KRISTEN MUELLER | DATE 9/12/2019

AQUI: Postered in Artbook Bookstore Event Space

Thursday, September 12–Friday, September 20, Artbook Bookstore Event Space presents AQUI, Word and Image: NYC Streets as Gallery Space 1984–1986 with a related talk during the NY Art Book Fair on Friday, September 20 from 5:30–6:30 PM.

All ten issues of AQUI, featuring work by Barbara Kruger, Les Levine, Steve Gianakos, General Idea, Gilbert & George, Davi Det Hompson, Julie Bradrick and Cliff Baldwin, will be on display during regular Bookstore hours beginning Thursday, Sept 12, culminating in a discussion with AQUI publisher Cliff Baldwin on Friday, Sept 20 at 5:30PM during the New York Art Book Fair. Baldwin will discuss the fascinating history of AQUI, a mobile space for exhibitions, created as an alternative to the traditional art gallery.

Email booksmomaps1@artbook.com to request a price list. There will be a very limited number of full sets, and varying numbers of individual issues of AQUI for sale. Every issue comes in an original AQUI envelope.

During the 80s, the colorful, illustrative oversized posters of AQUI Magazine were lining the streets of New York City, sold at bookstores such as MoMA bookstore and Printed Matter, and displayed at art institutions around the world. From 1983-86, Cliff Baldwin, Julie Bradrick and Davi Det Hompson collaborated with silk-screener Norman Lassiter and published ten issues of AQUI in downtown Manhattan. AQUI provided the public with accessible quality art at the price of $10 a poster, an affordable alternative to the traditional art gallery. The tabloid-sized, folded posters unfolded into one of two sizes: 45 x 69” and 35 x 45,” and featured silk-screened original artwork by Barbara Kruger, Les Levine, Steve Gianakos, General Idea, Gilbert & George, Davi Det Hompson, Julie Bradrick and Cliff Baldwin. To this day, the posters are significant because of their experimental typographic explorations and genuine promotion of democratic art making.

ABOVE: Barbara Kruger, "We get exploded because they've got money and God in their pockets." (AQUI Editions, 1984) Photo by Cliff Baldwin, NYC.

ABOVE: Davi Det Hompson, "FREE?" (AQUI Editions, 1984). Photo by Cliff Baldwin, NYC.

ABOVE: Davi Det Hompson, "FREE?" (AQUI Editions, 1984). Photo by Cliff Baldwin, NYC.

ABOVE: Cliff Baldwin, "WAGGLE UP." (AQUI Editions, 1984). Photo by Cliff Baldwin, NYC.

Artbook @ MoMA PS1 Bookstore and Event Space is open to all during Museum hours. Free RSVPs are available via Eventbrite for Cliff Baldwin's talk on Friday, Sept 20.

Cliff Baldwin is a word artist, designer sculptor and filmmaker. He lives and works in Aquebogue, New York. He has exhibited worldwide and his work is in numerous collections including The Museum of Modern Art, The Walker Art Center, The Museum of The Art Institute of Chicago, The National Gallery of Canada and The Museum of Rhode Island School of Design.

He founded and co-curated the large-format artist publication known as AQUI! in the early 80s with Davi Det Hompson and Julie Bradrick. For 17 years he orchestrated large scale installations and multiples with Fluxus artist Davi Det Hompson as the artist duo Baldwin+Hompson. He has done public sculpture in New York, Mexico City, Stockholm and Warsaw since 1989. His films were performed live at the Parrish Museum in 2015. His live film and score for the Jamesport Meeting House Jamesport Meeting, was performed in 2018.

Currently, he heads up Aqui Editions and is a principal at Lampa, a lighting design firm on Long Island’s East End with his wife Marta Baumiller.

ADDRESS
Artbook Bookstore Event Space
First floor, MoMA PS1
22-25 Jackson Ave (at 46th Ave.)
Long Island City, NY 11101
(718) 433-1088
Email: booksmomaps1@artbook.com