The Asylum is a collaborative and self-publishing press in Denver Colorado specializing in traditional technique, museum quality editions and residential collaborations. Owned and operated by master printer Alex Giffen, The Asylum seeks to provide space and skill for artists of all mediums to evolve their work through print. If you are looking to make work that really bleeds, really speaks, really stuns, The Asylum may be the publisher for you. If you are looking to make digital work, huge runs of t shirts, or lithos The Asylum may not be the publisher for you. I am interested in making real , raw and even a little gritty work and working with the artists that have traditionally been turned away or undervalued by the institutions and industries in the Arts. If this applies, click the about page to learn more about my presses.
welcome to
The Asylum
The Chaodyssey continues…
Denver Chapter
It is 2025, I’m back home in Colorado, the state of my birth, honestly a place I did not plan to live again. 2024 was a brutal year for me and that meant a slow one for The Asylum. As a self-funded, one-woman army, I do a lot and have the entire time I’ve served the printmaking industry, but this year I took some time to reevaluate and get the f out of Richmond. It was a journey for sure, a necessary one, a painful one and an eye opening one. 2024 took my whole family out, a lot of friends, and I really felt like if something didn’t change, I was next in line. I checked out for about six months in 2024, after the death of my uncle, my favorite person on earth and my dog marly, the only reason I lived through an assault that permeated every aspect of my life. I’ve been making work the whole time I’ve been fighting through time and then after wondering why in the hell I wasn’t fighting moving back to Colorado, the most unbelievable thing happened. Lola.
Now, as a printmaker, I met this game through publishing, and I love how much it makes the industry burn. I cut my teeth in a serious shop, earned every one of my chops and yes, I’m sure I want to be a printmaker. One thing is for sure I won’t be available for use the same way I was required to be in that shop, And I for damn sure won’t be printing for anyone who participated in that, But I am going to continue to be available for people who are passionate about their practice, creative evolution and collaboration over competition. My residencies will continue to be invite only, however I am working on an application process of sorts, and now with the expansion of my machine family, I will be offering space and time on the presses. With lola, I’m back up at the size capability I was as an employee, so let’s sesh!
Aside from publishing, I’m making my own work more and I hope you go see it when it hits a city near you. Right now, The Flowers are Bleeding will be on view at Globeville Riverfront Art Center in Denver until March 1. Enjoy some photos from the last few years, a grand collection of things I’m proud of so far.
