There weren’t just traditional books and magazines at the Art Publishing Now fair, a chance for more than 30 Bay Area arts publications to get exposure and, maybe, sell some copies of their work. Blogs and innovative “art subscriptions” were also represented.
“We’ve done everything from video to tapestries,” said Eleanor Hanson Wise, co-director of The Present Group, a quarterly art subscription service at the fair. For $150, it sends subscribers four limited edition works of art.
Wise had two pieces with her: “Earth-Kiln-Bay-Kiln-Bay,” a land art performance by Presley Martin involving bricks he found, glazed, and then returned to a beach — and “Old Tricks for New Monkeys,” a machine embroidered re-creation of a liquid spill by the subscription’s current artist, Nava Lubelski.
Stretcher.org, which has been on Blogger since the site was still young in 2001, used the prospect of being at the publishing fair to redesign its website. Amy Berk, one of the co-publishers, showcased the remodeled site — which uses essays and reviews to generate conversation about contemporary art — on a computer at the fair.
But paper and ink weren’t in short supply. Re/Search Publications had a table covered in books and magazines. “I started out in punk rock in 1977,” said “V.” Vale, the publisher. Of his publications, “some of the bestsellers were modern or primitive, on body piercing,” he said.
San Francisco Arts Quarterly, known as “SFAQ,” is a much younger publication. It just released the third free issue, which as part of their neighborhood theme lists art spaces and events in the Mission District. But the upcoming fourth issue will be “open to all neighborhoods,” said co-publisher Andrew McClintock, an owner of Ever Gold Gallery in the Tenderloin.
Held inside Southern Exposure on the corner of 20th Street and Alabama, the room was abuzz from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. with artists and art enthusiasts networking. This was the second day of artists’ mingling. Art Publishing Now kicked off Saturday with a series of art talks called “The Summit,” and continued into the night with an after-party.
Overall, some 70 arts publications participated in the two-day event, including Mission Loc@l’s My Mission.
“One of the driving reasons we do this is to get everyone together,” said Courtney Fink, the executive director of Southern Exposure. “We have a strong community of artists, but not usually all in the same room.”
Talks from Art Publishing Now’s “The Summit” will soon be available at artpublishingnow.org.