Book cover image courtesy of Fort Gondo Compound for the Arts
Fort Gondo Compound for the Arts, a nonprofit arts forum located on Cherokee, is exploring the world of publishing with a new artists’ book entitled Pink. The first in a series of annual publications, Pink will be released on June 8 and features the work of St Louis artist Edo Rosenblith.
Jessican Baran, who organizes Fort Gondo’s events and exhibits, hopes the project will expose people to art in an unexpected new format.
“Art writing and [art] books are often relegated to a very obscure, niche market—i.e., expensive coffee-table tchotchkes about exotic and/or historical artists—so I thought it would be interesting to democratize the form a little,” Baran says. “Make it something local, for the underserved and/or up-and-coming.”
The books in the upcoming series will be perfect-bound paperbacks. Pink includes several hundred sketchbook drawings, paintings, and prints created by Rosenblith over the past two years. With a focus on the human face, the images reflect a preoccupation with the grotesque, the ugly, and dark social satire.
Rosenblith, a 2011 graduate of the Rhode Island School of Art and Design, was born in Israel and raised in St. Louis. He currently teaches art at Giant Steps of St. Louis, a Maplewood school for children with autism spectrum disorders. His work has been featured all over the world, from St. Louis to Rome to Bogotá, Colombia. He maintains a blog of his daily paintings and drawings at edosdrawingeveryday.tumblr.com.
Co-curator of Fort Gondo’s poetry series with Jennifer Kronovet, a writer-in-residence in Washington University’s department of English, Baran has a special interest in small press publishing and the print book form.
“The idea is not to produce a traditional ‘exhibition catalogue’ that accompanies a show, but to truly craft an art book that takes into consideration the space of the physical book itself as a curatorial platform,” she says.
Baran hopes Pink will lead to further collaboration and melding of different artistic forms.
“I want to continue working with artists who, again, are specifically interested in the book form and the collaborative design and writing possibilities books propose,” she said. “Most of all, it just seemed like a really exciting venture to embark on—even if it ends up being an epic folly.”
To celebrate the publication of Pink, Rosenblith’s work will be exhibited at Fort Gondo, 3151 Cherokee. The opening reception is Saturday, June 8 at 7 p.m., and the exhibit will remain on display through July 6. For more information, go to fortgondo.com.
