knife fight

Chris made this cool poster for this bands. He tells me they are pretty fun.

glenn ligon again

We handprinted a big canvas for Glenn Ligon. It required the image to be broken down into four parts. I wonder what he is going to do with it.

war against the digital printer

The guys did such a good job, this print looks digital. There are more than 10 colors on a print.

More of Russell Young

Russell borrows heavily from pop culture. His latest prints include imagery of Liz Taylor and Kurt Cobain.

Projects in shop

Here are some of the projects that have been ongoing in the shop. These are printed on fabric. The artist embroiders with the print as the guideline.

KaiKai Ki Ki

We shoot screens for a number of our clients. Two of the biggest names are KaiKai Ki Ki and Kelley Walkar. The KaiKai Ki Ki's are pretty interesting as often they will have Louis Vuitton monograms and it makes me wonder about the luxuries they will soon be morphed into. I also went to see the Murakami retrospective show at the end of June. Only after seeing his works did I have a vague idea of what the screens might actually turn into.

buttons buttons

This project is still in th works. Will post images of completed prints when done.

new york street art

This city is brimming with talent! I came across a few in Times Square and Union Square.

a printer finally

I got to be work the Saturn! Bret who usually works on this press took a day off so I got to assist his partner, Dennis. We are working on Todd James prints. Todd James is a New York based artist who caused quite a stir with his Eat Shit prints. I like his illustration style prints as exemplied by Friendly Skies
But even after a whole day at the press all I can do is step on the pedal to hit print :(.

Jim Hodges

I have started working on reproducing a collage by Jim Hodges. His installation, Arena II (given a shaft of sunglight) was originally a hand drawn 20+ layer ensemble. We are now making replications with archival quality inkjet prints. The problem with the printing process is that every shape has to be printed separately which takes 15 minutes on average. So completion of a single piece takes at least 5 days and we are are doing an edition of 30!

Gigantic screens

This week we made the most gigantic screen in the history of Axelle for an artist named Rudolf Stingel. Bridal tulle was used as the screen and Luther flawlessly coated it with emulsion. Here it is again after being exposed. A lot of planning went into creating this screen because it was thrice as big as any normal screens and had to be specifically shot in our exposure room.

Week 3: Glenn Ligon

Glenn Ligon is a very renowned contemporary African American artist. He came to Axelle with a print idea very similiar to Russell's. Glenn wanted to print his images with etching ink and use black diamond dust over it. The preparation for the print job was quite rigorous as etching ink needs a lot of hand kneading. But the results were very satisfactory. After looking at the prints I understood why etching ink was used. Etching inks stand up against the canvas while other inks flatten.

Russell Young

Russell Young finally dropped by to work on his new prints. He does a lot of projects here at Axelle. These prints below are printed on linen with enamel and flocked with 'diamond dust', glass dust. Working with enamel is very challenging but since the shop has done projects like these before, everything went smoothly. This project was a introduction to using diamond dust. In order for the dust to stick to the image, the enamel has to be wet. The effect is very pretty, the dust catches light and shimmers to add a different dimension to the print.

Week 3: Murakami and Barneys

Apart from working with artists on prints, Axelle also does gigs for companies. One of our frequent clients is KaiKai Ki Ki Ltd, a company headed by the renowned Japanese contemporary artist Murakami. KaiKai Ki Ki brings us screens to develop almost every week and it is the responsibility of me and the other intern in the shop to prep and shoot them. I love working on them because it gives me a peek at what might be Murakami's next project. I personally like Murakami's wallpapers. I can't wait to see his retrospective show that is going on at the Brooklyn Museum.



































Another project has been for Barneys, a upscale departmental store here in New York City. They want us to print on top of two layers of cloth, one lace and the other cotton. The colors we are printing is neon green, purple and black. What happens is the lace acts as a lattice and its pattern is offseted onto the cotton. These fabrics will be sewn into dress and sold at the departmental store. Axelle apparently does this project twice a year. I got to see a similiarly printed dress from the spring season. It was very cute.

week 2: cmyk

Luther and Bret hand printing a CMYK composite. It was very interesting to see them work on this project because I have attempted to do color separations in my printmaking class and the numbers of problems I encountered with registration was infinite. I guess things are simplified when you used automated press. This project however was hand printed per request of the artist.



































Another project this week has been for a stained glass designer. She wanted this pattern to be printed on to a glass with a special ink that could be impregnated onto the glass after firing it in the oven.

t shirts at atlanitc art work

Chris, one of the printers here at Axelle made these amazing silkscreen t-shirts which were on sale at our printshop during atlantic art walk. It is funny how many people think just t-shirts when you say silk screen. But hopefully after the atlantic walk open house, they will realize that the media can be used to create art as well (not that t-shirt designs aren't art)

Atlantic Art Walk : June 7 and 8

The annual Atlantic Walk is a event in Brooklyn where all the artists' studios and other commercial galleries and shop hold a open house. I am so glad my internship was in the middle of it. Luther pulled out a lot of prints we had done in the past and it was amazing to see the variety of styles could be achieved by the process of silk screens. It was also very exciting to see we had worked with artists like Kara walker, Paul Pope and Russell Young. I hear Russell Young is going to be back in the two months that I am here to do a few prints. I can't wait.

week 2

Allison Smith prints are finally done curating. It took a long week and a half. It seemed like it would never finish. There are some that look really good now with all the corrections, but others look stained. The edition size is 50 I think and we have a few extras. Allison Smith herself dropped by today to sign the editions. I was so surprised when Luther, my supervisor and master printer at Axelle gave me a printer's proof. I am so excited. My first PP!!!!

week 1

These Allison Smith had already been printed when I joined and they were in the process of being curated. The reason why they need to be curated is because nature of the fabric has caused numerous small holes to appear. We are now trying to cover it up with globs of paint ( I am talking holes the size of pinheads here). But the process is very tricky because, bigger globs tend to spread out and stain.
These prints are part of a benefit print portfolio put together by Exit Art. See their previous portfolios here.

Besides work on this print, there are several other projects going on in the shop. Some examples are below.



































Russell Young, enamel on linen


















silkscreen on stainless steel