Writing Letters is a three person show including work from Steve Powers, Joe Amherein, and Tauba Auerbach.

Laurie Lazer and Darryl Smith, the curators, describe the show as "exploring the physicality, psychology, aesthetics, politics and sociology of letter forms, words and signs." I am a sucker for anything that has to do with signs and fonts which means I've followed Steve Powers work for a few years now. Check out his humorous signs and products from the Street Market show at Deitch Projects and most recently, his work repainting signs on Coney Island with the Dreamland Artists Club. The Joe Amherein and Tauba Auerbach I hadn't heard of before, but I will be sure to remember their names now.

The Luggage Store show is great and has already been reviewed in many other places already, and photos are available so I'll just add my personal thoughts here. I went back twice, the second time bringing a fellow artist. I called a couple people after I went to the show and recommended they go have a look. I don't do this often. Again, I am an admitted sucker for signs and lettering, but the pieces are also playful and smart - for example Auerbach's modified typewriters were totally engaging while being fun and providing an interactive element. I sat down at her customized typewriter and noticed when I pressed the letter "a" the typewriter printed a letter "b", if I pressed "b" it typed "c" and so on. I couldn't help but keep typing, figuring out how to work around the modification to print various words. Another typewriter printed everything upside down and backwards. My friend and I spent about 15 minutes typing on each of them and the stacks of paper around them showed that we were not the only ones.

The work on the walls was beautiful and demonstrated a combination of wit and craft. Once the initial stun of seeing beautiful lines and nostalgic lettering in the various pieces began to subside, there was some word-play puzzle solving to do. Eventually I started to ask myself what it all meant? What were the artists trying to say? Ultimately I couldn't focus on my own question long enough to answer it. I was absorbed in looking at and engaging in the work. I decided, in this case, what it meant just didn't matter. As someone who is usually much more interested in content, this is a rare occurrence for me. Again, it might be a bias from my word-nerd tendencies, my love for vintage sign painting, hand lettering, and illustrations for decades past, but I really liked this one.

Writing Letters closes November 26th.

http://www.luggagestoregallery.org