Take a spin: Two new Whirligig Interviews

Meet Cynthia Sears, Champion of the Arts

Cynthia Sears in the Sherry Grover Gallery at Bainbridge Island Museum of Art

Cynthia Sears is a creativity explorer and the founder of the Bainbridge Island Museum of Art (BIMA) on Bainbridge Island in Washington State. She is known for her extensive support of artists, writers and cultural entities. Her collections include paintings and sculptures; antique and finely bound books; and some 1800 artist’s books, which comprise the Cynthia Sears Artist’s Books Collection at BIMA.

A pioneer in cultural support, Sears has collected and donated numerous works of regional artists to BIMA, creating a rich legacy of Pacific Northwest artistic production. Her wide ranging appreciation of the arts is demonstrated in BIMA’s community-centered mission and diverse programming which includes musical and theatrical performance; hands on educational activities; lectures, tours, and a wide array of community outreach events including an online series Artist’s Books Unshelved. This year BIMA is launching four generous biennial awards to support both regional artists and an artist making books. These BRAVA Awards (BIMA Recognizes Achievement in the Visual Arts) are in celebration of the tenth anniversary of BIMA in 2023, and a further expression of Sears’ belief in the value of the arts to human existence.

We conversed via zoom over a span of four months, discussing a range of subjects which touch on aspects of Cynthia’s life and thinking, including her work in radio and film, social and environmental issues, collecting and philanthropy, education and the arts. 

Read Nanette’s interview with Cynthia Sears here.


Meet Kathleen Canrinus, author of The Lady with the Crown: A Story of Resilience

Kathleen Canrinus with her mother Dorothy.

Interviewer Helen Gibbons writes: Bay Area native Kathleen Canrinus wrote The Lady with the Crown: A Story of Resilience to honor her mother, Dorothy. When Kathleen was 15, her mother suffered a traumatic brain injury in a car accident. After three months in a coma, Dorothy emerged partially paralyzed and cognitively impaired, upending the life of her family. 

Kathleen’s memoir focuses on the relationship between mother and daughter, particularly its evolution during the 54 years between Dorothy’s accident and her death at age 99. There were plenty of challenges, but also lots of laughter and, oh, so much love. It’s a story I will enjoy reading again and again, finding some new insight or well-crafted sentence to relish each time.

You can read Helen Gibbon’s conversation with Kathleen Canrinus here and also in Entanglements.


EcoArt: Envisioning Strategies and Solutions

You are the Tree

This engaging group exhibition of environmentally focused art continues in downtown San Rafael.

Exhibition: February 3–March 25, 2023
Gallery Hours: Thursday–Saturday, 1–8pm
Reception and Art Walk: March 10, 5–8pm
Artists’ Talks via Zoom: Tuesday, February 21, 6pm
Contact Kent or Nanette for the zoom link

Gallery 1337
Art Works Downtown

1337 Fourth St., San Rafael, California

Curated by Deanna Pindell
In collaboration with Women Eco Artists Dialog (WEAD).
Artists include: Lauren Elder, Michele Guieu, Juniper Harrower, Janette Kim, Kent Manske & Nanette Wylde, Daniel McCormick & Mary O’Brien, Zach Pine, Sharon Siskin, and Lisa Zimmer-Chu.


Nanette is published in A physical book which compiles conceptual books by various artists

This anthology, edited by Carley Gomez and Levi Sherman and published by Partial Press, contains about 150 conceptual books. Nanette’s contribution follows for your entertainment.

soul haiku
(A slight volume of undisclosed materials found where least expected)

Upon being lifted, the book notes the current environmental conditions.
The book registers the touch of the reader—hand size, texture, temperature, care in handling.

As the reader opens the cover to view the title page, the book peers into the reader’s eyes, reading the reader.

The reader turns the page to find the first line of a haiku, which the book has written for this singular moment.

Turning the page again, the book adjusts and connects to the reader’s history and mindset, offering the second haiku line, specific to this reader.

The third page turn reveals the third line—a marvel of exactitude and insight which will resonate with the reader, once the book is closed and returned to its resting place.

Afterwards, year upon year, when conditions are just about right, the poem will be remembered, considered, thought to be the original. Yet with each of these remembrances it will be new, revised to the reader’s current situation, although the reader will never find that book again.

All this rain floats our art spirit

You are the Tree exhibits in the North Bay
EcoArt: Envisioning Strategies and Solutions

Exhibition: February 3–March 25, 2023
Gallery Hours: Thursday–Saturday, 1–8pm
Receptions and Art Walks: February 10 & March 10, 5–8pm

You are the Tree in EcoArt: Envisioning Strategies and Solutions

Gallery 1337
Art Works Downtown

1337 Fourth St., San Rafael, California

Curated by Deanna Pindell
In collaboration with Women Eco Artists Dialog (WEAD)

Interactive and often playful, these eco-artworks offer inspiring visions, strategies, and solutions to help our communities build resilience for our changing climate. Each of these widely accomplished artists have created projects in service to the world beyond the gallery.

Several are games that help us solve regional issues; others combine play, work, and education to restore beaches, riparian habitats, and redwood forests. Our love of trees, grief over rising seas and extinctions, concerns about waste, and passions for the cultural histories of our local places are each addressed in enterprising community-engagement designed by artists and architects. Viewers are encouraged to envision a most desirable future.


Immunity by Kent Manske, Dimensions open: 9 x 105”
One word per page reads: When Does Difference Lead To Slaughter

Truth: Artist Books and Broadsides

Exhibition: January 12–February 12, 2023
Gallery Hours: Thursday–Monday, 11am–5pm

Gallery Route One
11101 Highway One, Ste. 1101
Point Reyes Station, California

The Visiting Artist Program at Gallery Route One presents, Truth: Artist Books and Broadsides, an exhibition juried by Sas Colby. The word “truth” has become politicized in the US and continues to take a beating in politics and social media. Can “truth” still mean anything? Can an artist embody or express truth in their artwork?

For centuries, the book, in its various forms, was identified with the notion of “truth” —through encyclopedias, dictionaries, and books of scripture. Because of their visual and material relationship to historical books, contemporary artist books as presented here can be a medium for the expression of political, philosophical, and spiritual ideas.

Sas Colby is a visual artist whose practice includes artist books and work with text. Colby notes, “Truth is a rich and provocative subject in today’s world which one might say is more attuned to ‘truthiness,’ the quality of seeming to be true out of a desire for something to be true, as coined by Stephen Colbert. The concept of truth has long been associated with books, and there was a time when the printed word was taken for truth. In a gentler century, Emily Dickinson wrote, ‘Tell all the truth but tell it slant,’ not wishing to shock with the totality of a revelation all at once. Our digital world lacks this subtlety and our culture fiercely defends the principle that we’re each entitled to our own truth.”

Between the Burners by Kent Manske

In the News

Nanette was included, along with Paloma Lucas and Bryan Kring, in a feature article on Bay Area artists who make books.

The fascinating world of book arts: 3 Bay Area makers share their stories by Jessica Yadagaran, was included in a special magazine section called Bookish published by the Bay Area News Group on Sunday, January 15, 2023. Bookish was included in a handful of Bay Area newspapers including San Jose Mercury News, the Marin Independent Journal, and the East Bay Times.


Kent’s photograph Beyond the Reach has recently exhibited at the University of Iowa, the University of Illinois, and P21 Gallery in London as part of the Shadow and Light project, compiled by Beau Beausoleil, a poet and activist in the Bay Area, that memorializes Iraqi academics assassinated between 2003–2013. 


WORKS San José is having their annual community auction. Check it out!
Exhibition opens First Friday February 3, 5–9pm
Exhibition dates February 4 through March 3
Auction night Saturday, March 4!


Entanglements, Nanette’s 2022 curatorial publication, is now available at the following locations: The San José Museum of Art (San José), The San Mateo County History Museum (Redwood City), Gallery Route One (Pt. Reyes Station), The Main Gallery (Menlo Park), and online at Hunger Button Books.

All Tangled Up with Entanglements

We have an exciting new curatorial project to share with you, this time taking form as a book: Entanglements: A curated collection of contemporary culture is a 126 page, full color print production featuring:

Artworks by Shari Arai DeBoer, José Arenas, Ellen Bepp, Harlan Crowder, C.K. Itamura, Bodil Fox and Larnie Fox, Reiko Fujii, Kathy Fujii-Oka, Elizabeth Gómez, Richard Lang, Cynthia A. Osborne, Linda MacDonald, Melissa Pagluica, Agnes Pelton, Na Omi Judy Shintani, and Minoosh Zomorodinia.

Essays by Katherine Bazak, Lyn Bishop, Richard Lang, and Jan Rindfleisch.

Interviews with Kathleen Canrinus, Elizabeth Gómez, Jane Reichhold, and Minoosh Zomorodinia.

Poetry by Georgina Marie Guardado, Lauren Lin, Jane Reichhold and Anonymous.

Helen Gibbons interviewed Palo Alto author Kathleen Canrinus specifically for Entanglements. You can read this insightful conversation online in Whirligig.

With the exception of the interviews posted online in Whirligig, Entanglements is a print only publication. Find out more.

Pathways Exhibition at Art Ark Gallery

Nanette curates Pathways: An exhibition about mapping, navigation, wanderlust and borders

Spirit Bridge for Brian by Neil Murphy

Nine Bay Area artists will be exhibiting in an interdisciplinary, themed exhibition at Art Ark Gallery in San Jose. The exhibition is curated by Nanette Wylde. It includes a wide range of media including artist books, conceptual works, glass, mixed media, painting, performance, printmaking, sculpture, sound, video, and installations. A collaborative, site specific vinyl installation for the gallery’s west facing windows is by José Arenas and Kent Manske.

Murmuration, detail of two-story vinyl window installation at Art Ark Gallery, José Arenas and Kent Manske, 2022

Artists: Afatasi The Artist, José Arenas, Carolina Cuevas, Casey Jay Gardner, Caroline Landau, Kent Manske, Neil Murphy, Melissa West, Minoosh Zomorodinia

Exhibition Dates: March 4–April 1, 2022
Receptions: March 4 and April 1, 6–9 pm
SoFF: South First Fridays Art Walk
By Appointment:  genevieve.hastings.artark@gmail.com

Gallery Talks  (performance*)
March 5: José Arenas, Caroline Landau, Melissa West, Carolina Cuevas*
March 12: Casey Jay Gardner, Kent Manske
March 19: Afatasi the Artist, Carolina Cuevas*, Neil Murphy
March 26: Minoosh Zomorodinia, Nanette Wylde

Art Ark Gallery 1035 South 6th Street, San Jose, California

The Gravity Series by Casey Jay Gardner

Catalog Availablepublishing.hungerbutton.org
For more information visit the Pathways exhibition page.


Nanette in The Fierce Urgency of Now: Socially Engaged Printmaking

Nanette’s 2021 print, Milagros for Times Like These VI, is included in The Fierce Urgency of Now: Socially Engaged Printmaking, at the Janet Turner Print Museum, CSU Chico, Chico, California. The exhibition was juried by Aaron S. Coleman.  From the Turner, “The work submitted was extremely strong, and the juror’s job very difficult–with 133 artists submitting 436 pieces for consideration. Coleman chose work by 36 artists for the exhibition.”

For more information: Janet Turner Print Museum


Kent Exhibits and Reads in Shadow and Light at Arion Press

Beyond the Reach, Kent Manske, 2019

Kent is exhibiting a photograph in SHADOW and LIGHT: Al Mutanabbi Street Starts Here at Arion Press in San Francisco. A public reception and reading will take place on Sunday, March 6, 2022 at 3pm. 

For more information: Arion Press

Little pieces coming together

Local artist Elizabeth Gómez has been working on a mosaic mural for the Magical Bridge Playground in Red Morton, a Redwood City park, for two years. Now it is done. Nanette made an opportunity to visit Elizabeth on site and came home with a Whirligig Interview.

Elizabeth’s mosaic mural is beautiful! and a wonderful gift to our community, not just because of the beauty of the mural, but also because she involved so many community members in the making of it during these last 20 months of covid. Read Elizabeth Gómez’s Whirligig Interview here.

Elizabeth Gómez, Magical Bridge Mural, 2021

We are pleased to have our You Are The Tree project included in an upcoming book, Embodied Forest, published by ecoartspace.

Twelve of our artist books are now being carried by Country Lights Books at the San Gregorio General Store in San Gregorio, California. Spot on if you made the connection to City Lights Bookstore in San Francisco. Country Lights proprietor George is a big fan of Lawrence Ferlinghetti, who apparently was also a big fan of the San Gregorio Store as a music venue.

Positioning, Artist book, Nanette Wylde, 2019

Nanette is showing Positioning in the 23 Sandy Gallery exhibition UNSEEN. The exhibition takes place at form + concept, in Santa Fe, New Mexico through November 20. We are pleased to learn that The Bainbridge Island Museum of Art in Washington state has acquired a copy. Thank You BIMA!

Redacted Babar: ABC Free, Artist book, Nanette Wylde, 2020

Her book, Redacted Babar: ABC Free is on view in a Hand Bookbinders of California exhibition at the American Bookbinding Museum in San Francisco through October 30.

REI Co-op wonderfully and unexpectedly acquired two prints from Nanette’s O Humboldt, O Muir: Worldviews series for a new store in Sunnyvale, California. These monoprints were created at a Palo Alto Art Center printmaking residency in 2019. Thank you REI and Thank you Palo Alto Art Center. We are curious to see what REI does with them.

Whirligig celebrates #25

Whirligig has just published its 25th interview

In early 2009 Nanette launched our Whirligig project. The impetus has always been to celebrate creatives in our communities by bringing a little bit of attention, and hopefully insight, into what they do and why they do it. The real benefit for us though, has been how the interview process helps us to get to know these individuals, and our resultant increased understanding and appreciation of their various practices and works.

Whirigig logo by Kent Manske

The series name, Whirligig, comes from its historic roots as both a torture device and a toy, characterized by its whirling or spinning nature. We named it thus as a celebration of the creative life, which may sometimes be torturous, often leaves us spinning, but without a doubt is the most amazing playground.

Whirligig Interview with Minoosh Zomorodinia

Minoosh Zomorodinia, Resist
Minoosh Zomorodinia, Resist

Minoosh Zomorodinia is an interdisciplinary artist and curator working in time, space and the natural world. Her current art practice involves nature walks which are documented via smart phone app. The resultant maps are then made tangible via a variety of both old and new technologies. There is an edgy, accessible humor in much of her work—this she calls “the abstract absurd.” In actuality, Zomorodinia uses all aspects of her making to parse and comment on current critical issues including borders and territories, colonialism, immigration, culture and identity, stereotyping, relations of the self to the environment, the power of technology, and the art world itself. Her work is both layered and engaging—smart, funny, and often visually exquisite.

You can read Minoosh’s Whirligig Interview here.


Summertime Exhibitions

Kent is showing in the annual Salon at the Triton Museum
Triton Museum of Art
Santa Clara, California
through September 12, 2021

Kent Manske
Omnis Cellula e Cellula, Version 6 (Cells 25, 03, 55, 29)

We both are showing in the California Society of Printmakers
Extraction: Response to the Changing World Environment
Sanchez Art Center
Pacifica, California
through August 15, 2021

Nanette Wylde, On Longing XIII, monoprint

Nanette’s artist’s books and prints are also on view at:
The Main Gallery
883 Santa Cruz Avenue
Menlo Park, California
Tuesday—Sunday, 11am—5pm

We continue to look forward to times when we can gather together carefree. We wish you safe keeping, good health, engagement and hopefulness.
Kent & Nanette

Lighter & Brighter

The days are getting longer, Northern California is opening up, the Spring cleaning is underway, the garden is in, we are starting to feel lighter and brighter, and we hope that you are too.

The Art of the Book at Seager Gray Gallery

We are pleased to be showing our collaborative book From This Earth in the 16th Annual Art of the Book exhibition at Seager Gray Gallery in Mill Valley, California. The exhibition runs through May 27.


Elephant Books at the Main Gallery

Nanette is showing three of her elephant themed books including her newest, Redacted Babar: ABC Free, at The Main Gallery in downtown Menlo Park, California.

Also on view are prints from Nanette’s 2021 Milagros for Times Like These series.

Nanette would enjoy a visit with you at the gallery. Let’s make a date.

The Main Gallery
Tuesday—Sunday, 11am—5pm
883 Santa Cruz Avenue, Menlo Park, California

You are the Tree

We are excited to share our current project with you!

Join us in downtown Redwood City during one of our five public interaction events, or let us know a time that works better for you.

For this commission, we created a 400 year old, Coast Redwood Tree stump by making paper pulp from locally sourced, Redwood City, craft industry byproducts such as: spent beer grain, eggshells, fabric scraps, flower parts and hair. There are 25 unique bark sections which are tagged with legacy tree markers to identify both contributors and byproduct materials. Each section celebrates local labor and honors people who make things with their hands. 

preneo.org/youarethetree

Exhibition: February 1—March 8
Outdoor viewing is available 24/7

Artists’ Interaction Dates:
Kent & Nanette will be in the Art Kiosk:
• Tuesday, February 11, 1—3pm
• Wednesday, February 19, 2—4pm
• Thursday, February 27, 3—5pm
• Friday, March 6, 4—6pm
• Saturday, March 7, 10—12pm
and by appointment

Art Kiosk
Courthouse Square
2208 Broadway
Redwood City, California

You are the Tree was commissioned by Fung Collaborative Projects in collaboration with Redwood City Improvement Association for the Redwood City Art Kiosk in 2020.

Happy New Year!

detail You are the Tree, paper pulp, 2020.
detail You are the Tree, paper pulp from local craft industries’ byproducts.

Happy New Year!
We look forward to seeing you with wide open eyes in 2020.

Save the Date
For the last four months, we have been working with over 30 local Redwood City craft industries collecting and making paper pulp out of their byproducts. Our conceptual and sculptural installation, You are the Tree opens February 1, 2020 in Downtown Redwood City.

Please join us for this community celebration of art, history and local labor.

You are the Tree
Opening Reception
February 1, 2020, 4 – 6pm

Redwood City Art Kiosk
2208 Broadway, Courthouse Square
Downtown Redwood City

For a sneak peak of this work in-progress and our community partners:
preneo.org/youarethetree 

Smiles,
Kent & Nanette

You are the Tree was commissioned by Fung Collaborative Projects in collaboration with Redwood City Improvement Association for the Redwood City Art Kiosk in 2020.

Whirligig Interview with Judith Selby Lang

Winter nears and as we have just been informed by artist/archaeologist, Judith Selby Lang, this is the optimal time to discover choice pieces of plastic on the beach.

Like Diamonds, Plastic is Forever; Wearable art made from beach plastic by Judith Selby Lang.
Like Diamonds, Plastic is Forever
Wearable art made from beach plastic by Judith Selby Lang.

Lang’s work includes artist books, mixed media objects, and a wide range of projects using plastic debris collected from 1000 yards of one beach on the Northern California coast. With a barn full of beach plastic—washed, sorted and boxed—collected over the years, Lang has an immense body of work, both independent and collaborative, which reflects our times while engaging viewers from all walks of life in conversations regarding possibilities for improving our environment.

For inspiration on scoring your own treasure trove of the best of the chunky stuff you can read her Whirligig Interview here: whirligig.hungerbutton.org

Ink to Paper

The garden is producing, the cats are purring, we are exploring, and art is everywhere! Here are few current group exhibitions we are pleased to show in.


Palo Alto Printmaking Residencies Exhibition

O Humboldt, O Muir: Worldviews, monoprint, Nanette Wylde, 2019.

Over the course of the summer, five Bay Area artists were granted nine-day residencies which focused on using the Palo Alto Art Center’s small press to create a wide range of prints. The residency artists were: Angela Smith, Amy Hibbs, Michael Oechsli, Nanette Wylde, and Aileen Lum. 

Nanette created a series of 33 monoprints based on her photographs of severed trees.

Exhibition: through August 31
Reception: Thursday, August 22, 6—7:30pm
Gallery Hours: Tuesday – Saturday, 10am—5pm; Thursday, 10am—9pm; Sunday, 1—5pm

Palo Alto Art Center
1313 Newell Road
Palo Alto, California


Perception of Place

San Francisco Bay, artist book, Kent Manske, 2012.

This print exhibition, a collaboration between California Society of Printmakers and MPC Printmakers, was juried by Marianne McGrath. Kent and Nanette are showing three recent artist’s books.

Exhibition: September 6—October 24, 2019
Hours: Wed—Sat, 12 – 5pm; Sun, 12—4pm
Reception: Friday, September 6, 7—9pm

Pacific Grove Art Center
68 Lighthouse Avenue,
Pacific Grove, California


Eco Echo: Unnatural Selection

On Longing series, monoprint, Nanette Wylde, 2016.

In this third iteration of the Eco Echo Collective, artists Anne Beck, Barbara Boissevain, Ginger Burrell, Judith Selby Lang, Richard Lang, Kent Manske, Michelle Wilson and Nanette Wylde continue their environmentally themed collaboration with new as well as previously shown work.

Exhibition: September 13—October 20, 2019
Hours: 11am—5pm every day except Tuesday
Reception: Saturday, September 14, 3—5pm

Gallery Route One
11101 Highway One, Ste. 1101
Point Reyes Station, California

Prints & Artist’s Books Exhibitions

After 20+ years as a Professor of Art at CSU Chico Nanette makes the transition to full time studio with a solo exhibition in Mountain View.

Nanette Wylde: On Longing and Other Stories

Exhibition: December 14—January 27
Reception: Sunday, January 13, 4—6pm

About On Longing and Other Stories
The exhibition includes prints and handmade artist books which contemplate and celebrate various aspects of both the built and the natural world. These narrative works seek to tease out possibilities of interaction including observations, reflections, judgments and habits of thought and non-thought. The works explore ways to engage the minds of the audience (and the maker) with both visual and textual elements.
CSMA Interview with Nanette

Gallery Hours
Monday—Friday: 8am—10pm
Saturday: 8am—9pm
Sunday: 10:00am— 6:30pm

Community School of Music and Arts
Finn Center Mohr Gallery
230 San Antonio Circle
Mountain View, CA 94040


Kent and Nanette are both launching new books at:

CODEX VII 2019

The Codex Foundation was conceived in 2005 by Peter Rutledge Koch, fine press printer, and Susan Filter, paper conservator. Its purpose was to create an environment for promoting the book as a work of art. They accomplished this by bringing together the Best of the Best book artists and fine press printers from around the world to share their work, explore new and old concepts, and to start an on-going conversation about the fate and future of the book as an essential art form.

The CODEX VII Book Fair will feature more than 200 Exhibitors from 22 countries and host over 3000 visitors including Special Collections Librarians and Private Collectors from the world’s best libraries.

Sunday, February 3, 12:30—5:30pm
Monday, February 4, 12:30—6pm
Tuesday, February 5, 12:30—6pm
Wednesday, February 6, 10am—3pm

Craneway Pavilion
1414 Harbor Way South
Richmond, CA 94804

Whirligig Interview with C.K. Itamura

We are metaphorically euphoric due to this Whirligig Interview with C.K. Itamura.

C.K. Itamura is an interdisciplinary artist, designer and producer.

Her work responds to a wide range of personal and social content; and is realized as richly engaging, metaphorically layered, participatory, conceptual installations.

C.K. is currently exhibiting a trilogy of works under the theme of s+oryprobl=m, in three North Bay locations.

Read about them with her interview here.


Our own exhibitions during the month of May include: The Art of the Book at Seager Gray Gallery in Mill Valley, California; and #Resist at the Nave Gallery in Somerset, Massachusetts.

Blooming in 2017

With both Spring and politics in the air, we both had fun writing tracts for free distribution. Find racks filled with tracts on the wall at:

Alternative Facts at Works/San José.
Reception: April 7, 7 – 10pm
Exhibition Dates: April 8 – 23, 2017
Location: 365 South Market Street, San José, California


Foodies is currently showing at:

Art of Gastronomy II, Healdsburg Center for the Arts, Healdsburg, California. March 8 – May 14.

Celebrate!, Anderson Academic Commons, University of Denver, Denver, Colorado. April 7 – June 25.

the art of gastronomy


Nanette has artists’ books in two traveling exhibitions:
Global Matrix IV International Print Exhibition, Robert L. Ringel Gallery and the Stewart Center Gallery at Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana.

Idaho Booker’s Dozen 2017,  Idaho Center for the Book, Boise State University, Boise, Idaho.

and a print from her recent On Longing series is showing at:
2017 Wheaton Biennial: Printmaking Reimagined, Beard & Weil Galleries, Wheaton College, Norton, Massachusetts.

Foodies at Codex 2017

Two years in the kitchen and we are salivating to serve up Foodies at Codex February 5 – 8.

foodies photo

Foodies: Seven West Coast Foodie Vignettes is a portfolio of seven letterpress printed folios, each with wood type printed cover, two color interior screen print illustration, and original story which explores the diversity of meaning in food related language. Foodies is housed in a letterpress printed portfolio.

The print work for this project includes 46 press runs of 25 colors. The stories are by Nanette Wylde. Illustrations and design by Kent Manske.

You can see and read more at: preneo.org/projects/foodies. Or visit us at Codex!

codex promo

It’s pARTy time!

Join us at Anne and Mark’s Art Party & Opening Night Gala on September 24th. There will be 300+ exhibiting artists, live music, dance, spoken word, fire arts, fashion shows and food trucks. This event is at the Santa Clara County Fairgrounds in San José, California. Get your tickets in advance at: artpartysj.com

kent_art_party
Kent will exhibit new works from three print series: Conditions narrate states of being and coping strategies. Nests is a series of one-of-a-kind experimental prints. Cells explores imaginary living organisms and microbiome.

Nanette will exhibit four images from On Longing, a series of 50 unique monoprints completed this last summer. Each print is a mandala which contemplates and celebrates the natural world. The series takes its name from Susan Stewart’s book: On Longing: Narratives of the Miniature, the Gigantic, the Souvenir, the Collection. The Art Party is discussed in the Mercury News, where Nan’s work is also featured.

Photo of the studio while the On Longing series was still in-progress, Spring 2016.

Photo of the studio while the On Longing series was still in-progress, Spring 2016.


Meaning Maker is 10!
Of course, we are trying to make sense of the upcoming November election. Thus we have created a new and improved version of Meaning Maker U.S. Presidential Elections Edition. Download your free copy at the Meaning Maker website, and distribute as you will.

Meaning Maker LogoIn the San Francisco Bay Area, U.S. Presidential Elections Edition was on exhibit and take away in Vote your Subconscious at Works/San José and will be exhibiting in: POLITICS (NOT) AS USUAL at Branner Spangenberg Gallery:
275A Linden Street in Redwood City from Oct 7 – Nov 13, 2016.
Opening Reception: Friday, Oct 7, 2016, 5:30 – 7:30pm.

This Summer we hand-delivered Art Viewing Experience Edition and U.S. Presidential Elections Edition to two significant events in Europe: The 9th Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art in Berlin, Germany; and the opening of the Tate Modern Switch House in London. Other European museum and gallery locations which experienced bursts of Meaning Makers include: Brussels, Paris, Dresden and Prague.


Don Drake and Kate Jordahl invited Kent to write the afterword for Kate’s True North Editions, one poem book, no. 6, featuring Don’s poem, End. The book launch for one poem books no. 5 and no. 6 will be at Don Drake’s Studio, Dreaming Mind, on Saturday, October 8th from 2 – 4 pm. There will be readings! 5664 Sun Ridge Court in Castro Valley, CA.

Kent is also showing in Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here: In Defense of Culture at the San Francisco Main Library, Skylight Gallery, 100 Larkin Street, from September 17 – January 1, 2017.

The Future, an artists’ book collaboration between Nanette and Nora Raggio, will be showing the month of October in Words|Matter, Chicago.

Nanette’s Storyland v2 was invited for exhibition in Shapeshifting Texts, International Conference on Digital Media and Textuality in Bremen, Germany. Her print, Propagare, was exhibited at the Graphic Arts Workshop, Scuola Internaziale di Grafica in Venice, Italy; and she received a juror’s award for her needle felted book, Between Us Two, at The Art of the Book, Sebastopol Center for Art in Sebastopol, California.

Our collaborative photo book, CSI: Las Vegas, was included in 23 Sandy Gallery’s summertime Wanderlust exhibition and subsequently acquired by UCLA’s Fine Arts Library.


On another note, we’ve decided to take an extended leave from facebook. We still want to hear about your Art Adventures, however. Our individual emails are the best way to let us know what you are doing. We continue to engage with instagram: @kent.manske @nanwylde

Breezy Spring Pollination

The busy spring bees have us both showing books and prints in a handful of exhibitions. We are also excited to cross-pollinate our social practices with an upcoming Meaning Maker intervention.

We celebrated Dada’s 100th anniversary with a poetry reading :
Nothing is Here, DaDa is its Name

Nothing is Here: Dada is its Name

Branner Spangenberg Gallery, Redwood City, California.
Curator: Michael Paulker.
Closing & Dada Performance: Sunday, May 1, 4pm.


Wanderlust
23 Sandy Gallery, Portland, Oregon.
Curator: Laura Russell.
May 27 - July 30, 2016.

Wanderlust is a German word made from wandern which means walking and lust which translates as desire. We are showing CSI: Las Vegas in this exhibition.


LOOK! BOOK ARTS 

Look Book Arts! at Healdsburg Center for the Arts

Healdsburg Center for the Arts, Healdsburg, California.
Curator: C.K.Itamura.
April 14 – May 22, 2016.
Closing Tea & Salon: Sunday, May 22, 2 – 4pm.


Home at Art Ark, San José

manske_nest_4c

Opening Reception: Friday, May 6th, 6-9 pm.
Curator: Valerie Raps.

We are honored to participate in Valerie Raps last exhibition as curator of Art Ark. Her ten year tenure has launched Art Ark as an important San José art venue. Please come honor Valerie and her partner, Andrew Hedges, during the reception on May 6th.
Pictured is Kent’s Nest IVc.

April South First Fridays Art Walk in San José.


Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here!

March 5 – May 15, 2016
Museum of Contemporary Crafts & Multnomah County Library, both in Portland, Oregon.
Beau Beausoleil’s curatorial project which responds to the bombing of the booksellers’ street in Bagdad continues to inform, inspire and activate us.


Meaning Maker
We will be distributing our Control and U.S. Presidential Elections editions of Meaning Maker at: Open Engagement 2016 POWER, April 28 - May 1. This social practice conference is headquartered at the Oakland Museum of California and includes many additional sites throughout the Bay Area.


In early April, Nanette and Nora Raggio showed their book, The Future, in Space Jam at The Mission Creek Festival in Iowa City. Nanette is exhibiting in The Illustrated Accordion at The Kalamazoo Book Arts Center, Kalamazoo, Michigan, May 6 – 27.

YAY! Here’s cheers to all of the springy art abounding in our universe.

Whirligig Interview with Angelica Muro

Angelica MuroWe are excitedly paying attention to cultural metaphors and media trends because of this new Whirligig Interview with San José based artist, curator, and art educator Angelica Muro.

Muro has a B.A. in photography from San José State University, and an MFA from Mills College. She is currently Director and Chair of Visual and Public Art at California State University, Monterey where she teaches courses in photography, integrated media and media culture.

In this interview Muro talks about the influences of media in our daily lives, teaching today’s college students, narco-culture, audience, curating and collaboration.

Her newest project, created with Juan Luna-Avin, Club Lido: Wild Eyes & Occasional Dreams opened February 12 at Empire Seven Studios in San José.

Read Angelica’s interview here: whirligig.hungerbutton.org

Deep February

We are leaping heart deep in a cool bevy called art! and find that

The Future is here!

Nanette and Nora Raggio will perform a reading of their artists’ book:
The Future: an epistolary.

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Date: Saturday, February 27, 3 – 5pm.
Location: somewhere on the mid peninsula

Space is limited:
Please R.S.V.P
 by Saturday, Feb. 20 to: thefuture@hungerbutton.org.

We will send you the exact location beforehand.


We are exhibiting in a small winter flurry of group exhibitions:

  • Lovers and Other Strangers, Branner Spangenberg Gallery, Redwood City, California. Curators: Martha Branner and Michael Paulker. Opening: February 14, 5 – 8pm. Closing February 28, 2- 4pm.
  • The Printed Page II, Abecedarian Gallery, Denver, Colorado. Juror: Sarah Carter.

Remembrance IV

  • Contemporary Book Arts, Geisel Library, Saint Anselm College, Manchester, New Hampshire. Curators: Kimberly Kersey Asbury and Alicia Bailey.
  • An Inventory of Al-Mutanabbi Street
    • Kaleider, Exeter, U.K.
    • George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia.
    • The Frank & Katrina Basile Gallery at the Herron School of Art and Design, The Herron Art Library of IUPUI University.