Noah Breuer: CB&S Werkstätte

In his first Chicago solo exhibition, Noah Breuer presents prints and fabric wall hangings from his ongoing project that examines the visual legacy of “Carl Breuer and Sons” (CB&S), his Jewish family’s former textile printing business in Bohemia. The exhibition’s title, CB&S Werkstätte is a nod to the now-defunct family business that began in 1897 and was forcibly sold to Nazi-approved owners in 1942. Breuer acquired a rich digital collection of original CB&S designs and fabric samples during a 2016 research trip to the Czech Textile Museum and has used these images as the primary source material for his current work.  The exhibition features recent laser-engraved woodblock prints, large cyanotypes on cotton and an accompanying risograph-printed artist book published by Spudnik Press.  

In conjunction with the opening, Breuer will facilitate a demonstration that will allow exhibition attendees to use the laser-engraved surfaces of custom-built table-tops to make wax rubbings.  Attendees may collaborate with the artist and produce new artworks inspired by the CB&S factory designs.  The table-tops will be displayed and made available for use through the duration of the exhibition.

About the artist:  Noah Breuer is an American artist and printmaker.  He holds a BFA in Printmaking from the Rhode Island School of Design, and an MFA in Visual Art from Columbia University. Breuer additionally earned a graduate research certificate in traditional woodblock printmaking and paper-making from Kyoto Seika University in Japan. Solo exhibitions include Spudnik Press Cooperative, Chicago, IL, Left Field Gallery, San Luis Obispo, CA, SPACE Gallery, Portland ME, and Zughaus Gallery in Berkeley, CA. He has attended residencies at the Vermont Studio Center, Ox-Bow, Kala Art Institute, Hotel Pupik, Grin City and the University of Oregon. His artist books have been published by the San Francisco Center for the Book as well as Small Editions in Brooklyn, New York. His work is in the permanent collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Brooklyn Museum of Art, the Watson Library at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Victoria & Albert Museum.  Currently, Breuer works as an Assistant Professor at Auburn University.

Image:  Noah Breuer, Hops, 2018, woodcut, 22″ x 15”