Scale In Contemporary Printmaking, Northampton MA

If you're located in New England and looking for something to do this Friday night, I hope you'll come to Northampton MA for the opening reception of "Scale in Contemporary Printmaking" at A.P.E. Gallery, from 5:00 - 8:00 pm. The show features work by twenty artists from Zea Mays Printmaking and includes printed works such as books, sculpture, mural, video, installation, and more. My five large “Loaded” prints are included and on the night of the reception I'll be printing a currency of my own design.

As I print, I'll also be talking with gallery-goers about some of the issues involved in pricing art by using my currency as an example. As I noted in my last post, I spent a substantial amount of time and money to create this currency. I'd like to at least earn back my out-of-pocket expenses, but I'd also like these notes to be available to most people, so when I designed them I envisioned them being fairly cheap -- close to a dollar for a "dollar." That math doesn't work out in my favor, though, so I want to gather opinions and information from people at the reception and have a discussion about how much these items, and maybe art in general, is worth and how to value it. (Blog readers, I'll report back after I've gathered the input.)

Here's a photo of my portion of the show on the day it was installed: