Ad buster: Henco will complement its poster displays with a monthly, one-window exhibit.
Window perception
New work is going in Henco Reprographic’s window at 54 Broadway St. It’s neither word- nor ad-based.
The print shop’s storefront typically functions as a de facto bulletin board for local events. Henco rotates the posters and announcements for bands, conferences, lectures and speakers that it prints. On March 1, one of the shop’s window panels will feature new art works as part of an upcoming, yearlong exhibition cycle, window (re/production, re/presentation).
Dawn Roe is the artist and educator behind the project. Roe lives in Asheville when she’s not teaching at Rollins College in Winter Park, Fla. She proposed the idea to Henco’s owners Will Rice and Arthur Fotos. Rice told Xpress that the exchange was a good opportunity for all. “It gives artists from elsewhere a place to show work in another arts city,” he said. And Henco, which counts artists among its regular clientele, gets a bump from displaying artwork in the window.
Henco is providing the perforated vinyl material for each month’s 50- by 60-inch print, hence the “re/production” aspect of the title. These site-specific, minimalist works (so dubbed in the project’s mission statement), aim to create and support ongoing design dialogues.
Window’s content will differ from the normal ad-based subjects and instead feature purely artistic design work. “The space will be tightly curated, and will include works by established contemporary practitioners who engage with issues of representation within their artwork,” says Roe, juror and curator for the project.
The maiden exhibition will feature a collaborative work by photographers Mark Klett of Arizona, and Byron Wolfe of California. Their piece “Reconstructing the View,” for short, is a modified take on an earlier work. It’s a recreation of a Grand Canyon landscape shot pieced together with vintage and historical postcards. To accompany the piece, Henco will be sell a book of their works, which involves recreating historical photos to provide images of commercial development.
Window’s first exhibition opens this Friday, March 1. For more information visit windowcontemporary.org or take a look at 54 Broadway St.
Another kind of CSA
By now, you’re probably familiar with the concept of a CSA, at least when it comes to produce (if not, check out the Feb. 20 Xpress). But HandMade in America, Asheville’s foremost craft-centric nonprofit, is working on a new CSA program — Community Supported Art. Their take on the CSA is modeled after a similar crafts program based out of Minnesota. And it functions in a similar manner to those you would pick up at a farmer’s market. Instead of root veggies and blueberry pints, shareholders will receive boxes filled with artwork — ceramics, textiles, etc. — direct from the crafters of the area.
Artists have until April 1 to submit a project proposal. Those six chosen artists will be issued stipends and will complete 50 works of art that will go into the CSAs. Some will be sold at area farmer’s markets starting in May, but most will be passed out to the shareholders via Handmade’s office at 125 S. Lexington.
The program aims to support and promote crafts-based artworks, both intellectually and financially. HandMade also sees the program as a means of fostering new relationships between artists and area collectors. A one-time share costs $200 and comes with six different works of art.
For more information, visit handmadeinamerica.org
The reporter calls “HandMade in America, Asheville