The Front Room Gallery is pleased to present Multiples and Editions, vol. 2, the second exhibition featuring works from the gallery’s ongoing curated program. The exhibition will feature work by with Amanda Alic, Luca Bertolo, Nelson Bradley, Tyra Bombetto, Chiara Camoni & Ines Bassanetti, Cammi Climaco, Naval Cassidy, Patrick Couder, Gregory Curry, Rik de Boe, Lisa DiLillo, Celeste Fichter, Joshua Fields, Sean Hemmerle, Chuck Jones, David Kramer, James Leonard, Travis Lindquist, Tom Mulligan, Serge Onnen, Allan Packer, Melissa Pokorny, Ross Racine, Marshall Reese & Nora Ligorano, Matt Richards, David Shapiro, Philip Simmons, Jeremy Slater, Patricia Smith, Jan Sokota, George Spencer, Anna Stein & Athena Robles, Rodger Stevens, Mark Strathy, Sara Ching-Yu Sun, Jeremy James Thompson, Jason Van Anden and Edie Winograde.

The Multiples and Editions program began in January 2007 with an exhibition showcasing editioned works by over 30 artists. The program presents artists who approach the editioned work as field of artistic discourse and inquiry rather than simply as a way to mass-produce their artwork. The competing influences of consumer culture, mass-marketing, obscurantism, art market snobbery and populism are explored, critiqued and lampooned by artists working in many different media. Some of the artists explore what, if anything, distinguishes art objects from other kinds of material possessions that can be bought and sold (then resold on the secondary market). Some are unconcerned with the “status” of the objects that they make and seek to inject their subversive objects into the unsuspecting hands of non-art consumers. Many of the artists are keenly aware of the potential for their objects to gradually evolve into valued art market commodities, nullifying any populist aims they might have intended. Others are eager for this metamorphosis to take place. Some even deal with the design and/or fiat value of money itself.

Returning to the Front Room for the Multiples and Editions, vol. 2 exhibition will be Marshall Reese and Nora Ligorano, who together comprise Pure Products USA, and make limited edition artwork with a sly political wit. Their F**K Snow Globe was a run-away hit (and hot seller) in the 2007 Multiples and Editions exhibition. For the 2008 exhibition they will present Giuliani Time, a clock bearing the face of the Republican presidential candidate and former NYC mayor. Offering the clock at the drastically reduced price of $69.11 (30% off), the artists urge you to purchase yours now because “Time is running out!”. Anna Stein also returns, this time with collaborator Athena Robles, to present Jamaica Bucks, an alternative currency for the people of Jamaica, Queens. The newly minted Jamaica dollars were paid to residents in exchange for their photographic portrait and could be used to buy actual merchandise in local shops. The project was sponsored by the Queens Museum. Edie Winograde’s photographic series Optimism Peak pits the serial reproduction of iconic images (in the tradition of Hiroshige as much as Andy Warhol) against the vicissitudes of weather and geologic time. In the series, Winograde photographed Colorado’s Pikes Peak from the same vantage point over weeks, months and seasons. James Leonard will offer his Warbonds Certificates a monetary instrument which he will sell in order to finance the completion of an ambitious installation. The bonds incorporate many of the details and security features that genuine government bonds use.

On Saturday January 26th Leonard will premiere a performance related to his Warbonds project.

The exhibition will feature prototypes, working sketches and other supporting materials that relate to the multiples and editions and which elaborate and inform the multiples themselves.

A printed catalog of the multiples and editions will be available at the exhibition and all works will be available for purchase in the gallery’s online store (beginning Jan. 11th) at: www.frontroom.org/editions. The multiples and editions store continues to occupy a portion of the Front Room gallery year round, and the gallery continues to actively seek new works to be added to the program.