ILSSA Working Group: the first ILSSA Convergence
July 5-7, 2013
ILSSA will be holding its first-ever convergence this summer in Asheville NC. The schedule includes: studio visits; a film screening; an exhibition of the
State of the ILSSA Union at
Asheville BookWorks;
roundtable discussions about issues related to art, craft, time, work, and money that will generate an ongoing exhibition at the
Center for Craft, Creativity, & Design (July 6 - July 24);
and a shared observance of the annual Festival to Plead for Skills on July 7.
Join us!
Teaching at Visual Studies Workshop
June 17 - 21, 2013
I'll be returning to
Visual Studies Workshop in Rochester NY to teach my class
Design Thinking for Artists.
Bookbinding Workshop at Franklin Street Works
Thursday June 13, 2013 | 5:30-7pm
I'll be teaching a simple bookbinding workshop at
Franklin Street Works
in conjunction with Reanimation Library's component in the
Strange Invitation show.
Teaching at Ludong University, China
May 17 - June 8, 2013
I am returning to Ludong University to teach a process-based graphic design workshop for three weeks. Yantai here I come!
Pleasure Beach Lives is open for 2013!
April - October 2013
Every month from April to October I organize a walk from Stratford's Long Beach to Bridgeport's legendary abandoned Pleasure Beach. Learn more about the project over at
Pleasure Beach Lives. All walks are free and open to the public; join us!
Artist's talk at Columbia University
April 16, 2013
I'll be returning to Matvei Yankelevich's Art of the Book class to discuss ILSSA, zines, self-publishing, and creative writing.
College Art Association Conference
February 15, 2013
I'll be presenting a paper
The Work is the Thing: the State of the ILSSA Union as part of the
Craft after Deskilling? panel
at the CAA 101st annual conference in NYC.
Almost Metal Collective A+D Gallery, Columbia College Chicago
January 10 - February 16, 2013
ILSSA is very pleased to be exhibiting the completed ILSSA State of the Union surveys at
Columbia College Chicago as part of the
Almost Metal Collective
show at the A+D Gallery. Bridget and I as the ILSSA Co-Operators will be reading from the Survey results at the opening on January 31, 5-8pm.
Open Studio
November 10 + November 11, 2012 | 10am - 5pm
Save the Date! Our studio building, the
American Fabrics Arts Building, is hosting its annual
Open Studios weekend, 10am-5pm Saturday November 10 + Sunday November 11.
Preservation Sound and I are the first space on the 3rd floor, #4-310. Here's
directions; hope to see you there!
NY Art Book Fair
September 27 - 30, 2012
Impractical Labor will be representin in the Schoolyard at the very excellent
New York Art Book Fair this year! Come say hello.
Posted exhibition, Printmaking Center of New Jersey
August 18 - October 13
My Pleasure Beach Lives broadside is included in this "juried exhibit of letterpress printed work, which was created in direct response to the myriad of events happening around the world."
Talk at BACC, Bridgeport CT
September 18, 2012 | 5:30-7pm
I'll be giving a talk at the
Bridgeport Arts + Cultural Council
about my practice of social engagement and independent publishing, and the relationship between this work and teaching.
Material Meanings: Artists' Books from the Smithsonian
July 18, 2013
I'm honored to be included in this exhibition at the American Art Museum & Portrait Gallery Library.
Bridgeport Arts Festival, CT
July 7, 2012
Bridget and I will be observing the ILSSA
Festival to Plead for Skills
at the
Bridgeport Arts Fest this Saturday: we'll be binding books and offering free bookbinding lessons. Also: I'll be giving
away copies of a letterpress poster for
Pleasure Beach Lives. Come on down!
Mayor's Neighborhood Arts & Heritage Grant awarded
April 2012 My upcoming summer project
Pleasure Beach Lives is the happy
recipient of a Mayor's Neighborhood Arts & Heritage Grant. Thanks Bridgeport!
The Chapbook in the 21st Century at Colorado College
March 27 - April 12, 2012
I am very pleased to have my work included in the exhibition
The Chapbook in the 21st Century: Efficiency / Excess / Ephemerality at the Coburn Gallery, Colorado College.
ILSSA Every Day Work Exhibition at Saint Mary's College
January 27 - March 2, 2012
ILSSA Every Day Work, an installation by the beloved Bridget Elmer and myself, is up at the Hammes Gallery
at Saint Mary's College in Notre Dame, IN. More on this exhibition over
here!
Teaching in China
December 2011
For a two week found typography project, I'm enjoying a stint as Visiting Professor of graphic design at Ludong University in Yantai, China! You can see
some photos of Yantai over on my
tumblr.
Muffin Bones is back
November 2011
After a 14 year hiatus, my zine
Muffin Bones is back with issue #20! But it is sad and subtitled
Basil is Dying, as
it is a eulogy to my cat who died this summer. See more over
here or get a copy for $2 or trade over in the
shop.
Open Studio
November 12 + 13, 2011
Save the date for the American Fabrics Arts Building's annual Open Studios. And save the time: 10am - 5pm each day. I'll be printing letterpress motivational
posters on-demand! We'll ply you with snacks! Homemade snacks. And beverages, likely not handmade.
Preservation Sound will be selling new handmade audio gear.
I'll have some new stuff to show, promise, like
Muffin Bones #20 (did anyone ever think that day would come? I did not). We're the first space on the 3rd floor, bizarrely labeled #310.
Hope to see you there! Which is here: 1069 Connecticut Ave, Building 4, Bridgeport CT, 06607.
ILSSA interviewed by NYFA
October 2011
Bridget and I talk about ILSSA with the charming Eleanor Whitney of the
New York Foundation for the Arts!
Teaching at VSW
July 18 - 22, 2011
I taught a super-fun (thanks to a most excellent group of graduate students!) 5-day workshop,
Design Thinking for Artists, at
Visual Studies Workshop in Rochester, NY.
Fine & Dirty exhibition
July 8 - October 16, 2011
Our
ILSSA publications are in very good company in the exhibition
Fine and Dirty: Contemporary Letterpress Art at the Star Tribune Foundation
Gallery in the Minnesota Center for Book Arts. The exhbition will tour after that, making a stop at NYC Center for Book Arts, so keep any eye out for a location near you!
Wanna Trade? zine exhibition
May 27 - July 6, 2011
As an outgrowth of my paper
Splits, Trades, Reviews, & Distros; Zine Culture as Model, I am curating an exhibition,
Wanna Trade?, about a 90s zine trading network
at
Asheville Bookworks. You can
download the resulting publication, or write me if you'd like a hard copy.
Big thanks to Asheville Bookworks for making this project a success!
Artist's talk at Columbia University
April 7, 2011
I'm honored to be a guest speaker at
Matvei Yankelevich's interdisciplinary MFA Creative Writing & MFA Visual Art
Art of the Book course at Columbia University. Thanks Matvei!
ILSSA at SGCI in St Louis
March 18, 2011 + exhibition March 17 - April 16
Saint Louis, MO: Thanks to our generous host, Washington University, Impractical Labor is very pleased to be in town for the
SGCI, publishing
An Obsolete Technology Guide for the Citizens of St. Louis in collaboration with (ILSSA members!)
All Along Press. If you're in town, stop on by, say hello to Bridget, and pick up a copy! Work of mine will also
be on exhibit in the
IMPRESS(ed) exhibition of contemporary letterpress
prints at Webster University.
Update! Images of the exhibition
here.
The Highlights
March 2011
The online arts journal
The Highlights has published my hypothetical syllabus proposing a course investigating the institution as art practice. A big heartwarmed THANKS to those who've written inquiring if they could enroll!
Talkin about zines at CBAA
January 14, 2011
On Friday the 14th over at the
College Book Art Association
Conference in Bloomington, Indiana, I'll be presenting a paper entitled
Splits, trades, distros: Zine Culture as Model, discussing the formal qualities
and social strategies of 90s zines and zine culture.
Open Studio
November 13 + 14, 2010
Save the date! Building-wide Open Studios here at the American Fabrics Arts Building: 10 am to 5 pm, 1069 Connecticut Ave, Bridgeport CT.
Olmsted Audio (handmade audio electronics) & I are in Suite 310, come say hello! We can show you what we've
been working on and feed you snacks.
ILSSA speaks at MAPC Conference
October 13 - 16, 2010
Bridget & I, representing
ILSSA, will discuss technology &
collaboration with our friends
SCAP and
Preacher's Biscuit Books on a panel entitled
Unevenly distributed:
high, low, and mixed technologies in three artists organizations. This is all happenin at the
Mid-American Print Council (MAPC) New World/Old World Conference at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. Hope to see you there!
Copy Jam 2 at the Printer's Ball
July 30, 2010
If you are in Chicago on July 30th, be sure to check out
Copy Jam! 2 at the
Printer's Ball at Columbia College, Chicago. You can trade in your (free!) admission ticket for
a photocopy of my
project, or that by one of my many talented cohorts.
Pressed exhibition, Colorado
May 28 - July 4, 2010
Recent work of mine is included in
Pressed: An Exhibition of Letterpress Printed Ephemera,
in Denver, Colorado.
ILSSA on Bad at Sports at Apex Art
May 18, 2010
Bridget Elmer & I will talk about
ILSSA *live* accompanied by our friend the overheard
projector. 6 pm at
Apex Art, 291 Church Street, NYC.
If you miss it, you'll be able to listen to the podcast via
Bad at Sports, who kindly organized this event.
Update!
video and podcast are both up.
Talking about ILSSA at CAA
February 11 - 14, 2010
At the upcoming
CAA Conference in Chicago, I'll be presenting about
ILSSA on a panel entitled
Hypo-technology: Artists remix the Anachronistic and the Obsolete with the Present. Excited also to:
visit
Public Collectors,
Quimby's, eat what those Chicagoans call "pizza."
ILSSA interview on Printeresting
January 2010
Bridget & I are interviewed about ILSSA on
Printeresting!
Collections as Evidence of Now
January 15 - February 20, 2010:
The
Stock project is included in the exhibition
Collections as Evidence of Now at
Zygote Press Gallery in Cleveland, Ohio.
Modular letterpress project at SCAP, FSU
January 11 - 17, 2010
I'll be a visiting artist at
SCAP at Florida State University, working on
translating the
Cross-platform cross-stitch project to letterpress. More on that over
here!
Letterpress on-demand
December 4 & 5, 2009
Letterpress holiday cards printed on-demand and while-you-wait, live, two days only! You determine what the card says. I will typeset and print it while supplies last & time permits, 10am to 5pm both days. $2 per card &
envelope; no minimum, no maximum. Hope you like
Corvinus Bold. In midnight blue.
ILSSA in Temporary Services' ArtWork
January 2010
Bridget & I, as the ILSSA Co-Operators, are very proud to contribute an essay to
Temporary Services's
new publication
ArtWork: a national conversation about art, labor, & economics.
Download it or
request a copy for the price of shipping from
Half Letter Press.
Open Studio
November 14, 2009
Building-wide Open Studios here at the American Fabrics Building. 10 am to 5 pm, 1069 Connecticut Ave, Bridgeport CT.
Olmsted Audio Experiments & I are
in Suite 310, come say hello! It is free, open to the public, lots of snacks, you can't lose.
ConnCreatives Interview
September 2009
ConnCreatives.com recently and graciously interviewed me on everything from my history in self-publishing to my thoughts on the role of graphic design, the nature of design education, and the impact of changing technology.