Since 2014
At least For Her was about ballpoints. Other products which surfaced in product-flop slideshows weren't even identifiably Bic. The company appears twice on cbinsights.com's list Corporate Innovation Goes Bad, and neither had to do with pens. At #131 is Parfum Bic, a 1989 attempt at the fragrance market which lost close to $11M. The prospect of perfume from a ballpoint pen manufacturer must've stirred impressions of stinky ink or eau de lighter fluid, and the product was gone by 1990. On the same list, #69 flopped enough to make other product-flop lists: Bic disposable underwear and pantyhose. Need I say more? There you have it; disposable products and information, truly worthy of the king of disposables・
May 11—June 29, 2019 NOW UP
IL LEE : 978 solo exhibition
Art Projects International New York, NY (USA)
Large-scale ballpoint on paper works created between 1997 and 1998 by Il Lee. This display ''celebrates'' the Minneapolis Institute of Art's recent acquisition of work from Lee's 978 series of that period (pictured : three works from the series on display at San Jose Museum of Art, 2007. Photo bySue Tallon). More info.
And the million dollar genius of attaching a metal ball to the end of a tube in such a way so that ink in the tube is dispersed as it rolls? Million Dollar Genius has an occasional 'Legend' segment spotlighting inventors whose ideas seeded others, so maybe we'll one day see J.J. Loud, whose idea it was to combine that metal ball with that ink tube, or László Bíró for perfecting the technology, to really get the ball rolling・
＊Read more K. RieSTARPOINTS on the CULTUREDpage
Dec 12—22, 2019 NOW UP
A Decade of Shady Business solo exhibition
4 Mandeville Place London, UK
UK's premier ballpointer James Mylne is celebrating ten years of ballpointing business with his first solo exhibition in almost 4 years. Mylne's depiction of Britain's current Prime MinisterBoris Johnson as The Joker is among the highlights (2019, pictured cropped). More info.
・・・
Related news... The Ballpointer had been publishing 'feature' articles only with the direct participation of the artists, but in 2019 we will initiate an editorial shift and publish with or without featured artists' participation or blessing. As an online journal reporting about the usage of ballpoint pens to create fine art, we are quite simply within our rights to publish as we see fit about the activities of artists doing so. It was only as a courtesy that we solicited artist involvement in the first place, expecting that artists would, if not initially, at some point be happy to speak to media with very specific knowledge of their chosen medium. Over time it became suspicious that an artist using ballpoints (i.e. Il Lee, or his 'reps') wouldn't talk with us, effectively making The Ballpointer seem ignorant—or worse, exclusionary—by not writing about artists whom everyone knows exist but whom have not yet been featured ・
INKBLOTTER last revised May 14, 2019
Ballpoint pen artwork & more, now on display or coming soon.
Support the Starving ARTS, Ballpoint and Otherwise.
October 10-13, 2019 NOW UP
Start To Collect Belgium Art & Design art event
The Floraliënhal Ghent, Belgium
Among the many participating artists and designers exhibiting at this annual event -- this year's 'theme' being Start To Collect, making affordable art available to those who with an eye toward starting collections of their own -- new work by Dominique Vangilbergen can also be seen and bought. Vangilbergen credits his art as 'ink' work (Crater Scape #2, 2019, pencil, ink, acrylic and silver leaf on Japanese paper, pictured cropped) but we believe that 'ink' designation means ballpoint pen ink. More info. More info.
All but the keenest viewers may have missed the many ballpoint pen cameos on screens big and small over the years. Ballpoints are regulars in Hollywood productions, and not just as set dressing...
Two Teens and a Mom ®
Million Dollar Genius Episode #7, 2019・History channel
June 19—July 21, 2019 NOW UP
We The People solo exhibition
Howl Arts New York, NY (USA)
A sizable presentation of ballpoint penworks by Guy Woodard, whose talent with ballpoints may finally outshine his reputation as a convicted forger. More info.
・Read Guy Woodard's April 2016 BallpointerPICK.
・Read The Ballpointer's April 2016 BRIEF about Guy Woodard's Look To The Rainbow exhibition.
BALLPOINTBRIEF by E. Lee posted January 8, 2019
Random Points 2018・SUB・
Short of anecdotes for the next time you're in need of small talk at a holiday function, as happens to me every December? Internet slideshows can always be counted upon to provide informative but otherwise useless, even laughable (perhaps the point) information that'll impress or at least entertain. Msn.com's 116 amazing facts for people who like amazing facts provides plenty. Did you know there's a word for the act of stretching and yawning (#30)? Bet you didn't know there's a bird who can learn to talk better than parrots (#5).
Plenty of art tidbits made the list. Entry #76 teaches us the name of the color seen when you open your eyes in a pitch-black room. Entry #14 tells us the percentage of Bob Ross paintings containing at least one 'happy little cloud'. And did you know Dr. Suess's book Green Eggs and Ham was the product of a dare? See entry #29. Our favorite occupies the opening slot: ''Between 1912 and 1948, art competitions were a part of the Olympics. Medals were awarded for architecture, music, painting, and sculpture.'' Hey IOC, bring that back!
Submissions to The Ballpointer are welcome and encouraged but, by doing so, you are authorizing the use and publication of any texts and/or data provided. Having said that, let us know you're out there.
Sept 23—Oct 21, 2019 NOW UP
In The Drift solo (duo) exhibition
Corey Helford Gallery Los Angeles, California (X)
New linear ballpoint penworks and acrylic paintings (pictured) by British art duo Kai & Sunny. More info.
Listings published courtesy of The Ballpointer, space permitting.
Something you'd like to see? Something you'd like us to see?...
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August 30—September 13, 2019 NOW UP
Maestros Del Bic group exhibition
Galeria Pascual de Cabo Mallorca, Spain (USA)
An impressive display of 35 drawings in ballpoint pen by 13 regional artists, Spanish artists except for Latifa Aabbas (Morocco) and Majid Hoseini (Iran). Several hyperrealist ballpoint artworks in Bic blue by distinguished ballpointer Pepe Lozano are among the attractions (pictured, cropped). Full-color ballpoint photorealism by Sara Madrid (pictured, cropped) is another highlight of the exhibition, which has garnered the attention and support of various local television news programs. Ballpoint art fans in the area who want to see the exhibition should contact the gallery directly for hours and directions: direcciongaleriapdc@gmail.com.
Ballpoints also turn up in slideshows, but not (yet ) for the artwork created using them. At #12 of 38 in msn's These 20th-century entrepreneurs changed the world is none other than Baron Marcel Bich, listed among luminaries such as Thomas Edison (#2), Henry Ford (#4), Bill Gates (#18) and Steve Jobs (#20). Bich, of course, is not the inventor of ballpoint pens, just the entrepreneur who brought them to the masses (as Bic), kind of like what Ray Kroc (#8) was to McDonalds. Bich's entry shows not a portrait photo, as most others, but a photo of a Bic ballpoint pen instead (pictured). Other entries whose products shaped the creativity of mankind include Walt Disney (#6), George Lucas (#22) and Ole Kirk Kristiansen (Lego, #14).
So Bic ballpoints have left an indelible 'mark' on history, and internet trivia, but not always for the better. At #10 in an msn slideshow of Incredible Product Flops is Bic's For Her ballpoint pen. Other than the flowery packaging and pink and purple inks, there's nothing identifiably 'Her' about the pens.
July-August, 2020 NOW UP
The Ballpoint Summit 2020 group exhibition
ISETAN Fine Art Gallery Shinjuku, Tokyo (Japan)
Mark your calendar, book your flight and secure lodgings to be in Tokyo for the 2020 Summer Olympics (pictured: designer Asao Tokolo's Tokyo 2020 Olympics logo as reinterpreted in ballpoint pen by Lennie Mace). The Olympic competition is, of course, the main attraction, but visitors to the city during those two weeks will have the added opportunity of viewing what promises to be one of the greatest assemblages of contemporary ballpoint pen art.
Summit curator and ballpoint elder Lennie Mace intends it to be the ballpoint exhibition to set the standard. Few, if any, are as qualified to oversee such an undertaking.
Confirmed participants include Shane McAdams, James Mylne, C.J. Pyle, Joo Lee Kang, Shirish Deshpande, Andrey Poletaev and many more. Mace himself is among the participating artists, but he stresses that his involvement with the exhibition will lean more toward administrative duties. Mace is still in the process of inviting artists.
Although the exhibition coincides with the Olympics, Olympic-themed art is not a prerequisite for participating artists. Mace will, however, tap art from his Play Pen series depicting athletic activities such as cycling and running.
The Ballpoint Summit will be no competition, and no medals will be awarded, but all participating artists are worthy of gold medals for their mastery of the medium.
The Ballpointer will regularly report on preparations leading up to show time, stay tuned for more info. More info.
March 1—23, 2019 NOW UP
Courtside group exhibition
Arch Enemy Fine Arts Philadelphia, PA
See Rebecca Yanovkaya's ballpoint & mixed-media The Grand Master of the Hunt (2019, pictured in-progress, cropped) in this group exhibition of 17 artists, all of whom created ''a character portrait based a specific member of the medieval court''. More info.
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Oct 25—Dec 7, 2019 NOW UP
Joe Coleman and The Shadow Self solo exhibition
Andrew Edlin Gallery New York, NY
The infamous painter and performance artist Joe Coleman is not known for ballpoint pen work, but we've heard from reliable sources he has spent plenty of time drawing with them. Perhaps some can be seen in this exhibition? No matter, his paintings are always worth a look (Doorway to Whitney, 2011-2015, pictured cropped). More info.
BALLPOINTBRIEF by B. Neufeld posted May 2, 2019
'Busy ' Signal・X・
This was passed down to me from my Ballpointer higher-ups, what would've been a book review of sorts; a book judged by its cover. That would've been a good thing in this case, a love letter in the offing—the book cover in question, after all, bore art by none other than ballpoint elder Il Lee—but due to a lack of cooperation, you get me instead, left to judge that book not by its cover but by its cover artist's representatives. Followers of The Ballpointer who actually pay attention may already know that when something is handed down to me, well ...