Opinions on Art by Emily Larned

Please contact 23 Sandy for current availability.
Every year at my building's Open Studios, invariably a visitor says some variation of "Is there any art in here, or are you just a printer?" Open Studios attracts a wide cross-section of people, from art lovers and artists to members of the general public looking for a weekend activity. Still, each person who attends the event is deliberately seeking out an "art experience." So what is it that they expect to find? This question prompted me to develop a survey in order to collect people's opinions on art. The survey is conducted exclusively at art contexts to provide a tool for reflection while participants are simultaneously experiencing art. The survey is entirely set in metal type, printed letterpress. Handset type is essential to my art practice, and many participants recognized this labor, care, and attention that went into the production of the survey: it is an indicator that the survey is not a straightforward barometer of public opinion, but also an artwork itself. We currently have seven books available for purchase: New Haven Open Studios (Oct 2014), 6 Surveys, $90 UB SASD Faculty Exhibition (Fall 2014), 35 Surveys, $525 Ugly Duckling Presse (Oct 2014), 11 Surveys, $165 Columbia University MFA (Nov 201), 8 Surveys, $120 Connecticut College (Nov 2014), 15 Surveys, $225 AFA Open Studios BPT (Nov 2014), 56 Surveys, $840 NHIA Exhibition (Spring 2015), 23 Surveys, $345 Please contact Laura at 23 Sandy to purchase.

Artist Bio

Emily Larned's work is located at the intersection of handmade publishing and socially engaged art. She has been self-publishing since 1993, when as a teenager she produced her first zine. While an undergraduate, she learned letterpress printing from printer-publisher Robin Price. After graduating from Wesleyan University, Emily was an active artist member of Booklyn Artists Alliance, serving on the board of directors for eight years. She is the co-founder of Impractical Labor in Service of the Speculative Arts (ILSSA), a membership organization as socially engaged art project. Emily has curated several exhibitions of independent publishing, taught at every level from after-school program through MFA, and has lectured widely. Her artist's books and publications are collected by 70 institutions internationally, including the Tate, the Walker, the V&A, the Brooklyn Museum, the Getty, and the Smithsonian. She earned her MFA in Graphic Design from Yale School of Art and is currently Chair and Associate Professor of Graphic Design at SASD, University of Bridgeport, Connecticut.