Mana Contemportary Presents “Ken Price and Harvey Mudd: The Plain of Smokes” : Sept 14th – Dec 19th
Dates: Sunday, September 14th – Saturday, December 19th, 2014; M – F 10am to 5pm
Address: 888 Newark Avenue, Jersey City, NJ 07306
Cost: Free, donation is recommended
RSVP to the opening reception on September 14th, 1- 7pm HERE
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Official Press Release:
Mana Contemporary and Gary Lichtenstein Editions at Mana present Ken Price and Harvey Mudd: The Plain of Smokes, an exhibition featuring thirty original silkscreen prints Price created to illustrate a 75-page poem cycle written by Mudd. On view from September 14 to December 19, 2014, the exhibition is presented in Mana Contemporary’s 2nd floor gallery.
Published by Arabesque Books in 1981, The Plain of Smokes is an ode to the Los Angeles that shaped both the artist and the poet. The process, which began in 1978, of conceptualizing, developing, and creating The Plain of Smokes, has been described by many, including its author, as the true definition of the word “collaboration.” Mudd and Price continually motivated revision in each other’s work, resulting in a thought-provoking visualization of the dialogue between two artists.
Arabesque Books asked Gary Lichtenstein of SOMA Fine Art Press in San Francisco to print Price’s multilayered paintings featuring pencil, gouache, watercolor, and india ink for the book. In order to translate every last nuance of color relationship and texture from the original work into printer’s ink, Lichtenstein deconstructed Price’s work layer by layer. The most complicated image in the series, “Club Zebra,” required 28 color separations and nearly 5,000 passes through the hand press to print 186 copies. The prints’ “painterly” qualities are a stunning testament to Lichtenstein’s mastery.
Ken Price (1935-2012) emerged in the 1960s with a group of Los Angeles-based “surfer artists” that included, among others, Ed Ruscha, Robert Irwin, and Larry Bell. Price is known principally as a ceramicist yet throughout his career he has commanded a unique position between sculpture and painting. An artist who is celebrated for challenging conventional ideals and definitions, Price is a technical master of form, color, and surface.
Harvey Mudd (1940) is a writer, painter, and photographer. His first of four books of poetry was published in 1976, and the third, The Plain of Smokes, was short-listed for the Los Angeles Times Poetry Prize. New Mexico was Mudd’s primary home for roughly 20 years and it was there that he met Price.
About Gary Lichtenstein Editions at Mana
Gary Lichtenstein Editions at Mana is a publisher and printer of limited fine art silkscreen editions housed on the 2nd floor of Mana Contemporary. Over the course of his remarkable 40-year career, Gary Lichtenstein has printed for industry legends including Karl Benjamin, Robert Cottingham, Bob Gruen, Robert Indiana, Alex Katz, and Ken Price, as well as Pritzker Prize-winning architect, Richard Meier. Lichtenstein’s work has been exhibited and collected by, among others, The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, New York’s Museum of Modern Art, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Smithsonian, the San Francisco Art Institute, the Chicago Art Institute, the Butler Institute of American Art, the College of Art & Architecture at the University of Tennessee, the Boca Raton Museum of Art, the Silvermine Arts Center and the International Print Center NYC. For more information, please visit www.garylichtensteineditions.com.
About Mana Contemporary
Mana Contemporary is a leading arts destination with locations in Jersey City and Chicago. Studios, exhibition spaces, art services, and programming provide an unparalleled environment for creating and experiencing art. By exposing and exploring the artistic process, Mana Contemporary offers an exciting way to discover and learn about art while artists are enabled to experiment and collaborate across all disciplines, forms, and media. Mana Contemporary is home to the Richard Meier Model Museum, Gary Lichtenstein Editions silkscreen studio, the Eileen S. Kaminsky Family Foundation, the Middle East Center for the Arts, Shen Wei Dance Arts, the Keating Foundry, and more. For more information about Mana Contemporary, please visit www.manacontemporary.com.
