Artists celebrate Kiki Smith's Sampler in New York

A rousing gathering of Arion Press artists and friends honored Kiki Smith on November 3, during the Press’s yearly stint at the IFPDA Print Fair at New York’s Park Avenue Armory. The event marked the release of the book Sampler, with 200 poems by Emily Dickinson and more than 200 images by Kiki Smith (shown in photo above with the book). The title Sampler refers to a sampling from Emily Dickinson’s more than 1,700 poems, as well as Kiki Smith’s inspiration in embroidered samplers.

Artist Kara Walker and William Matson Roth

Kiki Smith was the guest of honor at a dinner hosted by Arion Press during the print fair. Kara Walker, woman of the hour with her retrospective at the Whitney, was one of the first to arrive at Le Refuge restaurant in the east 80s, to be greeted by her friend Arthur Danto, The Nation art critic and contributor to many Arion publications. Kara and Kiki held forth at one end of the table, mesmerizing collector William Matson Roth. His ties to the Press go all the way back to his partnership in the Colt Press with the famously witty Jane Grabhorn in the 1930s. Joan Roth was entertained by sculptors Mel Kendrick (Kora in Hell) and John Newman, along with architect Ross Anderson (Journey Round My Room) and New Yorker artist Barbara Westman. Joining in were novelist Susanna Moore and subscribers Myron and Esther Luria.

That afternoon, Kiki Smith was busy showing Sampler to visitors at the Arion stand at the Print Fair, among them New York subscriber Neal Rosen. Sculptor Martin Puryear dropped by the stand, where one of his woodcut prints for the Arion Cane was on display. Puryear was congratulated all round on his opening at MOMA, as was the retrospective's curator, John Elderfield, who visited with Jeanne Collins, a transplanted San Franciscan.

Sculptors Martin Puryear and John Newman with Andrew Hoyem
and Diana Ketcham at the Print Fair in New York.

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