Between all the stuffiness and squeezers of recent years, I have never believed that an art fair could actually be fun – no, Really nice – Until last night, when I have the inaugural edition of the Brooklyn Fine Art Print Fair (BFAPF) in Gowanus. Simultaneously with the annual exhibition of the International Fine Pert Dealers Association at the Avenue Armory park, BFAPF 27 until 30 March runs in Powerhouse Arts and emphasizes the close printing and publication community above something else.
In addition to the genuine relief to be saved an hour-long journey, I can confidently say that I enjoyed myself enormously and not just because BFAPF was just a 15-minute walk from my place. In the first year, the stock market felt cozy, with a manageable layout of around 40 domestic and international exhibitors in the Great Hall and more than 30 sellers who are supplied to the loft, but energetic with its high turnout on the opening evening.
The best of all, independent print shops, print-oriented galleries, institutional printing programs such as those of Pratt Institute and Hunter College, and high-profile publishers such as two palms were all united in their shared passion, not only for the vessel, but the connection that provokes both process and valuation.
Luther Davis, director of Powerhouse Arts’s Silkscreen Printshop, led the new stock market with Ann Shachaer and Brian Miller from Fine Arts Baltimore, the main developers of the City’s own Fine Art Print Fair That started in 2022. During my course through the fair I learned that the trio did the heavy work by also pulling exhibitors – the majority of the participants indicated that they were encouraged to participate at least one of the three, with some who mentioned that Eric Shiner, President of Powerhouse Arts, also spread some invitations.
At the shared position with Bushwick Print Lab (BPL), Lane Sell, Shoestring Press’s Master Printer, which felt the entire stock exchange as ‘a big reunion’.
Because I felt a bit uncomfortable during most other art fairs for spring, I felt welcome and at ease by navigating the exhibitors at Powerhouse Arts. It was just as easy to make contact with non -graduated students who exhibit via the Parsons School of Design Booth if it was to talk to Old School publishers, gallerists and master printers who collaborate with Marilyn Minter, Cecily Brown and Terry Winters – especially if someone with minimal printing knowledge.
Another element that struck me was the unabashed messages transmitted by recommended artists, who felt authentic instead of … well, trendy. Many of the cabins had groceries that are fully cut to support transgender rights and recognized the damage to immigration and customs enforcement, border patrol and other imminent forces among Trump-Die all the role of hat-tip printing in activism and organizing spaces through seriality, creative freedom and easy distribution.
Peter Haarz, owner and director of Petrichor Press in Philadelphia, showed Jonathan Lyndon Chase’s Hot boyz (2024), A series of illustrated red and orange lithographs that delve into black and queer sexual pleasure detached from allusions and modesty. Haarz told me that BFAPF was a chance to get Chase’s work for a new audience, which was ‘more important than ever’.
In the same way, Frank Rose of Hecho A Mano in Santa Fe, a contemporary print-oriented gallery that mainly worked with artists in New Mexico and Mexico, which immigration policy has weighed heavily on his community.
“One of our artists, Juana Estrada Hernández, is a Daca receiver (deferred action for arrivals in children), and that program is threatened,” Rose told me. “She came here at seven o’clock and was able to qualify for this program, and she lives and teaches and makes work in the United States, but could easily withdraw her status.”
Hernández’s activities at the Hecho A Mano Booth touches her experience with the help of motifs of barbed wire and a view over the Rio Grande. Other standouts include the woodcut of Edith Chavez and Rhiannon Sky Tafoya’s screen printing.
Right: Cecily Brown’s Etsen “The Five Senses (scent)” (2023)
(Photos Rhea Nayyar/Hyperallergic With two palms)
Visitors should definitely make a point not to miss the stands of viaduct projects Booth, Jillian Ross Print’s Booth, David Krut projects, Image Resource, Eminence Grise Editions, the Hunter College MFA program and two palms not to be missed.
But the most important thing is that everyone who comes by should not be afraid to ask questions or just chop the exhibitors – I guarantee that you are running away if you have learned something, more than that, and with a new or renewed appreciation for work And Love that goes into this profession.
