Vanessa Prager: Hunting and Gaming

by Lost At E Minor

Los Feliz artist Vanessa Prager has been exhibited at the Robert Berman Gallery, Gallery 1988 and the Santa Monica Museum of Art. Her series, Hunting and Gaming, explores the "nature of sinister play." Prager paints "starkly-lit scenes of surrealistic moments in daily life; untangling holiday decorations, playing with old toys, driving or chatting. But her odd theatrical arrangements suggest something creepy going on behind the innocent façade."

Spranq Ecofont

by CH Contributor

by Ariston Anderson

If one of your resolutions was to start shifting toward a green lifestyle, we've got an easy way for you to start that involves little more than using a new eco-friendly font. While it may seem that a change in typography won't have a big impact, consider that electronic pollution (or E-waste) takes up 2% of America's trash in landfills, but 70% of our overall toxic waste. With few printing cartridges going toward recycling programs, each year over 350 million cartridges are thrown out and each one can take up to 450 years to decompose. And that means spending more money to fill up your costly printer.

Fortunately, a company from Utrecht, Netherlands has developed a font that can help you save on costly ink and toner refills. "After Dutch holey cheese, there now is a Dutch font with holes as well," says the company, Spranq. After much research on how much ink could be taken away to preserve readability, Spranq has developed a new "holey" font which uses 20% less ink than normal fonts. While we wouldn't recommend it for high resolution displays, or for sending in a fancy cover letter, it's perfect for daily tasks that need a printing job.

Best of all? The font is free to download from Spranq. It's simple math that small changes can lead up to big differences. The more people who download the font, the less cartridges we'll see in landfills.

Ryan McGinness: Aesthetic Comfort and No Sin/No Future

by Karen Day

It's likely that Ryan McGinness doesn't need the help of his benefactress and art-loving fashion designer Agnès b. anymore, but we have a feeling the skateboarder from Virginia Beach isn't the type to forget where he came from no matter how successful he is today, both in his stomping ground of New York and worldwide. While many critics compare his ability to blur the lines between high art and commercial graphics to that of Andy Warhol, seeing the complex layers that make up each work and his radical way of thinking about how to construct art, reminds us more of a modern Claude Monet.

One of the best ways to view the intricacies of McGinness' work is at the Cincinnati Art Museum, which is exhibiting his most recent project "Aesthetic Comfort" through 15 February 2009. A black light illuminates each of his massive works, creating an impressive vision of neon swirls and Spirograph-like shapes against a completely dark backdrop, with the light bringing out each individual graphic and layer. Close-up, ethereal symbols of skateboarders, trees, bunnies, skulls, umbrellas—you name it, it's there—emerge from the chaos. This micro view of the pieces makes a step back to see the sheer cohesiveness of the work an insight into the particular talent that is Ryan McGinness.

Fortunately for those who won't be able to see his latest exhibition, his recent limited edition book, "No Sin/No Future" is available now, which provides an expansive collection of snapshots, sketches, and scans from his studio archives. Designed to give you a thorough insight into the thought process behind the artist, the book links the various mediums used by McGinness to show the connections between them and how he develops his unique style.

Glass Beverage Bottles

by Ami Kealoha

This version of a glass bottle in the shape of a plastic one continues the trend of doing up disposables in nicer materials and is, indeed, a Crate and Barrel knock-off of a similar concept by Roost (also makers of home furnishings but without the corporate baggage). It does however offer two design differences that caught our attention.

The option of a smaller size makes it more appealing for cramped spaces (I like the idea of putting it on my windowsill-slash-bedside table, for example) and the silicone stoppers are a more seamless choice as far as looks go. According to C and B they also " keep water fresh." That's exactly the kind of weirdly paranoid claim that I can get needlessly riled up about but I also have a soft spot for the little dose of hippie warmth lent by Roost's corks—we'll let you decide, if the price difference doesn't make the economy decide for you.

The 22-ounce bottle is $8 and the 50 is $16 from Crate and Barrel.

Miju Jewelery: Ebony and Ivory

by Ami Kealoha

Newly added to Miju, the new collection "Ebony and Ivory" consists of custom, laser-cut pendants featuring two initials in 1/16" thick acrylic.

They're selling them as sets that includes both a white pendant in "Century Schoolbook" and a black one in "Black Letter" fonts. Each set comes with your choice of gold, silver or bronze chains.

Designed to work as both daily flair and classy evening wear, either is perfect for typography nerds or those who just like a contemporary take on the monogram.

The pair (yes, you get one of each) is $36 from Furni.

As a bonus for CH readers, until 12 January 2009, they'll offer a 15% discount to usher in the New Year. Just enter the code "CH" at checkout.