David Zwirner is pleased to present Unrepeated: Unique Prints from Two Palms, an exhibition of recent unique prints made at the visionary print studio Two Palms, at the gallery’s 537 West 20th Street location in New York. This selection will include works by Marina Adams, Mel Bochner, Cecily Brown, Peter Doig, Carroll Dunham, Chris Ofili, Elizabeth Peyton, Dana Schutz, Stanley Whitney, and Terry Winters.
Two Palms has been at the vanguard of experimental printmaking processes since it was established in 1994 by David Lasry in downtown New York. With an array of specialized tools and equipment, such as its rare hydraulic press, the studio has championed the creation of monoprints and monotypes—which Lasry sees as “perhaps the most diverse and dynamic of all the print mediums.”1 The exhibition is a fitting collaboration with Lasry, a longtime friend of the gallery, who has worked with numerous David Zwirner artists and others to conceive of new and surprising ways to realize their goals. The prints on view will illuminate a range of these processes, which have resulted in some of the most inventive applications of the medium today.
Monotypes and monoprints use similar processes resulting in unique prints. A monotype typically involves the simple transfer of an image from one smooth surface to another. Since the initial surface on which the artist creates the image is not etched or otherwise absorbent to ink, the image can only be transferred once. A monoprint is similar, except that the original surface begins with a repeatable image made through traditional printmaking techniques that enable multiples, such as etching, lithography, or silkscreen; an element within or on top of the repeatable image is then uniquely colored, drawn, painted, or otherwise altered, so each print in the series becomes a “variation on a theme.”