Maurice Sendak “50 Years, 50 Reasons, 50 Works”
Museum Exhibition Cut-Outs
One of our really fun projects, we worked with Exhibition Designer Henni Yama to produce five huge “Where the Wild Things Are” characters from the imagination and drawings of Maurice Sendak for his “50 Years, 50 Works, 50 Reasons” exhibition at the Walt Disney Family Museum. We printed on poly-fabric, contour-cut and installed each character on glass or sheet rock at approximately 5×9 feet per image. All display elements in this wondrous exhibition are of original paintings and drawings featuring 50 years of Sendak’s art. More about Maurice Sendak
Herman Miller “Good Design, Stories From Herman Miller”
Museum Exhibition Mural and Cut-Outs
For this exhibition’s title wall, designed by Ted Cohen, Blow Up Lab produced all elements seen in this image at the entrance to the exhibition “Good Design: Stories From Herman Miller” at the SF Museum of Craft+Design. Chair and Sofa cut-outs were printed on satin photo paper, laminated, mounted to gator board, custom cut in our finishing shop, and cleated on the backs for installation. Other pieces were printed on poly-fabric wall-covering and enhanced matte papers. We also resourced the large, red push-pins. More About Herman Miller
Allen Ginsberg “Beat Memories: The Photographs of Allen Ginsberg”
Museum Exhibition Murals
Blow Up Lab printed and installed these large murals from scans of original photographs by writer, poet and photographer Allen Ginsberg. They were featured in the one-man exhibition “Beat Memories: The Photographs of Allen Ginsberg” at the The CJM. The image of his grandmother, “Rebecca Ginsberg”, is printed 10×15 feet on poly-fabric and installed onto freight elevator metal doors, which stayed fully functional as well. “Jack Kerouac Wandering” and Allen on NYC roof (“Myself seen by William S. Burroughs”) were printed on matte wall covering at approximately 11×9 feet and 16×26 feet. More About Allen Ginsberg
Fletcher Benton
Museum Exhibition Murals
Blow Up Lab Owner and photographer, Frank McGrath, went on location to photograph artist/sculptor Fletcher Benton’s studio and outdoor sculptures. He then created huge files to be enlarged with clean resolution at enormous dimensions. Then they were printed on vinyl and canvas. And each panel was then stretched on wood bars built at hour shop and packed and crated for travel to multi-city museum exhibitions. They have been featured at six museums in the US and Berlin, Germany. These murals are single images printed on panels at the following dimensions: “Studio Panoramas”10×36 feet each; “Alphabets” 8×32 feet; “Doughnut” 10×16 feet; “Sculpture” 3×4 feet each. We loved working with Fletcher. He is an exceptional artist and person. More About Fletcher Benton
Camille Rose Garcia “Down The Rabbit Hole”
Museum Exhibition Murals
One of our most popular projects, Blow Up Lab enlarged, printed and installed four ceiling-to-floor wall murals of original paintings by Camille Rose Garcia for the exhibition “Down The Rabbit Hole” at the Walt Disney Family Museum. She originally created the paintings for her contemporary illustrated edition of Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. The exhibition installation was designed by Henni Yama. More About Camille Rose Garcia
Amy Winehouse: “A Family Portrait”
Museum Exhibition Murals and Prints
“A Family Portrait” was a personal and intimate exhibition about Amy Winehouse, famous singer and musician who died too soon at only 28 years old (1983– 2011). This show was created to celebrate her passion for music and fashion, as well as her love for London and her family. The Winehouse family gave The CJM access to the late singer’s belongings, including her guitar, record collection, and iconic outfits.
Blow Up Lab ink-ject printed the title, portrait mural and some content images on photo paper and wall cover media. We then installed all the pieces on site.
“Stanley Kubrick: The Exhibition”
Museum Exhibition Murals
Blow Up Lab printed and installed murals and circular prints as accents to this traveling show’s installation at The CJM which was organized by the Deutsches Filmmuseum, Frankfurt am Main, Christiane Kubrick and The Stanley Kubrick Archive at University of the Arts London. Featuring photographs, drawings and objects that illustrated the breadth of Kubrick’s achievements, beginning with his magazine photography in the 1940s, to his directorial productions from the 1950s through the 1990s.
Roz Chast “Cartoon Memoirs”
Museum Exhibition Murals and Cut-Outs
Blow Up Lab printed and installed many huge murals and character cut-outs for Roz Chast’s “Cartoon Memoirs”, a retrospective exhibition featuring original drawings by the witty and clever artist. She has published more than 800 cartoons in The New Yorker, as well as drawings for her 2014 graphic memoir Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant?, a National Book Award finalist and winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Autobiography.
Chast is one of the most celebrated and beloved cartoonists working in the United States today; and Carol was thrilled to have Roz personally sign her copy of her award winning book during the exhibition opening.
The exhibition was organized and debuted at the Norman Rockwell Museum, traveled to the Museum of the City of New York, and then made its Western debut at The CJM. For a real treat, check out Roz’s conversation with Michael Krasny at The CJM opening night, which also was broadcast on our local NPR station KQED. […]
Brian Wall “New Works”
Gallery Murals
Blow Up Lab Owner and photographer Frank McGrath went on location to photograph artist Brian Wall’s sculptures in his enormous Emeryville studio. He then created two huge vertical files to enlarge with clean resolution, printed them 4×12 feet per image on matte, vinyl wall-covering, and packed and shipped them to Flowers Gallery in London, England. Carol and Frank followed the murals to London for the installation and several exceptional events, celebrating the opening of Wall’s “New Works” exhibition. They met many of Brian’s distinguished (British) art colleagues from his teaching years at London’s Central St. Martins College of Art and Design before he moved to teach sculpture at Cal Berkeley in the 1970s. It was an amazing exhibition and experience. Brian and his wife Sylvia Browne are wonderful people to work with and know. More About Brian Wall
Houdini “Art and Magic”
Museum Exhibition Murals
Blow Up Lab had a big challenge with this unique historical exhibition on the life of famous magician Houdini at The CJM. The old photographs were very difficult to enlarge to such big dimensions and hold resolution. But our technicians are Photoshop wizards and were able to work their magic on the scanned photo files. They were then printed on matte wall-covering media that stretched at a scale from ceiling to floor and wall to wall.
Squeak Carnwath “Painting is No Ordinary Object”
Museum Exhibition Prints
This photo of Artist Squeak Carnwath painting in her studio was taken by photographer M Lee Fatherree for the entrance to her one-woman museum exhibition “Painting is No Ordinary Object” produced by Curator Karen Tsujimoto. Blow Up Lab was hired by exhibition designer, Ted Cohen, to print Fatherree’s photograph at 5 x 10 feet on vinyl and stretch on wood bars for installation. We were able to take some fun snaps of Squeak in her fabulous green attire in front of the mural at the opening night reception… and what a great show! More About Squeak Carnwath
