Archizines + Arch-Art! Books @ Storefront, Late April / Early May Through June

via Storefront

Archizines

April 18-June 9
Curated by Elias Redstone

Arch-Art! Books

May 5-June 9
Curated by Adam O’Reilly

Storefront for Art and Architecture
97 Kenmare Street
A double exhibition with 80 magazines, 80 feet of books and other printed matters.
Archizines + Arch-Art! Books is a double exhibition consisting of Archizines curated by Elias Redstone (April 18 – June 9, 2012) and Arch-Art! Books, curated by Adam O’Reilly for Printed Matter, Inc. ( May 5 – June 9, 2012) that brings to the table a hypothesis: printed matter matters . Consisting of an eclectic selection of new independent and alternative magazines, fanzines and journals from around the world (that can be read as a contemporary response to the Clip Stamp Fold exhibition curated by Beatriz Colomina at Storefront in 2007, which explored the little magazines phenomenon in the 60’s and 70’s), together with a selection of contemporary artist books with architecture at the center, the exhibition is a temporary library for contemporary approaches to architecture from different disciplinary origins and degrees of expertise.
Archizines was recently launched by Elias Redstone as a research project to celebrate and promote the resurgence of independent and alternative publishing (www.archizines.com), and an exhibition was initiated in collaboration with the Architectural Association School of Architecture in November 2011. Following presentations in London, Milan and Barcelona, Archizines makes its American debut at Storefront [with a design] that draws inspiration from the quintessential New York model of publication display – the newstand – and turns it on its side.  Instead of a vertical, 2-dimensional billboard, the show offers a horizontal, 3-dimensional field of objects: 80 architecture publications displayed on delicate metal rods, which sprout from the floor. The exhibition evacuates all other content from the space, creating an information vacuum that focuses the visitor’s attention on the objects themselves : 80 architecture magazines, fanzines and journals from over 20 countries that provide new platforms for commentary, criticism and research into the spaces we inhabit and the practice of architecture.
Arch-Art! Books   presents a selection of artists’ books culled from Printed Matter, Inc.’s current catalog and presents them as a medium through which architecture might be photographically and representationally explored. Each book is an flâneur’s response to the urban environment, documenting the social patina and environmental decay left on architectural space.
The design presents the books  on linear displays, which cuts through and displace the field of existing Archizines publications.
Together, the complementary shows form an exhibition of exchange and dialog; mining the overlap and friction found in the recent resurgence of alternative and independent architecture and art publishing from around the world.
The exhibition also includes additional printed material (a graphic façade, newsprint, and catalogue) designed by Benjamin Critton that bring together ideas presented in each exhibition.
In conjunction with the presentation of Archizines, Storefront will host a 2-day symposium on publishing practices as part of its Manifesto Series.