Artbook Press

McDowel

Artbook Press has been retained as a distribution consultant for Poetic Grace, a book by gifted photographer Elizabeth Opalenik, a widely exhibited and collected artist who believes all good photographs are self portraits that lie somewhere between imagination and dreams. As noted by Joyce Tenneson, "Her stunning nude and flower images are created in the mordançage technique, of which Opalenik is one of the world masters. The silver emulsion is chemically lifted, removed or rearranged in the shadow areas of the silver print. Delicate floating veils are Opalenik's contribution to this time consuming process. The resulting images are truly one-of-a-kind. They can never be repeated. Every once in a while, an artist comes around that has a truly distinctive means of using materials in a fresh new way. Opalenik is one of these artists. Her work connects us with layers of the worlds that often go unnoticed."

We are proud to announce preparation of a new book by the well-known American photographer, Elliott McDowell. Elliott has been devoted to photography since childhood. He studied with Ansel Adams and – in Santa Fe – with William Clift and Laura Gilpin. His black and white images were published in a 1980 book by David R. Godine, Boston, and as posters by Aberbach Fine Art, New York. In recent years McDowell has turned to color digital imaging and photo composites, which will be celebrated in the forthcoming volume. The introduction is by distinguished photography critic and author, Eugenia Parry, who previously has written, "McDowell is a digital painter, surgical splicer of non-sequiturs. He collects [photographic] bits by the thousands, and like a painter, chooses and arranges them like colors from a palette...plying his enchantments like an alchemist."

Development is underway for a remarkable book project by the leading Chicago artist, Gerald Griffin. A graduate of the Art Institute of Chicago, Mr. Griffin has won numerous awards and has exhibited at prominent locales including The Studio Museum in New York, The Columbus Museum of Art, the DuSable Museum of African American History, and the Vanderpole Museum. His ground-breaking new work, Inner Vision, comprised of 33 poems and 33 paintings, is an especially notable example of bookmaking. It will be printed as three large-format volumes and hand bound in fine leather-like material, with all three books enclosed in a similarly bound, hand built, clasp presentation box of 16" x 16".

Artbook Press has assisted preparation of a new book by the prominent impressionist painter Howard Behrens. Known as a master among American palette knife artists and celebrated with more than 200 one-man shows, Behrens' subjects include sun-drenched coastal areas of the United States, the Caribbean, Mexico, the Italian Riviera, southern France and the Mediterranean. His book features superb reproductions of his finest work, as well as a ground-breaking illustrated index of all Behrens limited editions created since 1980. The Best of Behrens includes a perceptive introduction by Julie Keller, President of Keller Art Services and former editor in chief of Art Business News.