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For the first time ever, we’re excited to offer archival digital prints of original drawings by longtime Interact artist Peder Hagen.

Peder Hagen PrintsHagen has devoted the last fifteen years of his practice to developing work about Cressia, a fictitious utopian civilization. Dreamt up in countless sketchbooks and catalogued across hundreds of drawings, Hagen’s Cressia is built on four pillars: kindness, compassion, reverence, and recycling. Its inhabitants — people, fairies, anthropomorphic flora, and celestial bodies — enjoy an entirely analog, natural world.

The newly released suite of prints includes two untitled works that Hagen refers to as Cressian textiles. In a vibrant array of crystalline abstractions, they are detailed views of the intricate garments that Cressians wear. The third print, Two Ladies Meditating Among the Flowers, portrays two elaborately dressed figures set against a tangerine sky, a colossal crimson flower between them. Hagen completed the original drawing in 2015, and it remains an important part of our archive, which dates back to 1996.

Hagen’s work expresses a commitment to living a slower, more creative life. “Drawing and doing art – even if it’s crafts – is very moving,” he says. His work makes space for viewers to imagine alternatives to an increasingly digital world. “Some people say, ‘Oh, I want to live in Cressia,'” he says. “I think that people wanting to live in a different way is what my work reflects. It’s not just about environmentalism, it’s about how somebody chooses to live.”

VIEW PEDER’S COLLECTION

 

Wolf paintingfrog painting

Undercoat: Ethereal wildlife drawings by Daniel Metchnek and Laurie M.

We’re excited to share a new collection of wildlife drawings by Daniel Metchnek and Laurie M. Both artists bring a gentle sensibility to drawing that illuminates the delicate relationships between humans and animals. Metchnek’s wolves, cranes, and raptors are dramatic portraits of the predators who help to sculpt an ecosystem. Laurie M.’s encyclopedic menagerie, from puffer fish to lions, mirrors the pages of the reference books in her studio.

VIEW THE COLLECTION

 

Juan Mendez’s cure for the quarantine blues

Summertime Lowrider

Juan Mendez has always been inspired by old cars. “I like how big they are and how fancy they’ve been built,” he says. In recent work, he takes his favorite subject to the open road. Classic cars traverse endless highways, blood orange sunsets grace the sky, and the silhouettes of palm trees fleck the horizon. You can find more of these expansive new drawings in our online shop.

 

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