Six Awesome California Artists You Can Afford on 20×200.com
Author:Lindsey ShookLaunched in 2007 by Jen Bekman, 20×200 offers limited edition, museum quality prints at prices that cater to those with shallower pockets. Among the expertly curated collection are works by a number of talented, exciting artists living and working in California. So while you can still visit your favorite galleries to admire the works of following six artists, you can also enjoy their art outside the white cube and on your very own walls. All images courtesy of 20×200.com.
Emily Shur
You may have seen Emily Shur’s sharp, highly saturated photographs of musicians, actors and models in The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, Vanity Fair and Esquire, among other publications. In addition to her editorial work however, this Echo Park resident also has a solid body of stunning fine art photography that focuses on quirky and surprising elements as well as quiet and contemplative moments encountered across various landscapes.
Jenny Odell
Intrigued by the complexities of technology and modern processes of documentation, former SECA award nominee and Bay Area native Jenny Odell trolls Google Satellite Maps collecting everything from parking lots to boats and swimming pools. She then uses these pilfered digital materials to create tight, intricate compositions that engage what Odell refers to as a “pre-emptive nostalgia”—by isolating and assembling the seemingly banal in a new context, we start to appreciate the specificity, history and even humanity of these entities.
Todd Hido
Todd Hido’s atmospheric photographs of suburban American homes, rural landscapes and unorthodox femme fatales radiate an exquisite, often unsettling pathos. Represented by the Stephen Wirtz Gallery, Hido, who is also an adjunct professor at California College of the Arts in San Francisco, has had works acquired by SFMOMA, the Berkeley Art Museum, the Guggenheim Museum and others.
Megan Whitmarsh
The work of Los Angeles-based, multi-media artist Megan Whitmarsh culls from the diverse worlds of pop culture, comics, science fiction, punk rock and children’s entertainment. Her art is fun and fantastical while also offering thoughtful, unpatronizing reflections on the proliferation of “stuff” for sale and, ultimately, for disposal.
Rachell Sumpter
Rachell Sumpter has not only lived throughout California, she’s also exhibited across the Golden State as well. Exhibition venues include Hosfelt Gallery in San Francisco, Richard Heller Gallery in Los Angeles and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Sumpter works in gouache, pastel and embroidery, among other materials, to depict lush, otherworldly landscapes whose fine detailing and curious mixture of the natural and the ritualistic invite close-looking.
Lisa Congdon
Works from several series by artist and illustrator Lisa Congdon are available on 20×200, including prints of folksy paintings inspired by Arctic landscapes and cultures featured in her 2011 exhibition at San Francisco’s Gallery Hijinks. You can also snatch up spectacular and unexpected works from a yearlong project in which the Mission resident documented her obsession with collecting through daily drawings and photographs of erasers, baby doll hands and other collectables.
