Two Lines Align: Drawings and Graphic Design by Ed Fella and Geoff McFetridge
Curated by Michael Worthington
February 21–April 6, 2008
Opening reception: Wednesday, February 20, 6:00–9:00 p.m.
Two Lines Align is an exhibition about the evolution of graphic design in the context of massive shifts in our visual culture. As guest curator Michael Worthington notes in the catalogue essay, the exhibition explores “the shifts in the perceived cultural worth [of art and graphic design] over time…by placing Ed Fella’s and Geoff McFetridge’s design careers end to end to make one chronological line, one lineage. While Fella’s career reflects how graphic design has historically struggled to define itself in relationship to art, McFetridge follows a path wherein the integration of art and design is taken for granted.”
Representing two generations, Fella (b.1938) and McFetridge (b.1971) have transformed and actively altered the relationship of graphic design to art. By developing practices that are unorthodox and nontraditional, both designers compel us to question our preconceptions of what graphic design has been, as well as what it might be. Known for their highly skilled and original draftsmanship, drawing is an integral part of their individual practices. The hand-rendered becomes the basis of their vast bodies of work.
After practicing successfully as a commercial artist in Detroit for 30 years, Fella left the commercial world to pursue independent, self-initiated experimental projects. As a self-proclaimed “exit-level designer,” Fella has used illustration, photography and graphic experimentation as vehicles for his philosophical musings on art, design, literature and typography. The exhibition will include a survey of Fella’s prolific practice which includes the complete set of 130 do-it-yourself flyers (from the first in 1969–to the most recent produced for this exhibition), a selection from Fella’s 100 sketchbooks dating back to the 1960s which have never been exhibited before, and other personal and commercial projects.
An alumnus of the California Institute of Arts’ MFA Program in Graphic Design, McFetridge is a practitioner of what he describes as “the solitary arts” who inverts the traditional client/designer relationship and produces work that is as much for his own gratification as for that of a client. His unique and influential practice has ranged from client-based projects such as designing billboards, skateboards, t-shirts and other products for companies such as Nike, Patagonia and BE: Bicycle Company; music videos for The Whitest Boy Alive; and title sequences for films such as Sofia Coppola’s Virgin Suicides. McFetridge will present a new, site-specific installation as part of the exhibition at REDCAT, as well as drawings, posters, and products.
Fella received his MFA in Design from the Cranbrook Academy of Art in 1987 and since then has devoted his time to teaching and producing his own unique work, which has appeared in many design publications and anthologies. In 1997 he received the Chrysler Design Award and in 1999 an honorary doctorate from CCS in Detroit. His work is in the collections of the National Design Museum, New York and the Museum of Modern Art, New York. Fella is the recipient of the 2007 AIGA Medal. He is currently on faculty at CalArts where he has been teaching since 1987.
Originally from Canada, McFetridge received his MFA in Graphic Design at CalArts. His thesis project, Chinatown, won a distinctive merit award from ID magazine. While working as art director for Grand Royal Magazine (1995-1997), McFetridge founded his own design studio, Champion Graphics. He has had solo shows at galleries around the world including Parco Gallery, Tokyo; MU, Eindhoven; and Colette, Paris. His work is in the permanent collection of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
This exhibition is conceived and organized by Michael Worthington, an award-winning graphic designer, faculty member of CalArts’ School of Art, and alumnus of the CalArts Program in Graphic Design. The exhibition is accompanied by a 240-page color catalogue designed by Worthington with texts by Worthington, Jamer Hunt and an interview with the artists.
Address: REDCAT
Angeles at 631 W. 2nd St
Downtown Los Angeles
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