Abecedarian Gallery, Denver CO
Anderson Center For Interdisciplinary Arts, Red Wing MN
Artlab33 I Art Space, Miami, FL
ArtCenter South Florida, Miami Beach FL
Center for Book Arts NYC, NY
Greenlease Gallery at Rockhurst University, Kansas City MO
Jaffe Center for Book Arts, Florida Atlantic Unversity, Boca Raton FL
meetinghouse. The Huntington Building, Miami, FL
Miami Book Fair International, Miami FL
Miami Dade College Museum of Art + Design, Miami FL
Miami Dade College Kendall Campus Art Gallery, Miami FL
Miami Dade College Wolfson Campus Centre Gallery, Miami FL
The Permanent Collection of Miami Dade Public Library System, Miami FL
Turn Based Press. Miami, FL
Minnesota Center for Book Arts, Minneapolis MN
University of Miami, Coral Gables FL
This exhibition will also travel to the Hamilton Ink Spot in St. Paul, MN and the Minnesota Center for Book Arts in Minneapolis, MN.In 2013 after the incredibly rewarding experience of the first SWEAT Broadsheet Collaboration in Miami, I began a third artist’s residency at the Anderson Center in Red Wing, Minnesota. A perfect storm of poets, musicians, artists, the incredible staff and Director Robert Hedin compelled me to blurt out to Robert one fine afternoon, “We should do a broadsheet collaboration with Midwest artists and writers too!” Photos from the opening include Robert Hedin’s retirement award, Heartland artists and poets, celebrants and the Barn at the Anderson Center.
Robert initiated me into the delectable literary/visual world of broadsheets. A number of works in his collection graced the room that I first stayed in at the Anderson Center in 2009: Riveting words by Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Louise Erdrich, and Pablo Neruda brought me nose to wall so I could read and luxuriate in the rich visual textures of the accompanying images. The book worm in me bounced from the walls of my room to the exquisite library down the hall from my room. Love medicine indeed.
After a droll comment on the impulsive nature of visual artists, Robert, a lifelong poet, said he would consider my idea. A little over a year later, we began to curate Midwest artists and writers for the project. Our combined research and Robert’s vast knowledge of poets led to the Heartland Broadsheet Portfolio, released to celebrate the 20th Anniversary of the Anderson Center at Tower View.
For my contribution to the portfolio I worked with Louise Erdrich and Sally Jane Franson, two vibrant and exciting writers observing the Heartland from vastly different vantage points. Both views improved mine immeasurably. Louise wrote “Passion” for the Heartland Portfolio. Sally wrote “Ole and Lena.”
Joseph Adam Rios
Corinne Duchesne
Freedom Tower, Miami Dade College Museum of Art + Design
Downtown Miami: The Ground Beneath Our FeetI was honored to be asked to contribute a page to Downtown Miami: The Ground Beneath Our Feet. This project was created by Rosemarie Chiarlone and Lea Nickless with support from the Villagers, Inc. to make a historical and creative collaboration using visual art and writing to recognize a dozen remarkable historic sites in or near downtown Miami. My collaborator Michael Hettich and I elected to start at the beginning of that history, with a page based on the Miami Circle archaeological site. We layered words and images, imagining the thoughts and works of the original inhabitants of the southern bank of the Miami River.This project was complemented by video of the sites and historical info-graphics by Lea Nickless with support from the Lynne and Louis Wolfson II Florida Moving Image Archives, and the Wolfsonian-FIU. Carol Todaro created the binding to hold each of the collaborative pairs’ pages and along with a chapbook containing each of the writers’ unedited words about their chosen sites.
Red Dragonfly Press, Anderson Center at Tower View
The images below show the development of two multiple sheet broadsides, Flood and Solitude, created with Michael Hettich a frequent collaborator and friend. Each was printed on the Challenge Proof Press at Red Dragonfly Press. A number of print process went into the development of these works including silk screen, relief, letterpress, and polymer plates.
http://mcbaprize.org/virgin-school2/
Veterans Oral History and Art Project
Artworks inspired by recordings of veterans’ stories, created by Miami artists, will be on exhibit at GAB Studio (and in perpetuity at TheCenteratMDC.org). In partnership with Key Art and Health Alliance.
GAB Studio April 13- May 8; Art Walk Reception: April 13, 4-7 p.m.
105 Northwest 23 St., Miami
The upcoming Lark Crafts Publication, 500 Handmade Books Volume 2 will include the final book in my Escape Series, Escape 3: Sex, Drugs, and Rock & Roll. The book was curated by Julie Chen of Flying Fish Press, and will be available in September 2013.
Creative Capital has brought a series of Professional Development Workshops to Miami-Dade County with the Cultural Affairs Department. I was fortunate to be selected for participation in more than one workshop. This opportunity allowed me to find mentors, colleagues, artists in other disciplines and other professionals in the arts in Miami to work with and add to the community. I was recognized on their website last month: Creative Capital, Sucess Stories, Community Development.
FLOR500
FIU College of Architecture + The Arts, and Xavier Cortada Artist-in-Residence: I have contributed work to this project that commemorates 500 years of Florida, recognizing the plants, flowers, and visual artists around the state. My contribution is FLOR480, Sea Oats (portrayed in a relief printed diptych on Chinese paper with gold flecks).
Opening of the SWEAT Broadsheet Collaboration at Miami Dade College, Centre Gallery, Wolfson Campus on November 1st, 2012.
The SWEAT Broadsheet Collaboration
Opening Reception Thursday, November 1, 6 – 8 pm
Miami Dade College – Wolfson Campus Centre Gallery
Building 1, Third Floor
Exhibition Dates: November 2 through December 21, 2012
Related Events
The Sweat Broadsheet Collaboration, a reading and discussion presented by the Miami Book Fair International
Saturday, November 17, 3:30 pm in the Centre Gallery at MDC – Wolfson Campus
Panel Discussion moderated by Alex Campos, Executive Director of the Center for Book Arts, New York City
Monday, December 10, 6:00-8:00 pm
This is the first letterpress printed broadsheet I created. In a class with John Cutrone at the Jaffe Center for Book Arts, about a dozen students made broadsheets for a project titled “al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here.” The project commemorated 130 victims of a bombing on al-Mutanabbi Street in Baghdad, Iraq in 2007. This is a street of book sellers that has been active for hundreds of years. The edition was donated to Doctors Without Borders and Iraqi poets to help the victims. Since 2007 related projects in book arts and prints have also been completed. The entire broadsheet collection is available online at the Jaffe Center for Book Arts.
- Robin Griffiths
Shots from Installation day, more to come. By Hand.
By Hand opened to a large crowd of folks from three counties last Wednesday. The Miami Herald ran a review by Ann Tschida of the show, and the changes at the ArtCenter South Florida. Art is About, a local art blog by Eddie Arroyo also has archived the show on his site.
New exhibit, new direction at ArtCenter/South Florida – 08/19/2012…
http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/08/19/v-print/2954827/new-exh…
Posted on Sun, Aug. 19, 2012
New exhibit, new direction at ArtCenter/South Florida
By Anne Tschida Special to The Miami Herald
There is no more prime arts-world real estate in town than the corner of Meridian Avenue and Lincoln Road on South Beach, the main exhibition space and studios of ArtCenter/South Florida. The constant pedestrian traffic is a godsend for any art institution, and the windows offer inviting glimpses of the artwork and life inside. There may not be a better sculpture to tempt the stroller than Robin Griffiths’ big, noisy By Hand, which is also the name of the exhibit now at ArtCenter. A mixed-media contraption with technical bells and whistles and electrical elements, it’s a fun, trippy interactive sculpture from an underrated artist. Stick your hand in a sort of metal glove, and the whole machine shakes, sounds off and lights up. It should come as no surprise that Griffiths is a draftsman and a mathematician as well as a sculptor. He is one of eight artists in the show curated by Tom Virgin, who himself specializes in woodcut prints. Virgin’s detailed, hands-on process inspired him to pick artists whose works, while vastly diverse, all reveal the hand of the show’s title.
Also visible from the street is a big wall sculpture made of rusting brown mufflers and colored tape in psychedelic green, blue and orange by Evan Robarts. Subtly woven among these works are small, lovely pieces by Hugo Moro, the only current ArtCenter studio resident in the show. Inspired by a trip to Port-au-Prince and titled Power & Light, they incorporate elaborately decorated, porcelain light-switch coverings — near-devotional offerings in a place where electricity remains a luxury. The tone changes in the middle of the space with predominantly white works by two women. Jenny Brillhart, an ArtCenter alum, has pieced together collages in which the process is central to the result. A canvas overlay on a found frame called Layers of 71st Street particularly punctuates that idea.
Next to that are two delicate paper works manipulated with tiny cut marks and perforations by Rosemarie Chiarlone. The series, Silhouette, is a collaboration with poet Susan Weiner and contains text, but it can be read or viewed as calligraphy, intelligible or not — your choice. The back wall is covered in what almost feels like a counterweight to the brash Griffiths piece. Lea Nickless has cut up painted paper and pinned the strips together in a sculpture that seems to float or flutter in the wind. On the adjacent wall are strangely compelling collages by Lake Worth-based Victoria Skinner that require close attention. An array of these disc-shaped pieces, each 5 1/2 inches in diameter, are like “Petri dishes” says curator Virgin, out of which eyes, visages and creatures emerge.
Virgin has displayed some of his aluminum cutouts and wood cuts, including the superb 13 Views of Mount Hood: From I-94 (mirror), which is just that, a view of the Oregon mountain from a rearview mirror. By Hand not only connotes a physical process, but also the way we have transmitted language throughout the ages. Virgin wanted to shed light on these artists and on their particular methods and stories. That makes it a good show to start a new era at the ArtCenter, which has been through some turbulent — and sometimes staid — years, with lots of staff turnover. The new, Spanish-born executive director, Maria Del Valle, who at one time ran the Spanish Cultural Center of Miami, has been joined by a new artistic director, Susan Caraballo, who formerly was in charge of the innovative Little Havana performance space PS 742. Caraballo, who helped curate and mount the current show, explains that the ArtCenter wants to open up and shed new light on the space. The goal is to expand into multi-disciplinary programming including video, performance and experimental music. Del Valle says she wants to include more guest curators and artists from outside Miami to strengthen the artistic community.
One of their initiatives is the Surreal Saturday Studio Crawl, which takes place on the first Saturday of the month. And on Sept. 24 the ArtCenter will inaugurate Project 924, a “happening” type of event in its space at 924 Lincoln Rd., Caraballo says.
Del Valle knows the studio residency program needs some shaking up as well. It was set up to give artists discounted studio space for two years, but many were staying much longer. Del Valle says she wants to mix in residencies as short as three months to keep energy flowing. The center will also be working more closely with neighboring institutions such as the Bass Museum of Art, she says, with the hope of firmly re-establishing South Beach as an arts destination.
“We want to open up to the arts community, bring people back in with exciting programming,” says Del Valle.
It’s ambitious stuff from the new team, but much-needed for a center that was once about the only artistic engine in town.
2 of 3 8/19/12 8:37 AM
New exhibit, new direction at ArtCenter/South Florida – 08/19/2012… http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/08/19/v-print/2954827/new-exh…
© 2012 Miami Herald Media Company. All Rights Reserved. http://www.miamiherald.com
By Hand is a show that I curated last year that will open at the ArtCenter South Florida on Wednesday, August 15th at 800 Lincoln Road. 
While I was in the Smoky Mountains, the Miami Herald mentioned me in an article about book arts in South Florida. I am proud to have my books included in the collections at the University of Miami’s Special Collections, the Permanent Art Collection of the Miami Dade Public Library, The Bienes Museum of the Modern Book, the Jaffe Center for Book Arts, and MOCA in North Miami (where I have work that is in their Mail Art Collection). It is nice to see book artists and collectors being recognized in South Florida. Visit the collections Mr. Austin mentions and see why.
By Tom Austin
Special to The Miami Herald
Artists’ books are creations that often resemble traditional books only in the broadest possible conceptual sense, as with Dieter Roth’s circa-1968 Literature Sausage. Roth shredded novels he didn’t like, mixed the pulp with spices and gelatin, and then squeezed the whole mess into sausage casings.
Artists’ books are all about the clash of art, literature and revolt, and nationally their appeal has been gaining recognition, says Bonnie Clearwater, executive director at the Museum of Contemporary Art in North Miami. “They’re portable, accessible, and the work is so varied,” she says.
South Florida is both collecting and displaying such works with the intensity of an extreme sport. Miami is home to the internationally recognized Sackner Archive of Visual and Concrete Poetry, collected over many years by Dr. Marvin Sackner, a pulmonologist, and wife Ruth. The University of Miami, the Broward County Library and the Wolfsonian-FIU are among local institutions with collections of artists’ books.
This summer, Florida Atlantic University’s Arthur and Mata Jaffe Center for Book Arts is drawing new audiences with a family-friendly exhibition of rare pop-up books.
That popularity presents a marked change from the early 1980s, when the Sackners began their collection. The archive contains experimental typographic, text and image works, and artists’ books by such luminaries as the British painter and printmaker Tom Phillips.
“When we started, no one could figure out if they belonged in libraries or museums,” says Marvin Sackner. But the form is more accepted now, and it has fed the interest in text-based art.
Christopher Wool’s paintings — a few stenciled words on a canvas — now sell for millions. Last February, at a Christie’s auction in London, Wool’s painting Fool — which consists of the word “fool” spelled out on a canvas — sold for $7.8 million. Though it is housed in their private apartment, works from the Sackner Archive occasionally are shown at museums. Among them are pieces by Ian Hamilton Finlay, the Scottish artist and poet.
The Sackners have donated considerable Finlay work to MOCA. Later this month, some of that work will be shown as a complement to the exhibition Ed Ruscha: On the Road, which includes a Ruscha work that mixes text from Jack Kerouac’s landmark Beat novel On the Road with iconic photos of the American West. Sackner says he is particularly impressed with UM’s Special Collections Department, in the university’s Otto G. Richter Library on the Coral Gables campus. Holdings include work by such local artists as Tom Virgin and Martin Casuso as well as international artists Sam Winston, Raymond Pettibon the Organik Collective and Tina Flau. The collection also encompasses more than 2,000 zines — artful small-circulation publications — from Florida works donated by the Firefly Collective to international publications with the themes embracing political protest, feminism, music, gender, culture and niche topics like Dumpster diving, eraser collecting and TV-show fandom.
To Sackner, UM has another advantage. “Many artists’ books collections are difficult to see. At UM, it’s all laid out and accessible to students and the public.”
In Miami Beach, the Wolfsonian Library at the Wolfsonian-FIU includes the gems L’anguria lirica — “lyrical watermelon” — by Tullio D’Albisola, a 1935 artists’ book made entirely of steel and tin, and the circa-1927 Depero Futurista by Depero Fortunato, bound together with aluminum bolts.
“It’s intended to be a tribute to the machine age, from the unusual binding to the typesetting,” says chief librarian Frank Luca. “As with many artists’ books, the poetic arrangement of the words is as important as the words themselves.”
In Fort Lauderdale, Broward County Library’s Bienes Museum of the Modern Book: The Dianne and Michael Bienes Special Collections and Rare Book Library includes some 15,000 items, among them artists’ books by such masters as famed Czech artist Vojtech Kubasta. (Just opened is an exhibition titled Around the World with the WPA, highlighting artworks created by the Depression-era Works Progress Administration; among them is the 1941 Guide to Key West, compiled by workers of the state of Florida’s writers program.
Since 1997, the Bienes Museum, in conjunction with the Florida Center for the Book, has hosted the annual Florida Artists’ Book Prize Exhibition. Each year, the winning work is added to the museum’s collection. The 2011 winner, on display at the library, is Marie Mercano’s Nevermore: FAQ to a Raven, which unfolds like a concertina to the dimensions of a bird, echoing the flexible nature of time itself. In 2005, the Miami-based Rosemarie Chiarlone — a longtime collaborator with poet Susan Weiner — was a co-winner for her simple and elegantly beautiful piece Flying Solo, in which Weiner’s words “… Even though the co-pilot is so close …” are formed with pinhole size punctures.
In Boca Raton, at Florida Atlantic University’s Wimberly Library, the Arthur and Mata Jaffe Center for Book Arts is a bright, airy facility with a working Letterpress Studio; the 19th Century Wessel iron hand press alone is worth a visit. This summer, the Jaffe Center is presenting the family-friendly POP! Movable Books from the Arthur J. Williams Pop-Up Collection, drawn from 425 pop-up books donated by Williams and displayed throughout the library. Among them is Harold Lentz’s 1932 Pinocchio, with pop-ups of the famed fibber in distress. Another interesting piece is Matthew Reinhart’s Star Wars: Pop Up Guide to the Galaxy, with pop-up light sabers.
The Jaffe Center holds more than 6,000 works that span an astonishing range, from pieces by the Al-Mutanabbi Street Coalition (formed after the March 2007 bombing of Baghdad’s intellectual center) to the entire collection of the International Society of Copier Artists Quarterly, nearly 4,000 artists’ books created via Xerography. Much of their collection is easily accessible, and there are regular exhibitions on display. As with all artists’ books, the individual pieces make for a more intimate viewing experience than painting or sculpture. and artists’ books are tactile experiences, objects that can be picked up, slowly savored and actually felt. In an increasingly virtual world, there’s something to be said for the simple act of touch.
Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/07/13/v-fullstory/2894167/the-portable-art-of-the-book.html#storylink=cpy
My work has been included in the book, 1000 Artists’ Books: Exploring the Book as ART, edited by Sandra Salamony with Peter and Donna Thomas. My books Mountain Tops and INDU: Commensalists and Hand Me Downs were both included in this beautiful volume. In my recent stay in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park as an Artist in Residence I was fortunate to have studied with Dolph Smith, and met Kerri Cushman, and Beatrice Coron, who are also included. So many great book artists are here that I won’t list them all, but South Florida is well represented with Andrew Binder, Hanne Niederhausen, Dot Krause, and Marie Marcano. My books are on pages 281 and 275. Did I mention Julie Chen?
Dolph Smith and his immediate effect on my book making. He is an icon in Book Arts and one of the most engaging teachers I have ever met.
Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts in Gatlinburg, Tennessee (a small town, about 5,000 at most… that hosts 9 million visitors a year through the Great Smoky Mountains National Park).
Great Smoky Mountains National Park
Dana Soehn, Volunteer Coordinator shows appropriated bear posters above.
