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L.A.’s Gemini G.E.L. Debuts Portfolio for Barack Obama

By ARTINFO

Published: September 30, 2008
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© 2008 Ed Ruscha and Gemini G.E.L.
Ed Ruscha's "All Points" (2008) is one of 13 prints in Gemini G.E.L.'s $20,000 portfolio to benefit Barack Obama.

LOS ANGELES—The Los Angeles–based artists' workshop and art publisher Gemini G.E.L. has teamed up with 13 artists to create a portfolio of limited-edition prints to support the presidential campaign of Barack Obama and the Democratic National Committee, reports Artnet. For a donation of $20,000 to the Obama campaign — which is also running the fund-raiser — contributors receive a new limited-edition print from each of the participating blue-chip artists: John Baldessari, Jonathan Borofsky, Frank Gehry, Ann Hamilton, Jasper Johns, Ellsworth Kelly, Brice Marden, Julie Mehretu, Ken Price, Susan Rothenberg, Ed Ruscha, Richard Serra, and Richard Tuttle.

Gemini principals Sidney Felson and Stanley Grinstein, who assembled the portfolio, reported an enthusiastic response from artists. "We asked the artists we dealt with," Grinstein said. "We actually got too many responses — we only wanted 10. But we didn’t want to turn anyone away." The work ranges from expressionistic works such as Susan Rothenberg's lithograph "Twisted Cat" (2008) to Ed Ruscha's lithograph "All Points" (2008), which features his well-known use of text. Grinstein estimated one third of the portfolios, produced in an edition of 150, had already been sold since their debut last week, and said he expected the rest to sell out.

Gemini has previously held a fund-raisers to support Democratic Senatorial nominee Harvey Gantt against Republican Senator Jesse Helms in 1996 Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry in 2004. Over $1 million was raised in each case.
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