LOS ANGELES — Founded in 1966 by Sydney B. Felsen and Stanley Grinstein, Gemini G.E.L. has long stood as one of the crown jewels of international printmaking. Over six decades, the pioneering Los Angeles workshop has invited some of the world’s most celebrated artists to step outside their comfort zones, experiment with new materials, and push the boundaries of what a print can be. To celebrate its landmark 60th anniversary, Gemini invited curators Susan Dackerman and Helen Molesworth to comb through its extensive archives for a comprehensive and revealing exhibition titled (Almost) Every Year: Sixty Years of Printmaking at Gemini G.E.L.
While the exhibition spans nearly every year of the workshop’s operation, the curators’ primary focus is not merely chronological. Instead, they are deeply interested in how Gemini has functioned historically as a vital hub for artistic dialogue, a place where visiting creators could tinker outside their normal routines, test unfamiliar techniques, and embrace the collaborative spirit of the Los Angeles print shop.
As the chronological survey reveals, Gemini opened its doors with immense ambition, immediately drawing in celebrated New York avant-garde artists such as Josef Albers, Man Ray, Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, Claes Oldenburg, Frank Stella, and Ellsworth Kelly. At the very same time, the founders demonstrated a keen awareness of Los Angeles’s own burgeoning and increasingly influential contemporary art community. By welcoming local luminaries like David Hockney, Ed Ruscha, Ron Davis, and Bruce Nauman into the workshop early on, Gemini established a dynamic bicoastal exchange that helped shape the trajectory of modern American art.
As the decades progressed, the workshop’s roster evolved to reflect broader shifts in the contemporary art world. By the 1980s, prominent women artists began working regularly at Gemini, beginning with figures like Dorothea Rockburne and Vija Celmins, who were soon followed by Susan Rothenberg and Elizabeth Murray. Today, as Dackerman and Molesworth pointed out during a recent gallery talk, Gemini’s distinguished artist list is notable for its gender equality, reflecting a sustained commitment to diverse voices and perspectives across generations.
The exhibition layout highlights the deep mutual interests and ongoing dialogues among the artists who have worked in the space through clever, insightful juxtapositions. For instance, viewers can observe Frank Stella and Ellsworth Kelly exploring the complex intersections of geometric shape and vibrant color, while Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns playfully interrogate the iconography of found objects. In another pairing, Susan Rothenberg and Richard Serra take the color black to its absolute extremes, exploring depth, weight, and shadow. Nearby, works by Toba Khedoori, Julie Mehretu, and Analia Saban demonstrate a shared fascination with intricate linear matrices and architectural precision.
Several pieces throughout the exhibition stand out precisely because the artists cleverly defy viewer expectations. For example, Joel Shapiro and Richard Tuttle—both widely known for their unique, understated approaches to predominantly minimalist sculpture—opted for exuberant, highly saturated polychromatic palettes and complex configurations in their screenprinted geometric abstractions. Rather than translating their familiar three-dimensional vocabularies directly onto a flat surface, they used the printmaking process to explore entirely new visual territories.
The most compelling examples of experimentation at Gemini, however, are those that actively push the boundaries of what society traditionally considers a print. In 1969, Claes Oldenburg molded polyurethane to replicate an automobile profile in sculptural relief, creating a piece that was likely influenced by the Southern California "Finish Fetish" art movement of the period. Similarly, Jasper Johns printed an image of a delicate lightbulb directly onto heavy lead, subverting expectations by turning a fragile, ephemeral object into a durable, permanent fixture.
Pushing conventions even further into the realm of sculpture and mixed media, Edward and Nancy Kienholz transformed ordinary gasoline containers into idiosyncratic sculptures that resemble retro television sets. In a more recent example, Allen Ruppersberg created a vibrant, multi-colored screenprint on a 20-foot-long perforated piano-player roll, which he subsequently divided into four separate sections. Titled after a traditional Southern gospel hymn once recorded by Johnny Cash, "Great Speckled Bird" (2013) offers a nostalgic yet critical look at classic Americana. The visual elements consist of meticulous reproductions of lyrics from age-old songs, handwritten by the artist across vintage motel stationery, combining text, memory, and material culture in a singular printmaking triumph.
