, a sort of mea culpa that might offer a permission slip for others to reflect on what is on their plates, even as they walk past (and perhaps ignore) the banner in their hurry to meet friends, mail a letter, pick up some groceries, or take a walk during which the banners might offer a welcome distraction from difficult economic times to some while representing infuriatingly “frivolous” use of resources to others. Regardless of how one perceives the project overall or what kind of “meet and greet” is received from the snippets of information each banner holds, individually and collectively they set off “waves” in the form of conversations, inspiration, curiosity, ideas for use of public structures, and other forms of energy that will continue rippling outward in ways one cannot anticipate.

Despite my failure to submit my files on time, I still dared to show my face in Denmark, eager to witness the banner phenomenon. I was also curious about the remarkable people who committed significant time to orchestrating this multi-media extravaganza of site-specific public art commissions, a word I use because in contrast with so many exhibitions, there were stipends for each participating artist. Because artists so often pay to exhibit work, this project deserves kudos for supporting artists around the globe while bringing their work to Danish streets not in culture-filled Copenhagen, but rather along rural highways where tractor drivers and bicyclists are among the most frequent viewers, and where school children and home-owners alike simply have to walk a few feet from spaces where they spend the bulk of their time to have their minds bent a bit by images, ideas, and texts presenting many different visual and verbal languages. The efforts involved in getting these sums of money to each artist were likely among the most time consuming aspects, but each of those stipends is a “wave” of recognition of what it takes to make art--to stay open and responsive to the world, and to set aside the time to create despite the many demands of life and the day jobs that most of us have to have to keep power flowing to our computers and refrigerators.

And why work so hard? Because who knows how a school child might be affected by seeing Ellen Hyldemose’s image of a wavy potato chip (or BØlge chip, in the artist’s native Danish) floating through space one banner down from India’s Tushar Joag’s world in which one cartoon character waves his allegiance to another atop Nelson Mandela, who offers a fist bump. All the while the Statue of Liberty emerges from Mahatma Gandhi’s seventh chakra, waving her torch adjacent to the beckoning cat, or Maneki-neko, a welcoming Japanese figurine considered good luck, and whose paw is often motorized to wave slowly but surely.

Like the Maneki-neko, this year’s Wavy Banners emitted greetings, while simultaneously asking questions through numerous forms, pastiches of cross-cultural collage being just one of myriad approaches too numerous to mention. That potential energy met eyes and minds that may or may not have been ready to receive them. The hope involved in sharing artwork with an audience that did not set out to see art is an inspiring form of community building I am grateful to have been able to contribute to as well as witness first hand thanks to the generosity of the inimitable Klaus Weiss and Karen Havskov-Weiss, the masterminds behind ET4U!

"Finish Lines" Reviewed in Portland Phoenix

Thanks to Nicholas Schroeder for an insightful review of my current exhibition called "Finish Lines" at Rose Contemporary, up through August 10th. Click here to read review.

Open First Friday Artwalk, July 5th from 5-8 pm.

Artist's talk and reception, Wednesday, July 17th, 6-8 pm.

Gallery hours Wednesday-Saturday 12-4 pm. 492 Congress Street, Portland, ME.

For more info, call (207) 780-0070 or email [email protected]

"Guarded Crossings," an Intervention at the Portland Museum of Art, Friday 6/28 (5-7 pm)

List-Makers Everywhere!

I am excited about "Guarded Crossings," my Intervention at the Portland Museum of Art Friday, June 28th from 5-7 pm!

All highly overqualified for the job, nine masterful mark-makers* will be offering the free service of crossing things off to do lists that have been encased in protective sheaths. Come experience the frisson of having everything currently hanging over your head knocked off your shoulders in one fell [faux] swoop.

Read more about it here in the PMA's blog post including an interview with me about what might happen tonight in the gallery that houses Roy Lichtenstein's Brushstroke VI, a relief sculpture that simultaneously pays homage to and satirizes the great Abstract Expressionist brushstroke -- hearkening back to a time when telephones were tethered to walls and couldn't delude us into thinking we can do four things at once.

*Guarded Crosser-Outers:Lucinda Bliss
Clint Fulkerson
Alison Hildreth
Ayumi Horie
Jeff Kellar
Alix Lambert
Bridget Spaeth
Deborah Wing-Sproul
Henry Wolyniec

"Stocked: Contemporary Art from the Grocery Aisles" on view at Ulrich Museum

I am thrilled to have three inlaid burnishing clay panels re-presenting grocery lists in this exhibition. Scroll down to see the amazing company my work gets to keep during this traveling exhibition!

Campbell's. Coca-Cola. Del Monte. Kellogg's. In the late 1950s and 1960s, these food conglomerates became household names as America witnessed a revolution in the production, retail, and consumption of grocery items. More and more, it was not raw ingredients one purchased, but packaged and processed foods that were chosen according to their labels and one’s perception of the brands they represented.

Campbell's. Coca-Cola. Del Monte. Kellogg's. These brands were also the subjects of the mid-20th-century pop artists. As corporations revolutionized the food industry, these artists turned the art world upside down by unabashedly depicting common consumer products, often using reproductive techniques and designs borrowed from commercial marketing.

Campbell's. Coca-Cola. Del Monte. Kellogg's. In the second decade of the 21st century, we still know these brands produce soup, sodas, fruit, and breakfast cereal. Yet, our present moment is markedly different from that of 50 years ago. Our grocery-shopping experiences now include computerized terminals, digital coupons, and products covered in labels highlighting nutrition content. Documentaries such as Food Inc., books such as Mark Bittman's Food Matters, and television programs such as Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution are but a few indicators that Americans are reconsidering what they eat, how they eat it, and even the sources of their food.

Stocked: Contemporary Art from the Grocery Aisles presents the work of contemporary artists who, directly and indirectly, take the grocery store and consumption of its products as their subjects. Using a variety of styles and media, they keenly and cleverly investigate not only the grocery items we purchase, but also the physical and psychological environments in which we shop, the individuals and social frameworks we encounter there, and the cultural norms that inform our habits of consumption.

Artists in the exhibition:
Sonny Assu
Scott Blake
Louis Cameron
Hillary Carlip
Adriane Herman
David Hilliard
Damien Hirst
Christian Jankowski
Julian Montague
Karyn Olivier
Lucy + Jorge Orta
Jonathan Seliger
Store Buyout: Matt Fidler, Jody Gnant, Hal Kirkland, Kyle MacDonald, and Gary Lachance
Brian Ulrich
Rachel Perry Welty
Andy Warhol

An 88-page, full-color publication of the same name accompanies this exhibition. Purchase online at www.ulrich.wichita.edu/marketplace or order by phone by calling (316) 978-3664.

"Prints: Breaking Boundaries" at Portland Public Library 1/4-2/23

You Lose, You Ooze is included in an exhibition at Portland Public Library's Lewis Gallery entitled "Prints: Breaking Boundaries," curated by CMCA Curator Emeritus, Bruce Brown.

This silkscreen with carborundum flocking (2010) evolved out of a series of drawings entitled A Very Civil Union, which comprised an effort to meditate upon the characteristics of a healthy partnership and how to maintain it once achieved. The aggregate image depicts two suitcases that exist both on their own and as an inextricably entwined entity. This struck me as an analog for the kind of healthy relationship to which each partner brings an approximately equal amount of “baggage,” and out of which develops a new space that is at once inside and beyond each partner -- together making them more than the sum of their parts (and their “issues”).

The carborundum “flocking” was created by shaking tiny metal shavings onto the wet print. Some stuck to the transparent ink base before it dried and the excess dropped away through agitation. These metal shavings are used in printmaking studios to “grain” an image off a limestone so that a new image can be placed onto it from which lithographic prints are “pulled.” The abrasive nature of carborundum materially reflects the challenges inherent in trying to partner with another human being, while the dripping nature of the image figuratively connotes the “blood, sweat, and tears” aspect of trying to make a relationship work and/or losing it. The association of carborundum with trying to erase one go at something to make room for another is fitting for times when we are seeking to begin fresh, hopefully having learned from mistakes that doomed past relationships. The reflective and sparkly aspect of the material relates to…well…you know, the fun times – temptations and rewards that coexist with the tribulations and [hopefully] counterbalance or [ideally] even outweigh them.

(A detail follows.)

Visit my studio with Amze Emmons of Printeresting

Thanks to Amze Emmons for coming up the four flights of stairs in August to visit my studio in Portland during his residency at Space Gallery. Now that it's cooled off, come on up yourself!

(okay, so there's art below, above, all around...what else were you expecting??!!)

One excerpt from Amze's reflections that makes me sound equal parts Lenny Bruce, Ira Glass, and Carol King: Having a conversation with Herman about this project and its huge archive is part stand-up routine, and part live episode of This American Life. Like many artists, her primary practice is paying attention to moments in life others often overlook, and then threading those moments into a beautiful tapestry.

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"Coping Mechanics" deemed PRINTERESTING (.org)

Thanks to Julia V. Hendrickson for her thoughtful synopsis of my recent exhibition entitled "Coping Mechanics," which you can read here on Printeresting.org. I am grateful to Western Exhibitions for the first chance to wallpaper a wall using "Dually Noted," a print created collaborativelly with Brian Reeves and the many people who contributed lists and notes to my ongoing archive.

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"Coping Mechanics" opens at Western Exhibitions May 25 - June 30, 2012

119 N. Peoria St. #2A Chicago, IL 60607 • Wed. - Sat. 11-6 and by appointment

Western Exhibitions presents its third solo show with ADRIANE HERMAN. The show opens on Friday, May 25, 2012 with a free public reception from 5 to 8pm and will run through June 30, 2012. Gallery hours are Wednesday through Saturday, 11am to 6pm and by appointment.

For the past several years, Adriane Herman has taken artistic inspiration from her collection of over 1000 found, gifted, and bartered “to do” lists, re-presenting these scraps of paper on a significantly larger scale in a variety of media, from inlaid burnishing clay panels; screenprints; photo-etchings; embossments; vinyl decals; to virtually any mediated medium. This re-creation of other people’s list reveals, to her, certain universal aspects of humanity, such as our common need for food, shelter, water, human companionship, entertainment, and -- in most cultures -- toilet paper. Herman’s unique and editioned objects trace the trajectory from intention to action, highlighting and monumentalizing the tasks that vie for our time, energy, and attention.

Herman states:
Since lists are generally written with the self in mind as intended reader, they embody honest, unfiltered documentation of what humans today are doing (or at least intending to do) with our most precious resources of time, energy, and attention. Forces such as advertising are still in play, as manifest by the prevalence of brand loyalty in many of the thousand plus lists I have collected. However, by and large, sifting through these intimate yet anonymous documents of human aspirations, procrastinations, and accomplishments both large and small reveal us to be -- depending on your perspective -- reassuringly individualized or damnably idiosyncratic, despite shared experience and struggles.

Anchoring the show will be "Coping Mechanics,” an ink-jet print stitched together from nine photographs that measures 16.25 x 70 inches. It depicts nine of the most personal and revelatory, even voyeuristic, lists in Herman’s collection, each of which directly or indirectly reveals its writer trying to deal with something challenging. Some of these are quite literal and self-explanatory, while others operate more abstractly and suggestively when taken out of context. “Dually Noted” is a wallpaper installation created collaboratively with Brian Reeves, which consists of a grid of ink-jet reproductions of lists from Herman’s vast archive. Other works in the show re-present individual lists, such as “Home,” a lithograph that utilizes the transparency of Japanese paper to “note” the contents of both front and back of a hand-written list of items the writer wished to retrieve from his mother’s house after she passed away. The screenprint “Passion Aggression” counters with humor, valorizing a mother’s enumerated list of tasks her offspring had better accomplish “or else” – signed “Have a nice day. Love, Mom.”

[above] Adriane Herman and Brian Reeves, Dually Noted (tiled), 2012, each sheet: 27"x20" Edition: 100

[above] Adriane Herman, Coping Mechanics, 2011, ink-jet, 70"x16.7" Edition: 11

[above] Adriane Herman, Passion Aggression, 2011, silkscreen, 23" x 21",

printed at the University of Northern Iowa. Edition: 20

[above] Adriane Herman, Home, 2012, [double sided] lithograph, printed at the University of Iowa,

31.5" x 21.75". Edition 20

[above] Adriane Herman, Free - Please Take!, 2012, 14"x11" (paper size). Edition: 44

"Sticky Situations" portfolio reviewed by Susan Tallman in ART IN PRINT

I can't help but be thrilled that Susan Tallman, author of The Contemporary Print: From Pre-Pop to Postmodern, reviewed my 2009 Sticky Situations portfolio in the January/February 2012 issue of Art in Print journal.

Other artists reviewed in this volume include many of my personal and professional heroes, so it's truly exciting. Thanks to Susan Tallman for this thoughtful reflection on this collection of prints, and to Mark Pascale for suggesting that Tallman take a look. Also huge thanks to Scott Speh of Western Exhibitions (and Western XEditions) for showing the prints to Tallman and many others.

Click HERE to read the review.

Podcast of mini Pop!Tech talk about LISTS

Pop!Tech has released podcasts of all 2011 conference videos. Click here to view mine and gain access to all others. The entire conference is posted, so search away for fascinating talks from this year and prior conferences.

Poptalk at Poptech 10/22

I'll be giving a micro-talk on my list-collecting/reflecting project. Live popcast here, 10:30 am. Wish me luck being pithy. I have five minutes!

Color: Fully Engaged on view at A+D Gallery, Columbia College, Chicago

I am thrilled to have work included in Color: Fully Engaged, which runs through November 5th.

Color makes a comeback every day. We open our eyes, we turn on the light, we see, we remember color. Color: Fully Engaged is a multi-faceted exploration of the meaning and interpretation of color. Via works created as part of fine arts, design and architecture disciplines, this exhibition follows modern and contemporary trajectories of color as both singular idea and associative methodology. Investigating color symbolism and hierarchies within historical, cultural and theoretical contexts, each selection ponders what may or may not be universal about color. The exhibition catalog includes an introduction by curator Jamilee Polson Lacy, essay by Claudine Isé, and artists' interviews.

Contributing artists include Academy Records, Jeanne Dunning, Susan Giles, Dan Gunn, Adriane Herman, Anna Kunz, Jessica Labatte, Matthew Metzger, Liz Nielsen and Nathaniel Robinson.

Download the lushly illustrated COLOR-FULL catalog here.

Closing Reception + Live Webcast Deinstallation at Interlochen Center for the Arts

Pick Me Up (a few things), Adriane Herman's exhibition exploring the trajectory from intention to action, closes Septemer 9, 2011. Click here to view photographs of the exhibition installation.

This solo exhibition features Wall of Intention, a site-specific installation of a portion of Herman's collection of well over 1000 found, gifted, and bartered [grocery and other] "to do" lists, as well as artworks created in response to individual specimens from this collection. These artworks take the form of limited edition intaglio and silkscreen prints, one-of-a-kind inlaid burnishing clay tablets, vinyl decals to be installed on windows leading into the gallery and throughout campus, graphite rubbings from these and previous installations of vinyl decals, as well as temporary tattoos the artist hopes to trade audience members for in exchange for lists they may no longer need.

In conjunction with the closing of the exhibition, Herman will lead workshops in which Interlochen Arts Academy students will generate narrative 'zines that combine images with texts that articulate why a single object is of particular significance to them and how it reflects what is important to them.

The closing reception for Adriane Herman's Pick Me Up (a few things…) is Friday, September 9, 2011 from 6:00 - 7:30 pm. A lecture by the artist will occur on Thursday, September 8 at 7 pm.

Watch Herman's site-specific Wall of Intention development through the video-documentation below (or click here). Viewers can also witness the deinstallation process live through the viewer-directed webcam in the Dow Visual Arts Gallery on Saturday, September 10 and Sunday, September 11.

Solo exhibition opens July 28 at Interlochen Arts Center

Adriane Herman's Pick Me Up (a few things), a solo exhibition exploring the trajectory from intention to action, runs July 28 through Septemer 9, 2011. Installation photos here.

This solo exhibition features Wall of Intention, a site-specific installation of a portion of Herman's collection of well over 1000 found, gifted, and bartered [grocery and other] "to do" lists, as well as artworks created in response to individual specimens from this collection. These artworks take the form of limited edition intaglio and silkscreen prints, one-of-a-kind inlaid burnishing clay tablets, vinyl decals to be installed on windows leading into the gallery and throughout campus, graphite rubbings from these and previous installations of vinyl decals, as well as temporary tattoos the artist hopes to trade audience members for in exchange for lists they may no longer need.

Herman will be lead workshops in which Interlochen campers and students will generate narrative 'zines that combine images with texts that articulate why a single object is of particular significance to them and how it reflects what is important to them.

The opening reception for Adriane Herman's Pick Me Up (a few things…) is Thursday, July 28, 2011 at 6 pm. A lecture by the artist will follow.

Watch Herman's site-specific Wall of Intention develop from Monday, July 25, through Thursday, July 28 through the viewer-directed webcam in the Dow Visual Arts Gallery.

Slop Art introduces Love, Doggie Style to L.A.!

Slop Art's Adriane Herman and Brian Reeves will exhibit their latest collaboration, Love, Doggie Style in a group exhibition entitled Chain Letter at Shoshana Wayne Gallery at Bergamot Station Arts Center in Santa Monica, CA. The show is curated by Christian Cummings & Doug Harvey. Similar exhibitions are taking place simultaneously in other cities. Click here for more information about this admiration-based string of exhibitions.

Click here for more photos of Love, Doggie Style. Published by Slop Mountain College Press, this accordion-bound book is available with or without the deluxe pink polka dog doggie bed on which it is perched for the Chain Letter exhibition, which required artists to utilize the gallery floor for display. This exhibition is rooted in the ideals of inclusion, and highlights the social nature of the art world. It is the hope of the curators that the response will be vast and that the artists represented will be an exponential representation of all artists that are currently working and admired by their peers.

Inquiries about this book can be made to [email protected]

July 23 - August 25, 2011 (Opening Saturday, July 23 / 6-8 pm)

Shoshana Wayne Gallery, Bergamot Station Arts Center

2525 Michigan Avenue, Santa Monica, CA

"Coping Mechanics" on view in Rose Contemporary's debut exhibition, "Space Invaders"

Space Invaders, the inaugural exhibition at Rose Contemporary, opens Friday, July 1, and runs through August 27. Created for the occasion, Coping Mechanics measures 16.25 x 70 inches. The edition has 22 impressions, which are available mounted or unmounted. Opening reception 5-8 pm, 492 Congress St., Portland, ME.

• Scroll down for installation photos of Coping Mechanics

• read Sarah Bouchard's review in The Bollard

• visit Rose Contemporary's Space Invaders exhibition page

Note the imperfections on the wall that are visible/re-produced on the left edge of the print. Each of nine documents of other humans' efforts to operate at optimal capacity was photographed hanging on the portion of the gallery wall that its doppelganger now obscures. The resultant images were stitched together to form a unified wide-format re-presentation of a configuration and moment that exists in both the gallery's past and present. Contact the artist for a file in which the content of each list is legible.

3 virtually illegible vinyl decals in "People Don't Like to Read Art" at Western Exhibitions, opening July 9

Created for the exhibition "People Don't Like to Read Art," which runs from July 9 -August 13 at Western Exhibitions / Scott Speh Gallery in Chicago, these three decals were created based on specimens from my collection of over one thousand grocery and other "to do" lists. For this show, I wanted to create something that would simultaneously frustrate and relieve the viewer who hates to read art. Aside from the sole surviving phrase toward the bottom of the list recreated in blue vinyl ("vanilla soda"), every word on each of these three lists is vigorously crossed out. (scroll down for more images)

(above) Vanilla Soda

(above) All Done

(above) Done, Done, and Done