“I have continued to think about my practice as encompassing the past and present while considering the future.”
—Jeffrey GibsonTHE FUTURE IS PRESENT features vivid, screen-printed letters in a typographic treatment collaged onto a printed background, presented within its own artist’s-selected color frame. For this series, Gibson adapted lyrics from iconic dance and pop songs he heard going to night clubs in Korea, Germany, London in the 80s and 90s, synthesizing expressions of queer and pop culture with the cultural traditions and motifs of his Cherokee and Choctaw heritage. Through the bright, bold declaration of THE FUTURE IS PRESENT, Gibson calls for Indigenous representation in the here and now, an assertion that Indigenous voices are not a thing of the past, but the way of the future.
This inclusive and forward-thinking approach to artmaking is one the very reasons Gibson was selected to represent the United States at the 2024 Venice Biennale – the first Indigenous artist to do so. Co-commissioner Katheen Ash-Milby said, “to me, what's most important is his ability to connect with both his culture and different communities, and bring people together.” Gibson’s American Pavilion brims with the same expressive colors and tessellating geometric patterns – elements inspired by parfleche, folded rawhide carrying bags made by Indigenous people of the Great Plains region – that dominate THE FUTURE IS PRESENT. Through his Biennale commission, Gibson continues his exploration of the presentness and strength of Indigenous communities; as told to CBS’ Seth Doane: “So often, at least in my lifetime, we’ve been represented through our trauma. I want to present us as being very present and aware and really powerful.”
Brulé Sioux, Parfleche, 1880-85, rawhide pigment, Native-tanned skin ties. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Ralph T. Coe Collection, Gift of Ralph T. Coe Foundation for the Arts, 2011, 2011.154.152.1, .2 People brought linoleum from abandoned rolls or loosened bits from kitchen floors. We found rolls of paper here and there. A local ink company gave us cans of drying ink. We had a few old rollers. We learned to use sharp knives pointed away from our own hands and fingers and away from other people. We ranged in age from 5 to maybe 70 or more. We worked together and taught one another. Oh we were dangerous! We were PRESS!”
—Eleanor Magid, Lower East Side Printshop FounderFounded in 1968, the Lower East Side Printshop began as an open access art and community center led by Eleanor Magid in the wake of New York City’s two month-long teachers’ strike. Magid, a local parent and printmaker who had studied under Universal Limited Art Editions master printer Robert Blackburn, transcended the typical art education curriculum by showing her daughter’s classmates and neighbors the ropes of printmaking through the creation of books, stories, and illustrations on a press in her home. Once teachers reached a resolution and schools restarted, Magid kept her studio open for collaborative printmaking. The homegrown operation quickly expanded beyond Magid’s space, moving to the East Village, where the operation soon became part of the alternative spaces movement of the 1970s, offering groundbreaking 24-hour studio use nestled in the buzzing artistic and cultural hub of East 4th Street.
Lower East Side Printshop at its old location on East 4th Street, 1980s. Courtesy of Lower East Side Printshop. Expanding their space yet again, in 2005 the organization relocated from the East Village to a facility five times larger in Midtown Manhattan, and the DIY spirit that inspired the start of the Printshop continued to prosper. Over its nearly 70-year history, the Printshop has become a premier non-profit New York City printmaking studio and resource that supports contemporary artists of all career stages and artistic backgrounds. Through the Printshop’s residency programs – which have hosted the likes of Derrick Adams, Jeffrey Gibson, LaToya Ruby Frazier, Dread Scott, Kara Walker, James Siena, and Hank Willis Thomas, among others – artist’s receive support through access to facilities, time, stipends, and technical assistance.
In 2006, the Printshop was awarded Primary Organization status by the New York State Council on the Arts. This status is reserved for organizations that are, by the quality of their services and their stature, particularly vital to the cultural life of the state. Such designation is a testament to the important work of the Lower East Side Printshop, providing valuable resources that strengthen the artistic community of New York and promote the growth of the printmaking discipline.
Lower East Side Printshop logo, with their ink roller chopmark.
Property from the Lower East Side Printshop Archives
4
THE FUTURE IS PRESENT
2019
Screenprint and archival inkjet print in colors with collage, on Hahnemühle Museum Etching paper, contained in the original purple artist specified frame.
S. 38 x 34 in. (96.5 x 86.4 cm)
framed 40 1/2 x 36 1/2 in. (102.9 x 92.7 cm)
Signed, dated and numbered 'PP 4/4' in pencil (a printer's proof, the edition was 30 and 4 artist's proofs), published by Sikkema Jenkins & Co., New York, framed.
Estimate
$12,000 - 18,000
Sold for $20,320
editions@phillips.com
212-940-1220
Editions & Selected Works from the Lower East Side Printshop Archives: Online Auction
4 - 11 September 2024
109
This lot is no longer available.
