James Nares, Untitled (Road Paint Series), 2013

Durham Press would like to congratulate James Nares on his upcoming exhibition, ROAD PAINT, which will be on view at Paul Kasmin Gallery from May 8th through June 15th.

The new series of paintings was created with the use of a mechanical road striper, a new technique Nares is using to spread a viscous white paint across the black ground of his canvases. The process also distributes tiny glass beads into the paint, which creates an iridescent effect. This series of work continues to explore Nares’ interest in form, motion, rhythm and time.

Street, the 2011 film, can be seen at the Metropolitan Museum until May 27th.

Sleep: Deux Femmes Noires is based on a small collage that Thomas used to conceive both the print and a large painting (of same title) that featured prominently in her solo exhibition “Origin of the Universe”. The widely acclaimed traveling show, organized by the Santa Monica Art Museum, was at the Brooklyn Museum earlier this year. Sleep, both in title and subject, directly references Gustave Courbet’s erotic painting Le Sommeil from 1866, but transports the interior scene of reclining nudes to a disparate collaged landscape of bright color and pattern. The work hints at influences from the Hudson River Painters, Romare Bearden, David Hockney and Seydou Keita. Thomas deftly weaves themes of black female beauty, power, and sexuality into classical genres of portraiture and landscape, creating works of stunning originality and strength.

The print, Sleep: Deux Femmes Noires, is a remarkable work made with 61 colors, 58 screens, 27 individual blocks, and 50 different collage components, including mahogany and cherry veneers. Each component and process adds to the lush composition of color, texture and pattern. The figures included in the collage are printed from an interior scene Thomas composed and photographed at 20 x 24 Studio in New York using a large format camera. Many of the landscape photographs used in the print are from Thomas’s personal travel in Africa. This is Thomas’s second work at Durham Press. The first, Landscape Majestic, was produced using similar printing and collage techniques.

Mickalene Thomas has been working with Durham Press since 2010, and her prints are available directly through our gallery. Please contact Gwyneth Fearnhead for more information, gwyneth@durhampress.com.

Durham Press will be hosting an Open House on Sunday, May 5th from 1 – 4pm. Please join us for an afternoon of art, a printmaking demonstration and a tour of our galleries and studios.

Durham Press is located in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, an hour and a half away from New York City. RSVP not required but appreciated!

Love Alley 4, 2012, Woodblock, 32 x 68 inches, edition of 25

Polly Apfelbaum, Love Alley Black, 2012, 32 x 68 inches, edition of 12

Durham Press is pleased to announce the release of  Love Alley 4 and Love Alley Black 4  by Polly Apfelbaum.   Love Alley 4  is comprised of 236 blocks and 44 colors.

The prints are on display at the  Armory Show - today through the 10th. Please visit us –  Booth 518, or call with any questions.

Still from James Nares "Sleep", 2011

Durham Press would like to congratulate James Nares on the New York premiere of his newest film Street, opening tomorrow at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The incredibly beautiful 61 minute high-definition video captures a vivid glimpse of New York street life. The film will be shown continuously on a large screen in the central gallery of the Museum’s Drawings, Prints, and Photographs Galleries from March 5th through May 27th. The exhibition will also include 60 works of art selected by Nares from the Met’s collections that also capture the spirit of the street. If you are in New York, do go see it, it’s wonderful!

To view a clip of the film – CLICK HERE

Thomas P. Campbell, Director of the Metropolitan Museum, said of the film:

“James Nares’ Street is a microcosm of contemporary New York that makes accessible the countless individual moments, gestures, and interactions that are normally too fleeting to take in all at once. Because its underlying subject is people, Street is also fascinating to view in a historical context. The relevant works of art that Nares selected from across the Met’s vast holdings range from a striding figure made in Sumer around 3000 B.C. to Walker Evans’ jars of pull tabs and bottle caps pocketed off the sidewalk. These works are eclectic and often surprising, and provide a true lesson in close looking across geographic and temporal boundaries.”

Inspired by a genre of film known as “Actuality Films” from the turn of the twentieth century, James said this of his film,  ”The camera sees in the same way as a little baby sees, without judgment. It’s just the eyes open, and it takes it in. And in those films and in my films, there are people who clown for the camera, or just stare, or look embarrassed. Whatever it is, there are occasional connections between the people being filmed and the person filming. It draws you back into the present and connects you as the viewer with the people being viewed, in a nice way….My intention was to give the dreamlike impression of floating through a city full of people frozen in time, caught Pompeii-like, at a particular moment of thought, expression, or activity…a film to be viewed 100 years from now.”

More information/press:

The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Paul Kasmin Gallery
Martha Schewendener- New York Times 
Andrew Frisicano – Time Out

Still from James Nares, Street, 2011

Pop-up shop Décopolis: the talent of others

Décopolis: the talent of others is a new pop-up shop organized by Mickalene Thomas and The Proposition. The installation showcases work by several artists surrounded by Mickalene’s customized furniture and decorative objects with shag rugs and wood paneling. While viewing the exhibition and installation you can try on shoes designed by Mickalene. She teamed up with Brother Vellies to create a limited edition five piece collection of handmade desert boots. The boots, called vellies, have colorful and elaborate combinations of patterned fabrics, fur and hides.

The pop-up shop is located at 2 Extra Place, New York, NY, the hours are 12-6pm, it will be open until February 24th.

The group of artists working in various mediums include:

David Antonio Cruz presents two paintings from his Chocolate series in addition to a collection of small drawings merging the infamous Roger Casement’s body and the subjects of his long time photo documentations, which were taken during his stay in the Congo and Brazil

Roddy Fitzgerald combines realism and classicism to create stories that represent the contemporary human experience.

Jayson Keeling creates artwork that provokes and dismantles pop iconography and the accepted politics of sex, gender, race, and religion by pitting them against the aggressiveness of youth culture.

Elisabeth Gaffaney photographs her surrounding environment focusing on texture, composition and the opulent natural colors that occur in the everyday.

Vincent Oquendo extracts and pieces together makeup looks from different iconic women and reinvents them in a modern way on his muse.

Brother Vellies present Velskoen, pronounced “fell-skoon” and known colloquially as “vellies,” — the ancestor of the modern-day desert boot. Their velskoen are made in the coastal town of Swakopmund, Namibia, where a small group of eight Damara gentlemen assemble every shoe by hand, turning out just 20 pairs an afternoon.

Nina Ziefvert (NINA Z) reintroduces the iconic Swedish clog to the metropolitan market. Her raw yet feminine and functional designs are inspired by her Swedish heritage, global travels and life in Brooklyn.

Polly Apfelbaum, Nirvana Park 3, Woodblock, 79 x 79 Inches, Monoprint

Durham Press will be exhibiting at the Armory Show from March 7th through 10th at Pier 94  in New York. Pier 94 is located at 12th Avenue and 55th Street. The Armory Show is the largest art fair in New York and one of the principal annual art events in the international art market calendar. The 2013 show is the Centennial Edition of the fair. The fair will be celebrating the 100th anniversary of the historic 1913 Armory Show. We will be showing new and recent prints by Hurvin Anderson, Polly Apfelbaum, Roland Fischer, Emil Lukas, Beatriz Milhazes, James Nares and Mickalene Thomas. Please visit us at Booth 518.

Emil Lukas, Larva, Bubble & Thread 4, 2012, 2 Screenprints and 1 Etching, 37 1/2 x 29 Inches, Monoprints

In Three Words, 2012, Portfolio of 3 Screenprints, 37 1/2 x 20 inches, Edition of 40

Artinfo recently interviewed James Nares and asked him a variety of questions about filmmaking, painting, a new book, and his life as an artist. Click here to read the article “21 Questions for Time Stopping Artist and Filmmaker James Nares”.  The article highlights his busy year. His film “Street” is currently on display at the Saint Louis Art Museum. The vivid film follows people through the streets of New York City set to an acoustic guitar soundtrack by Thurston Moore. The film will be on view through January 27th. James is working with Rizzoli on a new monograph that will document the past 4 decades of his career. The book will be released in 2013. Paul Kasmin Gallery will be presenting a Nares exhibition later this year. Please join Durham Press as we congratulate James on his accomplishments. Stay tuned to our blog for updates!

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