The Hatter’s tea party from Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland is the subject of Frank Gehry’s ten new prints editioned and published by Gemini G.E.L. Previewed for a few weeks in February 2022 at Gehry’s iconic Walt Disney Concert Hall in downtown Los Angeles, the ten prints accompanied an installation of Gehry’s immersive installation of brilliantly-painted metal sculptures. In the largest work, titled Wishful Thinking, thirteen hand-screenprinted and laser-cut figures are grouped around a table and placed in front a screenprinted rendering of steel “tapestries” of trees, evoking the episode’s forest setting. In the nine additional works, individual elements of the tea party have been isolated, laser-cut and ultimately mounted to museum board.
The extraordinarily innovative, award-winning architect Frank Gehry has had a relationship with Gemini G.E.L. since its very early days; in 1976, when Gemini decided to add a new building onto its property to provide additional workshop and gallery space, Gehry was the obvious choice as the architect.
Gehry began his artistic collaborations with the Gemini workshop in 2000, first in sculpture, fol-lowed by numerous printmaking endeavors. In over two decades, Gehry has made 45 editioned prints and 2 sculpture editions with Gemini. These ten new editions are unquestionably the most complex and adventuresome to date. The collaborators on this project include, from Gehry Partners, Alejandro Gehry (Portrait Artist) and Sophie Laurialt (Design Team), and Gemini G.E.L.’s Master Printers Jeff McMane and Garrett Metz.