AMP: Artists' Meeting Place and Resource Collective

Opening Night Reception: Saturday, November 14, 2009 from 7-10 pm


Alex Alferov, Yrneh Brown, Nancy Buchanan, Chukes, Carol Colin, Kathi Flood, Sophia Gasparian, Graham Goddard, Miguel Angel Murillo, CCH Pounder, Suzanne Siegel, Joseph Sims, Charles Swenson, Richard Turner, Mark Vallen, Ted Waltz

The year 2008 was historic in the fact that a Black American became our 44th President. We have asked our artists to demonstrate how they perceive the first year, the honeymoon period, of the Barack Obama Administration. He has taken office facing high expectations and immense challenges. Some questions we ask our "365" artists to consider are: Does race affect political choices, or is it more a class question? Have opportunities for minorities advanced? What about health care, the turmoil in the Middle East, the economy? Obama has declared a new spirit of engagement with the UN to confront global challenges, from climate change to nuclear proliferation. But is his foreign policy decisions an extension of Bush administration policy known for its political and international aggression? Our "365" artists tackle these challenging questions with works that are aesthetically profound and timely.

November 14 through December 6, 2009


And Our Annex Presents:

The Writing On The Wall
A typo-active installation by Kay Brown, Poli Marichal and Marianne Sadowski

"A baited banker thus desponds,
From his own hand foresees his fall,
They have his soul, who have his bonds;
'Tis like the writing on the wall."

Jonathan Swift (Anglo-Irish satirist, essayist, poet 1667-1745)

Taking the idiom, "the writing on the wall" (a portent of doom or misfortune, first used in the Book of Daniel), as a point of departure, artists Kay Brown, Poli Marichal and Marianne Sadowski have printed a series of flyers and other works on paper using phrases, slogans and idiomatic plays on words that address current issues concerning politics, ecology and ethics in a visually suggestive manner.

The artists intention is to create a space for thought and meditation in order to promote a call for pro-active action and grass roots militancy and a return to common sense and self-sufficiency.

Brown, Marichal and Sadowski were inspired by the oeuvre of artists such as Barbara Kruger, Ellen Rothenberg and Jenny Holzer, among others, who use type to inform, provoke, agitate and confront the viewer.

The works were printed using a Laguna etching press owned by Sadowski and a Reprex letterpress proof printer owned by Marichal. Many of the phrases were created using vintage wood letterpress fonts and/or stamped fonts owned by Brown over monotyped abstract backgrounds.

November 14 through December 6, 2009