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Design by Joel Brenden

@space_and_shape

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:: Design / Type / Experiments ::
:: UB Dept of Art ::
:: @gatheringspace.art co-creator ::
:: Photo/video @joel.brenden ::

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Yes, actually yes! New today, a mashup with @offcutpress x linoleum.
8 pages + poster on reverse2-color risograph, 3x4”. 44 copies only. by @space_and_shape

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10 months ago

If you dm me and ask nicely i can visit every thrift store and used book shop in Erie County multiple times searching for just the right swimming pool, make perfectly good artwork, and then cut that perfectly good artwork into thin strips and reassemble into something completely unfit for commerce.
If you’re @mbookin you can write stories that haunt a heart for decades.
If you’re @shabbydollhouse_ you can make books so sublime that people would be crazy to not buy two or three copies of each. by @space_and_shape

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2 days ago

One of the zines we made together at heARTburn was this creative response to a few sessions we held learning about the Good Cause Eviction Law with the Good Cause Coalition.

We learned about the issue from the Good Cause Coalition, then discussed and made art about what we learned.

@space_and_shape and I took the group’s creations and organized them and finalized the content. Then he designed the zine - making it unique in format & design, and cohesive. Ever-impressed by this superpower of his!

The gist of the zine: You can be evicted in Buffalo FOR NO REASON and it doesn’t have to be this way. The Buffalo Common Council can opt-in to the Good Cause Law, like 15 other municipalities have already done in NY state.

Get a copy of the zine tomorrow (Tues) at heARTburn or stop by @burningbooks to get a copy sometime.

Learn more about the issue by following @ppgbuffalo @pushbuffalo and @buffalodsa

Looking forward to making more zines in community. Join us this Tuesday from 7:15-8:45 at Burning Books!

*Side-note: some of the collage imagery used in the zine comes from the Central Library’s Special Collections digital archive- in particular a 1956 report “Good housing for good neighbors” in the Buffalo Municipal Housing authority collection. Special shoutout to Rare Book Curator Heather Gring for showing me the wonders of the Grosvenor Room & website! by @space_and_shape

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5 days ago

6pm, this Saturday Sept 19th @fitz_books_and_waffles Artist Talk with Alexis Oltmer, continued by a community conversation about art activism, environmental concerns, civic actions and so on! Join us you fine citizen.
#buffalony #ecoartist #greatlakes #artprocess #artisttalk Poster for Artist talk on September 19th at Fitz books in Buffalo New York. taken in Fitz Books by @space_and_shape

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16 days ago

What’s your formative moment(s) on lake Erie?
#buffaloNY #beach #ecoartist taken in Lake Erie, The Great Lakes by @space_and_shape

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18 days ago

Meet Alexis! (before you meet Alexis!)

Alexis Oltmer (b.1990) was born in Endicott, NY, a post-industrial river valley town with a history of labor, dissent and natural wonder. This environment deeply influenced Oltmer’s understanding of the complex interrelationship between “humans” and “nature.” Growing up on protected wetlands adjacent to a state highway provided early insight to our capitalist culture and the wonder of natural systems.

Oltmer’s work recontextualizes relationships between the individual and the environment. Her work highlights current patterns of late-stage capitalism, and the urgent implications of our current moment. Motivated by lived experience, she studies systems and their unfolding phenomena. By visualizing these studies, resulting bodies of work become portraits of occurrence, which provide an entry point for community discussion and engagement.

Oltmer obtained her BA in photography from the University at Buffalo and MFA from The Pennsylvania State University. Alexis’s work is currently on view until November 2026 at The American Museum of Ceramic Art (AMOCA, LA) exhibition Fractured Foundations: 250 Years of American History, and her new work Our Contemporary Landscape is on view from September 10–December 3 at the UnSmoke Art Space in Braddock, PA

She is founder of Pittsburgh Coexistence @pghcoexist an art collective based in Pittsburgh, PA.

(Full bio on our website)
==
Our event led by Alexis “Gathering Along the Shore: beach cleanup and art activism conversation” is open to anyone!
(kiddos welcome too, we suggest 7yo+)
September 19th
See 👉️ Link in Bio
and
RSVP 🔜 ✨️

#ecoartist #buffalony taken in Lake Erie by @space_and_shape

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a month ago

Artists, environmentalists, beach bums & oddball collectors, unite!

We’re bringing artist-organizer Alexis Oltmer back to Buffalo to lead a beach cleanup re-igniting #plasticfreeBuffalo. 3pm-5 pm. In celebration of our beautiful summer, let's gather at the shore of Lake Erie to give her a loving send off and perhaps find some treasures along the way.

At 6:00pm, Fitz Books will host us for an artist talk about Alexis’s journey of environmental research and artistic activism. Conversations will follow with perspectives and observations about how Buffalo’s shoreline has changed (or not) since Alexis began this work in 2016 and what efforts could be catalyzed now.

Saturday, September 19, 2026
FREE
3:00–5:00pm → Beach cleanup + art materials hunt
6:00–7:30pm → Artist presentation + community convo at Fitz Books

All are welcome, but space is limited.
RSVP soon (link in bio)

#ecoart #artisttalk #buffalo #artactivism by @space_and_shape

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a month ago

New/old process for cutting a very special stencil. Using a set of imprecise digital and manual tools was my way of matching the energy of the source material.
…
Tag me if you catch one of its children out there on some concrete. taken in Silo City by @space_and_shape

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3 months ago

SALON:ARTALK
claire connolly
“Direct Message”
FREE • 7pm • wednesday june 17th• 2026 • 7pm • FREE
• d.i.y.l. (donate if you’d like) d.i.y.l. •
SALON series of Performances/Presentations/Screenings followed by panel discussions;
Audience Is The Panel
FITZ books • 1462 Main Street • Buffalo
(|| NFTA METRO-RAIL : UTICA Station / BUS #8 - MAIN ))) taken in Fitz Books by @space_and_shape

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4 months ago

This object is like a living embodiment of Direct Message. As much more than a painting project, our collective mediums were community, the complexity of our current moment, and authentic personal expression. Joel Brenden @space_and_shape understood this in all its nuance. His design is a gift to me, to all who participated, and to YOU! Direct Message is open-ended and ongoing. See the paintings in person at @fitz_books_and_waffles and get yourself a copy!

Some book highlights:
- a poem from each member of the Direct Message cohort
- Reproductions of the Direct Message paintings
- A special section, “Our Time Together” reflecting the character of the group
- An insert that celebrates tactile creative output taken in Buffalo, New York by @space_and_shape

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4 months ago

Contribution to @diego___espiritu project ECHO[ES]. Joined by so many excellent artists and authors in CFA Gallery.

The installation just closed but excited to see what emerges next from this project. by @space_and_shape

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4 months ago

CRT terminal type styling in Illustrator.
Image from Beau Travail (1999) by @space_and_shape

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5 months ago