Jobs from the past - Number 129

Regular followers of this blog will know that my first post of every month is a "job from the past" so that I can show some of the really good work from years gone by and this publication is from 2016.
 
Money Talks - The Great Swindle by Santiago Montoya

In February 2016, contemporary Colombian artist, Santiago Montoya, presented Money Talks at the Halcyon Gallery, London, which incorporated his mid career museum retrospective The Great Swindle. Montoya reinterprets paper currency as both a canvas as well as a raw material, exploring the added value beyond its very surface. Montoya’s use of money as an artistic medium, also opens a dialogue on the void between state propaganda and reality itself.

This is the literature which presents the work of Santiago Montoya by the Halcyon Gallery in collaboration with AMA (Art Museum of the Americas) in Washington ...and yes, it looks like a bundle of cash!

This wonderfully deceptive design is actually 48pp folded broadsheet. It is concertina folded vertically and horizontally. The flat size is 398x625mm folding down to 157x65mm and gives the 'wad' of notes a thickness off 4mm. The below image reveals the reverse side.

Click on images to enlarge

In this below image you can see the whole dollar side of the sheet unfolding...

Click on images to enlarge

Above is the dollar side and below is the story about The Great Swindle with a foreword by the Curator José Luis Falconi:

Click on images to enlarge

For would be forgers out there, you will be interested in knowing that this piece of literature is printed on Redeem 100% Recycled 80gsm and is printed offset litho, CMYK on both sides and as you can see from the detail image below the print result is excellent. Redeem is an uncoated paper with a wonderfully neutral tone that somehow gives a lot to the right publication.

The paper band or what is called a "currency strap" in the US, around a 'wad' of notes which is around 4mm thick, finishes the deception perfectly.

Design is by the team at the Halcyon Gallery and the printing and finishing is by Push Print based in London with Anthony Dearlove handling the project.

https://www.halcyongallery.com/
http://www.push-print.com/

Posted by Justin Hobson 04.08.2020

American Trilogy Invitation

This is the beautiful invitation for the private view of the Ernesto Cánovas exhibition held at the Halcyon gallery in April. I previously wrote about the catalogue for the exhibition on this blog: http://justinsamazingworldatfennerpaper.blogspot.co.uk/2014/06/american-trilogy-by-ernesto-canovas-at.html

This shows the thickness

Size is A5, portrait and is a single card (2pp) made by printing and then duplexing our Omnia 280gsm  to make 560gsm - which is around 800micron thick - a truly substantial invitation! The front of the invitation is printed CMYK with a section of the artwork titled 'Rudolph Territory'. The reverse is printed offset litho in special gold plus black.

One of the main things to mention about the front of the invite is that the image area (below) is over-printed with a gloss UV varnish. (...just worth pointing out that Omnia is one of the very few papers with an uncoated look and feel that you can successfully UV varnish on to with one pass and it looks excellent). It also reflects the look feel of the actual artwork itself.

The gloss varnish also accentuates the artist's injection of vivid colour which features throughout his work.

The invitation is designed and produced at the Halcyon Gallery. Designer of the invitation (and catalogue) is Alfie Hunter.

Printing is by Leicester based Greenshires with Richard Dalby handling the project. Beautifully printed and finished, the UV varnish looks great - a really well produced piece.

http://www.halcyongallery.com/

http://www.greenshires.com/

Posted by Justin Hobson 04.09.2014

American Trilogy by Ernesto Cánovas at Halcyon Gallery

This has to be one of the best printed items that I've seen this year. This is not just because it's printed on one of our papers (!) but because I went to see the exhibition and having seen the works for myself, I can appreciate just how good the catalogue that represents the work is.

The Halcyon Gallery was founded in 1982 and specialises in modern and contemporary art, concentrating on emerging and established international artists. They represent  Dale Chihuly, Lorenzo Quinn, David Wightman, Eve Arnold and Bob Dylan amongst others. Halcyon now have three art galleries in London and one in Shanghai. They are also involved in public art and currently have an amazing Dale Chihuly glass sculpture exhibited for public view in Berkeley Square.

This catalogue is for an exhibition by Spanish born artist, Ernesto Cánovas. The exhibition is titled 'An American Trilogy' and depicts a vision of America from the perspective of an outsider. The artist now works from a studio in London, where these artworks were produced employing a multi-layered practice of painting, drawing, printmaking and photography.

The size of the book is 290x240mm, portrait. It is case-bound with a 'paper over board' cover with an image 'tipped on' to the cover. The 108pp text is printed on our Omnia 150gsm and the paper just looks and feels totally right with the images.

This beautifully art directed catalogue is designed and produced at the Halcyon Gallery. Designer on this project is Alfie Hunter and in his note to me about the project he says "In this case, I used Omnia hoping the uncoated feel would sympathise with the worn and reworked effect on the paintings without saturating the colour or compromising the clarity in detail of the artworks" ...well it certainly does that!



One or two spreads showing the artist at work:

The cover is traditionally bound to emulate the nostalgia of the 1950's America that the exhibition portrays. This is finished off with a rounded spine and to contrast, a bright head/tail bands to pick up the artist's injection of vivid colour which features throughout his work.

Print production is by Pureprint and is exceptional. The repro and printing is superb and the quality of the binding equally impressive.

 

The exhibition finished on 26th May, so unfortunately you will have to make do with the following link: www.halcyongallery.com/exhibitions/ernesto-canovas-an-american-trilogy

www.halcyongallery.com
www.pureprint.com

Posted by Justin Hobson 06.06.2014