"The three oil paintings are linen stretched over 59 x 50" panels (baltic birch face with basswood supports, then sealed) that metroframe created to spec for me. The panels are sturdy, as light as possible, as well as straight and flat to the wall. Your exacting tolerances work well with my geometric abstraction. I stretch the linen around the edges, and staple on the back supports. I use one coat of rabbit skin glue, to seal the linen. Then apply a minimum of four coats of Gamblin Oil Ground. I begin to apply several oil base color coats, then the geometrical elements are planned and painted. These paintings are all handed brushed, to achieve a smooth finish and sublime outwardness." 

We met up with Glenn Grafelman at the CAA show in NY last year. He asked us if we could make some custom panels for his paintings. He will be exhibiting 3 of them at Thomas Barry Fine Arts from May 11 – July 12. 

"Thank you for making such beautiful frames! I had my MFA thesis show this past April and the frames were fantastic. I've attached a few installation images.  

Thanks so much."

Rebecca Prato

Frame Selection Profile: 115   Wood:  maple    Finish:  05 pickled white
Optional components: matching spacer and strainer

click for ordering information

Beginning in 1996, the community of Saint John's Abbey and University in Collegeville, Minnesota, began planning and working on The Saint John's Bible, the first handwritten, illuminated Bible to be commissioned by a Benedictine monastery in five hundred years.

The New Mexico History Museum is currently hosting an exhibition of original pages of The Saint John’s Bible installed in Metroframe Cases.  This exhibition showcases 44 stunning pages from two of The Saint John’s Bible’s seven volumes – Wisdom Books and Prophets. Fifteen years of painstaking work by some of the finest calligraphers, artists and theologians in the world came to a close last year with the completion of The Saint John’s Bible – a contemporary handwritten and illuminated Bible created by a team of artists and calligraphers at a Scriptorium in Wales. The exhibition at the New Mexico History Museum in Santa Fe, New Mexico runs until December 30, 2012. Images Courtesy New Mexico History Museum. Photography by Blair Clark, Exhibition Designer Caroline Lajoie.
 

Detail of frame corner of Saint John's Bible frame

Metropolitan has made 3 different sets of cases to exhibit this work. 

finishes for Saint John's Bible cases

clear finish on maple

black finish on ash

custom finish on cherry

We first custom milled this frame for the "Light Years: Conceptual Art and the Photograph 1964 – 1977" exhibition at The Art Institute of Chicago. We decided to make a sample so we could show how it is assembled. Our recto verso frame was designed so the artwork could be viewed from the front and the back. The base can be screwed into a vitrine or table for security. When installing the artwork, one needs only to unscrew the base section and slip the artwork package into the the frame and then screw in the bottom frame section.  The top sections of the frame are splined and have no nail or screws showing. The frame sits inside a base and is secured to the base with horizontal screws. The screws are covered by a thin wood sleeve that goes over the base hiding the screws. The photographer David Gardner made this photo "Frozen Plain, South Dakota, 2009" in an edition of 10 for Life Support Japan. We purchased it from Wall Space Gallery.

Steps in assembling Recto Verso frame

Assemble the parts of the frame	Slide art package into the 3 sides of the frame
Put on the 4th side on the frame	Screw in the 4th side of the frame.
The base of the frame is predrilled to screw into vitrine or table for security	Place frame into base
Screw base into frame	Cover screws on base with outside sleeve cover

The Art of Oleg Vassiliev surveys the career of one of the most important unofficial Soviet artists. This exhibition is the third in the series of remarkable one-man shows under the umbrella title Discovering Russian 20th Century Masters. The exhibition of Vassiliev’s works on paper includes the exciting House with the Mezzanine series, seven children’s books illustrated by Oleg Vassiliev and Erik Bulatov, as well as his six self-portraits where the artist explores the issues of identity and self-representation through visual means. Inspired by the personalities and settings of Anton Chekhov’s story “House with the Mezzanine,” this series of thirty metal-cut prints combines a critical revision of Soviet history with the ingenious graphics to create a progression of beautiful vignettes.

One of the most respected figures in Russian contemporary art, visual artist Oleg Vassiliev was at the inception of the Unofficial Artist Movement in the Soviet Union during the 1950s, ‘60s and ‘70s. This movement demonstrated disagreement with soviet society and government through artistic experimentation and non conformist work. For Vassiliev this meant combining Russian Realist style with that of the early Soviet avant-garde in studies of pictorial space and light. Vassiliev, who immigrated to the Untied States in 1990, continues to paint in his home studio in St. Paul. In 2012 the Museum of Russian Art in Minneapolis held a retrospective of his work. Oleg Vassiliev was recently featured on TPT’s MN Original series.  Click here to watch.

Exhibition runs through May 6 at The Museum of Russian Art.

Frame Presentation

Black metal frame & Antique White Rag Mat

Click to See Ordering information

Robert Adams described the work as " believable because it includes evidence of man's darkness of spirit, memorable for the intense fondness [Gossage] shows for the remains of the natural world." The POND is an integral yet under-appreciated body of work belonging to the "New Topographic" movement, an important part of photography in the 1970s and 80s.  The book is available at the Aperture Foundation.

Also on view will be prints from a series called THE ROMANCE INDUSTRY, a haunting pictorial investigation into the modern day area around Venice, a solemn rumination, incorporating elements of man's indifference and nature's response.

John Gossage (born New York, 1946 ) is known for his artists' books and publications. He studied briefly with Lisette Model and Alexey Brodovitch in the 1960s and has exhibited worldwide. He has produced seventeen books and boxes on specific bodies of work and his photographs are held in numerous private and public collections , including the Museum of Modern Art, New York, and the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

The exhibit is at the Stephen Daiter Gallery in Chicago April 6 – June 3, 2012

Frame selection 
click to see ordering options

Profile: 105

09 Ebony on walnut

Malick Sidibé’s (Malian, born 1935 or 1936) photographs offer a unique look at a time of political transition and cultural liberation. As Mali gained independence from France in 1960, the youth culture of music, dancing, and fashion exploded in this once-conservative West African nation and Sidibé’s ubiquitous lens chronicled it all. Photographing in nightclubs and at parties in the capital city of Bamako, Sidibé developed a uniquely loose and improvisational style that reflected the liveliness of the events.

Building on his status as a local celebrity, Sidibé opened the eponymous Studio Malick and further distinguished himself by inflecting the sincerity of studio portraiture with the energy and flash of the emergent youth culture. Through the use of props, pose, and attention to personality, Studio Malick not only fulfilled its clients’ aspirational dreams of self-presentation, but also transcended the immediate circumstances of 1960s and ‘70s Mali to present a nuanced study of human character.

Depaul Art Museum
March 29 – June 3, 2012

Frame Selection 101 Maple with 01 clear lacquer finish
Click for ordering options

"Hybrid Romance" by Los Angeles artist Lawrence T. Yun is his latest watercolor series and can be seen at the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery in Los Angeles thru 5/6/12 .

“The paintings are meant to be aesthetically pleasing,” said Yun, “yet the deliberate awkwardness of the structured subject matter conveys subtle messages that trigger the audience to question the imagery.” 

Born in Taiwan and now living in Los Angeles, Yun has exhibited his paintings throughout California, including at the Long Beach Art Museum and the Los Angeles Municipal Gallery in Hollywood, as well as in Kentucky, Nevada, Oregon, Wisconsin and India.

Thank you Metroframe,

The 115 Profile is wonderful and these strainers are amazing!  Definitely using them again for my next body of works! Lawrence Yun  Clck to see ordering options

"Using your Profile 101 frame, I have altered the frame by painting the upper half white, to continue the horizon line from the artwork, to the framing backing and wall. "and if, between the two" is based on the 18 chapters of "Walden" by Thoreau, transcribed in Braille on paper. Each frame measures 41 (h) x 28 (w) inches. Very time consuming, but well worth the effort. I thought that you all may find this of interest. Thanks for the great frames!" Click to see ordering information on frames.

Kenn Kotara
Kotara Studio, LLC
www.kotarastudio.com
Flanders Gallery

Sacred Scars, Shadowed Ground Images of the Fredericksburg & Spotsylvania county civil war battlefIelds
2/17-3/16/11 Chatham Manor Frederickburg & Spotsylvania National Military Park, Virginia

"Sacred Scars, Shadowed Ground is a visual narrative of my walks on the battlefields of Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania County. Last fall, I spent a week observing and listening to the fields, trying to grasp the emotion of the ground. Today, the battlefields are beautiful, tranquil examples of central Virginia countryside, but we know that they hold stories of sadness, horror, bravery, courage, sacrifice, rage, fear, and relief. Some of the stories are famous. Most art forgotten almost as quickly as they began, lost in the blood and chaos of war. Many stories include some of the most famous people in American history, but a vast majority are of anonymous men and women. Native Americans speak often about "listening to the land", connecting with an environment that has strong feelings associated with it. I've tried to listen to these fields and capture with my images the emotional essence of the stories that are still being written."

Larry Stuart 
www.larrystuartstudio.com