Look for us to post in just a few hours a new print by Austin Thomas, I think you will be quite pleased by this - hope to see you soon.

Pocket Utopia presents “Business Edition,” a one-night exhibition of artist-produced editions and prints, and a selection of the recently inaugurated Kris Graves Projects and Pocket Utopia joint Flatfile and recent editions from 246 Editions

The evening’s highlights include:

• a Pocket Utopia limited edition by Adam Simon
• Recent Editions from 246 Editions artists Sharon Butler, Douglas Witmer, Matthew Langley, Steven Alexander, Martin Bromirski, Peter Dayton, Alex Paik, Isaac Layman, JT Kirkland, Susan Dory and Jeffrey Cortland Jones
• Hand-worked print by Andrew Piedilato published by Randy Wray’s Element Editions,
• Brece Honeycutt’s Byproduct
• A recent Maggie Michael painting on paper from +KGP&PU Flatfile,
• As well as additional works in progress by Pocket Utopia’s current artist in resident, Sharon Butler.

Please join us for a wine reception from 6 to 9 pm

Pocket Utopia
1037 Flushing Ave., Brooklyn, NY 11237
www.pocketutopia.com
L to Morgan Ave.

Enormous thanks to Austin Thomas for helping put this together.

Thank you for thinking of us here at 246 editions.

Mesh is part of a series of work that Mr. Jones has been working on with the working title of Fundamentalism. Astute readers might catch the reference to a particular iconic band out of Manchester in these titles which is (in this case) not a negative thing at all.

Mr. Jones combines quiet areas with more physical and detailed spaces in his work resulting in sections that are charged with the interplay of texture and color. These transmissions of impact and quiet provide plenty of space for the painterly areas of the work to come forward.

In the past few days, I’ve had this print hanging up at my Haçienda and it was quite a happy Monday when I realized it was time to present this artwork to the world. We hope you enjoy this print.

We at 246 dedicate this edition to Messrs Saville, Gretton, Wilson, and Hannett.

Don’t be shy, the work can be purchased here.

Here’s what is currently on the docket:

July 16th at Pocket Utopia (Bushwick, Brooklyn)

October in Philadelphia (almost final - TBA soon)

Washington DC in late October/Early November (almost final - TBA soon)

When we approached Sharon to publish her work here, we expected to see more of her expressive and thoughtful paintings streamlined into an approach that really works for prints. What we received was far more than we hoped for and in a different direction than we expected. I’m always thrilled when someone’s work is robust enough to push itself in a different direction while still maintaining all of the great things you liked about the work in the first place.

With that said Sharon flipped the switch by allowing us to look into her process by working directly from her sketchbooks and delivering a finely taught piece of art. Sharon’s decision to go this route was encouraged by conversations with John Davis (of The John Davis Gallery, where she is currently showing her paintings) and collectors who were interested in her project.

We love it when a round table discussion or even a cocktail party brings out great things. We hope you do too.

Hello everyone - today we are happy to present our fourth edition. Matthew Langley’s On The Way Home.

Matthew’s artwork is developed by using multiple strategies. One of building and extending - the other of reducing and minimizing. These disparate approaches are not a way to impose meanings on the work, but can be viewed as a metaphoric crossroads. This crossroads is about extending the relationship of these different approaches, while at the same time allowing the viewer the liberty of time for further reading of the work. Matthew’s images use this strategic foundation to build clear, concise and rational images, while at the same time allowing for a sense of community and/or contemplation to develop in and around the artworks.

Matthew Langley was born in 1963 in Alexandria, Virginia and studied at Virginia Commonwealth University and received a BFA from The Corcoran School of Art in 1986. His work has been exhibited nationally and is included in major collections such as Ernst and Young, DC Commission for the Art and Humanities, The International Museum of Collage, Assemblage and Construction. Recent exhibitions include The District of Columbia Arts Center and Green Line Art Projects in Philadelphia. Mr. Langley’s artwork has been covered in publications such as Art in America, The Washington Post, and The Washington Citypaper among others. He lives and works in Falls Church, VA.

We have been big fans of Steven Alexanders work for quite awhile and are super happy to be presenting his work in our third edition.

Steven’s work is interested in the interaction between the painting and the viewer’s imagination and experience; effectively in the painting’s catalytic potency and it’s potential to generate unspecified mobile meaning.William S. Burroughs and Brion Gysin referred to this as the third mind - the conscious created between an artwork and the viewer viewing it.

Steven is trying to build, out of color and substance, a place for the viewer’s consciousness - where unexpected associations and resonances may occur, where past and future merge with the present moment, and the stuff of life, love and desire has corporeal presence - states of being, embodied in paint.

Sharon Butler has given a number of updates including a sneak peek of the work she has been doing leading up to her release in the next week or so… Sharon writes Two Coats of Paint, you should be reading it as well as her reviews in the Brooklyn Rail.

We went live today with this great print from Peter Dayton. If your here, you have probably seen it. However if not, see above or visit 246 Editions home page.