Gagosian Gallery’s exhibition-cum-tattoo parlor: At last year’s NYABF, the 8-Ball Zine Zone included custom airbrushing and stick-and-poke tattoo stations (our kinda party). This year, though, Gagosian Gallery is getting a little more legit with its inked-up installation FLASH FLASH FLASH. The gallery has recruited six guest artists to design original artworks that will be tattooed on NYABF attendees by Flyrite Tattoo artists Fernando Lions and Gillian Goldstein. These guest designers include Kim Gordon, Genesis Breyer P-Orridge, Devendra Banhart, and Turner Prize winner Douglas Gordon. Once a design has been tatted six times, it’ll be retired — so if you’re looking to get Breyer P-Orridge’s gnarly German Shepard or Gordon’s chair inked, you better get there in, well, a flash.
Oh So Pretty Punk in Print 1976-80 via @Phaidon and the collection of Toby Mott https://t.co/uPe4SsGMei #PunkLondon pic.twitter.com/twovfApUm5
— Nick Spence (@Nickfromupnorth) August 27, 2016
Punk in print: Later this fall, punk historian Toby Mott will release Oh So Pretty: Punk in Print, a 500-page book documenting graphic art and ephemera from the punk movement’s golden age, 1976-1980. The book celebrates its launch at the NYABF with an exhibition of over 100 artifacts — fan zines, gig flyers, posters, pins, patches, and more — and a sneak preview of the book. Punk in Print seeks to broaden the conversation from punk as a musical movement to an exploration of the distinctive visual art style and approach to art-making that emerged from its urgent anarchism. Toby Mott will sign copies of Oh So Pretty: Punk in Print on Saturday, September 17, at 3pm.
A full-on zine tornado: NYABF veterans Maia Ruth Lee and Peter Sutherland have teamed up to host The Zine Tornado, “a chaotic DIY zine-making experience.” The artists, who are married, regularly collaborate and are familiar faces among NYC’s thriving zine community — often found hanging out in various billiards halls for 8-Ball Zine Fairs, or at the Lorimer Street L station when the collective’s zine Newsstand was open to subway riders. Maia and Peter’s tornado is listed among the NYABF’s exhibition section, so it’s unclear what the event will actually comprise. Is it a workshop open to others? A live zine demonstration in which the two will enter Tasmanian devilish states of creativity? By the looks of Instagram, the pair will launch a super limited-edition collection of zines to go along with whatever surprise they’ve got in store.
1950s record obsessives: Two years ago, NYC-based photographer Darin Mickey began documenting independent record stores throughout the tri-state area that had opened between the 1960s and 80s. Mickey’s new book, Death Takes a Holiday, considers these outdated outposts (many of them have recently shut up shop or are on their last legs) from the perspective of “a middle-aged man restlessly clinging to his youth and the hope of finding that elusive artifact to make anxiety subside and keep the reaper at bay.” Sounds a bit grim, but the work is ultimately a celebration of an obsessive and vibrant community of music lovers. One of them — Val Shively, owner of R&B Records in Upper Darby and one of the world’s most prominent collectors of 1950s vocal group 45s — will be the subject of Mickey and photographer Jason Fulford’s NYABF presentation. Mickey and Fulford will play a selection of Val’s rare records, and present photographs both old and new. DESPITE WHAT YOU MIGHT’A HEARD, I LIKE PEOPLE with Darin Mickey and Jason Fulford takes place on Saturday, September 17 from 5-6 pm.
Know-Wave and 8-Ball’s musical medley: Speaking of music obsessives, the good folks at Know-Wave radio will be back to curate Saturday’s musical programming. Though its roster is still under wraps, Know-Wave brought London pop prodigy Georgia and socially-conscious rap renegade Princess Nokia to the PS1 stage last year, so we’re sure the station has something exciting in the mix this time around, too. Sunday’s musical duties will be handled by 8-Ball. The collaborative zine community is already promising: “New Orleans and Down south sounds,” “Blues and roots of Dixieland and Creole,” “roots of bebop and swing era sides” jazz, and, simply, to “keep it groovy.”
The New York Art Book Fair is open to the public from September 16 to 18. For a full schedule of signings, exhibitions, and more, visit here.
Credits
Text Emily Manning