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Los Angeles print workshop Gemini G.E.L. is marking its 60th anniversary with “(Almost) Every Year: Sixty Years of Printmaking at Gemini G.E.L.” Curated by Susan Dackerman and Helen Molesworth, the exhibition uses works from the workshop’s archive to show how artists tested printmaking’s limits and exchanged ideas.
Los Angeles print workshop Gemini G.E.L. is marking its 60th anniversary with “(Almost) Every Year: Sixty Years of Printmaking at Gemini G.E.L.”, an exhibition drawn from its archive. Curators Susan Dackerman and Helen Molesworth focus on how artists used the workshop to work across disciplines and test what a print could be.
Founded in 1966 by Sydney B. Felsen and Stanley Grinstein, Gemini G.E.L. became a place where visiting artists could develop work with specialist printmakers. The anniversary exhibition surveys works made across nearly every year of the workshop’s history, presenting the archive as a record of collaboration as well as artistic production.
The workshop’s early roster included New York artists Josef Albers, Man Ray, Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, Claes Oldenburg, Frank Stella and Ellsworth Kelly. Gemini also worked with artists from Los Angeles, including David Hockney, Ed Ruscha, Ron Davis and Bruce Nauman. Women began working at the workshop in the 1980s, with Dorothea Rockburne and Vija Celmins among the early participants, followed by Susan Rothenberg and Elizabeth Murray.
The works show artists using printmaking to depart from familiar approaches. Joel Shapiro and Richard Tuttle, known chiefly for minimalist sculpture, made colorful, intricate screenprinted geometric abstractions. Other pairings bring out shared concerns: Stella and Kelly explored shape and color, while Rauschenberg and Johns worked with images of found objects. These are examples selected and interpreted by the exhibition’s curators, not a claim that every artist approached the medium in the same way.
How the Workshop Expanded Printmaking
The exhibition’s central point is that Gemini G.E.L. functioned as more than a production facility: it gave artists room to collaborate with skilled printers and pursue ideas outside their usual processes. Its archive offers a view of how printmaking can extend beyond ink on paper into sculptural objects, unusual materials and large-scale formats.
That history also connects artists from different generations and locations. The early mix of prominent New York artists and a growing Los Angeles art community was followed by a roster that included women artists, with the curators describing the current group as distinguished by gender equality during a gallery talk. The anniversary display gives audiences a way to assess that institutional history through works and pairings, rather than through a general claim about the workshop’s influence.
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From Lithographs to Unusual Materials
Several examples in the exhibition challenge the conventional idea of a print. In “Profile Airflow” (1969), Claes Oldenburg combined a molded polyurethane relief resembling an automobile profile with a two-color lithograph. Jasper Johns printed a lightbulb image on lead, shifting a familiar, fragile subject onto a lasting material.
Edward and Nancy Kienholz turned ordinary gasoline containers into sculptures resembling television sets. A later example, Allen Ruppersberg’s “Great Speckled Bird” (2013), is a multicolored screenprint on a 20-foot perforated player-piano roll divided into four sections. The work draws on lyrics from old songs, handwritten by Ruppersberg on vintage motel stationery; its title refers to a traditional Southern gospel hymn recorded by Johnny Cash.
The exhibition also includes Bruce Nauman’s one-color lithograph “Pay Attention” (1973). Together, these works make the title’s instruction legible as both an artwork and a fitting prompt for a show asking visitors to look closely at materials, processes and artistic choices.
“The workshop served as a space for dialogue among visiting artists and for experimentation beyond their usual routines and comfort zones.”
— Curators Susan Dackerman and Helen Molesworth, as described in the exhibition report
What the Archive Cannot Establish
The source report does not provide the exhibition’s opening and closing dates, venue details, attendance figures or plans for further anniversary programming. It also does not quantify the workshop’s overall output or compare its influence with other print studios. The exhibition presents a curated selection from a much larger history, so its examples should not be read as a complete account of every artist or project produced at Gemini G.E.L.
The Anniversary Exhibition’s Record
The exhibition offers visitors a chance to see how Gemini G.E.L.’s artists have approached printmaking across nearly six decades, from early lithographs to sculptural and large-format works. The available report does not state what programming or public events will follow the anniversary presentation; further details, including dates and venue information, were not supplied in the source material.
Key Questions
What is Gemini G.E.L.?
Gemini G.E.L. is a Los Angeles print workshop founded in 1966 by Sydney B. Felsen and Stanley Grinstein. It has collaborated with artists on prints and works using other materials and formats.
What is the anniversary exhibition about?
“(Almost) Every Year: Sixty Years of Printmaking at Gemini G.E.L.” surveys work from nearly every year of the workshop’s history. Curators Susan Dackerman and Helen Molesworth emphasize dialogue and experimentation.
Which artists are represented in the exhibition’s history?
The source names artists including Josef Albers, Man Ray, Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, Claes Oldenburg, Frank Stella, Ellsworth Kelly, Vija Celmins and Julie Mehretu, alongside Los Angeles artists such as Ed Ruscha and Bruce Nauman.
How did artists push the boundaries of printmaking at Gemini?
Examples include Oldenburg’s polyurethane relief combined with lithography, Johns’s lightbulb image printed on lead, and Ruppersberg’s screenprint on a long perforated player-piano roll.
When and where can visitors see the exhibition?
The supplied report identifies the anniversary exhibition but does not give its venue address, opening date or closing date. Those details cannot be confirmed from the source material.
Source: rss
