Given the respect we pay to the artist, it is not surprising that prices reflect this. The average art lover usually cannot afford to purchase original pieces, so we try to find a way to make due, purchasing books, posters, postcards, T-shirts, mugs — whatever is available in a derivative form.
But the internet has changed all this. By knocking down the gallery walls, it allows possibilities few have ever been able to consider: affordable art, available 24 hours a day in any time zone around the world.
Edition One Hundred was born of this new era, with a mission to restore economic power to both artists and collectors, while giving a percentage of all sales to charitable causes. Edition One Hundred makes collecting art a call to action, an act of commercial integrity, and, most simply put, a pure joy.
“LA Fingers” by Estevan Oriol
Photographers and artists I had admired for years, like Estevan Oriol, participated in the launch of Edition One Hundred. His iconic image “LA Fingers,” now hanging in the Los Angeles’ Museum of Contemporary Art exhibition Art in the Streets, was part of our first online exhibition. That edition is sold out, but just being able to offer the print to a discerning public was a thrill. And all the artists thus far who have signed their prints are simply thrilled by the capabilities and performance of the Mohawk proPhoto paper their images appear on. I work as the executive director of the Lucie Foundation, and I look at, touch and feel photographs every day, from traditional fiber-base prints to digital prints. The weight and texture of Mohawk proPhoto paper is as delicious to me as many of the wonderful RC-based papers I’ve used to print photographs in the darkroom.
“New York State of Mind” by Martha Cooper
In the 10 months we’ve been operating online, we’ve showcased five great exhibitions, some curated by myself and some by guest curators like Miss Rosen, who brought Martha Cooper on board to release a great image titled “New York State of Mind.” This image captures and time and a place that simply doesn’t exist anymore — yet some people who have purchased the image know exactly where it was taken. I love that. Martha Cooper is a heavyweight photographer whose lens has captured the graffiti and street art scene for decades. Her work is also included in MOCA’s Art in the Streets.
“Bear, Pelican, Pony, Bear” by Claire Rosen
It’s an exciting time to collect, to be an artist, and to take advantage of all that digital printing technologies afford us. I love the way Claire Rosen’s image of stuffed animals, titled “Bear, Pelican, Pony, Bear,” looks on the proPhoto paper. The blacks are so detailed and the texture on the animals is wonderful. Kevin Hayes’ untitled black-and-white image (below), originally captured on grainy B&W film, also reproduces extremely well, and it’s a wonderfully playful image. I could go on and on about our contributing artists. The shows rotate approximately every two months, and the next exhibition, curated by Yesenia Cardona, The Door is Round and Open, is extraordinary. It launches in early May.
Untitled by Kevin Hayes
Please visit EditionOneHundred.com for the next opening. As Estevan Oriol put it, “Come to our opening. It’s online. Everybody is going to be there.”
Edition One Hundred offers curated, limited-edition art in editions of 100, priced at $100 per edition. Prints are hand-signed and numbered by the artists in a size and/or print exclusive to Edition One Hundred.
Cat Jimenez is executive director of the Lucie Foundation, which is responsible for programs such as The Lucie Awards at Lincoln Center and The Month of Photography Los Angeles. She studied photography at Art Center College of Design and has been working on a decade-long portrait photo project about Filipino-Americans, set to be published in late 2012. She founded Edition One Hundred in June 2010 to make excellent art accessible.
