Where did Circa 2004 come from? - “Process” is the brainchild of Michael Ian Weinfeld. Little did he know when he initiated his call to artists that he was in fact resurrecting an artistic tradition of the 60’s: the democratic multiple book. By forming this artists’ co-op, Michael Ian enabled a collective of artists which he curated, to have a voice in this world, and produce this book.

Who is Circa 2004? - Circa 2004 is a collective of 42 diverse and different artists with one common cause: the desire to get their work [=art] out and the talent and ambition to go that next step. All of these artists are at different points in their artistic voyage: some are very well established, and some of the artists are just starting to venture out. They all share the belief that their power to connect with the outside world lies in their number. This Book allows them to do something they once thought was beyond their reach: get their work out en masse, in an affordable yet uncompromised high-quality fashion.

What is Circa 2004? - Circa 2004 is about the process of looking, and then seeing: both on the part of the artist, and, the viewer. Allow your eye to travel through this book, and you embark on a trip through the current landscape in the world of art. Painting, sculpture, installation, conceptual, movie making, and photography, it’s all in the mix. Circa 2004 is a concrete conduit for art.

Circa 2004 is also about circulation. Call it the Circa 2004 Pyramid Scheme, if you must. By definition, every artist has a natural inclination to promote the arts. The process does not end with the production of the Book. The collective voice expands its horizons as each artist receives copies of the printed Book for his/her own promotional use. This automatically creates a group of artists that promotes one another’s work: ever expanding, and one hand washing the other, so to speak. In essence, a wider and more eclectic audience is reached, successfully promoting each and every artist in the book.

Circa 2004 is an archive of art in the here and now that you can hold in the palm of your hand. Through photography, painting, sculpture, and design, these artists manipulate their materials to achieve their final say. From steel comes beautiful towers reaching for the sky, from paint spring images from realities that exist in the mind of an artist, from numerous cameras and rolls of film pictures that capture the physical world in a way only photography can and textile designs and fashion that transcends culture to become art.

The artists participating in Circa 2004 prove that as long as there are humans breathing on the planet, there will be art. Their work is timeless, yet simultaneously of the moment: a reflection of these times, Circa 2004.