SARATOGA SPRINGS – Typophiles will want to stop by the Schick Art Gallery at Skidmore College. The gallery’s latest exhibit is a celebration of type, featuring bright amusing prints, sweeping murals and thoughtful three-dimensional works.
Called “True to Type” it includes personal and commercial pieces by designers and muralists Annica Lydenberg and Lynne Yun, who run their own design firms and are dedicated to education and social good through their work.
The latter is seen in a video installation featuring Lydenberg and other artists working on a mural declaring “You Are Not Alone.” It’s part of a collaborative project that Lydenberg helped create by the same name. Inspired by compassion for those struggling with mental health issues, it uses murals to support to anyone feeling misunderstood, victimized or abandoned.
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The exhibit also features found objects with clever phrases that change the way one views them. A scale is adorned with the phrase “Not pulling my weight,” with “Not” depicted in bold black type. Nearby is a beat-up black folding chair with the phrase “I stand for nothing” written in white.
Both pieces are by Lydenberg, a graduate of Skidmore and a Brooklyn-based designer who founded Dirty Bandits, a hand lettering, branding, design and illustration studio that has worked with Adidas, Hachette Publishing, Milk Jawn, NAMI and Sabon, among others.
Not too far away from the found objects are cheeky prints from Lydenberg. In an advertisement-like format, one print declares “Special ½ My Bed For Rent” and “Call Now,” in bold black type against a lime green background. Next to it, another print says “Unlimited Cuddles 99¢ While Supplies Last.”
Lydenberg’s works are complemented by Yun’s. One work features a vibrant hand-lettered map of the United States, with the names of each state written in typefaces inspired by 19th-century wood types.
While many of the works in “True to Type” feel modern, Yun pays homage to older typefaces. In one large mural, in warm shades of orange and red, Yun depicts the alphabet in a calligraphy-like style.
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A New York City-based type designer and educator, Yun founded Space Type, a studio practice that operates at the intersection of type and technology. She also previously worked as a graphic designer for Apple Inc., Publicis and Deutsch, and past clients include Google, Samsung, Anheuser-Busch and the World Trade Center.
“True to Type” combines contemplative and humorous works and honors both the roots of the art form and its future. It runs through December 2. There will be a reception and an artists’ talk from 5-6:30 p.m. Thursday. For more information visit skidmore.edu/schick.
Categories: Art, Life and Arts, Life and Arts, Saratoga Springs
