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Light Grey Art Lab
  • ART SHOP
  • ABOUT
    • About Us
    • Contact
    • CV
  • THE GALLERY
    • Group Exhibitions
    • Solo Collections
    • Featured Collections
    • Gift Shop
  • PUBLICATIONS
  • GET INVOLVED
    • Event Calendar
    • RENT + PARTNER
    • Blog
    • Podcast
    • Young Mystics
    • CALLS FOR ART

Stacks Opening Reception - Recap

Stacks Opening Reception
A huge thanks to everyone who made it out to see the Stacks opening reception! It was a wonderfully intimate evening of nostalgia, smiles, and introspection as visitors poured over each of the 60 zines featured in the gallery.

Stacks Opening Reception
It's an amazingly intimate show to take in, as each zine represents a sneak peek into the lives and mind of the artist from their chosen year, as well as the opportunity to handle the physical, hand-made pieces created by the artists themselves. There was a sense of preciousness as each visitor gingerly picked up a new zine and started reading, head bowed and eyes darting back and forth taking it all in.

Stacks Opening Reception
You can view more photos from the opening reception on our Light Grey Art Lab Flickr set, and you can buy a copy of the limited edition zines on the Light Grey shop! The participating artists each got a copy of every zine in the exhibition, so in total there are only 15 copies available of each to purchase. If there's one you want, grab it soon!

Once again, thanks again to all of the artists, collaborators, and supporters!
tags: Stacks, opening recap, opening reception, opening, zines
Wednesday 08.06.14
Posted by Jenny Bookler
 

Getting ready for Stacks! Pardon our mess!

STACKS Promo Images

So we're just a week and a half away from our really exciting August exhibition! We wanted to share some preview photos with you from some of the zines that have come in. One thing I'm really enjoying about the preparations from this show is the unique install that we've got going on.

Stacks Preperation

Stacks Preperation

When Jenny and I came back from ICON8, we had a massive stack of boxes waiting for us from all of the artists. Unwrapping each one was really exciting. Each artist has something really different. Paper choices, printing techniques, special features, items they've added -- the each of these are truly unique.

Becca helped get everything sorted and we are in the midst of listing everything on the shop, taking documentation photos, and preparing the STACKS documentation gallery on the Light Grey website.

Besides all that, we had a bit of an engineering challenge. Many of our shows have been relatively 2d, and with a book format, we wanted to consider the experience of reading, absorbing and displaying the work. So, with a bit of thought, we put together a shelving system that is going to be perfect. Our concept is to have the whole gallery be a physical timeline of the years between 1984 and 2014, so you could move throughout these space, seeing how time progresses -- from the point of view of the artist in each year.

Stacks Preperation
Right now Jenny is in the process of working on finishing and painting the shelves and we'll soon have them up on the walls.

We'll keep you posted with the updates as the exhibition gets closer including what the final "Stacks" look like, our process of shipping them all off, and some of the great documentation we're doing for the project.

Stacks Preperation

Thanks to all of the artists that have participated so far. This will be really great to see everything in on space and we're really looking forward to the exhibition.
More information about the STACKS show can be found on the Facebook event page here.

Stacks
A Limited Edition Zine Exhibition
August 1st- September 5th

Opening Reception August 1
7 - 10pm
Light Grey Art Lab

118 E. 26th Street #101
Minneapolis MN 55406
612.239.2047
tags: Stacks, process, zines
Thursday 07.24.14
Posted by Lindsay Nohl
 

STACKS artists announced!

Stacks_Callforart__

Thank you to everyone that submitted for the STACKS call for art! We're proud to announce the list of participating artists for our upcoming timeline of the last 30 years!

STACKS
A zine exhibition
Opening August 1, 2014
7 - 10pm
Light Grey Art Lab
118 E. 26th Street #101
Minneapolis, Minnesota




PARTICIPATING ARTISTS / YEARS:
1984 Chris Visions
1984 Andy Brinkman
1985 Junyi Wu
1985 Jimmy Malone
1986 Kyle Harabedian
1986 Xanthe Bouma
1987 Erica Rier
1987 Swati Addanki
1988 Taryn Gee
1988 Savannah Schroll Guz
1989 Kelsey Dusenka
1989 Leonard Peng
1990 Adriana Bellet
1990 Catherine Ho
1991 Alexandra Beguez
1991 Cat Rocketship
1992 Evyn Fong
1992 Kim Ku
1993 Taylor Kristan
1993 Rebecca Olene
1994 Brenna Lindblad
1994 Christopher Hegland
1995 Kelsey Henderson
1995 Jenny Bookler
1996 Mildred Louis
1996 Matt Rockefeller
1997 Ashley Huebner
1997 Karina Rehrbehn
1998 Andrew Kolb
1998 Ian Densford
1999 Evan Palmer
1999 Shirley Liang
2000 Melissa Ling
2000 Angela An
2001 Yelena Bryksenkova
2001 Kate Thomas
2002 Luke Rusch
2002 Barbara Dziadosz
2003 Kyle Coughlin
2003 Annie Stoll
2004 Francesca Buchko
2004 Katrina Castillo
2005 Anna Bongiovanni
2005 Anna Rose
2006 Maximillian A Queripel
2006 Patsy Chen (patabot)
2007 Janna Morton
2007 Julie Boehmer
2008 Jaime Willems
2008 Hannah Kennedy
2009 Drew Schmidt
2009 Erin Lux
2010 Vanessa Port
2010 Salina Trevino
2011 Chris Kindred
2011 Leigh Luna
2012 Esther Hong
2012 Mary Rothlisberger
2013 Ashley Hohnstein
2013 Rosena Fung
2014 Lindsay Nohl
2014 Jo Yeh

Watch for more information about the exhibition and show soon! We'll keep you up to date about the show in the coming weeks!
Thanks again and congratulations to all involved!
tags: 2014, Stacks, zines
Sunday 04.06.14
Posted by Lindsay Nohl
 

CALL FOR ART: STACKS: Zines about the way we spent it.

Stacks_Callforart

CALL FOR ART:
STACKS: Zines about the way we spent it.
Opening August, 2014

EDIT: 3.29.14 -- THANKS TO EVERYONE THAT SUBMITTED THEIR LINKS! WE'LL BE POSTING THE LINE-UP AND YEARS FOR WHO GETS WHAT IN THE NEXT WEEK! THANKS AGAIN, GUYS! SIT TIGHT!

We are hosting a HUGE exhibition and zine swap this summer and we are looking for comic artists, narrative creators, writers, book artists and anyone that's ever wanted to make a zine!

When I was a sophomore in high-school the world was a different place. I sat in the basement of my parents house lighting opium-scented incense and writing novel-length letters to my pen-pals about my love for Pennywise and NOFX... I spent countless hours on America Online chat rooms, running up the charges and getting kicked off of our old-school dial up connection every time my parents wanted to make a phone call. Those were the days that I wished I could be Tank Girl, and I was making comics all day, every day, instead of doing my math homework. Instead of eating lunch, I saved my lunch money and spent it on the weekends going to $5 punk rock shows.

••••••••••••••

You remember the good old times, don't you?
So get ready to bust out the photo-copier and make a zine about it.

This show categorizes the last 30 years in the way we love to remember it -- full of the ways we spent our time, our money, and our energy. It's a show about the characters, music, properties, wishes, secrets, food, or people we used to pine for. Remember all those good old things that shaped you as a person?

Well, we are creating an exhibition / massive zine swap where we cover the last 30 years : from 1984 - 2014 in a timeline-like fashion. Across the walls of the gallery we're building a actual, physical timeline. So you'll walk in, and be able to reminisce about each year from the perspective of a different person. The specifics of that year are up to you -- for example, if you got the year 1994, you could talk about how all of your friends mourned the loss of Kurt Cobain, or maybe you want to list your tv crushes from that year and draw pictures of all of their hair (I'm looking at you, Boy Meets World, Shawn Hunter.) This can be collaborative, so you could find all of your friends that were born in that year and draw their alter egos. Maybe you want to rank best to worst boyfriends during 1994 and make a zine out of all of their stats and quirks. All of these things are fair game. You could even make a whole zine about Darkwing Duck if you wanted to, as long as that show originated in your year!

As long as you tell us about that year, we're up for anything.

If you decide to do a fanzine, just make sure that the theme you pick STARTED in that year. If you need to do a little research, go for it! Once all of our participating artists are selected, we'll be building a shared google doc for everyone involved so that you can see what other people are doing and we hope you guys chat with each other!

HOW IT'LL WORK / DEADLINES / INFO AND ALL THAT:

Once we finalize the list of artists, we'll make sure every year is covered. Once the call is up, we will reach out with a list showing who got what year and we'll start making! We are shooting to have at least two people per year, so don't fret!
Then, we'll be asking all artists to make a limited edition of 75 zines, signed and numbered. 60 of those will go out to the other participating artists.

The way you make your zine is up to you.
All zines should be between 8 pages and 32 pages (max), no bigger than 8.5" x 5.5"
Color or black and white, processes, paper or special treatments are all up to each artist.
As long as they're easily stackable / mailable, anything goes.


So! If you're involved in the exhibition, you'll receive a box full of every zine from the entire collection. The whole stack will be mailed to you along with a special Light Grey surprise :)

The first zine from each edition will be displayed in the gallery during the exhibition so people are able to view / open / peruse / read / absorb your secrets from your year. The rest will be available on the shop for the duration of the exhibition!

The rest of the month will be jam packed full of interviews, content and other fun stuff revolving around zines, comics and artist books.

Please do us a big favor and only respond to the call for art if you are absolutely certain you can follow through with the above parameters. Since we jury down to a very specific number, we want to make sure that everyone that claims a spot is in for the long haul! Thanks for understanding!

If you have any questions at all about the parameters or anything else, feel free to send me a note and I'll be happy to help!
hello@lightgreyartlab.com

*************************

So here's how to be involved.
First, put a comment below with your name, your email and your site/ blog.

THEN, tell us which years you'd be up for. (Make sure that you have a year from the 80s, another from the 90s, and one from the 00-10s.)
You can rank them in order of which years you want most, to least. And if you have no year preference, you're welcome to say that, too!)
We're looking to have each year represented, so we'd love to know if you're flexible.


Here's an example:

Lindsay Nohl
hello@lightgreyartlab.com
lindsaynohl.com

1. 1988
2. 2003
3. 1994

I am also open to any other year!


*************************

Please submit your portfolio links, email, blog or site and your preferences below in the comments!

Submit by MARCH 28th to be involved!

We'll be jurying soon after and will announce the final list of artists by the first week in April so you have plenty of time to make your zines! The final deadline for shipping the zines will be sometime during the summer :) More info for our participating artists after the call ends! Once we have the final list of artists, we'll make sure to post the details on the blog!

Thanks again, guys, and we're totally looking forward to finding out how you spent the last 30 years!

XOXO
---Lindsay
Questions? hello@lightgreyartlab.com





tags: 2014, CallforArt, Stacks, zines
Tuesday 03.04.14
Posted by Lindsay Nohl
Comments: 119
 

Artist Interview: Elisabeth McNair

Elisabeth McNair
Elisabeth and her dog Rufus


Our current exhibit, SMART, features a wide array of goofy, clever, and intelligent art. To showcase some of the artists we're particularly excited about, we conducted a series of interviews. Our first is with illustrator and zine author Elisabeth McNair.  She kindly took time out from her schedule to tell us about herself, her creative process, and her inspirations.


Where are you from, and where do you currently live?
 I was born in Atlanta, Georgia, and that's where I'm currently living.


Where/how would you ultimately like to live?
I'm not really sure where I would ultimately like to live. My goal is to freelance full-time, and I think I'd actually be happy living anywhere if I could just work for myself and set my own hours.

The Optimist
The Optimist

How would you describe yourself? (or how might someone else describe you?)
I'm not very good at describing myself, but I love personality tests, especially the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. The profile of the INFP personality type describes me really well.


How would you describe yourself as an artist?
I try to make art that is intelligent but not pretentious, funny but not stupid, and nostalgic but not kitschy.



Elisabeth mcnair_good_taste_2 copy
Good Taste



As one of the artists in our upcoming SMART show, how are you interpreting this title? 
I gave it a lot of thought, and ended up deciding to interpret the title literally, and so I created an illustration about the desire to be "smart." A lot of people, myself included, are plagued by the anxiety that we will never know enough. Information is so accessible and easily-attained through the internet that we consume it faster than we can really absorb it. The piece I made for the show is an observation of the way that we constantly devour culture and knowledge, and how that information becomes wrapped up in our identities, a process that can either bring us closer together or make us feel more isolated.


What materials/processes do you use?
I always begin with lots of sketches. Once I've roughly figured out how I want the illustration to look, I make a detailed pencil drawing. Sometimes I create just one composition, and sometimes I draw all of the elements separately and compile them in the computer. Once the drawing is complete, I either paint it with watercolor and gouache or scan it and color it in Photoshop. As much as I love the idea of something being completely hand-made and original, painting in Photoshop is actually very freeing to me because there's no stress involved--I can change the colors as many times as I want! However, it's important for me to at least begin with a real drawing. I would really love to start printmaking again.


On your website, you site the writer Flannery O’Connor as a major influence. Can you tell us about a favorite story or passage?
In "Mystery and Manners," Flannery O'Connor wrote: “There are two qualities that make fiction. One is a sense of mystery and the other is a sense of manners. You get the manners from the texture of existence that surrounds you. The great advantage of being a Southern writer is that we don't have to go anywhere to look for manners; bad or good, we've got them in abundance. ” I think this idea pertains to any kind of art, not just fiction. There is truth in mystery and humor in manners, and since truth is often painful, it's best to express it with humor.

Happy Spring


How much of a story do you create behind your illustration images?
There's usually an elaborate story that no one will ever really hear. Coming up with the story is more fun to me than actually making the illustration.



Are the people in your illustrations based on people you know, imagine, or see out and about?
I never intend for my illustrations to be based on real people, but it's possible that people I know sometimes sneak in!



There are quite a few animals in your illustration work. Can you talk about your relationship with animals? 
I've always loved animals, which is why I'm a vegetarian. Gandhi said that the "greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way in which its animals are treated." I think that animals understand more than we know, and I wish that our society did a better job of protecting them.


Do you have a day job? What jobs have you held? What was the best? The worst?
Right now, I don't have a day job because I'm attending school full-time; however, I'm doing freelance work and I also sell portraits on my Etsy shop. I have been a substitute teacher, an art teacher, a barista, and I've worked at a pet supply store. The pet supply store was fun because it was nice having dogs as customers. The worst job was substitute teaching.

from the zine 'Fancy Pants'
from the zine 'Fancy Pants'

 You received your B.F.A. in Drawing, Painting, and Printmaking, and now, you’ve returned to school for Illustration and Design. Why did you decide to go back to school?
I've never been good at figuring out how to make a living with my art; in fact, just thinking about it has always made me a little squeamish. I have always had a "day job" and made art in my spare time. I went back to school in order to figure out how to support myself doing what I love.


Where do you turn for inspiration?
The past.



What artists are most inspiring to you? 
Edward Gorey, Maira Kalman, and Yuriy Norshteyn are constant sources of inspiration.


How long does it take you to make an illustration?
It depends on when my deadline is! I can tweak things forever, so if I have the time I could spend weeks on a single illustration. However, if I am pressed for time I can complete an illustration a day.


Can you describe a typical work day?
Every morning while I drink my coffee, I get caught up on my reading. (I'm using Feedly now that Google Reader is being phased out.) If I come across something interesting, I might write about it on my blog. Then I walk my dog, and after that I spend the rest of the day at my desk, until late afternoon, when it's time to walk my dog again. After dinner, I work for several more hours.
from the zine 'A Year of Not Reading'
'A Year of Not Reading'

I love to read. I also enjoy spending time with my dog, Rufus--I hate to think of how much time I would spend inside if he didn't beg me go on walks! Before I became too busy with school, I played keyboard in my husband's band, Noel Stephen & the Darlings.  (http://nsatd.bandcamp.com)



You have a blog called “A Fine Day For…” Are there any particular blogs you’re fan of? Some blogs I've been reading for a long time are Brain Pickings, Design*Sponge, Pugly Pixel, Swiss Miss, and of course Pikaland.



What’s the most interesting feedback you’ve ever gotten about your work?
Some people have described my work as depressing, which makes me laugh, because I try so hard to make it funny!



What’s the best advice on being an artist you’ve ever been given?
I can't think of a good answer for this, which probably means that I need some advice.


You say on your website that you are open to collaborations and commissions. What would be your ideal collaboration/commission?
My ideal collaboration would be to work with other creative people I admire to create and self-publish a quarterly zine. My ideal commission would be to do a cover for The New Yorker.


We have another upcoming show about inspirational quotes. Is there a particular quote that inspires you?
"Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away."
 --Antoine de Saint-Exupery
extra
Check out Elisabeth's work at:  www.elisabethmcnair.com
tags: 2013, artist interview, artwork, clever, elisabeth mcnair, illustration, illustrator, process, smart exhibition, smart show, zines
Tuesday 05.28.13
Posted by Victoria Nohl
 

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