Blotter Acid Art to Help Launch California's Further Triennial
A collection of blotter acid art will help launch the Further Triennial in California.
According to ARTnews reporting on 30 September 2026, the holdings will form part of the opening edition. It is a striking start. A paper form made to be divided and shared will introduce a new recurring exhibition.
The person leading that exhibition is Zully Adler. The Further Triennial names Adler as its executive director. Its site describes her as a curator and historian focused on modern art, music and counterculture in California, according to the Further Triennial. The triennial's Instagram account carries the same description. That background explains the opening choice. Art, music and street-level printing have long overlapped in the state.
For readers meeting the term for the first time, the explanation is straightforward. Blotter is absorbent paper divided into tiny perforated squares. The same type of paper was used to carry doses of LSD. Artists and printers began using those small squares as a surface for detailed graphic work, which collectors could then keep like small prints.
The longest-running example is the collection built by Mark McCloud. He began gathering acid blotter around 1980. In 1987 he mounted the first gallery show devoted to the material at the San Francisco Art Institute in San Francisco, as recounted by The Paris Review. The dates matter. They place the collecting impulse early, well before wider interest in street printing and poster culture took hold.
Adler continues to work across that history. On 19 February 2026, Gallery Wendi Norris hosted a conversation on the artist Marie Wilson with Adler and Marin Sarvé-Tarr, according to the gallery's programme listing. The event was part of the gallery's talks series. It points to the research-led approach Adler brings to the triennial role.
What makes this stand out for a general audience is the scale shift. Small sheets designed to fit in a pocket will be asked to open a large public platform. A triennial, by definition, returns every three years. The test will be paperwork as much as display: who owns the sheets, how they were kept, and how they travel. Turn each sheet over and the labels, lot numbers and storage notes tell how it survived. That paper trail matters.
