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AlbaStudios, Published 2015. Hardcover, xiii, 125 pp.; 25 x 28 cm (oblong); limited edition, signed and numbered; illustrated in color throughout with plates of paintings and prints, black-and-white and color photographs in the chronology. Foreword (printed "Forward") by Michael S. Bell; "In Benny's Studio" by Cynthia Harris.
In Very Good condition with a Very Good dust jacket. Red cloth-covered boards with blind-stamped landscape and signature on front cover, black lettering on spine; teal endpapers. Mild shelf and edge wear. Binding tight. Pages clean and unmarked. SIGNED by Benny Alba and numbered 94/500 in ink on rear free endpaper, with her red chop seal. Pictorial dust jacket reproducing Alba's painting Rain Ahead (2010) on front panel and her linocut Emerald Lake (1999) on rear panel; $35.00 price printed on rear panel. A few small nicks and light creasing along edges, with mild shelf and edge wear. Now in an archival quality (removable) Brodart cover. Retrospective monograph of Oakland painter and printmaker Benny Alba, covering more than forty years of work, published in a limited edition of 500 signed and numbered copies. Plates run from early abstractions of the 1970s and 1980s, including Any Where Fallen (1972), Glenda's Refuge with Dutch metal leaf, and Atomic Pod (1984), through the landscape and sky paintings of her Big Sky Series made as an artist in residence at the Montana Artists Refuge, the Alaska Journey linocuts, and the American Storms paintings. Includes an artist's statement, a dedication honoring painters Ada Lanum Jones and Marjorie Benua with reproductions of their work, and a detailed chronology with family photographs, exhibitions, awards, Art in Embassies placements, public collections and bibliography. Alba (born 1949, Columbus, Ohio) served as president of the California Society of Printmakers, and her work is in the collections of the National Museum of Women in the Arts, the Birmingham Museum of Art and the Portland Art Museum. Contents: Haiku (Matsuo Basho); Dedication; Acknowledgements; Introduction (Michael S. Bell); Statement (Benny Alba); In Benny's Studio (Cynthia Harris); Plates; Chronology; Signatures.