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11/3/2005

Olaf Nicolai

Printed Matter Inc., New York

30 Farben at Printed Matter

Featuring an audio performance by I-Sound at 6 PM

Printed Matter, Inc. is pleased to announce the opening of 30 Farben at Printed Matter, an exhibition of work by Olaf Nicolai designed specifically for Printed Matter. Please join us for a reception honoring the artist on Saturday, March 12, 2005, from 5 to 7 PM. There will be a special performance by sound artist, I-Sound, at 6 PM. Printed Matter is located at 535 West 22nd St between 10th and 11th Avenues.

The work of Berlin-based artist Olaf Nicolai deals with design's complex role in contemporary culture. Whether re-planting a forest to duplicate a 19th century landscape painting or creating a typeface to conform to the aesthetic principles discussed in a particular text, Nicolai is concerned with the personal and cultural resonance of surfaces. As Igor Zabel remarks in his essay on Nicolai in Cream III, (Phaidon Press, London 2003) "Design is [the] development of models that can be used in mass production. It is essentially "superficial" and directly appealing, even when it is highly functional. At the same time, design is essentially involved in systems of production and power. A user, directly addressed by designed objects, is immediately placed in a particular position in the social network." It is this social placement, this identity available to consumers/viewers/artists through design, that interests Nicolai in his artistic projects and artist's books.

The exhibition 30 Farben at Printed Matter takes one of Nicolai's artist's books as its starting point. Designed as a source book which functions as a manual for creating individual small-scale variations of a traveling room-sized installation, 30 Farben [30 Colors] will also serve as Nicolai's guide to creating the large-scale installation at Printed Matter. Using a series of single color wallpaper sheets hung on the walls and overhead cork panels of the store, thirty repeating Pantone colors will transform the space into a three-dimensional color showcase using the commercial printing industry's standardized "language of color." This phrase - the advertising slogan for the Pantone company - was the original inspiration for Nicolai's project, which questions its sincere promise of creativity in the consumer environment. After the exhibition the installation will remain on the walls throughout the summer, integrating itself into the daily life and programs of Printed Matter.

30 Farben [30 Colors], with its thirty pages of heavy-weight high-gloss pure Pantone color, is accompanied by a CD with six looped electronic compositions commissioned from Berlin-based band, to rococo rot, which act as the sonic counterpart to the colors. Together they form a kind of modular tool kit that allows users to create their own environments of sound and color. Throughout the exhibition at Printed Matter, the loops will play at specified times every day. On the evening of the opening reception, the New York based artist and occasional collaborator with to rococo rot, I-Sound, will perform an electronic piece designed specially for the installation.

Different versions of 30 Farben have been shown at the Bonner Kunstverein, the S.M.A.K. in Gent, the Göeborgs Konsthall and the Galerie für Zeitgenössische Kunst Leipzig. In addition to the installation of sound and color at Printed Matter, Nicolai's exhibition will also feature examples of artist's books and periodicals designed, edited, and published by the artist over the past decade.

30 Farben, ISBN 3-89770-113-8, is published by Bonner Kunstverein, Köln : Salon Verlag and is priced at $55. Many other titles by Olaf Nicolai are also available from Printed Matter's web site.

Printed Matter, Inc. is an independent 501(c)(3) non-profit organization founded in 1976 by artists and art workers with the mission to foster the appreciation, dissemination, and understanding of artists' books and other artists' publications.

Printed Matter has received support, in part, through grants from the New York State Council on the Arts, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, The Altria Group, Inc., Milton & Sally Avery Arts Foundation, the Consulate and the Government of Canada, The Cowles Charitable Trust, The Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation, Fifth Floor Foundation, Furthermore: a program of the J.M. Kaplan Fund, The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation, The Kettering Family Foundation, LEF Foundation, The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, and private foundations and individuals worldwide. Printed Matter, Inc. is not affiliated with, nor a division of, any other non-profit organization.

Printed Matter, Inc. is not affiliated with, nor a division of, any other non-profit organization.

Opening Reception March 12 from 5 - 7 PM

Printed Matter, Inc.
535 West 22nd St
New York

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