Warren Lehrer

Fri. Oct. 6, 7pm  Karasick/Lehrer **** Ouvert Oeuvre: Openings BOOK LAUNCH ****
Center for Book Arts, 28 W. 27th St. NYC. Adeena and Warren will present a multimedia performance/reading, followed by a conversation moderated by CBA Director Corina Reynolds, followed by a signing, food, drink, and festivities. Admission is free, but seating is limited so please register through the link above. Look forward to seeing you Oct 6!

New Collaborative Book Published Oct 5, 2023. Ouvert Oeuvre: Openings, written by acclaimed poet, performer, cultural theorist Adeena Karasick, visualized by Warren Lehrer, published by Lavender Ink. Official Book Launch Oct 6th at the Center for Book Arts, NYC. Early praise includes a starred review from Kirkus Reviews and kind words from Johanna Drucker (foremost scholar/critic of visual literature), and others. See the project page on this site for more information about the book including reviews, audio and video links, photos of page spreads, tour schedule, and more.

2023 Appearances/Events

March 3, Arts Leadership Bootcamp The Visual Literature of Warren Lehrer, Queens College School of the Arts. New York, NY. Warren Lehrer with co-panels Jaime Lozano (Director, Composer, Arranger, Orchestrator), K. Meira Goldberg (Dancer, Choreographer, Scholar), Jiemin Yang (Graphic Designer, Illustrator, Dance Artist). Moderated by Alyssa Alpine (Director/Curator of CUNY Dance Initiative).

March 19, JEWels: Teasing Out the Poetry in Jewish Humor and Storytelling, City Lore, Lower East Side, NY, NY. Launch event for Steve Zeitlin’s new book, with readings by contributors Warren Lehrer, Flash Rosenberg, Peninnah Schram, Zev Shanken, Esther Cohen, Marc Kaminsky, Bob Mankoff, Bob Holman. Live music by violinist/composer Alicia Svigals.

April 15, 4pm, Ouvert Oeuvre: Opening Performance/Reading with Adeena Karasick, New Orleans Poetry Festival, Cafe Istanbul, New Orleans, LA. Adeena Karasick and Warren Lehrer present a sneak preview reading/performance of their collaborative book written by Karasick, visualized by Lehrer, published by Lavender Ink Books. Karasick also presents from AErotomania which will also be published by Lavender Ink.

May 6 & May 20, 7pm, Refuge and Finding Home, Judith Sloan, Adeena Karasick, Warren Lehrer. Nuyorican Poets Cafe, Lower East Side, NY, NY. Presenting new works including sneak peek of Ouvert Oeuvre: Opening. Live music by Andrew Griffin, Emily Wexler.

Wed. Sept. 6, 4:30pm Karasick performs Ærotomania & Openings In Times Square 43rd & Broadway Stage (by big Flag), NYC

Mon. Sept. 11, 7pm Karasick at Bar 718, 718 5th Ave, Boog City Fest, Park Slope, NY

Thurs. Sept. 21, 1:30-2:30pm Walt Whitman Initiative American Love Speaker Series Containing Multitudes: The Visual Literature of Warren Lehrer, with Adeena Karasick, WWI YouTube Channel

Sun. Oct. 1, 6pm (with Jeffrey Cyphers Wright and Heller Levinson) P & T Bookstore Presented by Word Shed NYC, 180 Orchard St. NYC

Fri. Oct. 6, 7pm  Karasick/Lehrer **** Ouvert Oeuvre: Openings BOOK LAUNCH ****
Center for Book Arts Moderated by CBA Director Corina Reynolds, 28 W. 27th St. NYC

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Thurs. Oct. 12 Lehrer presents at AIGA National Conference View from Here, LENS Symposium, Reconsideration of Vis Lit History, Sheraton Time Square, NYC

Fri. Oct. 13 Karasick presents Openings & Ærotomania at New York State Communication Association Annual Conference: Communication in a Digital World, Villa Roma, Catskills, NY. 

Thurs. Oct 19, 6pm  Maine Writers & Publishers Association Word Literary Festival, Lehrer & Karasick, Cynthia Winings Gallery, Blue Hill, Maine. Also Featured in Word. Art. Exhibition.

Sat. Oct. 28, 2pm Negotiating Deepfakes… as read through Checking In 2, The 71st Annual Institute for General Semantics Symposium, Players Club, 16 Gramercy Park South,  NYC 

Thurs. Nov. 9, 7pm Karasick with Lehrer, Tolstoy’s Lounge @ The Russian Samovar 256 W. 52nd St, NYC  

Sun. Dec. 3, 6pm, Karasick with Lehrer, Torn Page Salon, 435 W. 22nd Ave, NYC

2024 touring schedule includes reading/performances in Australia, Italy, France, Woodland Pattern in Milwaukee and at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York.  

Warren Lehrer, awarded a 2022 NYSCA (New York State Council on the Arts) Individual Artist Grant in Literature to complete the writing of TRACE: A Surveilled Novel. The grant of $10,000 was submitted through City Lore. It is Lehrer’s third Individual Artist/Sponsored Project grant from NYSCA, his first in the Literature category. 

TRACE is a literary novel that presents as a document dump and is premised on the idea that every file you are reading has been culled with the help of current surveillance technology. The narrator/compiler is an NSA information analyst whose job is to surveil random subjects who are seemingly of no interest whatsoever, to see if by chance any of these unknown unknowns could be national security threats. TRACE is (will be) a cautionary reflection of the hyper-sharing, hyper-monitored and surveilled moment we’re living in and a timeless exploration of complex, flawed, prismatic characters. Lehrer is aiming for a 2024 publication date. Stay tuned. 

2022 Appearances/Events

November 29, The Visual Literature of Warren Lehrer, NYU Tish, New York, NY

November 19, Judith Sloan & Friends, The People’s Voice Cafe, Judson Memorial Church, New York, NY, Excerpt from TRACE and poems and songs from Five Oceans in a Teaspoon

November 2 & 3, The Visual Literature of Warren Lehrer & Writing + Typography = Composition Master Class, University of the Arts, Philadelphia, PA

October 20, Teaching Writing + Design Composition, AIGA National Conference, Design Educators Symposium, Seattle, WA

September 19, The Visual Literature of Warren Lehrer, Pratt Institute, Brooklyn New York

September 15, Group Pop-up Artist Book Exhibit & Live presentation, Gallery on Dobbin Mews, Brooklyn, NY

July 21, The Visual Literature of Warren Lehrer, South Jersey Writers Group, virtual event

May 7, Benefit Performance for Peace in Ukraine, Gallery on Dobbin Mews, Brooklyn, NY, Lehrer’s talk: 50 Thought Clouds Keeping Me From Sleep

April 10-13, Codex Book Fair, Codex Foundation, Craneway Pavilion, San Francisco, CA

February 28, Visual Literature of Warren Lehrer, Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY, Artist Book class

Warren Lehrer, awarded 2021 SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Scholarship and Creative Activities. “This award was developed by faculty for faculty, and only those who have demonstrated a record of sustained scholarship in the sciences, humanities, or professional studies, or consistent creative productivity in the fine and performing arts receive this distinction. Your contributions to developing new knowledge, enhancing the University’s vibrancy, and fostering the intellectual and cultural growth of our students are reflected in your selection for this honor.”

2021 Appearances/Events

March 2, The Visual Literature of Warren Lehrer, Virginia Tech University, Sponsored by Virginia Tech’s College of Architecture and Urban Studies, Virginia Tech School of Visual Arts, and Virginia Tech AIGA Student Group (Virtual)

October 5, Warren Lehrer: Fusing Writing & Design, School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Tufts University, Boston Massachusetts (Virtual)

October 13, The Visual Literature of Warren Lehrer, The Society of Printers, Boston Massachusetts (Virtual)

November 8, The Visual Literature of Warren Lehrer, Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles California (Virtual)

Warren Lehrer, awarded 2020 NYFA (New York Foundation for the Arts) Artist Fellowship in Digital/Electronic Arts. From 3,536 applications, 72 fellows were selected. Lehrer’s received his first NYFA Fellowship in 1989 in the category Printmaking/Drawing/Artists’ Books. 

2020 Appearances/Events

Jan 16 – March 28 Warren Lehrer Featured Artist Project Exhibition, Center for Book Arts
Jan 16, 6:30pm, Opening Reception. Mar 26, 6:30pm Artist Talk/Performance
Center for Book Arts Foyer Gallery, 28 West 27th St, 3rd Flr, New York, NY 10001

Jan 2-4 Intersections: National CBAA (College Book Art Association) Conference, New Orleans, Ace Hotel. In their Jan 3rd panel “Bridging Book and Film at the Intersection of Poetry and Typography” Warren Lehrer presents with two other extraordinary writer/artists—Judith Poirier and Emily McVarish—who bridge printed books and film in their work.

April 15, 12noon Performance/Talk: Giving Voice to Visual Literature. Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase College. Lehrer’s talk surveying his 40 year visual literature journey is followed by a collaborative performance with Purchase College Junior Acting Company and jazz students under the guidance of theater professor Pamela Prather.

Five Ocean in a Teaspoon wins 2019 STA 100 Award (Society of Typographic Arts)
Each year, the Society of Typographic Arts “seeks to award the best 100 examples of innovative typography from around the world.”

Five Oceans in a Teaspoon wins 2019 Design Incubation Scholarship: Creative Work Award
Design Incubation’s Creative Work Award (given to one or two recipients a year) “demonstrates originality, scope, rigor, impact on communication design’s theoretical, critical, historical and/or visionary foundations.”

Five Ocean in a Teaspoon wins two 2020 Indigo Design Awards
One for Book Design and one for Mix Media/Moving Image. The Indigo Awards “reward outstanding and groundbreaking design from around the world.”

Five Oceans in a Teaspoon wins 2020 IPPY Gold Medal Award for Poetry
This is the top annual Poetry Prize given by Independent Publisher’s IPPY Book Awards. In its 25th year, the IPPY’s “Recognize Excellence in Independent Publishing,” showcasing the best books from the year throughout North America and the English-speaking world.

Five Oceans in a Teaspoon wins 2020 MUSE Creative Platinum Award in Book/Publication Design. The MUSE Creative Awards “is an international award that honors creative professionals whose work transcends time, inspires, breaks boundaries, ushers the present to the future.”

Five Oceans in a Teaspoon wins 2020 American Bookfest Best Book Award for POETRY. This award “recognizes the best books in mainstream and independent publishing throughout the United States.”

Warren Lehrer is awarded the 2019 Ladislav Sutnar Prize for “his pioneering work in Visual Literature and Design.”

Lehrer received the Lifetime Achievement prize on Tuesday November 12, 2019 in Pilsen, Czech Republic. Named after the Czech-American design pioneer, the annual award “recognizes individual artists from around the world of outstanding performance in the field of fine arts, especially applied arts and design. It also is awarded to institutions which promote modern art and design…” In addition to his contribution to visual literature, design, and as a lecturer, speaker, and performer, Lehrer was awarded the Sutnar prize for his “collaborations with musicians, actors, filmmakers, technicians, and other authors and artists,” and in recent years, for his “transposition of stories and texts into animation, video and interactive media.”

Awarded by the Arts Council of the Ladislav Sutnar Faculty of Design and Art, past awardees include Gere Kavanaugh, Steven Heller, the Cooper Hewitt Design Museum, MoMA, and The Taiwan Design Center. Lehrer was one of five “laureates” in 2019, which included legendaries Milton Glaser and Finnish designer Pekka Loiri. This year’s ceremony coincided with the 30th anniversary of the (1989) Velvet Revolution, commemorated by a student exhibition of posters and objects.

Lehrer received the Sutnar Prize from Dean Josef Mištera, the visionary founder of the remarkable Art & Design Institute which is now part of the University of West Bohemia. The medal (literally made of medal sheets cut with laser) is based on Sutnar’s self-identity, transformed into a 3-D object by Peter Vogel.

Listen to Warren Lehrer on Debbie Millman’s Podcast Design Matters.
“Writer, artist, and designer Warren Lehrer talks to Debbie about the intersection of images and letters and about the future of books.”
Released October 21, 2019. Listen on Soundcloud here.

2019 Appearances/Events

Sept 19 – Nov 23 Five Oceans in a Teaspoon Exhibition City Lore Gallery, City Lore, 56 E 1st Street, New York, NY 10003

Sept 19 – 22 NY Art Book Fair PS1 MoMA, LIC, New York, with Paper Crown Press

Sept 27, 7pm, NYC Five Oceans in a Teaspoon Book Launch Reading/Performance. Chelsea (Market) Wine Vault Event Space. Bernstein & Lehrer with Special Guests. Brian Lehrer, Host. Click on the link above to make a reservation. Seating is Limited. 410 West 16th Street at Ninth Avenue.

Oct 5, 4pm Warren Lehrer Five Oceans Gallery Tour/Talk, City Lore Gallery, 56 E 1st Street, NY, NY. Part of the Open Arts LES (Lower East Side) Festival

Oct 10, 7:30pm Bay Area Five Oceans in a Teaspoon Book Launch/KPFA Benefit, Reading/Performance with Bernstein & Lehrer and Guests. Hillside Club, 2286 Cedar Street, Berkeley, CA

Oct 11 Live At the Archive, Letterform Archives, Lehrer & Bernstein. 1001 Mariposa Street, San Francisco, CA 94107

Oct 24 – 27 EAB Fair (Editions Artists’ Books Fair) with Paper Crown Press, The Caldwell Factory, 547 West 26th Street, New York, NY 10001

Oct 31 Vis Lit of Warren Lehrer Lecture ending with Five Oceans, School of the Art Institute of ChicagoChicago IL. Workshop and critiques with students during the days Oct 31 & Nov 1. Stay tuned for more details.

Nov 8, 9 Lehrer Vis Lit presentation SUNY Council on Writing ConferencePurchase College, SUNY Anderson Hill Road, Purchase, NY

Nov 12 Lehrer receives 2019 Ladislav Sutnar Prize Ladislav Sutnar Arts Council, Pilsen, Czech Republic

Nov 15 Performance/Reading Flushing Town Hall, Lehrer & Bernstein and Guests. 137-35 Northern Boulevard, Flushing NY

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Warren awarded 2019 Queens Council on the Arts Individual Artist Grant for Five Oceans in a Teaspoon Project.

Warren invited to speak at and participate in Think Tank/Conference called “Future Text” in Warsaw, Poland. April 8-13, 2019. Polsko-Japońska Akademia Technik Komputerowych, Warsaw. His presentation is called Composing Visual Literature: When Writing and Design Become One.

Warren awarded AE Ventures Fund Project Grant for Five Oceans in a Teaspoon Project in conjunction with Paper Crown Press Books.

November 2, 2018. Warren Lehrer presents at the 24th New Jersey Book Symposium
Rutgers University, Newark
Lehrer will give a talk about his work and present a reading.

October 5-7, 2018. &Now Festival of Innovative Writing, Notre Dame University. Off The Page: Collaborations in Visual and Sonic Poetry. With Judith Sloan

Warren Lehrer wins a 2018 Indigo Design Award in Mix Media/Moving Image for 1001 Voices: A Symphony for a New America. It was one of four recipients given by the prestigious international design competition in the Motion Graphics category. Lehrer’s motion graphics design/expressionist supertitles run throughout the 38 minute work and is an integral component of the multimedia symphony.

This 13 minute excerpt reel is made from the December 2017 performance at the Kupferberg Performing Arts Center. Music Director James John.

1001 Voices: A Symphony for a New America
Composed by Frank London Libretto by Judith Sloan Projections by Warren Lehrer

1001 Voices: a Symphony for a New America is a three-movement symphony/oratorio scored for orchestra, chorus and visual projections. The multimedia work is about migration, transformation, and the search for home. It is a 21st century, musical/poetic expression of the challenges and aspirations of so many of today’s American cities and their inhabitants who hail from many different parts of the globe. It is inspired by stories of immigrants and refugees in Queens, NY—the most ethnically diverse locality in the United States. 1001 Voices serves as an antidote to the poisonous and flattening rhetoric about immigrants and refugees currently dividing the United States and the globe.

A true collaboration, 1001 Voices is composed by Grammy-Award-winning composer, trumpeter, and Klezmatics band member Frank London. The libretto is written by Judith Sloan and the animated projections designed by Warren Lehrer with the assistance of Brandon Campbell.

Originally commissioned and premiered by the Queens Symphony Orchestra, this work can performed by full orchestras and choirs as well as by smaller orchestras and contemporary music ensembles and as few as four vocalists. If you’re interested in the possibility of performing or producing this work or want more information, contact [email protected]

Wednesday April 18, 2018 Warren Lehrer helped launch a new Book Arts program at Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY, with a keynote performance of A LIFE IN BOOKS: The Rise and Fall of Bleu Mobley. It was a wonderful event.

In his funny, thought provoking performance/reading based on his illuminated novel A LIFE IN BOOKS: The Rise and Fall of Bleu Mobley, Warren presents an overview of his protagonist’s life in books via many of Mobley’s book cover designs, book-like objects, and other biographical materials including animations and video performances of Mobley book excerpts.

A LIFE IN BOOKS: The Rise and Fall of Bleu Mobley is an illuminated novel that contains 101 books within it, all written by Lehrer’s controversial author protagonist who finds himself in prison looking back on his life and career. In his funny, thought provoking performance/reading, Lehrer presents an overview of Mobley’s life in books via many of his book covers, book-like objects, and other biographical materials including animations and video performances of book excerpts.

Lehrer began his performance/reading tour of A LIFE IN BOOKS as Keynote Speaker at NY Art Book Fair at PS1 MoMA and has since presented it at over 50 venues throughout the U.S. and Canada, including: Carnegie Mellon University, Yale University Art Museum, Neuberger Museum of Art, San Francisco State University, Art Institute of Chicago, Boston Art Institute, VCU (Virginia Commonweath University), NYU, University of Minnesota, University of Memphis, University of Florida, Scripps College, Rutgers University, University of Texas/Houston, University of Arizona (Tucson), SUNY Purchase, SUNY Brockport, NSCADU, Haystack Mountain School of Arts, Halifax Central Public Library, Visual Studies Workshop, Center for Book Arts (NY), Minnesota Center for Book Arts, &Now Festival, Brooklyn Book Festival, Ko Festival, Miami Book Fair, Queens Council on the Arts, College Book Art Association (CBAA) Conference, The Greene Space @WNYC, Central Booking. . .

 

September 2017. 1001 Voices: An Anthem for a New America
Installation of a new panoramic window installation of visual poetry at CUNY School of Law, LIC, NY.
A presentation of The Sorensen Center for International Peace and Justice.

The poem—written by Judith Sloan, visualized by Warren Lehrer for street-level windows at 2 Court Square—portrays a message of welcome and inclusion as it celebrates the Law School’s mission: “law in the service of human needs.” This installation is part of The Sorensen Center’s Justice Through Art Initiative, a collaboration between CUNY Law’s community and artists in order to bring new perspectives and depth to social justice issues and legal challenges. At a time when “Sanctuary Cities” like New York are under attack for their efforts to protect immigrants and asylum seekers, this public work—located across from the Court Square subway station on a bustling street in the most diverse county in America—sheds the light of poetry and art on a national crisis that is dividing the country and calling into question the meaning of the “American Dream.”

Lehrer’s panoramic design sets discrete phrases within the poem into their own panels—through typography, photography, color, shape, metaphor. Lehrer describes, “I want viewers to experience the wordscapes as a field and as single panels in whatever direction they/you/we may be heading.” Each of the 17, six-and-a-half foot wide panels float within a street level window. The panels are double-sided, enabling viewers to interact with the poem inside and outside of the building.

On view now. Come visit the window installation at 2 Court Square, LIC, NY 11101. Across from the Citibank building at the Courthouse Square subway: M, E, G, 7 train.
Click Here for more info.