UNCOUTH VERMOUTH & A PERFECT FRIEND ON TEE VEE

Bianca Miraglia, creator of Brooklyn-based Uncouth Vermouth, takes to tee vee's Arise Entertainment to talk about her special blend of locally produced (Red Hook, Brooklyn) vermouth, and show off my A Perfect Friend labels for her Vermouth. 

Fantasy : Musée Magazine

Musée Magazine published a few works of mine in their "Fantasy" issue (No. 108), this winter, featuring several emerging artists.  The three pieces were all collage works on paper including Immaculate Perception, Days Like These and A Perfect Friend, the latter two images of books of collages of the same name.  I was asked about the relationship of photography to my work but that text was not published. My response was directed more towards current work but it applies to these works as well as they implicate and recycle photography in different ways.  

On Photography & Collage

I’m not a photographer.  But some years ago I developed some double exposures from a cheap plastic camera – the images I discovered were accidents – the film did not advance as it should have. I’d printed out a contact sheet, and had a half dozen produced large and in color. Prior to that I’d taken a photograph of my niece. She was a baby, sitting on the kitchen floor playing with bowls and spoons. I printed the photo and then cut out her silhouette, which flattened all her features.  Some thought the “baby” was a “thalidomide” baby.  That silhouette formed the basis of a collage series that spanned nearly 10 years – I used the silhouette as a kind of light to illuminate other images and surfaces; it shaped ideas, and gave a supra-impression of  a full range of ideas, extending even to mosaics and sculpture. 

As I’ve expanded my range of collage subjects and techniques, the photograph has become a support in many interesting ways.  For one I’ve come to regard most magazine images I use – as well as photocopies – as photographs. I find myself intrigued with the magazine and vintage book papers these images are printed on. All printed material, particularly pre-1960, offer rich image possibilities due to the printing technology used. I cut and alter these images, sometimes using paint, sometimes sandpaper, sometimes water. I will sometimes turn them to undecipherable bits; other times using fragments in combination with others – scratching their color away. I’m interested in all sorts of photographed and printed images, and can sometimes hunt for bits of red or blue or yellow for a specific work, combining it so the results are often abstract. Usually the pieces, particularly in the more recent Suicide Specials launch a distilled but many-faceted narrative.

Other works, however, are extremely direct and employ only a handful of elements. I seek out photographs of objects or people that have, with their vintage printing and papers, a faraway, often nostalgic feel.  I’ve come to view photography as something – anything actually – that has been reproduced mechanically using optics and printing technology. And I’ve no issues with reprinting images using my own store of vintage papers – some virgin some already printed.  

Prints for the Immaculate Perception (the girl in the lemon tree) work are still available via Keep Calm Gallery in London, UK.  Click here to see them: Immaculate Perception Keep Calm.

A Perfect Friend Censored at The Big Picture, Denver

Curated by photographer Mark Sink, The Big Picture, a Denver, Colorado city-wide art event (with sister cities throughout the world), brings together artists in a large format off and on-the-wall exhibition.  Works are displayed throughout Denver on city walls (using wheat paste) and in dedicated venues. But apparently some of the works went a bit too far – pornographically speaking.

My work, based upon a collage from the series A Perfect Friend, is currently installed at The Buffalo Exchange and is "censored" – the private bits have been covered with a blue patch.  To be honest, I'm not sure what to think about my work being censored. I suppose this is a far cry from Robert Mapplethorpe's ru- in with the censors at the Corcoran and the NEA. (See that history here).  What have we learned from censorship?  Mostly that it draws people's attention to the work and not away from it.  (Original piece is here):

Sink apparently censored the work himself!  Asked about the blue patch, curator Mark Sink, smiled and said nothing. (Mark Sink's website).

Then a day later this note from Mark Sink: "I need to explain... sorry you probably don't know iI was thrown off FaceBook twice, and one more time and I am out.  I run a big part of my life on FB –  sadly – (event announcements) The Big Picture and The Month of Photography and Sink Photography.  If they they shut me down a marketing arm would be cut off."  

Well, hmm.  Several observers have noted that the blue patch actually draws attention to the works' slight pornographic nature. 

See more from The Big Picture here.

The work was also printed in black and white and wheat pasted on walls in Denver during the Month of Photography.  Here, the work is one of many pieces in The Big Picture.  The piece was "censored" because it appeared on FaceBook.  As far as I know the actual work on the wall remains uncensored.

A single print of this work and others from the series A Perfect Friend are available from Converge Gallery, Williamsport, Pennsylvania. These prints were featured at the exhibition After The Flood in 2012 in Williamsport. There are only a few prints remaining; the edition was set at three but only one print was made of each of 36 images. Contact the gallery if you're interested: Converge.

The prints were produced by Gary Day at the University of Omaha, Nebraska fine arts printing lab.  The prints are about 80 x 60 cm each and were made using a high end Epson digital printer on fine Arches paper.  Each of the prints are signed, numbered (1/3) and dated 2003.

MADNESS: My work will be featured at The Madness of Collage at The Next Gallery also in Denver, opening 8 March.  My works on paper in the Madness exhibition are viewable here.

A PERFECT FRIEND: UNCOUTH VERMOUTH

I produced a number of labels from my collage series A Perfect Friend for Bianca Miraglia's Uncouth Vermouth launch this autumn. Uncouth Vermouth is the self-described: Bad Ass Brooklyn Vermouthery.

The all natural (and excitingly delicious) Uncouth Vermouth is entirely "Made in Brooklyn." Please visit and enjoy Bianca's Uncouth Vermouth here.

And there's more: See the big New York Times article by natural wine maven Alice Feiring on American Vermouth and Bianca's Uncouth Vermouth.

Uncouth Vermouth : Bianca Miraglia at Underground

 
Uncouth Vermouth, Bianca Miraglia's natural vermouth debuts with my art labels at the Underground exhibition in Bushwick, Brooklyn on Friday August 10, 2012. 

The art labels are borrowed from the A Perfect Friend works and the Immaculate Perception collage – prints of which are featured at Keep Calm Gallery. The prints from A Perfect Friend are on view at Converge Gallery in Williamsport, PA through August 25.

Bianca Miraglia is a craft maker of vermouth and an expert on most things that are both drinkable and involve alcohol.  She has often lectured on wine and spirits and naturally-made microbrew beers. She produced a special batch of her Uncouth Vermouth for Underground.

The collage works above include: Top – Television (2005), Lincoln (2007), The Hunt (2007), The Leaving (2007).  All pieces are available from Converge Gallery.  Sorry, there is no vermouth left from the evening but you might be able to get the bottles if you contact Bianca.  More info about Underground and the gallery : Converge Gallery on FB.

After The Flood : June 29 - August 25, 2012

Collage works and terribly unusual objects: After The Flood at Converge Gallery, in Williamsport, Pennsylvania (also home of The Little League World Series).

The exhibition will bring together some 40 works on canvas and wood as well as altered objects in ceramic and plastic recovered after the great flood from way back when.  In addition more than 30 large prints from the surrealist collage series A Perfect Friend will be on view.

AFTER THE FLOOD: MATTHEW ROSE  
OPENING RECEPTION: JUNE 29, 6 PM
EXHIBITION: JUNE 29 - AUGUST 25, 2012

140 West Fourth Street
Williamsport, PA 17701
TEL: 570.435.7080
CONVERGEGALLERY.COM

For more information and images, please contact John Yogodzinksy at the gallery.

To see more works from this and other collage and object series please visit the web site:

MATTHEW ROSE STUDIO

A PERFECT FRIEND : PRINTS FOR SALE

A Perfect Friend, a series of 1930s surrealist-inspired collage works I produced in 2003, then turned into large format (76 x 56 cm) prints on fine Arches paper (edition: 3, although only a single print was produced at the time), are available at Janet Miller's Soma Gallery.

There are approximately 30 prints remaining from the prints made at the University of Nebraska Omaha, under the guidance of master printer Garry Day.

Each print is packaged with a foam core back and plastic protection wrap, ready to frame. You can order them direct from Janet Miller; many of these prints are viewable on my main web site.

Price per print: $500.

These print works have been exhibited in Los Angeles, Miami, Chicago, New York, Washington D.C.  A complete book of all A Perfect Friend prints should be out soon.