Studio News Archives — Page 2 of 4

bd Year in Review 2017 🎉

2017 is almost over! We can hardly believe it. It was a busy year for bd-studios.com, and we accomplished a lot. Below are the highlights from our most significant projects!

electric wire video single out now

I’m so happy to share with you electric wire, the first video single from my Angkor Wat book and album. electric wire represents the genesis of the entire project, it being the first poem I wrote during my first visit to Siem Reap. It’s based on my experience of exploring the town and the things I experienced and saw there. The video is a visual interpretation of the poem (and the experiences it describes). There’s also an electric wire zine and even tote bag you can get as gifts over at my fundraiser for Cambodian children. Check it out and enjoy.

Read luke kurtis’s new book and support children in Cambodia

Dear Friends,

I’m writing to tell you about my latest project. Angkor Wat is a poetry/photography book and spoken word album based on my travels in Cambodia. If you follow me online, you may have seen some of my photos from those trips last year as they happened. But that was only the tip of the iceberg. My book is a major project and is what sparked my second pilgrimage to the Far East, which I did by myself in December of 2016. In that sense, this is the biggest project I have ever undertaken. And even though the book and accompanying album are out now—and I hope you will read and listen to them—I am not done.

When I was in Cambodia, I met a monk named Sokhun. Sokhun and I had an immediate connection because he is a poet like me. He’s also into computers and teaches computer skills, as well as English, to several hundred students in a school he founded in the rural area where he grew up. Our common interests of poetry and technology helped things get off to a great start, and I now feel blessed to call him my friend.

I’m so excited to announce the newest publication from bd-studios.com. Puertas Españolas is something a little different than anything else you’ll find in the bd Library. It’s a suite of short poems by Josemaria Mejorada and May Gañán paired with a set of photos I took of various doors while traveling in Spain. Doors are a very interesting part of buildings. I encountered so many unique doors wandering around the streets of Madrid, Toledo, Segovia, and Seville. I decided to publish the images as a set of postcards–but I wanted another voice to work with the images as a counterpoint. Josemaria and May’s poetry is the perfect accompaniment. The poems are not about the images, but, rather, they exist as another layer, providing a glimpse into another world. When we pass through doors, we enter new places, new spaces, and new environments. Josemaria and May have helped me transform these Spanish doors into portals to a realm of poetry. I hope that you will open each door to discover the worlds that await you. The set is very limited. Contact us if you are interested to obtain a copy.

convergence: new installation and video

Last year I made my first major foray into installation art. I created the site-specific work the woods are watching and released a series of videos documenting the process. While that work was part of my larger Crayon Portraiture project, it also marked the beginning of this new earth-based aspect of my practice.

Today I’m proud to debut my newest piece, which is titled convergence. This new piece takes me further down the path of creating art that interacts with the land and the environment.

💋💋💋 New zine Kissing Hedwig out now 💋💋💋

If you’re on the bd email list, you already know we sent out an announcement a couple of weeks ago about my new zine Kissing Hedwig (if you’re not on the list, do sign up!). I debuted this new work at the 8th Annual Rainbow Book Fair in New York City. This is the second year bd-studios.com tabled along with our sister publisher New Lit Salon Press. We had a full table of artist publications and literary fiction available for purchase.

Kissing Hedwig is really special to me. The essay is a unique blend of memoir and Hedwig and the Angry Inch fanzine. The Hedwig show played an important part in my life as a young, queer artist coming of age in New York City in the late ’90’s. This zine is the first time I’ve publicly told part of my coming out story. There’s more to tell—and one day I will. But, for now, I hope you’ll enjoy Kissing Hedwig. The zine is lovingly made, hand bound, and custom stamped. It’s made with lots of love and I can’t imagine a more perfect expression of the story it tells inside. Contact us if you’d like to buy a copy!

New Zine: marie was an artist by luke kurtis

My latest zine is marie was an artist. It’s a fully illustrated but handheld size zine featuring a single poem. The zine format is well suited to this type of intensely focused yet concise content. The idea behind this particular zine was to tell the story of my Aunt Marie, who died of cancer in 1987, through her own paintings.

Marie is a special figure in my life. Though she died before I was even ten years old, she somehow went on to influence me a great deal as I began to build my own creative path. She was the only member of my family that was an artist. Her paintings hung on the walls of my parents and other family members growing up. She watched over me in this way, making me keenly aware of how an artist’s presence radiates from her work and becomes part of something much larger. Looking at Marie’s paintings as a kid always made me wonder… could I be an artist one day?

Even now Marie still inspires me. With this zine I hope maybe I’ve inspired her—wherever she may be—a little bit too.

See the zine in the bd Library.

bd website redesign 2015

Welcome to the new bd website! I’m so excited about this new design. The bd web presence had become a bit fragmented over the years. This new design not only brings things up to date and presents our work better than ever before, but it brings the different aspects of the studio together, consolidating all our activity under one virtual roof. When you arrive at bd-studios.com you’re greeted with a lovely slideshow that highlights who we are and some of our recent projects. From there you can access the Portfolio, the Blog, and the Library. These three main sections are the core of the site. But you’ll find other areas as projects and needs evolve. For instance, there’s the Press Room. For the first time, we’ve collected the press releases about our various projects all in one easy-to-access location. The site is also more accessible than ever before. The last major revision of the site was in 2011–and my what a different landscape the Internet is today. We browse the web at more screen sizes and resolutions than ever before–a situation that presents a big challenge for us artists trying to show our work in the best way possible! But not to worry, the bd site is fully responsive and looks great on whatever device you’re viewing it from.

So, please, have a look around and make yourself at home. I’d love to hear what you think, so leave a comment below! And, of course, don’t forget to check us out beyond this website too. You can follow us over on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube!

Latest News from luke kurtis (Spring 2015)

It’s been a while since I’ve shared news about what’s going on in the world of luke kurtis. Here’s a quick update…

After an insane 2014 with projects including my own INTERSECTION and The Language of History, my collaborations with Michael Harren for Tentative Armor, numerous New Lit Salon Press projects, and lots of little here-and-there-and-inbetween stuff like one-off group shows, random publications, and more… I was happy to take a bit of a break around the holidays. After all, a little bit of boredom is good for the creative mind.

7th Annual Rainbow Book Fair

Yesterday was the 7th Annual Rainbow Book Fair here in New York. bd and NLSP partnered this year to set up a table at our very first ever book fair. It was a great experience. If you came out to see us, THANK YOU! And if we met you for the first time, THANK YOU! We loved sharing our work with you and we really appreciate your support. We had the pleasure of Stefanie Masciandaro helping us woman our table all day. This woman rocks! You’ll definitely want to check out her work in Startling Sci-Fi.

“Invocation” music video

Premiered yesterday on The Justin Wayne Show, my video for Michael Harren‘s Invocation (the second single from #TentativeArmor) features my “journey” meditation walk. I documented this performance art piece during my trip to Iceland last year, which is also when I created all the other footage that appears in the video. For me, Michael’s music and the visuals I paired with it are all meditative in nature and reflect the spiritual elements of the Tentative Armor project as a whole.

I’d love to hear what you think! Leave a comment on the video or drop both me and Michael Harren a line on Twitter (@lukekurtis and @MichaelHarren).

Artist Book Fair at BACG

Tonight is my lecture at Bushwick Art Crit Group! It’s also the very first BACG Artist Book Fair. I have pulled together several of my books to take to the fair tonight.

“The Language of History” (with an intro by Christopher Stout)
“singing” postcard set
“INTERSECTION” (exhibition catalog)
“INTERSECTION” (set of zines)
“The Mountain”
“bad skin”(an as-yet-unpublished book work)

Other artists will include Meg Atkinson, Sophia Chizuco, James Morrisson, Drew Van Diest, and Milo Wissig.

For more information about the fair, check out the BACG Tumblr and I hope to see you tonight!

Bushwick Art Crit Group

I’m super excited to announce my appearance at the upcoming Bushwick Art Crit Group session. BACG is an amazing community of creative folks and I couldn’t be more pleased to show my work there. I’ll be giving a short lecture about some of my recent projects… I might even give a preview of an exciting new project too!

Come see me and the other talented artists, including Lauren Britton, Alison Causer, Susan Luss, Matt Jones, Michael Serafino, and Christopher Stout. This is a not-to-be-missed session!

For more information about BACG, see http://bushwickartcritgroup.com/