Image: ©Yeohyun Ahn, all rights reserved
South Korean artist combines code, typography, and mathematics with calligraphy.
Sioux Center, Iowa: Beginning November 2, a new art exhibition will be on display in Dordt’s Campus Center Gallery. The artwork is by Yeohyun Ahn, South Korean artist and graphic designer.
Ahn is an award-winning typographer and visual designer. She is also an assistant professor of communication at Valparaiso University in Indiana. Previously, she taught at Chicago State University, the School of Art Institute of Chicago, and did freelance graphic art for the New York Times. Her artwork has been featured in the Washington Post and the New York Times, as well as in art galleries in South Korea, Japan, and the United States.
Growing up in South Korea, Ahn was first drawn to typography by learning calligraphy from her grandparents. While her parents encouraged her to study computer science, Ahn eventually decided to pursue an MFA in graphic design.
Her artwork is a representation of “cybernetic ecology”: the harmonization of the human and the machine. Ahn uses computer coding and mathematical algorithms to create abstract representations of letters and words, which simultaneously evoke cutting-edge technology and the natural or religious. To create her works, Ahn utilizes a variety of computer software, including Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, and “Processing” – a more recent program that integrates coding and artwork.
“[My pieces] convey diversified visual messages inspired by nature,” says Ahn, “addressing environmental issues such as green design, healing through art, and exploring philosophical and religious interpretations regarding life, death and love.”
Two of Ahn’s collections: “The Bible + Code” and “O Antiphones + Code” will be exhibited in the Campus Center Gallery at Dordt from November 2 until the end of December. “The Bible + Code” is inspired by Scriptural imagery, and “O Antiphones + Code” was created for the 2016 Advent Vespers booklet for the Chapel of the Resurrection at Valparaiso University.
A reception will be held at Dordt’s Campus Center Gallery on November 13, from 6:45-8:00 p.m., with a discussion at 7:00 p.m.
Wednesday, November 8, 2017
Dordt Hosts Art Reception on the Mathematical Art of Yeohyun Ahn, Nov. 13
Saturday, December 24, 2016
Corita Kent exhibit on display at Dordt College
Corita Kent
Love, 1979
Screen Print, 20 x 20 inches
“…the ability to feel is very beautiful.” —Corita Kent
Dordt College will display a selection of original screen prints by Corita Kent from the collection of the Corita Art Center, Los Angeles. The exhibition of 26 prints will be on display from January 6 to February 12.
The exhibition has been curated by Dordt College Professor of Art David Versluis. “I attempted to select work that represents the range of Corita Kent’s typographic style and expressiveness,” says Versluis. “As a graphic design instructor for many years I’ve thought about the qualities of Corita Kent and her activist screen prints of the ’60s and ’70s. This exhibition suggests that her message and image prints are as important and relevant for us today as they were nearly 50 years ago.”
Corita Kent (Sister Mary Corita) (1918–1986), born in Fort Dodge, Iowa, was an artist, educator, and advocate for social justice. At age 18 she entered the religious order Immaculate Heart of Mary, eventually teaching in and then heading up the art department at Immaculate Heart College in Los Angeles. Her work evolved from figurative and religious to incorporating advertising images and slogans, popular song lyrics, biblical verses, and literature. Throughout the ’60s, her work became increasingly political, urging viewers to consider poverty, racism, and injustice.
In 1968 she left the order and moved to Boston. Her work evolved into a sparser, introspective style, influenced by living in a new environment, a secular life, and her battles with cancer. She remained active in social causes until her death in 1986. At the time of her death, she had created almost 800 screen print editions, thousands of watercolors, and innumerable public and private commissions.
Roy R. Behrens sent me this review of the Corita Kent catalog from the College Art Association.
Wednesday, September 14, 2016
Sola Scriptura art exhibit at Dordt College
 |
| Geneva Bible leaf, 1597 |
The exhibit celebrates the 500th anniversary of the Reformation, to be marked in 2017, by recalling “how Martin Luther brought the Scripture to the forefront as a way to center our personal and communal lives more fully on Christ.”
Sola Scriptura features over 35 works and is divided into three sections: Translating the Bible, Illuminating the Bible, and Picturing the Bible.
Translating the Bible includes portrait engravings of Martin Luther, an 1875 Martin Luther German Bible, and one leaf from a 1541 edition of Luther’s Bible. Illuminating the Bible features New Testament engravings from a German prayer book, illuminated pages from a 15th century Vulgate, and a parchment manuscript used by medieval choirs. Picturing the Bible features contemporary artists who use Biblical text as “an integral part of their artwork.” A few of the contemporary artists featured are Sandra Bowden, Timothy Botts, Susan Coe, and the late Guy Chase. Read More......
Thursday, April 28, 2016
Dordt College graphic design and printmaking student: Kwan Yong Park, South Korea
Kwan Yong Park
Untitled
Two-Color Linocut 2016
Several Dordt College art and design students, taking printmaking for the first time, recently had their artwork selected in a juried Regional Exhibition. Dabin Jeong, Youra Song, and Kwan Yong Park were among the twenty-five regional artists featured in Orange City Arts’ exhibit April 22–30, 2016 at the DeWitt Theatre Arts Center at Northwestern College in Orange City, Iowa.
Friday, March 11, 2016
MCA Chicago / Pop Art Design: Alexander Girard’s Letter Patterns
Alexander Girard (American, 1907-1993)
Alphabet, 1952
Wallpaper pattern
Printed paper
Herman Miller, Inc.
Zeeland, Michigan
Collection of the Vitra Design Museum
The fabric piece (wall hanging) partially shown above Girard’s letter patterns is titled “Letters” was designed in 1955 by Gunnar Aagaard Andersen (Danish 1919-1982).
Tuesday, February 9, 2016
Anne and Paul Rand's: “Listen! Listen!”
Listen! Listen! An inside spread.
A children’s book by Ann Rand and illustrated by Paul Rand
Copyright ©1970 Harcourt, Brace & World Book. Photograph of the spread is from the book collection of Dordt College Library’s Learning Resource Center.
Thursday, November 5, 2015
“Notable Quotable” — A Student Typography Poster Competition
© Jordan Harmelink. “Than the Trees.” 2015 Notable Quotable
11 x 17 inches.
A Dordt College Graphic Design 3 studio project.
Quote by Henry David Thoreau
Jordan Harmelink, a Dordt College junior student recently had a poster design selected for the Notable Quotable juried competition, organized by the AIGA Student Group at Southeast Missouri State University and the River Campus Art Gallery. Awards will be announced at a reception on November 6.
The criteria for design included a notable quote, which was expressed with innovative typography. Each designer had to be a student at a university in the state of Missouri or in any state that borders it.
“Notable Quotable” — A Student Typography Poster Competition
© Vanessa Blankespoor. “Elegance” 2015 Notable Quotable
11 x 17 inches.
A Dordt College Graphic Design 3 studio project.
Elegance, is not the abundance of simplicity. It is the absence of complexity. — Alex White
Vanessa Blankespoor, a Dordt College junior recently had a poster design selected for the Notable Quotable juried competition, organized by the AIGA Student Group at Southeast Missouri State University and the River Campus Art Gallery. Awards will be announced at a reception on November 6.
The criteria for design included a notable quote, which was expressed with innovative typography. Each designer had to be a student at a university in the state of Missouri or in any state that borders it.
Sunday, November 1, 2015
“Notable Quotable” — A Student Typography Poster Competition
© Lance Wunderink. “Every film is a puzzle” 2015 Notable Quotable
Received an Honorable Mention
11 x 17 inches.
A Dordt College Graphic Design 3 studio project.
Every film is a puzzle really, from an editorial point of view — Walter Murch.
Lance Wunderink, a Dordt College senior recently had a poster design selected for the Notable Quotable juried competition,
organized by the AIGA Student Group at Southeast Missouri State
University and the River Campus Art Gallery. Awards will be announced at
a reception on November 6.
The criteria for design
included a notable quote, which was expressed with innovative
typography. Each designer had to be a student at a university in the
state of Missouri or in any state that borders it.
Tuesday, October 27, 2015
“Notable Quotable” — A Student Typography Poster Competition
© Jordyn Visscher. “Work for a Cause.” 2015 Notable Quotable
Received an Honorable Mention
11 x 17 inches.
Hand-printed wood type; cut, assembled, and printed digitally.
A Dordt College Graphic Design 3 studio project.
Work for a cause not for applause
Live life to express not to impress —author unknown
Jordyn Visscher, a Dordt College junior student recently had a poster design selected for the Notable Quotable juried competition, organized by the AIGA Student Group at Southeast Missouri State University and the River Campus Art Gallery. Awards will be announced at a reception on November 6.
The criteria for design included a notable quote, which was expressed with innovative typography. Each designer had to be a student at a university in the state of Missouri or in any state that borders it.
Thursday, September 10, 2015
typographer and architect juxtaposed: a version of ‘typotekt’
Antonius Kurvers (Dutch, 1889-1940)
Poster
Tentoonstelling van Nederlandsche
Gemeentewerken (Exhibition of Dutch Municipal Works [Utrecht]), 1926
Color lithograph; Van Leer, Printer
Gerrit Rietveld (Dutch, 1888-1964)
Sideboard, 1959 (designed 1919)
Beechwood, pigment
Gerard A. van de Groenekan, Maker (Dutch, 1904-1994)
From the Modernism Collection, Minneapolis Institute of Art
‘Typotekt’ is a shortening of the words typographer and architect and was a name used by Piet Zwart to describe himself as a graphic designer.
Monday, June 22, 2015
Vernacular OldType in Grand Marais
Bally’s Blacksmith Shop (built ca.1911), Grand Marais, Minnesota.
This close-up photo features the early signage (perhaps original) on the side of the building. The structure is undergoing renovation as a historical site. Photograph by versluis ©2015.
Perhaps the letterforms in this particular sign were generated by a self-taught sign painter, but the type fitting, letter spacing and classic layout on clapboards is especially interesting. The sign painter expresses ingenuity through the combination of condensed with regular and extended type styles in order to copy-fit the text within the space.
Writer Meredith Davis in her book Graphic Design Theory mentions that:
The often hand-generated and "crudely" designed vernacular faces were in stark contrast to the typographic precision and refinement of late modernism. They recalled the history of communication, distinctions of social class and settings, and associations with how and for whom they were produced. (1)
- Davis, Meredith. Graphic Design Theory. New York: Thames & Hudson Inc., 2012. 120-21. Print.
Monday, August 18, 2014
At the Walker: Art Expanded, 1958–1978—Fluxus / Zaj
ZAJ
José Luis Castillejo
1968/1969
9.25 × 7.25 inches
Screen printing in pink and black ink on white card stock
This strikingly simple large pink “C” is juxtaposed elegantly with a big black dot in this design for a Fluxus style, Zaj performance announcement—the text is in Spanish. Printed on front and back.
Walker Art Center didactic states that this piece in their collection is one of:
Dozens of pieces of ephemera—posters, programs, announcements, postcards, and the like—document the activities of Fluxus and like-minded artist groups such as Zaj and Aktual Art.”
Fluxus rejected the values and conventions of high art in favor of new forms that were accessible, interactive, hybrid, and playful.… For many, Fluxus is a concept expansive enough to include the minimal compositions of La Monte Young, the mystically tinged performances of Joseph Beuys, the wry photographic sculpture of Robert Watts, the Concrete poetry of Emmett Williams, the manifestos and historiographic charts of George Maciunas, and the conceptual objects and films of Yoko Ono—all artists who stood under the Fluxus banner at some point during their careers.… (1)
- Rothfuss, Joan. "Fluxus." Collections. Walker Art Center, 2005. Web. 18 Aug. 2014.
Tuesday, April 22, 2014
Czech Graphic Design (book covers) from the 1920s—on display in the Ryerson and Burnham Libraries, AIC
Zdeněk Rossmann (1905-1984)
Fronta, Mezinárodní Sborník Soudobé Activity (The Front: International Review of Contemporary Creativity)
Brno: Edition Fronta, 1927
photograph by versluis 2014
Art Institute of Chicago, Ryerson Library label for this piece states:
The architect and designer Zdeněk Rossmann was a member of the Brno chapter of Devětsil from 1923-1927 and studied at the Bauhaus in Dessau in 1928-1929. Rossmann designed the cover for the compilation Fronta, produced by Brno Devětsil in 1927, which concerned the design and construction of an experimental housing colony. The cover design reflects avant-garde aesthetics of the time with the incorporation of typography into designs based on simple shapes.Read More......
Saturday, April 19, 2014
Czech graphic design (book covers) from the 1920s—on display in the Ryerson and Burnham Libraries, AIC
Otakar Mrkvička (1898-1957) [Czech painter, illustrator, cartoonist, art critic]
Plán, Revue pro Literaturu, Umeni a Vedu (Plán, Review for Literature, Art and Science)
Prague: Fr. Borový, 1929-
Number 1, 1929
photograph by versluis 2014
Art Institute of Chicago, Ryerson Library label for this piece states:
Magazines and JournalsRead More......
Devětsil members [avant-garde artists], student groups and publishers involved on the Czech avant-garde produced a number of magazines and journals. These often feathered the same techniques of photomontage and innovative typography found n the book covers of the period. Otakar Mrkvička designed he cover for the journal of literature, art and science Plán.
Monday, March 31, 2014
art deco typography in the twin cities
Joseph Claude Sinel
New Zealander, 1889-1975
“Model S” scale, c. 1927 (closeup of the base)
International Ticket Scale Company, Manufacturer, New York City
From the collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Art
photograph by versluis
“You don't write because you want to say something, you write because you have something to say.”
― F. Scott Fitzgerald
Saturday, September 7, 2013
“Anamorphose”: an anamorphic / metamorphosis, metaphoric typeface by Simon Renaud
X, Y, Z
A is a name (Simon Renaud), Photographer: Véronique Pêcheux
15¾ x 23⅜ — 2013
This piece was featured in the 2013 Pop-up Exhibition: Re/View, Work at Play which ran during June in Block Thirty Seven at the Chicago Design Museum. The exhibition ran concurrently with Chicago Design Week. photo by versluis
The exhibition label for this piece states:
Anamorphose is a contemporary typeface drawn in a three dimensional grid that, while rethought to exist in a physical space, retains elements of Textura (used in the Gutenberg Bible). Anamorphose is anchored in the geometry of historic Blackletter typefaces and is created by hand. The forms are then photographed to visually echo digitally rendered imagery.A is name is a Parisian studio founded by Simon Renaud and Jérémie Nuel in 2006. Their work centers on the design process in order to discover the artistry found in typographic forms and systems. As graphic designers, Renaud and Nuel utilize a systematic approach and methodology by researching the history of writing, science, and technology in order to develop an uniquely personal visual language.
Reference:
Leeman, Frederick, Joost Elffers, and Mike Schuyt. “Anamorphosen.” Trans. Ellyn Childs Allison and Margaret L. Kaplan. Hidden Images: Games of Perception, Anamorphic Art, Illusion. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1976. Print. Read More......
Sunday, July 28, 2013
Chicago Design Museum’s 2013 Pop-up Exhibition “Work at Play”
The entry to the Chicago Design Museum’s 2013 Pop-up Exhibition titled, Work at Play. We had a delightful chat with Stuart Hall, gallery assistant, who stands in the background of this image.
A very interesting design exhibition occurred last month in Chicago. The 2013 Pop-up Exhibition titled Work at Play opened in conjunction
with Chicago Design Week and ran for the entire month of June. Block Thirty-Seven, located at 108 North State Street, was the venue for one of Chicago Loop Alliance’s newest Pop-Up Art Loop galleries, a 17,000-square-foot space on the building's third floor. One of the charters of Pop-Up Art Loop is to: “Transform vacant Loop storefronts into vibrant temporary art galleries throughout the year. Taking its name from one of the original 58 city blocks established in 1830, Block Thirty Seven was there at Chicago’s
birth. Today it stands as an iconic symbol of Chicago’s future.” The building is a symbol of regeneration and one of Chicago’s newest downtown landmarks.
The premise for the exhibition states, “For many, the compulsion to create is constant. It’s unstoppable. Beyond the hours at the office, we create, we make–we play. In an attempt to find our own voice, we may stumble upon a visual language that can speak for and, perhaps, inspire others. This year, we celebrate the blurred line
between work and play.”
Here are a couple of examples from the exhibition:
Matthew Hoffman
Fresh Start/Start Fresh — 2013
44 x 77
Artist statement: “Fresh Start/Start Fresh consists of a rotational two-word ambigram created from a single connecting line. This optical illusion reminds us that every day can be a fresh start.”
Note: Shown above is my test of Matthew’s work where I took
the liberty of playing with his word image of “fresh” by rotating
and stacking it underneath. —thank you.
Thomas Quinn
Everything We See is a Perspective, Not the Truth — 2013
When viewing at a certain point, the text becomes aligned.
Artist statement: “Anamorphic typography is a special experience in which an arrangement of letters look perfectly set from a single point within a room, while looking wildly distorted from all other points. The message takes this experience and ties it to a larger point about seeing situations from another perspective.”
Sunday, April 14, 2013
Robert Motherwell’s “A la Pintura” — art of the epic dimension: a collaboration of painter, poet, printmaker, and publisher
Robert Motherwell, (American, 1915–1991)
Frontpiece – from A la Pintura, 1971, published 1972
Color aquatint from one copper plate and letterpress on white wove paper
121 x 197 mm (image/plate); 647 x 965 mm (sheet)
Belknap 82 artist's proof; Sparks 15 artist's proof
Prints are from the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago. Photographs by versluis are for educational purposes.
Motherwell’s “A la Pintura” is being shown as part of a wonderful exhibition titled, The Artist and the Poet at the Art Institute of Chicago, Galleries 124–127, through Sunday, June 2, 2013.
Other credits for A la Pintura include:
Written by Rafael Alberti (Spanish, 1902–1999) and translated by Ben Belitt (American, 1911–2003). Printed by Donn Steward (American, 1921–1986); typography by Juda Rosenberg and Esther Pullman. Published by Universal Limited Art Editions (American, founded 1955).A la Pintura is a book/portfolio of loose-leaf prints by painter Robert Motherwell, which combines and contrasts the linear expression of typography with painterly emotionality. “A la Pintura” comprises sensitive graphic images thoughtfully printed on the rag paper surface. The impact is shared with an equally masterful orchestration of positive and negative space for the effect of an epically dimensional composition.
In writing about this piece Judith Goldman comments:
A la Pintura, illustrating Rafael Alberti’s cycle of poems in homage to painting is Motherwell’s major graphic work. The grand book’s brilliance stems from the visual and literary collaboration and from a more essential one between the painter and bookman. In A la Pintura, the sensibility of the painter, editor, translator and man who knows type, work together. Motherwell designed the book, laid out the type, and determined the placement of each image on the unlikely sized, hand-torn loose sheets of J. B. Green paper. He had the original Spanish verse printed in color, keyed the poem’s subject (the English translation appears in black) to unite word and image. Alberti’s poem travels a gallery of art and colors and evokes in words what Valázquez, Brueghel and Bosch [and others] could only say with paint. (1)
Robert Motherwell (American, 1915-1991)
Red – from A la Pintura, 1971, published 1972
Color aquatint and lift-ground etching from two copper plates, with letterpress, on white wove paper
140 x 254 mm (image/plate); 647 x 965 mm (sheet)
Belknap 93 artist's proof; Sparks 27 artist's proof
Robert Motherwell (American, 1915-1991)
To the Paintbrush – from A la Pintura, 1969, published in 1972
Color soft-ground etching with aquatint from one copper plate, with letterpress, on white wove paper
254 x 406 mm (image/plate); 647 x 965 mm (sheet)
Belknap 101 artist's proof; Sparks 35 artist's proof
For further insight this text is from the The Artist and the Poet exhibition label:
According to John McKendry, former curator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, if nothing else survived of Robert Motherwell’s oeuvre save his A la Pintura, he “would still be seen as a major artist of the twentieth century.” Motherwell’s book of 24 unbound pages, with 21 mixed intaglio prints, “illuminates the poetry” of Raphael Alberti. After Robert Motherwell discovered Ben Belitt’s translation of Raphael Alberti’s A la Pintura (On Painting), Motherwell recalled, “I had found the text for a livre d’artiste, a text whose every line set into motion my innermost painterly feelings. . . . This poetry is made for painters, and this livre was made for the poetry. I meant the two to be wedded, as in a medieval psalter, but with my own sense of the modern.” Just as Motherwell was inspired by poetry, Alberti found constant source material in the visual arts. A la Pintura was his homage to the collection of master paintings in the Prado Museum in Madrid and was dedicated to his friend and fellow Spaniard Pablo Picasso. (2)
- Goldman, Judith. American Prints: Process & Proofs. First ed. New York: Whitney Museum of Art / Harper & Row, 1981. 114-23. Print.
- Collections: About This Artwork. Art Institute of Chicago, n.d. Web. 13 Apr. 2013.
Sunday, February 24, 2013
“We the People…” a typographic collage currently on display at Slocumb Galleries, ETSU
We the People… a typographic collage by David Versluis was selected for the 28th Annual Positive/Negative National Juried Art Exhibition. The exhibition titled “Minority Rule” is currently on display at the Slocomb Galleries at East Tennessee State University, Johnson City, Tennessee from 18 February to 8 March. Image © David Versluis 2013.
Versluis states, “Over the years, in some of my artwork, I’ve dealt with the theme ‘Minority Rule’ and all of these pieces are in the collage form. Interestingly, for this exhibition, I submitted this piece before President Obama used the ‘We the People’ refrain repeatedly in his second inaugural address.”
Slocumb Galleries and the Department of Art & Design at ETSU joined up with the college's Office of Multicultural Affairs, Black Affairs Association and Student Government Association to showcase this exhibition.
The juror, Michael Ray Charles, has a very impressive CV. Here are passages from the Slocumb Galleries website:
“‘Minority Rule’ is the theme of this year's exhibition, which features works in diverse media and perspectives—described by juror Michael Ray Charles as ‘nuanced artworks that reflect the complexities artists confront today.’”
The exhibition includes 38 artists from across the country whose work was selected into this year's exhibition.
Charles is an African-American painter based in Texas and one of the first in a group of artists showcased on “Art21,” a PBS series highlighting top artists of the 21st century. A 2003 article in “Black Issues in Higher Education” acknowledged Charles as one of the top future African-American scholars under 40. In 2000, he was a consultant on Spike Lee’s film, “Bamboozled,” and his work was included in the 2006 documentary “Race is the Place.”
Charles has served as a panelist for the National Endowment for the Arts and as a juror for the Bush Artist Fellowship in St. Paul, Minn., and the Inaugural Biennial Underground Railroad Exhibition at Northern Kentucky University.Read More......
He lectures and exhibits nationally and internationally. Currently, Charles is a professor of art in the Department of Art and Art History at the University of Texas at Austin.
