As briefly mentioned in past posts Space 1026 is a hub of creativity tucked away in the Chinatown section of Philadelphia, conveniently across from the Greyhound station. It’s a community of diverse artisans partaking in an ongoing experiment of codependency and codisfunctionality. But some how they make it work. This fluctuating group of members has exhibited both nationally and internationally, and has hosted some of the most spectacularly weird exhibits I’ve had the pleasure to see. ‘Hello God are you there? It’s me Space 1026’ is one of the many screen-printed collaborative books of this 10 year old art collective. It contains Multi color screen-prints, uncensored back and forth email discussions, photographs, hand-sewn pages, patterny stuff and other unfettered artful absurdities. Books are available at their new online store.
And Good bye on-loo

One of my Favorite artists of all time is Andrew Jeffrey Wright. He is one of the founders of Space 1026 and is an accomplished artist just read his bio. Some would also consider him to be the King of the Modern DIY zine, while some would argue that hes the King of rave, but that’s a topic for another blog. Andrew’s work puts the ‘fartsy’ into ‘artsy fartsy’, and upon inspection of a zine like ‘Art is a smile that gives you a hug’ that comment becomes an understatement. The zine itself is a spastic mélange of gradient screen-prints and gocco prints, color and black and white copies of photographs, hilarious collages, with a fold out psychedelic poster in the center. Also included are magical drawings by such artists as: Ese Olanday, Noah Lyons, Shelly Spector, Isaac Lin, Crystal Kovacs, Jung Hong, Brian Chippendale, Thom Lessner, and Paper Rad. Andrew’s book Labs With Abs has also been featured on this wonderful blog before.

Mark Price I see as a Macgyver figure, a Jack of the creative trade. And I say this after watching the whole first season of Macgyver, but Mark is for real. He keeps a tight schedule being a dynamic artist, apocalyptic poet, skilled screen-printer, and jarring noise musician and performer. Still I’m sure he could stop an acid leak with a chocolate bar if needed. His book Consider Everything in Badshape is one of the many flawlessly (not in badshape) screen-printed and bound book by the human factory Mark Price. The book was produced with the support of the Xeric Grant, a grant started by TMNT Peter A. Laird. You can read more about the process of him earning the grant and printing process of the book here.

Not much can match a relaxing time sitting in a Café sipping espresso, but more so if you can sip espresso with a good friend and have a conversation on such topics as events of the day, and the world around. On many occasions I have had the pleasure to do so with Andy Rementer. Though more often than not discussions depart into the general descent of man, the toxic consumertocracy, the useless gadgets, the general public who have fallen into the bleakness of unsatisfactory habitual routine are the regular points of our discourse. Mind you it’s not some ghoulish obsession of negative thought patterns but a general concern for humanity. It’s those reflective musings and observations of work life, youth culture, and all those other nonimportant things of life that are freshly portrayed in Spiller #2. This black and white copy zine, is a must have for all those people who’ve got it all and those who want more. Andy also has a weekly online comic strip Techno Tuesday and in the past his sketchbooks have been featured on this blog.

I’m someone who has a strong respect for industriousness, and the human/mechanical process of screen-printing has an awing effect on me. A few years back I saw Tim Gough printing a zine at the Philadelphia art space and gallery Space 1026. I recall it was the first time I witnessed the tedious manufacturing of a handmade screen-printing book live, the racks were full of drying pages, Tim effortlessly was pulling ink and printing page after page. The book he was constructing was ‘Cut and Paste’ and was the first installment in an ongoing series of zine of rejected ideas and random doodles. I always enjoy Tim’s incredibly energetic work, with it’s style of multi layered explosive graphic color. His illustrations emanate a friendly rebelliousness. Also look here for some outrageous poster designs by Tim.