pulp | art & paper

a third friday opening at PULP
"I Can Taste it in Your Mouth"
New Work by Allyson Gibbs
October 17th through November 17th, 2008
Artist's Reception | Friday, October 17th from 7pm to 10pm

Allyson Gibbs was born and raised in Omaha. She received her BFA in Painting from the University of Nebraska at Omaha in 2001, and was awarded a Bemis Center Artist Residency in 2002. This exhibition will be Allyson's first show exclusively featuring woodblock prints.

From her artist's statement:
"I chose woodblock printing as a medium for a number of reasons. The process of carving out the image in wood can be long and arduous, but the resulting image has an primitive quality that, for me, has a raw and immediate feel. The carved plates have a physical weight and tactile surface that is compelling in it's own right. The raised black dots of the prints, become reminiscent of human imperfection, like a mole or blemish on the skin. The lines, rough and uneven, seem to have more immediacy---the overall print seems like a quick thought, rather than a meditated, carefully executed drawing.

With this work, I was interested in the printmaking process as a metaphor for intimacy and relationships. bringing together paper and plate, not only a physically intimate act in and of itself but also illustrates how, in human relationships, each time two people interact they can have a profound effect on each other. The resulting print exists as a record of the interaction, like a memory. No two prints are identical, the amount of pressure, dampness or softness of the paper, and ink viscosity all effect the outcome. Just as in relationships we live immersed in unseen forces, subject to variants of mood, body rhythm, and brain chemistry."

Please join us for an Artist's Reception on Friday, October 17th from 7pm to 10pm.

currently in the gallery...
"Broken, Lost and Beautiful"
New Work by Olivia Jeffries
Running through October 12th, 2008

Olivia Jeffries creates mixed media drawings from her home studio in Norwich, United Kingdom. She graduated in 2000 with a BA in Printmaking and Photomedia from Norwich School of Art and Design.

Olivia's creative process is continually influenced by her fascination for used paper. She enthuses about working on a surface that has already been given a sense of purpose in a previous incarnation which has become visibly worn over time. Old letters, books or packaging materials, for example, are detached from their original roles and combined with figures drawn from old photographs, stripped of their surroundings. These relatively valueless materials are brought together to explore the barely tangible traces of life; to project the vulnerability of love, precariousness of life and inevitability of death which embody the complex and uncertain nature of simply being human.

This will be Olivia's first solo show in the United States. The exhibition will run through October 12th, 2008.

shop scoop
This month will welcome a few new designers to the space, including paper clocks and prints from Kansas City based DecoyLab. There will be new cards on the shelves from Brooklyn's Screech Owl Designs and Sycamore Street Press.

Also -- all of the Queen Bee Creations wonder boy wallets are on sale this month! I've marked the current stock down 25% to make room for Rebecca's new wallet designs... a shipment of the new ones will be on the shelves by the end of the month.

Lastly -- I just wanted to thank everyone for their patience with the wonky shop hours during September. There's a bit of strangeness coming in mid-October, I'll be heading to the East Coast for a bit, so the shop will be open for shortened hours from October 21st through the 25th. If you're planning to stop by that week, please check the website or give the shop a call to get the updated hours. Thanks again for your understanding!