Mark Havens at JAGR

On Thursday April 21st we were off to the opening of Mark Havens Show Displacement at JAGR Projects on Rittenhouse Square. Marks show was a series of large prints (by Silicon nach!) of toy car decals. The macro photographs looked amazing at very large scale and the beautiful simple white frames (by Kevin Strickland) added to their awesomeness. We mounted the prints on E-Panel which is a slightly less expensive alternative to DiBond - an archival very rigid aluminum polycarbonate sandwich.
I have never been to JAGR Projects before and I was very impressed. The space, on the third floor of the Rittenhouse Hotel, is huge and filled with beautiful furniture; the separate gallery space is large and very well lit.
Well worth a visit and if you go in the afternoon you can have "tea" at he Hotel afterwards.
JAGR Projects is at The Rittenhouse, Suite 310, 210 W. Rittenhouse Square.


Posted by Rick

New Sign!

We finally changed out sign outside!   Check it out...

Jill Sherman and Studio Incaminati

This was a busy evening for us, our first stop was at the Art Institute where for the show "Delicate Bits & Pieces" by Cindy Petruccillo & Jill Galloway Sherman opened.

Jill (an ex Silicon person) showed some great new work including some that were a combination digital print and embossment. We loved it, so much in fact that we bought one of the works (teapot and underwear - you can't beat that). The show is up until July 22nd and if you are in center city I would really recommend checking it out, it's on the ground floor of the The Art Institute of Philadelphia, 1622 Chestnut Street. You can get more informatio about the show here.

Freemans and Studio Incaminati

Our next stop was at Freemans Auction House where Studio Incaminati were having a week long fund raiser.
In honor of the Royal Wedding in the United Kingdom they were showing prints (by Silicon) of two slightly different paintings of Princess Diana by Nelson Shanks; Nelson is probably the worlds foremost living portrait painter and the founder and artistic director of the school.
The prints were made on Hahnemuhle Photo Rag Satin which is a 100% cotton rag paper which has a slight sheen making it a good choice to reproduce oil paintings.

Posted by Rick

Welcome KALEIDOSCOPE to old City

We were sorry to see Mathew Izzo leave 3rd Street in Old City but excited to see his space let so quickly; so welcome to Kaleidoscope a new boutique opening soon.

Kaleidoscope Boutique - 151 North 3rd St.

The new owners wanted to capitalize on the First Friday crowds with some pre-opening publicity. So on Thursday (yes the 31st) they asked us if we could scan an original piece of art sized at 17" x 23", create a kaleidoscope and then make two 60" x 66" prints to cover the windows and a text print for the door.
Not that we encourage this kind of speed, especially as we were already printing a bunch of other prints for First Friday shows (why do artists wait until the last minute) but we managed.

A year or two ago we would have had to make two 30 x 66 prints and paste them together but our Epson 11880 can print up to 64" wide so it was not a problem.

Posted by Rick

First Friday in April took us to Silicon's own Katie Tackman at the very first opening of Katie's new studio space / gallery in Fishtown called "Gravy".

It was fun to check out the really cool space which is part of, what seems at least, a motorcycle museum.

Slought Foundation

What a small world, a couple of weeks ago I was raving about Martin Parr and back in Philadelphia we find ourselves printing some Martin Parr images for an upcoming show at the Slought Foundation.

The show is curated by Eduardo Cadava with Marcelo Brodsky and features artists Manel Esclusa (Spain), Pablo Ortiz Monasterio (Mexico), Martin Parr (England), Cassio Vasconcellos (Brazil), Marcelo Brodsky (Argentina), and Horst Hoheisel (Germany).

A opening reception will take place on April 19, 2011 from 6:30-8:30pm, and will be preceded by a symposium beginning at 4:30pm featuring the artists and curators in conversation.

The Slought Foundation is at 4017 Walnut Street, Philadelphia  - www.Slought.org

Posted by Rick

Architectural Digest Home Design and The Artist Project - New York

Big crowds!

Still in New York and this time at the Piers again (still getting over the Armory show from a few weeks back) and what a difference, with the Armory show it's art but really commerce and art the this show it's very much commerce with art!.
Art Dealer Lynn Dunham was again in evidence fresh from Red Dot but with a couple of great prints of ours by artists David Mitchell. We had an interesting proofing process on these prints as David lives in the far East but we managed, Skype was a great tool for communication and it worked very well. Also with Lynn was James Kennedy, who was also at Red Dot NY.

Lynn Dunham's booth

After wandering around for a bit and being amazed at what you can spend on an outdoor kitchen ($50,000 plus) I went over to the Artist project where Philadelphia artist and customer John Murphy had a most impressive booth showing his very contemporary prints and frames (they are one!). I manned the booth for a few minutes and was amazed at the number of people that stopped at the booth to pick up a card or ask questions. It was practically EVERYONE who walked past. Needless to say I think John had a good show, this work cannot stay as inexpensive as it is for much longer so if you have been thinking of buying one of these pieces I would not delay.

John Murphy's booth at The Artists Project

Posted by Rick