Pace Prints Chelsea is pleased to announce the exhibition, Francesco Clemente: 25 Years of Printmaking. This presentation will feature a selection of prints spanning the artist’s prolific body of graphic work from 1982 to the present, some of which will be presented to the public for the first time.

Francesco Clemente created his first etchings and drypoints in 1980 and has continued to work with many different printmaking techniques since then. Highlights of the exhibition include three exquisite Ukiyo-e woodcuts created with Pace Editions’ master printer, Yasuyuki Shibata, which comprise his most recent prints. The imagery and printing process were specifically chosen to highlight the fluid quality of color that can be achieved with this method of woodblock printing. Each of the Ukiyo-e prints being presented is meticulously created with up to 21 individual wood blocks.

Clemente’s rich visual language is informed by metaphysics, both classical and personal mythologies and theosophies with a strong focus on the visceral body to encapsulate a dialogue between the internal and the external, the scatological and the sublime. The work traverses medium and time to create a constellation of interwoven ideas. The artist’s nomadic lifestyle has allowed him to absorb influences from other cultures resulting in collaborations with Indian miniaturists and sign painters, along with artists and writers such as Andy Warhol, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Allen Ginsberg, Rene Ricard and Robert Creeley, among others.

Artist books have been an ongoing aspect of Clemente’s artistic oeuvre and Alcuni Telefonini created in 2008 will be on view. This limited edition illustrated book is the first joint project with his longtime friend, the writer Vincent Katz. A selection of the original watercolors reproduced in the book will also be exhibited.

A special reading from Alcuni Telefonini by Vincent Katz will be held at the Pace Prints Chelsea Gallery on December 18 from 6-8pm.

Francesco Clemente was born in 1952 in Naples, Italy. He briefly studied architecture at the Universita degli Studi di Roma la Sapienza in Rome in 1970. Beginning in 1973, the artist began his first of many extensive travels to India where he maintains a residence in Madras. He moved to New York in 1981 and also resides part time in Rome. His work has been shown in numerous solo and group exhibitions including traveling retrospectives at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in 1999 and The Philadelphia Museum of Art in 1990 and the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, 1986.

Founded in 1968, Pace Prints is the Fine Art Print department affiliated with PaceWildenstein Gallery. Pace Prints is a member of the Art Dealers Association of America (ADAA) and International Fine Prints Dealers Association (IFPDA).