It’s a Wrap!

Kent Manske: Nature’s Dilemma

December 2–30, 2023

This selection of work addresses Kent’s emotional and philosophical conflicts as a contributor and participant in consumer culture while simultaneously having deep concern and empathy for the survival of other species.

Palo Alto Rinconada Library Gallery
1213 Newell Road, Palo Alto, California
(next to the Palo Alto Art Center)

Tuesday–Sunday, 10am–6pm, Thursday 12–8pm

Kent Manske, Concordance, 2023

de Young Open 2023

through January 7, 2024

Nanette’s monoprint Milagros for Times Like These is included in The de Young Open 2023. The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco magazine featured Nanette’s work in the inside front cover! Additional work in this series may be seen at The Main Gallery in Menlo Park.

De Young Museum, Golden Gate Park, San Francisco


Garland Variations

A California Society of Printmakers Risograph Anthology

Seven new drawings from Kent’s 2023 series Existential Epistemologies were created for, and published in, Garland Variations, a Risograph Anthology publication. Master Risograph printer Zach Clark of National Monument Press shares “Garland Variations exists as an experimental publication in which each of the participating artists collaborated with me to make original works intended for Risograph printing, many for the first time. The results are a collection of work I feel is truly unique within the intersection of Riso and traditional printmaking.” Garland Variations features the work of Beth Fein, Megan Broughton, Kent Manske, Kelly Autumn, LeeAnn J. DiCicco, Kevin Harris, & AV Pike. 

Kent Manske, from Existential Epistemologies, 2023

Nanette reviews Transcending Physicality: The Essence of Place

through December 16, 2023

After visiting Transcending Physicality at SFACG—it is a poignant and engaging show—Nanette wrote a review published by Slippage.net. The exhibition was curated by Minoosh Zomorodinia. Nanette has been following Minoosh’s projects since interviewing her during a residency at Recology. You can read that interview at Whirligig.

San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery.
War Memorial Veterans Building
401 Van Ness Avenue, Suite 126

Wednesday–Saturday, 12pm–5pm


Art Bias First Sunday’s Open Studios

Sunday, December 3, 2023, 11am–5pm 

This month’s First Sunday’s Open Studios will have extended hours with holiday events planned.

Art Bias, 1700 Industrial Road, San Carlos, California

For the Love of Nature: Entangling with Biophilia

October is a celebratory month for us—a newly curated exhibition by Nanette at WORKS/San José, a new Entanglements anthology, a showing of Encyclopedic at Palo Alto’s Rinconada Library, and the deYoung Open 2023.


Curatorial Projects Biophilia and Entanglements will launch together in October

Biophilia: Humans and the Natural World
October 6–November 5, 2023 at WORKS/San José
38 South Second Street, San José, California 95113

Exhibition curated by Nanette Wylde
Artists: Shari Bryant, Binh Dahn, Elizabeth Gómez, Annette Goodfriend, Emily Gui, LeMonie Lightning Hutt, Yunan Ma, Kent Manske, Hector Dionicio Mendoza, and Minoosh Zomorodinia

Reception for the Artists & Entanglements Book Launch/Celebration:
Saturday, October 14, 2–4pm

Gallery Hours: Fridays 12–6pm, Saturdays and Sundays 12–4pm
WORKS/San José is a participant of SoFF: South First Fridays Art Walk

Note there is 90 minute free parking in the underground garage. Enter on South Third Street just before Santa Clara Street. Stairs up to Second Street and WORKS. There is an option for this free parking at the parking ticket machine. 


Entanglements2: a curated collection of contemporary culture

Entanglements2, cover image by Willa Briggs

This 2023 anthology curated by Nanette Wylde has a theme of biophilia and features artwork and projects by Arturo Araujo, Willa Briggs, Shari Bryant, Israel Campos, Binh Danh, Annette Goodfriend, Emily Gui, Yunan Ma, Kent Manske, Hector Dionicio Mendoza, Jiamao Yuan, J. Adán Ruiz and The Biological Reserve Cerro Hermoso

Poems by James Cagney, Aileen Cassinetto, Chloe Chou, Veronica Kornberg, Eileen R. Tabios

Interviews with Sharmon Hilfinger (by Katherine Bazak), Judith Selby Lang (by Nanette Wylde), Zach Pine (by Richard Whittaker)

Available from Hunger Button Books


Encyclopedic: Weathered Volumes

We are exhibiting from a series of conceptual altered books/photographs at Palo Alto’s Rinconada Library through the month of October. 


The de Young Open 2023

Tino Rodriguez, Moonji L. Pickering, Liz Boeder, and Nanette Wylde with their works at the de Young Open 2023. We met up in the Goddess section of the exhibition!

We are pleased to share that one from Nanette’s monoprint series Milagros for Times Like These is included in the triennial regional exhibition, The de Young Open 2023. This exhibition runs through January  7, 2024. The museum is free on Saturdays. Additional work in this series may be seen at The Main Gallery in Menlo Park.

This is a fun and engaging exhibition featuring many of our favorite Bay Area artists.

August: Art & Popcorn!

Summertime Reading: Whirligig Interviews

Our friend Katherine Bazak interviews her longtime friend, Bay Area playwright and author, Sharmon Hilfinger for Whirligig, Nanette’s online platform for interviews with creative entities. Read this enticing conversation to gain insight about the writing life and regional live theater here.


First Sundays Open Studio at Art Bias
Sunday, August 6, 12–4pm

Art Bias 
1700 Industrial Road, San Carlos

We will present Meaning Maker as part of our hallway art on display outside our Art Bias studio #215. Meaning Maker is a conceptual art project designed for personal self reflection. Five editions of Meaning Maker will be featured this month, free for the taking by Art Bias visitors. Popcorn will be served.


Hand Bookbinders of California, Annual Members’ Exhibition
August 7–October 1, 2023

Arion Press Gallery 
1802 Hays Street, the Presidio, San Francisco, California
Opening Reception: Saturday, August 12, 2:00–4:00pm.
Hors d’oeuvres, beer and wine served with friends and literary eye candy!
Gallery Walk-through: Thursday, August 17, 5:30–7:00pm

Kent Manske, Corpus Animare Volumes I, II, & III, artist books

We are showing four photographs from a new body of work titled: Encyclopedic: Weathered Volumes. Kent is also exhibiting his artist books, Corpus Animare Volumes I, II, & III.

About: Hand Bookbinders of California


Westward Bound II
August 17–September 10, 2023

Kent Manske, San Francisco Bay, artist book

Spark Gallery
900 Santa Fe Drive, Denver, Colorado in the Santa Fe Arts District

Westward Bound II is organized by Abecedarian Artists’ Books and asks the question What is The American West? Virtually every part of the United States except the Eastern Seaboard has been “the West” at some point in American history, linked in popular imagination with the last frontier of American settlement. For purposes of this exhibition, The American West refers to that vast stretch of plains, mountains, and deserts west of the Mississippi River. Kent and Nanette’s collaborative book Foodies: Seven West Coast Foodie Vignettes, and Kent’s book San Francisco Bay are on exhibit. The gallery is also featuring a separate exhibition of books by our artist friends Alicia Bailey and Rhiannon Alpers.

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

Spring Time Growin’ 2019

Below are some art things we are growing alongside propagating seeds for the Summer garden and disrupting beautiful weeds nourished by Winter’s glorious rainfall.


Regional Collective

Corpus Animare III, artist’s book by Kent Manske, 2018

Exhibition: March 11—April 13
Gallery Hours: Monday -Saturday: 12—4pm
Janet Turner Print Museum
Arts & Humanities Building
California State University, Chico, California


Print It!

Nests IVa, screen-based monoprint by Kent Manske, 2015

Both Kent and Nanette have work in this East Bay gallery exhibition.

Exhibition: March 16—April 21
Gallery Hours: Wednesday—Friday: 12—5pm, Saturday: 11am—3pm
Village Theatre Art Gallery
233 Front Street, Danville, California


Left Coast Annual 

Omnis Cellula e Cellula, screen-based monoprints by Kent Manske, 2018

Exhibition: April 12—May 19
Reception: Friday, March 12, 7—9pm
Gallery Hours: Friday—Sunday: 1—5pm
Sanchez Art Center
1220-B Linda Mar Blvd, Pacifica, California


California Centered: Printmaking Exhibition 

Acknowledge, monoprint dyptich by Kent Manske, 2016

Exhibition: April 16—June 1
Gallery Hours: Tuesday—Friday: 11am—6pm, Saturday: 10am—2pm
Merced Multicultural Arts Center
645 W Main St, Merced, California


Silicon Valley Open Studios & Art Garage Sale

A few of the items for the Art Garage Sale

Open Studio: May 4 & 5, 11am—5pm
Join us for camaraderie and conversation at our home studios.
Site 27 in Redwood City.
SVOS
Kent Manske
Nanette Wylde


Coming Soon:

Kent Manske: All Cells from Cells (solo exhibition)
Exhibition: May 24—July 19
Reception: Sunday, June 2, 4—6pm
Community School of Music and Arts, Mountain View, California


Whirligig Interview with Michelle Wilson

Extra! Extra! Read All About It! It’s a new Whirligig Interview with papermaker, printmaker, bookmaker, conceptual and social practice artist, and art educator, Michelle Wilson!

Michelle Wilson Corn, Incorporated

Michelle Wilson is a papermaker in an extremely complex sense. Her work with paper is both conceptual and concrete as it extends from the making of sheets for artist’s books and printmaking to social practice, sculpture and installation. As a somewhat recent transplant to the Bay Area, Wilson has quickly embedded herself and her work into the consciousness of the local art scene with a residency at the School of Visual Philosophy, a Small Plates commission from San Francisco Center for the Book, teaching at both San José State and Stanford, engagement with a handful of arts organizations, and many exhibitions.

You can read Michelle’s interview here: whirligig.hungerbutton.org


Our own current activities:

Kent is showing in Pressing On — Contemporary Printmaking at the Richmond Art Center. June 13 – August 19 with a reception on June 10.

Nanette is showing in Art of Our Century at the Woodbury Art Museum, Utah Valley University June 1 – September 9.

Yay! for summer break, the garden being in, kittens, and studio time.

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.

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: MicroClimate Collective and More . . .

microclimatecollective_victoria_glennaWhirligig is feeling the buzz
with a new interview:
MicroClimate Collective is the curatorial project of Glenna Cole Allee and Victoria Mara Heilweil. In this interview they share their insights into the Bay Area Art Scene, discuss the concepts and challenges that go into curating diverse exhibitions, and reveal insights into their own creative processes and interests. 
Read it here:
whirligig.hungerbutton.org


The Undercurrents Portfolio which Kent organized last year has found three institutional homes in the Bay Area: The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, The Oakland Museum of California, and The Peninsula Museum of Art. Many thanks to each of these for acquiring this rich and diverse portfolio of Bay Area printmakers.


Between Us cover image

 

Between Us, Nanette’s needle felted book, was recently acquired by Baylor University.

Winter 2014 Activities

manske_unknowing

We have a few upcoming exhibitions:

Deep Reading
Euphrat Museum of Art
at DeAnza College
Cupertino, California
February 3 – March 20
Reception February 19, 5:30 – 7:30
Download Parking Pass

The Printed Page
Abecedarian Gallery
910 Santa Fe, Denver, Colorado
February 21 – April 5
Reception: February 21, 6-9pm

Wabi Sabi
Alterspace Gallery

Printmakers Kent Manske, PreNeo Press, and Eric Kneeland, Black Stamp, will orchestrate a loosely planned, instinctually derived, multi-layered, site-specific vertical screen print directly on the gallery wall during the Wabi Sabi opening reception. Reception attendees will be encouraged to influence the work’s evolution throughout the evening.

1158 Howard Street, San Francisco
March 15-April 12
Opening Reception: Saturday, March 15, 7-10pm
Closing Reception: Saturday, April 12, 2-5pm
Gallery hours: Thursday-Saturday 1-6pm

85 Years
Menlo College
1000 El Camino Real
Atherton, California
March 17, 2014 – July 11, 2014
Reception: March 26, 5-7 pm

Southern Graphics Council International Conference
Undercurrents
Peninsula Museum of Art
1777 California Dr, Burlingame, California
Reception: TBA

We both are working on commissions for Awagami Paper (Japan) which will be exhibited by Awagami Paper at the upcoming
Southern Graphics Council International Conference
in San Francisco
March 26 – 29

Autumn Events

Between Us cover imageWe have a few things going on this season to share with you.

Book Arts Jam at Foothill College
Saturday October 15, 10 – 4
Nanette will be writing Poems on the Spot with Robert Perry as part of Spontaneous Word Combustion
Both Kent and Nanette will be showing book works in several of the Jam exhibitions, including a group showing of Focus Generator inspired projects.

Uncommon Threads
23 Sandy Gallery, Portland, Oregon.
September 23 – October 29

Encoded Structures: Interpreting the Story
Handmade & Bound, Watkins College of Art, Nashville, Tennessee
September 30 – October 31

15th Anniversary Exhibition
San Francisco Center for the Book, 16th at Deharo, San Francisco, California
through November

Man as Object: Reversing the Gaze
SOMArts Cultural Center, 934 Brannan Street, San Francisco.
November 4 – 26

The Asian Connection: Art in a Global Age
Asian Arts Gallery at Towson University, Towson, Maryland.
through November 5