Exhibitions

San Francisco Center for the Book presents the first-ever survey of artist and graphic designer David King’s small press publications, zines, ephemera, and early design projects.

Exhibition dates: October 25–December 22, 2024
Curators: Luca Antonucci and Matt Borruso

Location
San Francisco Center for the Book
375 Rhode Island St.
San Francisco, California 94103

Hours
Wednesdays–Sundays, 10am–5pm
Free and open to the public

David King (1948–2019) was an English artist, graphic designer, and musician best known for designing the Crass symbol. His many varied projects encompassed drawing, photography, sculpture, film, video, radio plays, and more. King was a core member of the New York no wave band Arsenal, and later the San Francisco post-punk bands Sleeping Dogs and Brain Rust. He generated hundreds of flyers for these bands and others during the period of 1977–1988, as well as creating logos, brand identities, and posters for nightclubs like Danceteria, Pravda, and the Peppermint Lounge in New York and the I-Beam in San Francisco.

In the 1980s King made dozens of photocopied and offset zines that often accompanied his music projects. In the early 2000s he began self-publishing highly idiosyncratic short-run books with subjects ranging from his photographs of J.G. Ballard’s home to rock formations seen in early Western films. In the later 2000s several books on his graphic design and photography were released through Colpa Press, &Pens, and Gingko Press.

This exhibition and the accompanying book, David King Publications 1977–2019 (co-published by Colpa Press and San Francisco Center for the Book), are supported in part by a generous grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. You can purchase it here.

View the Press Release with bio: 
https://sfcb.org/sites/default/files/files/David_King_Publications_press.pdf

David King Estate
http://davidkingestate.com/

IG  
https://www.instagram.com/davidking_estate/

David King has exhibited at the Serpentine Gallery, the Hayward Gallery, and the Horse Hospital in London and the Lab, Park Life, and Adobe Books in San Francisco. His films have been screened at Artists’ Television Access, San Francisco; the Pacific Film Archive, Berkeley; and Millennium and Tier 3, New York. Early performance works include contributions to EXIT at the Roundhouse in London, and EXIT with Anthony McCall in North Weald, both part of ICES,1972. Sleeping Dogs’ music has been released by Crass Records and Brain Rust’s by Vinyl Communications. In addition, numerous books have been published on King’s work including Scrapbook, Still, and Journey by Colpa Press; Secret Origins of the Crass Symbol published by &Pens Press; and David King Stencils: Past, Present and Crass! published by Gingko, Kill Yr Idols. You can read a review on KQED here and Wallpaper here. 

THE BOG at FOG Design + Art Fair - Fort Mason Center, San Francisco, January 18-21, 2024

THE BOG presented books or goods from over 30 Bay Area artist-run publishers. The bookstore was a part of FOG FOCUS, an invitational designed to showcase work by the young artists who are an integral part of San Francisco's creative ecosystem. Located at Pier 2, BOG was meant to be a boost to local publishers. 

Printed Publics - Contemporary Art and Design Publishing in the Bay Area - Luca Antonucci & David Kasprzak - SFMOMA - December 7, 2019 - August 31, 2020, Organized by David Senior, Head of Library & Archives

Colpa was commissioned to make a mural for the exhibition, an exhibition catalog, and our work was featured in the exhibition. 

SFMOMA’s long history of connecting Bay Area artists and art-publishing presses continues with Printed Publics, the museum library’s look at printed matter being produced by local artists and designers of today.

The Perfect Copy - Courtney Johnson - 2016 Parking Lot Art Fair, Fort Mason, San Francisco, CA

Installation of limited edition blacklight poster with Courtney Johnson at Fort Mason for the 2016 Parking Lot Art Fair. Purchase the print here.

Hermit - Vacancy - Jan 29th - February 13th, 2016 - Los Angeles, CA

Hermit is a film by David Bayus and an exhibition at VACANCY, curated by Luca Antonucci. The exhibition took place from Jan 29th to February 13th, 2016 and was accompanied by the publication Stroke Vol. 3 (Hermit). Documentation by Chris Adler. 

Kunst Haul is a mobile gallery and bookstore run out of a remodeled 17' U-Haul truck. Kunst Haul made its first appearance at the 2015 Parking Lot Art Fair in San Francisco, CA on May 2nd, 2015. 

Kunst Haul featured on Art Practical , SF Gate , and ArtSlant !

Our inaugural exhibition featured the following Bay Area artists:

Nathalie Du Pasquier Limited Edition Print Series
presented by SFMOMA A+D at FOG Design+Art 
Jan 15th - 18th - Fort Mason Festival Pavilion, San Francisco, CA

SFMOMA’s Architecture + Design Forum presents a collaboration between San Francisco design studio ColpaPress, and French designer Nathalie du Pasquier, revisiting a selection of her radical patterns for the post-modern design group, Memphis. Deemed ‘aggressive, harsh, without compromise’ and ‘impervious to logic,’ du Pasquier’s Memphis patterns have decorated many of the group’s products—laminates and fabric in particular—usually in a visually assaulting combination, enlivening and destabilizing static domestic objects. Memphis embraced the pervasive growth of mass-manufacturing, and designed for multiplication and mutation, as well as consumer restlessness. As design and technology become more and more integrated, Colpa’s refreshed presentation of Memphis looks back to early explorations of design in the electronic age of the 1980s. 

From 1981 until 1987, Italian designer Ettore Sottsass loosely led a group of international designers, jolting the discipline to recognize technology’s influence on design, and to match its voracious demand for attention with sensorial – not sensible – design. This approach marked a significant departure from Modernism. Through a series of exhibitions, Memphis redefined design as communication, infusing objects with a distinct contemporary language. For Memphis, dynamic color, texture and patterns spoke to the density and unpredictability brought by rapidly evolving technology.  

At the same time, in the mid-1980s, the Japanese company, Riso, Inc., introduced its first automatic duplicator, the Risograph 007, known as the ‘printing robot,’ because it was faster, cheaper and easier to use compared to other high-volume printers. Colpa Press, a small publishing company and design studio, adopted a Risograph Printer-Duplicator Machine Model 3970 in 2013. With its screenprint-like process and instant production, Risograph prints have an idiosyncratic quality and unique aesthetic. 

A selection of six patterns designed by Nathalie Du Pasquier between 1981 and 1984
Printed by Colpa Press on a Risograph, 2015. Edition of 50.

You can purchase the complete set here.

Reviewed by Leah Garchik on SF Gate and featured on style.com and Anthology. 

Low Subject, The Popular Workshop, San Francisco
May 10 - June 21st, 2013
David Bayus // Kate Bonner // Nico Krijno

Press Release:

A work of art being understood as something that embodies itself is perhaps the oldest myth in art. A painting or sculpture is a reflection; a documentation of a process.  If transparency is possible in the production of art, acknowledging this condition is the first step. The second one is acting on it.

The Popular Workshop is proud to present Low Subject opening May 10, 2013, featuring new work by David Bayus, Kate Bonner and Nico Krijno.

Through an elaborate process of composite photography, abstract diorama-like assemblages, gyclee printing and meticulously rendered oil painting, San Francisco-based David Bayus' work oscillates between abstraction and representation, creating an uncomfortable and self-reflective tension.

Using a process of reduction and transformation, San Francisco-based artist Kate Bonner’s work withholds explanation and proposes simple fictions. Made of degenerated photocopies, cuts, and MDF board, her structures value perceptual failures and contain real boundaries, literal walls, windows and frames that limit visual access.

Both staged and spontaneous, Cape Town-based photographer, Nico Krijno's images frequently reference their creation, establishing a new, parallel reality that puts our imagination and our objective perception at loggerheads.

The field of documentation, a popular subject of discourse in contemporary art, and specifically thesubject of documentation as art is explored here by these three artists. Their work challenges both the notions of what it means to photograph a work of art as a starting point for a piece, the piece itself, and the following dialogue that ensues. Bayus, Bonner and Krijno's work inhabits all three of these spaces simultaneously. When viewing any of these works, one finds themselves looking at shadows on the wall, with the "original" artwork somewhere hidden from our view behind a curtain, or perhaps not at all. In a sense, this body of work reveals the false promise of all images, that there was ever an original in the first place.

The exhibition opens May 10th, 2013, will be on display until June 21st, 2013 and is open to the public.

Low subject was curated by Luca Nino Antonucci, Andy Hawgood and Nate Hooper.

Press: 

http://www.sfaqonline.com/2013/06/low-subject-david-bayus-kate-bonner-and-nico-krijno-at-the-popular-workshop-san-francisco/

http://dailyserving.com/2013/06/aesthetics-of-the-spectacle/

Colpa at Will Brown, Will Brown, San Francisco
April 1st - 30th, 2013

Somewhere in the Fold, The Popular Workshop, San Francisco
November 29th - Jan 17th, 2012

There is a broad dialogue between publication and art object, far more complex than the straightforward union of the two into the ‘art book.’ Somewhere in the Fold is a survey of the relationship between the current state of publishing and the art practices of contemporary artists. These disciplines have converged into processes of editing and editioning, making once disparate fields singular.

The participating artists and publishers of Somewhere in the Fold approach this conversation by showing work that deliberately confuses the terms ‘publication’ and ‘art object’, while attempting to discover a place where they can exist together both in form and concept. 

FEATURING WORK BY

Linus Bill
Glass, house 
Little Big Man
Publication Studio 
Ooga Booga 
split/fountain 
Cybele Lyle
B-B-B-Books
Anzfer Farms
Christopher Baird 
Luke Fischbeck 
Sarah Rara
Facundo Argañaraz
Sarah Hotchkiss
Kate Bonner
Nicolas G Miller
Hailey Loman 
Aaron Finnis
Little Paper Planes 
Peradam

TRACKER - A Mobile Bookstore

Showing a condensed version of the wonderful art books and prints we have at Edicola – our Newsstand,  Tracker served as a mobile book shop made its debut at The Headlands Center for the Arts 30th Birthday on September 15th, 2012 and was subsequently present at Yerba Buena Night in October of 2012 resulting in the publication POCKET BOOK, published by Colpa. 

Didn't you get the memo at Mauve Gallery, Berkeley, CA
September 5th – 30th, 2012

This exhibition will look at the influence of the office aesthetic in independent publishing. The works selected for this show are either made with office materials, or reference the work environment in a pertinent way. These artists have used materials developed for the workplace to craft deliberate hand made books. As the office space becomes increasingly efficient, these artists address the relics of office production: the fax machine, the dot matrix printer, even the file folder.

Featuring work from:  Eric William Carroll, Luke Fischbeck, Sternberg Press, The MIT Press, Daniel Glendening, Amy Harris, Vanessa Hope, Josh Keller, Maciej Makalowski, Marfa Book Co., Paper Monument, Nickolas Mohanna, Publication Studio, Dexter Sinister, Carmen Winant, Daniel Yovino, Melissa Gordon, Christian Marazzi, Andreas Koller, Luca Beeler, Nicholas Miller, Tim Belonax, Luke Stettner, Matthew Scott Gualco, Luca Nino Antonucci, Paul Branca, Barbara Ess, Fillip, Rob Giampietro, Marc Handelman, Zach Houston, Adam Katz, Julia Sherman, Brian Kennon/2nd Cannons Publications, Chosil Kil, Alex Klein, Marisa Olson, Paul Pieroni, Laurel Ptak, Eileen Quinlan, Mihcael Smoler, Jamie Stewart, Oraib Toukan, Lia Trinka-Browner, Jen Delos Reyes, Rafael Rozendaal, Ryan Waller, Amy Yao, Jordan Stein, Glass House, Tarak Shah and Maggie Lawson, Rachel Zoller.

Reading Room at Alter Space, San Francisco
June 29th to July 29th, What's Left Behind at Alter Space, 2012