Mapping Manhattan by Emma Johnson

Word up map enthusiasts! TAG Fine Arts is delighted to offer stunning new maps of New York by the remarkable artist Emma Johnson. Working with original vintage Manhattan maps including: Esso - Metropolitan New York (1941), Hagstrom Visitors Map of New York City (1961) and Mobil Metropolitan New York City (1964 & 1966), Johnson explores the fragmented, multifaceted nature of memory and history of this unique city. An entirely new series, the artist has been obsessively collecting maps of New York, which she has deconstructed and recombined in response to her personal experience through time. Johnson cuts multiple paths and layers into each piece, transforming the maps from functional objects into evocative personal journeys. Visually compelling in their complexity, these works could possibly be interpreted as a metaphor for our continued need to communicate and pin down the streams of information that characterize our daily lives. Speaking about the new series, Emma told us that "At first I found them quite difficult as the grid structure of the road layout is so rigid in Manhattan - I am more accustomed to the chaotic European road structure - but I hope I am getting the hang of it!" We certainly think so and are delighted to be exhibiting these maps here in New York in the coming Spring. For further information and details on availability, please contact Diana. 

Manhattan Transit (2014), dissected paper maps (6 Layers), 67cm x 50cm 

Image Courtesy of the Artist and TAG Fine Arts

Metropolitan (2014), dissected paper maps (3 layers), 46cm x 39cm

Image of Courtesy of the Artist and TAG Fine Arts

Mapping the typographic landscape of New York City

TAG Fine Arts NYC is delighted to now be working with the talented artist and designer, Ursula Hitz. A typographic genius, the artist meticulously creates contemporary cartographic maps of the world's best-known cities based on place names. With expertize in fonts, typefaces and all things typography, Hitz's real interest lies in how letters capture not only the dimension of a city, but also its personally too. She explains, "unlike regular maps, mine don't focus on streets or buildings. Instead, they build an organic texture of worlds that grow from the centre - in the way that many cities have grown".  Hitz has exhibited her work widely in Europe and we look forward to introducing her beautiful typographic maps Stateside.  For information and availability on her map of the Big Apple (illustrated below), please contact Diana. Exhibition dates to follow.

Map of NYC, 2014, Limited edition screen print on Somerset paper, 

Edition of 100, 22 x 29 in, 56 x 76 cm Image Courtesy of the Artist and TAG Fine Arts

Map of NYC (detail), 2014, Limited edition screen print on Somerset paper, 

Edition of 100, 22 x 29 in, 56 x 76 cm Image Courtesy of the Artist and TAG Fine Arts

Brain Terrains by Heidi Whitman

TAG Fine Arts, NYC is delighted to have two paper constructions by Heidi Whitman to offer contemporary cartography enthusiasts. The artist who describes these constructions as "the structure of the city and the structure of the mind conflated" skillfully charters the mechanical workings of the brain to reveal intuitive, mental terrains that map the interior and exterior places as one.

Heidi Whitman, Zig Zag, 2011, 10.5 x 17 x 2 in, ink, gouache, acrylic, paper and cast shadows
Image Courtesy of the Artist and TAG Fine Arts

For further information and prices,  please contact Diana.  For an artist CV and images, check out Heidi's work here.

Art of Mapping reaches out across the Atlantic

TAG Fine Arts is delighted to join forces with four US and Canada based artists who will be first time exhibitors in the UK next month.   Peter Dykhuis, Dahlia Elsayed, Robert Walden, Heidi Whitman, and the New York based artist Paula Scher, have been invited to show their work in TAG's upcoming exhibition, The Art of Mapping, a survey show celebrating cartography’s potential as an art form, rather than a science.   This first transatlantic collaboration for TAG comes from a year of research into contemporary map making and an investigation into how cartography is in the process of being reimagined for today’s society, with all five artists making a vital contribution to the show. If you're passing through London, do visit the exhibition.  We intend to tour the show in 2012 Stateside.

Dahlia Elsayed | Pull, Plot, Peak, Pine | 2011 | Acrylic on paper 

Heidi Whitman | Invisible Cities / Brain Terrain (318) | 2010 | 

Ink, gouache, acrylic, paper, and cast shadows

The Art of Mapping opens in London on November 14th 2011, click here for full details. A number of exhibiting artists appear in Kitty Harmon's authoritative survey book ‘The Map as Art’ (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2009) who will be contributing to the exhibition catalogue.