A seemingly urgent message from Daniel Handler
New paintings and sculptures at Gallery 16
From the desk of Daniel Handler:
Plenty of gallery exhibitions have been described as important or even crucial. But this month marks the opening of an exhibit that is mandatory. Everybody has to see it. Gallery 16 will welcome people of all ages, genders, cultures, and heights for a required viewing of Tucker Nichols's new artwork.
"It is not optional," says artist and gallery founder Griff Williams, whose statements have not been verified for this press release. "Everybody absolutely has to come here and see this stuff."
"Every artist can't help but have the idea of an audience influencing--some would say overshadowing--their creative process," says Nichols, who has had work featured at SF MOMA, the Contemporary Jewish Museum, and other optional venues. "With a mandatory show, that weight is finally lifted. Cowabunga! Tell them I said absolutely anything--I'm giving you complete creative control for this press release. Fruit salad is delicious."
"Art always asks enormous questions," says art expert and person I made up, Colleen Sandwich, who supported the exhibition's mandate by making a flag. "What can truly be considered art? Who should see it? At last, we have definitive answers: Tucker Nichols's work, and everybody in the whole entire world."
"Frankly, I don't get how this could even happen," says a local small businessman and spoilsport. "Gallery 16 is a dynamic but small gallery, and there are a ton of people. I mean, does everybody in the whole world even know about this show? I bet most people don't. And what if they live far away? Also, if they line up on the sidewalk, they block the entrance to my bike helmet shop, and how am I gonna sell bike helmets if that happens?"
But Williams and Nichols scoff at such complaints. "We'll get some of those velvet ropes or whatever, you know what I mean, that they use outside nightclubs and stuff," Williams says. "Everybody has to go! No excuses!"
"Like, don't tell me you don't know about the show," Nichols said. "It's literally listed online. You have no excuse. The show closes at the end of March. I don't want to hear something like, but I'm supposed to go to a wedding. Bring the bride! This is mandatory."
The show is full of paintings that are super colorful and diverting to look at--flowers and boats, you know, with some more abstract stuff too. Sculpture, also-assemblages you might call them, or just things next to other things, or on top of them, in a way that makes you think "huh??" but also, if you just wait for a second, beautiful and fun. You can do a loop around one of the rooms looking at all of them, and then return to your favorites. Things have been difficult lately--really difficult. This is something else. You don't even need to stare at them very long before your mind slips away from all of the horrendous crap of life. Being afraid, being disgusted or hopeless, becomes something you don't have to do. It's optional. There's joy instead, right in front of you, joy somebody made, and now you're helping make it, real joy. That's the thing. Joy is mandatory.
For more information, contact Griff at 4156267495 or griff@gallery16.com
Untitled (BR2218), 2022
Camo Camo Hat
Flowers in the Dark
New digital book, Flowers in the Dark, now available for free.
Thank you to all of the people who have helped make this project come to life.
The Every
I created one of several artist-designed covers for Dave Eggers’ delightfully creepy new book, The Every.
Available only from independent bookstores. “I don’t like bullies,” Eggers explained to the New York Times. “Amazon has been kicking sand in the face of independent bookstores for decades now.”
See other covers here.
Problem
Fanny Packs
Fanny packs are here! This stylish addition to your fall look is great for snacks, contraband, dog treats, or candy to give away to strangers.
Get on it or contend with a vague sense of loss.
Candy not included, sorry.
Hats
I’ve always wanted to be a hat salesman.
Available exclusively at
http://www.tuckernichols.com/hats
Limited edition.
Designs to change without warning.
Two sided mural at Story Mill, Bozeman
Double sided mural installed in the majestic Story Mill in Bozeman, Montana as part of this summer’s Tinworks exhibition, on view through Sept 5. Also shown, special performance by Grammy winning chorale group The Crossing, who sang in front of each side.
Photos by @yonkeangela (1) @eliridgwaygallery (2) @blairspeed (3,4)
Tell Them We Were Here
I'm happy to have been included as one of eight artists in this new documentary by Griff and Keelan Williams. Tell Them We Were Here looks at what makes San Francisco a special environment for artists. It's about the creative legacy of this city, but more than that, it's about the permission artists here feel to forge their own paths. The other seven artists are among my favorite anywhere. I hope you'll watch it.
You can stream it for $12 via the Berkeley Art Museum here:
https://watch.eventive.org/bampfa/play
More info about the movie, including early press and profiles of the artists:
https://tellthemwewerehere.com/#Artists
New Yorker spot drawings
As someone who makes little drawings all day, I've always loved the spot drawings in the New Yorker. I see them as an exhibition of artwork you aren't supposed to notice on display in the most prestigious gallery. It is a total thrill to have these nine drawings in the magazine this week. Thanks to the talented people at the NYer who somehow make a near perfect issue every week.
FrizziFrizzi
Flowers for Sick People at SFMOMA
I'm happy to have a selection of sixteen original paintings from the Flowers for Sick People project on view at SFMOMA in the exhibition Close to Home: Creativity in Crisis.
Tucker Nichols
Flowers for Sick People, 2020-2021
Framed paintings with handwritten text
Free print project from SFMOMA and SFPL
Tucker Nichols
Flowers for you, 2021
Four screenprints on heavy card
Commissioned by SFMOMA and the San Francisco Public Library
Reserve yours HERE
I'm excited to announce the release of an experimental print project called Flowers for you. This edition of four screenprints is being distributed for free via the San Francisco Public Library system. Anyone with a library card can reserve a print here and pick it up from your local branch. Like library books, no one owns these prints. You can keep yours as long as you want, with the understanding that at some point, you'll pass it along to someone else who could use some flowers.
Wall drawing at Gallery 16, San Francisco
Boomtown
Video related to a large scale installation at the Sun Valley Art Museum, Spring 2020
Tucker Nichols
Boomtown, 2020
Wood, paint, mixed media
The Post Office
From Noah at Electric Works in SF:
Tucker Nichols and Electric Works love the USPS. With a 91% approval rating by the US public, seems like lots of other folks do too.
To hear about the USPS being torn asunder by those in charge was certainly a lowlight of the year that brought us many lowlights. Rather than sit around our houses under lockdown and let the bad feelings eat us up alive, we decided to do something about it.
Here is that something: a t-shirt celebrating the great service the United States has fostered for hundreds of years.
Here are some people who worked at the post office over the years: Abraham Lincoln, William Faulkner, Charles Bukowski, Harry S. Truman, Sherman Hemsley, Steve Carrell, John Prine, Conrad Hilton, Brittany Howard, John Brown, N. C. Wyeth and even Noah Webster.
The postal service is a major character in US history. It’s more than just an employer and service provider. It has personality, magic and mythology. Need a short read, please spend some time with Eudora Welty’s “Why I Live at the P. O."
Proceeds from these t-shirts go to Ameelio, a non-profit whose mission is to "decouple incarceration and profit, and combat mass incarceration.” Meaning, they keep incarcerated family members in touch with their loved ones for free. To date, they have sent over 42,000 letters to inmates for free.
Read on: Nearly one in two Americans has a family member who has experienced incarceration. When a loved one is imprisoned, staying in touch is vital. Yet prison communications options remain prohibitively expensive.
The $1.2 billion prison telecommunications industry is one of the most under-reported bad actors in the criminal justice space.
Private telecommunications companies exploit vulnerable families’ desire to remain connected while separated by incarceration. These providers are profiting primarily from low-income families: one in three families with incarcerated loved ones are forced into debt due to the costs of maintaining contact.
We want to reconnect incarcerated people and their loved ones, for free. Our vision is to disrupt the prison telecommunications industry by outcompeting incumbents with services that prioritize users over profits.
There is strong evidence that sustaining contact during incarceration improves post-release outcomes and reduces recidivism. We hope that in the long term, our services will significantly shrink prison populations.
Read more about them here.
So please let “neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night” stay you from swift completion of your ordering these shirts.
You're Fired postcard set
Double sided postcard set, pre addressed and waiting for your stamp
Brought to you by the good people of Park Life in San Francisco
Screen printed by the wizard Nat Swope at Bloom Press in Oakland
Let the postal workers know where you stand
Catalog text from "American Genre" at the ICA, Maine
From the exhibition:
American Genre: Contemporary Painting
Institute of Contemporary Art, Maine
July 20 - September 15, 2017
Curated by Michelle Grabner
Tucker Nichols, Untitled (BR16114), 2016
Enamel on panel
18 x 24”
Flowers For Sick People
Know someone struggling with illness?
I will mail a small flower painting on your behalf to a loved one in need.