EDITIONS (CLOCKWISE) BY AURA ROSENBERG, BECCA ALBEE, MENDED VEIL, AUREL SCHMIDT, B. WURTZ, NATE HYLDEN, B'L'ING. PHOTO BY SUSAN BARBER

In 2003, artist Matt Keegan and graphic designer Lizzy Lee co-founded North Drive Press, an annual publication and collection of editions by artists. Both grew up on Long Island, and during high school Keegan moved in a block away from Lee—"North Drive connected the streets we lived on," he explains. So North Drive Press would serve as both a tribute to their physical proximity, and the catalyst for a collaboration on their respect interests.

"We decided to create a mobile group show that was designed to be mailed and physically distributed," says Keegan, and the publication started with a modest number of texts in a vinyl sleeve. By NDP#2, Keegan was working with designer Susan Barber and North Drive became something of a mail art superhighway, as reproductions were replaced with multiples and an increasing number of interviews and texts.

Tonight marks the launch of the fifth and final issue, "because NDP has grown beyond what Su and I are able to manage," says Keegan, who has a solo show at D'Amelio Terras on the horizon and a work recently acquired by the Guggenheim. The issue has 51 contributors, and Keegan frames its finality in terms of scale: the artists and a team of interns created multiples in a monumental edition of 500. There are 14 interviews and 25 multiples that range from a meticulously drawn and assembled cigarette by Aurel Schmidt to hand-cut strips of paintings made by Olivier Mosset that were intended to be destroyed. And while this may be the last issue (and some of the works apparently won't last long after purchase) there's more of NDP to come, promises Keegan: "We will continue to work together and publish future projects in the spirit of NDP, but with less overhead, and a smaller set of contributors."


NORTH DRIVE PRESS LAUNCHES TONIGHT, 6–8 PM, AT THE X-INITIATIVE, LOCATED AT 548 WEST 22 STREET, NEW YORK.