In collaboration with acclaimed Austrian artist Erwin Wurm, LITO Editions debuts with The ‘Flat Sculptures’ Series, an exclusive new release of four high-rendered limited editions, drawn from Wurm’s iconic series of the same name. Creating the new generation of limited editions using its Hi-Rnd© proprietary technology, LITO Editions celebrates the artistic interpretation, intervention and disruption of traditional printmaking processes in novel ways that honor the hand of the artist.

A new milestone in the history of printmaking, LITO Editions upends the concept and perceptions of printing itself. By collaborating with the LITO Technology Lab in Bregenz, Austria, artists have access to creative solutions and forms to adapt and apply their aesthetic vocabulary to the process of printmaking. Each limited edition is precision-rendered to reflect the commissioned artwork’s topography in unprecedented, emotional detail - from textures, color and relief to vibrancy and brushstrokes - just as the artist intended. With this unique collaborative process, a LITO Edition is an original work of art.

THE ‘FLAT SCULPTURES’ SERIES BY ERWIN WURM FOR LITO EDITIONS

For its debut collaboration, LITO Editions commissioned renowned Austrian artist Erwin Wurm to create The ‘Flat Sculptures’ Series, a limited edition collection of  four brand-new original paintings as fifty high-rendered prints each, powered by LITO’s revolutionary proprietary printing technology, and hand-signed and numbered by the artist.

The four candy-colored artworks, Light, Shine, Wobbly and Melt, each recreate a Wurm painting specifically commissioned by LITO Editions; the works play with the word of their titles. Stretching and flattening the verbs and adjectives that occupy the entire canvas and reducing them to a thin skin that adds a level of fragile abstraction and an almost corporeal dimensionality. A significant addition to Wurm’s life-long exploration of the parameters of sculpture - its surface, volume, and function - this series translates that narrative to paintings for the first time with a partnership that was truly collaborative. The LITO expert team also spent time at Wurm’s studio in Limberg, Austria, where the artist hand-signed each edition’s custom backplates.

“This LITO collaboration generated a thrilling exchange of ideas, creatively fusing artistic processes shared by both the artist and LITO,” says Diana Wiegersma, Artistic Director of LITO Technology Lab. “Wurm deconstructs sculpture by expanding its spatial dimensions, so our high-rendering printing method became a synergistic extension of his paintings and their application to printmaking. This enabled LITO to produce wholly original editions of Wurm’s paintings that achieved complete parity between each new artwork edition, capturing not only the artist’s exact textures and brushstrokes, but also his emotional signature.”

TECHNOLOGY THAT CHALLENGES CONVENTIONAL PRINTMAKING

In the global editions market, now estimated at over $4 billion, prints are mostly 2D, they’re flat. LITO radically changes this paradigm with its Hi-Rnd© proprietary technology.

Based in Bregenz, Austria, LITO’s team of engineers from GAFA and art curators apply a rigorous selection process to inform artistic partnerships, guaranteeing each edition meets the considerations of the artist and contemporary collectors. Committed to issuing previously unavailable or unimagined works to a wider audience, and powered by advanced innovations in three-dimensional printing, LITO offers a one-of-a-kind opportunity to collect exceptional, investment-worthy masterpieces.

“At LITO, we believe our proprietary innovations can usher in a new era of printmaking in the 21st century,” explains Joachim Marte, CEO of LITO Technology Lab in Austria. “Working with artists, engineers, and institutional directors, we have developed the world’s most advanced three-dimensional printing technique to be used as an artistic tool, where the possibilities are limitless, inviting each new collaborator to define its application to their artistic practice.”

Future collections and artistic collaborations with Peter Halley, Douglas Gordon and Jia Aili are set to be released throughout 2023.
The ‘Flat Sculptures’ Series is on view at The Webster Soho in New York from May 17 - 29, 2023 and available to purchase individually or as a set of four at lito.io.