SPLIT-FOUNTAIN EXHIBITION
MERGING LETTERING TECHNIQUES FROM THE PAST INTO MODERN ART
BUFFALO, NY – ShopCraft is excited to present local artist, Nicole Cooke’s body of letter art, Split Fountain. Opening on October 7th, 2016 at 6pm – the exhibition will run through November 27th.
Split Fountain is the merging of two mediums, featuring Cooke’s work in both letterpress and hand lettering. She has applied her passion for words and letters to create a vibrant exhibit of work.
Printing all of her letterpress work on a vintage press at the Western New York Book Arts Center (WNYBAC), Nicole plays with type. She creatively works within the boundaries of vintage font sets, artfully expressing typographic voice.
Letterpress printing uses individual pieces of wood or metal type, grouped together on a printing press to create multiple copies of a document. Popularized by Johannes Gutenberg in the 1440’s, it was designed to make information easier to distribute to all classes of people. Today, artists create letterpressed goods for a number of reasons, including design challenges presented by the limited amount of type available, the skill involved in operating a printing press, and its deep-rooted history.
Breaking outside of the structure of letterpress, Cooke offers a sharp contrast to the cleanly set type with her whimsical hand lettered pieces. While letterpress poses a number of restrictions and challenges, hand lettering is free-form and flowing organically.
Both letterpress and calligraphy are art forms with storied pasts – sometimes literally, since both mediums are closely related to book arts and folk history.
Cooke has been featured in the Fun-A-Day exhibit at Sugar City, the WNYBAC members exhibition, the Jack-of-All-Trades Craft Fair, and the Queen City Market. In her other life she has worked as a product photographer for New Era, is the Digital Media and PR Strategist for Valu Home Centers and has had her photography featured on the cover of The Public.
ShopCraft is an artisan collective that is crafting a community of handmade and eco-conscious artisans for a unique and meaningful shopping experience, located inside Thin Ice at 719 Elmwood Avenue, Buffalo, NY 14222.
