Kent Manske

Finding Balance in 2021

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Extraction: Art on the Edge of the Abyss

With environmental stewardship close to our hearts, we are pleased to be participating in EXTRACTION: Art on the Edge of the Abyss a multimedia, multi-venue, cross-border art intervention which seeks to provoke societal change by exposing and interrogating the negative social and environmental consequences of industrialized natural resource extraction.

A six page article about our 2020 installation You are the Tree was published in the Extraction Catalog & Exhibition Guide, section 5, pages 556—561.

Extraction Art 2021

New projects addressing extraction issues include:

Kent Manske & Nanette Wylde, From this Earth, 2020

From this Earth is a collaborative artist’s book written, and produced while sheltering-in-place during the 2020 pandemic and while wildfires raged across California. It is a story of transformation. An individual journeys through a devastated landscape seeking relief, motivated by an inner impetus. Text by Nanette Wylde.

Kent Manske, Resurrection, 2021

Extraction Series 2021 features seven new prints by Kent Manske with more on the way.

Nanette Wylde, Milagros for Times Like These, 2021

Milagros for Times Like These, a new edition in progress by Nanette Wylde

Extraction Art Exhibitions 2021

We are honored to have work selected for this California Society of Printmaker’s exhibition.

Searching for Meaning in our Changing World Environment
April 3—May 9, 2021
Gallery Route One, Point Reyes Station, California

Kent Manske, I, You, Me, We, Us, 2021

New Books

Six of our new trade edition books are available through Hunger Button Books. Trade edition books provide us opportunity to reach a wider audience than our limited-edition and one-of-a-kind handmade books.

Election Countdown 2020, Kent Manske
and change became, Don Drake & Kent Manske
Thomas from Delaware, Nanette Wylde
From this Earth, Kent Manske & Nanette Wylde
Redacted Babar: ABC Free, Nanette Wylde
Diverse Paths, Nanette Wylde (a flip book, what could be more fun!)

Book Arts

We are pleased to have Foodies showing in:
C O N T E N T: an Artist Books Exhibition
April 2—May 1, 2021
The Artery Gallery, Davis, California

Six and a half months in

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Whirligig Interview with Ever Rodriguez

We feel so lucky to have been spending some of our screen time getting to know more about Ever Rodriguez and his lovely La Feroz Press.

Ever is a letterpress printer, artist, poet, musician, community activist, and librarian! Read Ever’s Whirligig Interview here.

Election Countdown Series 2020
46 images/46 days/46th president

On September 17, Kent Manske launched a new series of artworks exploring reasons to consider casting a vote. One image per day via instagram. The series is documented here.

September 24. 39 Days to Vote! 

Ruth Bader Ginsburg

A deep thank you to Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg for her unselfish work providing opportunities to women and men to discover their potential and break the destructive pattern of uncivil control and dominance over people’s lives.

Kent Manske, Thank you RBG, 2020.

Bird, Nest, Nature

The Bird, Nest, Nature exhibition will officially reopen at the Bedford Gallery in Walnut Creek, California from October 13—December 20, 2020 with advance reservations required. The exhibition can also be viewed virtually. Kent’s Nest IV was selected for this exhibition.

Emotional Numbness: The Impact of War on the Human Psyche and Ecosystems

Nanette Wylde, On Judgment: The Book of Bully

Nanette’s On Judgment: The Book of Bully is included in this international exhibition in Tehran, Iran, curated by Atefeh Khas and Minoosh Zomorodinia.

View the Iranian exhibition in 3D interactive format here. Head upstairs to view On Judgment and many of the works in this exhibition.

A virtual version of this exhibition may also be experienced via the Women Eco Artists Dialog (WEAD) website.

Emotional Numbness: The Impact of War on the Human Psyche and Ecosystems
September 18—October 16, 2020
Platform 3, Tehran, Iran

Resilience at The Main Gallery

Nanette is now represented by The Main Gallery.

The gallery’s first exhibition in this Menlo Park location is Resilience. It features the work of 18 gallery artists. The gallery is open to visitors.

Resilience
October 7—November 22
883 Santa Cruz Avenue, Menlo Park, California
Gallery hours: Wednesday—Sunday, 12—6pm

Roadworks Steamroller Printing Festival

Our publishing platform, Hunger Button Books, participated in the 17th edition of the San Francisco Center for the Book’s Steamroller Printing Festival. This big equipment printmaking extravaganza was held online in September with live streaming of the steamroller as urban printing press.

Wyldeflower Gardens Free Library

The upside of sheltering-in-place is the time we have given to tending projects both incomplete and in-waiting.

We recently got our tools out and made a neighborhood library box which is getting considerable visits and many transactions.

Remembering Big Basin

Our last visit to Big Basin State Park, 25 miles as the crow flies from our home, was a year ago on a research trip for our project You are the Tree. Weeks ago, in mid-August, fires swept through the park. The survival of Big Basin’s old growth, redwood tree groves are yet to be determine. Park Headquarters and campground facilities did not survive.

Memories of Big Basin hold a special place in our lives, from dancing around the campfire on our wedding night to our many overnights and hikes to Berry Falls. We honor the lives, sanctuary and the wisdom of these ancients. Pictured below is Methuselah, estimated at over 1800 years old, the oldest living tree in the Santa Cruz Mountains outside of Big Basin State Park. See Nanette in her preferred element, smiling in the upper right.

Art Contemplates

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It has been a troubling and thought provoking 2020, fueled by a pandemic, wildfires, a hurricane, election propaganda and overdue calls for social justice reform. People across the globe, including friends and family, are facing unfathomable challenges. 

We are seeking sanctuary in the garden and the arts as we grapple with current situations and potential futures. The studio continues to be a place to process, make things and share them for further contemplation, discussion and debate. 

We send this update of some recent activities with wishes for your own good health and safety, and encourage you to vote.

Fallout: Art in this Time

Kent was recently interviewed for this online exhibition. Fallout asks artists to reflect on the ways their lives and artistic practices have shifted as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and consider their work in the context of a post-pandemic world. Indian University Bloomington- Grunwald Gallery

In Cahoots Artist Residency

In June 2020, Kent produced an 8 x 12 foot print mural during a California Society of Printmakers sponsored two-week, shelter-in-studio artist residency at Macy Chadwick’s In Cahoots Artist Residency in Petaluma, California. Weave looks into the wonder and beauty of natural systems, our interdependency on them and the perils we face, and will face, if we do not respect the natural order of things. To see the completed work and how it was made, visit Weave.

Work-in-progress at In Cahoots Residency. Weave, screen-based monoprinting and chine-collé, Kent Manske, 2020.

Come to Your Census

Kent aided the 2020 Census campaign by providing artwork for their public service announcements.

Public service artwork, Kent Manske, 2020.

Bird, Nest, Nature

Bird, Nest, Nature features artists inspired by the exquisite beauty of creatures of flight. Birds have long captured the attention of humankind, the earliest evidence of which can be found in cave drawings that reflect all that we cherish in nature from flora to fauna.

Bedford Gallery at the Lesher Center for the Arts
Walnut Creek, California

Nest IX, screen-based monoprint, Kent Manske, 2018.

Women Eco Artists Dialog: The Legacy of Jo Hanson

Nanette recently co-curated an exhibition of environmental artwork with Janice Purnell of YoloArts in Woodland, California. Sixteen WEAD artists were featured in this dynamic and engaging show which ran March 19—August 22. Pictured below is Judith Selby Lang’s homage to Jo Hanson who was known for sweeping the streets of San Francisco.

Judith Selby Lang, Clean Sweep, Brooms and fishing rope, 2020.

Sun’s Out

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All that magnificent California rain has made for a showy summer garden and bountiful art season.

Kent Manske: All Cells from Cells

Cell 2 & Cell 27, screen-based monoprints by Kent Manske, 2018

Exhibition: May 24—July 19
Reception: Sunday, June 2, 4—6pm
Gallery Hours: Monday—Friday: 8am—10pm, Saturday: 8am—9pm, Sunday: 10am—6:30pm
Concert Night: The World Harmony Chorus will perform a free concert at CSMA on Monday, June 10 at 7:30pm. The gallery is open all evening. Kent will be in the gallery before and after the performance.

Community School of Music and Arts
Finn Center, Mohr Gallery
230 San Antonio Circle, Mountain View, California

Omnis Cellula e Cellula (all cells from cells) presents invented organisms, membranes, bacteria, genes and cancers. These individual cells express the artist’s exploration of wonder, beauty, interconnectedness, reason, traits, evolution, healing, aging and death. The works celebrate the 50 trillion cells in each human body, the ecosystem of our planet and the Universe—all space, time, matter and energy. Corpus Animare, Volumes I, II & III, are one-of-a-kind large format artist books. In Latin, corpus translates to body and animare to give life. Making imaginary cells gives the artist hope that creativity and intelligence will prevail over the greed and ignorance that contributes to the destruction of species biodiversity.
CSMA Interview with Kent Manske

Summertime Group Exhibitions

Hand Book Binders of California 47
Nanette is showing her newest book, Positioning, in this HBC 47th Annual Members’ exhibition.
Exhibition: June 8—September 2
Reception: Saturday, June 15, 2019, 2—5pm
Skylight Gallery, 6th Floor
San Francisco Public Library
100 Larkin St, San Francisco, California

ebaybie Kim by Nanette Wylde
ebaybie Kim, intaglio print by
Nanette Wylde, 2004

Traditional Techniques, Contemporary Prints
Kent and Nanette both have work in this California Society of Printmakers and TANA (Taller Arte del Nuevo Amanecer) collaborative exhibition.
Exhibition: May 16—August 15
Gallery Hours: open by appointment. For more information contact YoloArts at 530-309-6464.
The Barn Gallery
YoloArts
512 Gibson Road, Woodland, California

Palo Alto Art Center Residency
Nanette has a printmaking residency at The Palo Alto Art Center in July.
Reception: August 22, 2019, 6—7:30pm
Palo Alto Art Center
1313 Newell Road
Palo Alto, California

Bound Unbound V
Aesthetics 4, from Nanette’s series of wearable altered books in included in this library exhibition.
Exhibition: August 26, 2019—January 3, 2020
University Libraries
University of South Dakota
Vermillion, South Dakota

Aesthetics, wearable altered book
by Nanette Wylde, 2017.