A New NYC Artwork Present Places the Photocopier Entrance and Center

Think of a Xerox machine, and pictures of cubicles, water coolers, and Office Space hijinks is perhaps the primary issues springing to thoughts. But for artist and curator Aaron Stern, the common-or-garden copy machine is a chance—another approach to make artwork “that isn’t necessarily so costly or precious,” Stern tells W. “The photocopy allows me to experiment in the studio all day and night.”

This is the thrust behind Hard Copy New York, a brand new exhibition on the International Center of Photography on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. Curated by Stern and ICP artistic director David Campany, the present is an expanded model of Stern’s ongoing photocopy-centric work, through which he makes prints of images and artworks that resonate with him. This iteration of Hard Copy—which initially launched at Frieze New York in May 2024 earlier than touring to L.A. the next yr—options one thing of a bunch exhibition, with works by Shaniqwa Jarvis, Daniel Arnold, Zoë Ghertner, Takashi Homma, Stephen Shore, Ryan McGinley, and lots of extra, on view. Of course, every bit is thru the lens of Stern, who has been “working with alternative printing methods like photocopy and fax for almost 15 years,” he says. “I’ve got an eye for what kind of picture will work.”

Nailing down the individuals of Hard Copy was “a process like anything else,” Stern says. “Make a list. Aim high. And start asking people.” But the kernel of an thought for the present dates again to 2013. “I always liked making prints at home using laser toner printers,” he explains. “Or I’d bring them to Kinko’s and make 11×17 bond paper prints. But Andreas Laszlo Konrath tipped me off to the OCE printer that a few Kinkos had. They could print much larger.” After making a number of prints for himself, he “had this idea to do an all-photocopy machine show. But I lost my [project] space.” Ten years later, a buddy confirmed Stern a uncooked, unrenovated exhibition house on the third flooring of the WSA constructing. “I immediately thought of the photocopy concept I’d been sitting on for a decade.”

Stern hopes that, by way of Hard Copy, viewers will open their minds to various sorts of artmaking. “I wanted the show to be a moment, because as much as I love seeing a painting show, there is never the kind of turnout that there is for a photography exhibition.” But for the likes of “Richard Avedon, Wolfgang Tillmans, Nan Goldin—people line up for blocks.”

Hard Copy New York will likely be on view from January 29 by way of May 4.