prints oh joy >:(: February 2011

Nicola Lopez is an artist born in New Mexico, though she primarily grew up in Santa Fe. She has studied art at Columbia University in New York and at the School of Visual Arts in Rio, Brazil, and even took and internship at the Museum of Modern Art in Parque Lage.

Nord Wennerstrom says it best in his article on Nicola Lopez when he describes her art as “Devoid of human presence, the world she depicts is overrun by an anarchic tangle of pipes, ductwork, telephone lines, satellite dishes, vehicle parts, oil rigs, tires, and batteries that meet, mate, and mutate”

The gesture Lopez makes in her art is how urban and industrial development has plague and distorted the once gorgeous landscape of America. Most of her work features large oil rigs blowing smoke into the sky or twisted root-like pipes scattered across and polluted and eerie landscape. I think the most attractive aspects of her work are the multiple layers and high contrast in her prints, three dimensional collage and her installation pieces.

If you want brief literature on her work with some of my more favorite works of Nicola Lopez’s check out this link by Trevor Paglan: http://bombsite.com/issues/100/articles/2908

Other interesting links on articles and works of Nicola Lopez:

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0268/is_2_44/ai_n16752873/

http://artnectar.com/page/74/?archives=category

http://www.brooklynrail.org200610artseennicola-lopez/

http://antiquesandthearts.com/Antiques/AntiquesShows/2007-12-05__10-40-22.html

and an interview between Phong Bui and Nicola Lopez: http://www.brooklynrail.org/2009/06/art/nicola-lpez-with-phong-bui

unknown title

after the storm

1) Gutenberg changed communication and education during the renaissance era with his invention of the printing press. Though china already had a printing method for quite sometime before and Gutenberg tried to keep his invention a secret, many inventors caught on to how his press worked and started making some prototypes of a similar machine. This lead to the widespread of more books being printed, thus more information was available to the people of Western Europe in a time when many young men were going to school to be clergymen. The printing press aloud these people who were hungry for knowledge to acquire more books at a cheaper cost to them, the student, and also cheaper for the print master to make. This lead to an information overdrive phase much like the internet is to our generation.

2) These advancements of the printing press lead to artists and printers alike using more casting metals to sustain the life of their original stamps, as of opposed to using wood blocks that continually chipped and split. Different techniques, styles and media of print art have since been becoming more efficient and high tech as a result of the inspiration and spread of information from Gutenberg’s invention.

3) Photocopier art, more so towards the process of cutting and pasting for zines, is similar to the process used with an old fashioned letter press. Both use a process of re-using images and copying letters to make an image. With the letterpress a stamp of the letters, words, or phrases needed are arranged to make literature, while with zine-art letter from other pieces of literature are cut out and pieced together to make art or literature.

5) FLUXUS-International avant-garde group of artists founded in Germany by U.S. artist George Maciunas (1931–78) in 1962. Its members, including Joseph Beuys, John Cage, and Yves Klein, explored media ranging from performance art to poetry to experimental music. Opposed to tradition and professionalism in the arts, the Fluxus group shifted the emphasis from what an artist makes to the artist's personality, actions, and opinions. Throughout the 1960s and '70s they staged “action” events, engaged in politics and public speaking, and produced sculptural works featuring unconventional materials. Though it was an influential movement in Europe, the group's work frequently conflicted with authority and aroused much controversy (www.creativeglossary.com/art-stylesmovements/fluxus.html)

MYRIAD-Constituting a very large, indefinite number; innumerable and/or Composed of numerous diverse elements or facets (www.thefreedictionary.com/myriad)

OSTENSIBLE-Represented or appearing as such; ostensive (www.thefreedictionary.com/ostensible)