Stories from the Studio: Drawing Cats with Erick Medel

Описание: During our recent print collaboration with Erick Medel, the team at Problems Printing set out to amplify aspects of the artist’s unique process within the medium of print.

Medel’s “thread paintings” are created by sewing into heavy denim that is then stretched over a frame. Leveraging Erick’s mechanical sympathy and the fluency with which he operates a sewing machine, a custom-built drawing machine was created by artist, engineer, and fabricator J.D. Fontanella. Fontanella creates unique functional and sculptural metalwork, and is based out of Old Mystic, Connecticut.

The team hoped to facilitate a feeling of freedom for Medel to create images in a medium that is relatively new to him. The drawing machine, a stand-in for the interface between the artist and his industrial sewing machine, produces zig-zag marks akin to the stitch pattern used in his sewn works. With the support of Printmaker Nick Perry, Medel worked to find his rhythm with the machine.

As an entirely novel process to us all, drawing the films for this print was a point of true collaboration, producing something that could not have been achieved without the unification of skills from both sides.

Erick Medel (b. 1992, Puebla, Mexico) received his Master’s in Fine Arts from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2018. Medel has a forthcoming two-person show at Martha's Contemporary (Austin, TX) and has exhibited domestically and internationally, including recent shows at Charlie James Gallery (Los Angeles, CA), Plan X (Milan, Italy), and among others. His work has been displayed in institutions like Muzeo Museum and Cultural Center (Anaheim, CA), Craft Contemporary (Los Angeles, CA), and the Rochester Art Center (Rochester, MN).

Problems Printing centers its practice on collaborative printmaking, bringing together the talents of both printmakers and artist with each project. Problems experiments with the tools and strategies of printmaking in order to help artists achieve their ideas in print.

Founded by Lead Printmaker Tom Kracauer, with support from Printmakers Nick Perry and Sarah Plummer, Problems Printing has offered fine-art printmaking services to contemporary artists, designers, and institutions since 2013. Kracauer has collaborated with artists including Heather Day, Sayre Gomez, Lauren Halsey, John Van Hamersveld, and Henry Taylor, making Problems Printing a key resource in the creative community of Los Angeles.

Stories from the Studio: Drawing Cats with Erick Medel
Directed, filmed, and edited by Natalja Kent
First Assistant Camera: Mehregan PezeshkiProducer: Jordan Lovelis
Colorist: Ben Neufeld
Sound Mix: Fox Schwach