A bit of a surprise arrived at my mailbox the other day: the catalog for the exhibition "The Photograph Unframed" at the Center for Book Arts. It was a little bit over a year ago that Pages (2011) was exhibited at the show. There is a paragraph of write-up about the piece in the catalog, which is quite nice, I thought:

Dennis is interested in examining artistic forms as a conceptual practice to discuss issues of self-reflection, memory and time. In Pages, Yuen has taken eight photographs of his own handmade books, resulting in 64 prints. In each image, the angle in which the book was shot has slightly shifted, providing a different perspective. The 64 prints are threaded together at the corners to create a hanging book. The photographed books are frozen in time. However, as the viewer walks around the object, different visual patterns appear, crating a fluidity of movement and time, yet maintaing a serene sensibility.

My books are going to be busy for the next few months. Lucky for them, they will be hanging out in air-conditioned galleries.

Starting next Friday at Denver's Abecedarian Gallery, Rapunzel #2 will participate in Artists' Book Corncupia III from April 20 to June 2. The "Cornucopia" is an international juried exhibition of artists' books.

Abecedarian Gallery is one of the only three commercial galleries in the US that specialize in book and paper arts, so I am sure she will be in great company with other book artists' work.

Then in May, Hokusai's Ghost will participate in Crafts National 2012 at Kansas's Mulvane Art Museum in Topeka. This juried show by Gail M. Brown will feature works in in clay, fiber, glass, metal, wood, beads, basketry, handmade paper & mixed media. The exhibition will run from May 5 to August 19. It will undoubtedly be hot and humid during those months in Kansas but the Ghost will be chilling in the cool gallery at Mulvane waiting for Dorothy to come back...


San Diego Book Arts is one of the few book arts venue for classes and exhibitions. I am proud that Rapunzel has been accepted to its Fourth National Juried Show this year. The show, juried by Carolee Campbell, will begin on May 26 at the Geisel Library at University of California, San Diego. This show will close on July 8.

Correction (May 2, 2012): Hokusai No Yūrei (Hokusai's Ghost) (2010) is showing at Abecedarian Gallery and Rapunzel #2 (2010) is showing at Mulvane Art Museum. I had them reversed.

A little over a year ago, Rapzunel left home and traveled from New York to Delaware then to Maryland. Now she's back with me.

When the package was dropped off by the art handler, I couldn't wait to open it, as if it were a present. I opened the box excitedly, then felt a little bit emotional. I truly missed her!

Last Thursday I had an awesome opening at Phoenix Gallery. I was lucky enough to have my solo show alongside with four other talented artists: David Bogus, John Breiner, Heechan Kim and Rebecca Rose.


Here is a list of the work that are showing until July 16:

Hokusai's Yurei (Hokusai's Ghost) (2010)


The Ugly Duckling (2010)


Duotone #2 (2010) and Duotone (2009)

Friends know that I have a detest for the summer in New York. While I am still enjoying the last leg of spring, I am already dreading for the heat waves coming in the next few months. I am not kidding.

However, with two upcoming shows in the city this Summer, that would possibly make New York City Summer a more bearable for me! Hot!

Phoenix Gallery (June 22 - July 16, 2011)

Opening next week is my solo at Phoenix Gallery. The show will feature a number of pieces, including Hokusai's Yurei (2011) and Rapunzel #2 (2011). (To go along with the show, I will be writing about the process behind these two pieces in the coming weeks.)

From the press release:

No. 19 is Phoenix Gallery’s 19th Annual Juried Competition and is curated and juried by Renée Vara. The show, taking its cue from Bauhaus philosophy, suggests that the impulse to create an aesthetic that unifies fine art, design, and fashion, has come to full completion. Dennis Yuen was awarded the solo show. The exhibition will also feature 4 finalists – David Bogus, John Breiner, Heechan Kim, and Rebecca Rose.

The Center for Book Arts (July 6, 2011 - September 10, 2011)
Then throughout the rest of summer, Pages (2011) will be hung in the air-conditioned Center for Book Arts while I sweat like crazy on the streets. The show is entitled The Un(framed) Photograph, curated by Alexander Campos and Doug Beube.

This exhibition, featuring current members of CBA's artistic community and other invited artists whose work will further the discourse, will focus on how the art of photography, the photographic process, and related media such as video stills are used to convey content, form, text, and image within a broader context of book arts practices. Artworks featured in this exhibition will represent a broad range of book and related arts, including but not limited to books, prints, sculpture, mixed-media installation, new media, and performance art.

First of all, click on the image on the right to see a larger version!

Earlier in March I have posted an image of the photographic elements of this new piece that I've been working. It's been completed, and I am sticking with my initial working title, Pages.

Pages is constructed from images of eight of my earlier volumes. The images capture each book's unique structure and composition. Each image repeats eight times, offset slightly to create a shifting motion. Each level is both a page and an image of a page, and collectively they create a changing visual pattern as the viewer moves around the piece.

Traditional book forms have a fluid structure that changes as readers turn or flip through their pages. In this piece, the fluid structures of the original books, now frozen within a single fixed external form, are collectively transformed into a new visual structure, one made fluid by the changing perspectives of the readers who must circle the piece to gain its entirety.

Soon I will be posting images of the process. I have come up with a few techniques which I thought could be pretty useful for other projects as well.

The piece will participate in Center for Book Arts' Artist Members Annual Exhibition entitled "The Photograph Unframed" from July 6, 2011 - September 10, 2011.

In 2011, Rapunzel will be on the move.

From now until April 2011, she is at the Delaware Center for the Contemporary Arts, joining other works from esteemed artists including Melissa Jay Craig, Brian Dettmer, Miriam Schaer and Buzz Spector. The exhibition addresses "the themes of the book as object, subject, and concept."

And in Fall, she will travel with the show to Towson University in Maryland.

Meet her.

The Book: A Contemporary View

Delaware Center for the Contemporary Arts
Dec 22, 2010 - Apr 17, 2011

Center for the Arts Gallery, Towson University
Sep 8 - Nov 5, 2011

Beginning next week, Touch, Listen will be on exhibition at The Center for Book Arts in New York, alongside with works from some great artists of the century.

Throughout the years, Vito Acconci's work and Marshall McLuhan's writings have inspired my body of work in various different ways. To have my work on exhibition alongside with theirs is undoubtedly an honor for me.

Ear to the Page explores the interaction between recordings and books, using three categories: sound works that reflect the structure and aesthetic of books; packages that thematically entail a book as well as a CD or vinyl record; and books that have a sound component or somehow serve to transcribe or document ideas that previously existed, or potentially can exist, as sound.

Artists/Musicians participating in the exhibition include: Vito Acconci, Juan Arkotxa & Leslie Mackenzie, Bernard Baschet & Francois Baschet, Cathy Berberian & Eugenio Carmi, George Brecht, Inge Bruggeman & Hank Lazar, Jose Luis Castillejo, Jon Gibson, Kenneth Goldsmith, Grace Jones, Jennie C. Jones, Allan Kaprow, Dan Lander & Micah Lexier, Christian Marclay, Marshall McLuhan with Jerome Agel, John Simon and Quentin Fiore, Michalis Pichler, Steve Roden, Allen Ruppersberg, Tate Shaw & Andrew Sallee, Masumi Shibata, Michael Snow, Jan van der Marck/Art by Telephone, and Dennis Yuen & Morry Galonoy.

Organized by James Hoff and Alan Licht, Independent Curators.

Ear to the Page
September 22, 2010 - December 4, 2010
The Center for Book Arts
28 West 27th Street, 3rd Floor
New York, New York 10001
(212) 481-0295
Admission is free

Read a bit more about Touch, Listen.