(Wow, it's been a long time since I've written something here - blame work, not me)
I went to the Whitney Biennial awhile back, and while most of the stuff there was marginally close to the cliche idea of contemporary art being things like piles of trash, and chunks of wood with hot fudge dripping from them, they had a fantastic activity-oriented brochure to get kids involved in the exhibits, and thinking about what the art meant ( or didn't mean, as the case may be).
The guide was created by Matthew Brannon, one of the artists in the Biennial. This is what it looked like - cute, right?



In addition to involving kids (and i guess me?) with the art, there was also a tear-off page where you could write a note to any of the artists in the show, and you would receive a free print of "Mixed Nuts", from Matthew Brannon.

I wrote to this guy: Olaf Breuning. I loved his video installation, HOME 2 (you really must watch this), and after exploring the rest of his website, and learning that his studio is around the corner from my office, I've had to really restrain myself from stalking him / popping in.

While I'll never know if my note made it to him, I did receive my free print of "Mixed Nuts" in the mail yesterday, which was really nice.


Prints have always been the most accessible form of art for us plebs, but with the emergence of projects like Jen Bekman's 20x200, and Etsy as a grounds for discovery, I feel like numbered-edition prints are gaining more cred among art fans, both plebian and patrician.
(and thank you too, Matthew! I'm going to hang my nut print in my kitchen, where we eat a lot of nuts standing up while we figure out what to eat for dinner).
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