Master printer Robert Blanton grew up in Louisville, Kentucky and studied painting and printmaking at Western Kentucky University before moving to New York in the early 1970's to obtain his MFA at Pratt University. There he began his career as a printmaker, collaborating on projects with Robert Rauschenberg, James Rosenquist, Frank Stella and other artists. In 1979 Blanton founded Brand X Editions.
Brand X Editions prints and publishes editions with its artist and gallery partners, practicing the craft of silkscreen based printmaking while expanding the medium's vocabulary through its inventive experimentation.
Guided by its intensely collaborative approach, Brand X seeks to resolve the creative tensions presented by each new project and realize the artist’s ultimate vision.
In early 2024, the Brand X Archive was established at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. In the Fall of 2025, the PMA will mount a large scale retrospective documenting nearly 50 years of printmaking at Brand X Editions including works by Rashid Johnson, Mickalene Thomas, Joel Mesler, Emily Mae Smith, Alex Katz, Vija Celmins, Jenny Holzer, Chuck Close and many others.
Editions and multiples produced and published by Brand X Editions over the past five decades are held in private collections and museums throughout the world, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY; the Museum of Modern Art, NY; the Whitney Museum of American Art, NY; the Philadelphia Museum of Art, PA; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; the Walker Art Center, MN and the Tate Gallery, London.
