NEW YORK.- The following was released today by Maya Stendhal Gallery in New York City on the release of limited edition prints of 'The United States' by Paula Scher: New York-based artist Paula Scher is a renowned painter and graphic designer. Her MAPS series is an oeuvre of huge, stunning paintings that depict entire continents, countries or metropolitan cities. Covered with layers of intricate details and textures, these beautifully designed representations of land also evoke a sense of identity through their meaningful relationship between words and images. The New York Times has compared Paula Scher to Jasper Johns, describing her work as "paintings in the form of maps, not maps in the form of paintings." Rather than providing a reference, the maps aim to generate an emotional response through their intuitively chosen color, texture and text, creating an atmosphere unique to each location.

Her 1999 painting of "The United States" is done in a familiar, quilt-like texture that creates both a cultural aesthetic and quasi-historical framework. Paula Scher's maps comment on the location depicted as both a unique culture, and also a piece of the larger picture, transcending its painted borders. This painting is now available in a limited edition print series through Maya Stendhal Gallery. In collaboration with a master fine art printer, Paula is creating new printmaking plates, and signing each work individually. Each high-quality silkscreen print will feature its unique edition number of 90, along with a certificate of authenticity from Maya Stendhal Gallery, and a full-color catalogue of THE MAPS exhibition. The special pre-publication price of $3,500 will be available for a limited time only, increasing to $5,000 after publication date. Her last limited edition prints of "The World" have sold out, attesting to the high demand and continuously growing popularity of her work. The price for Paula Scher prints has almost doubled as they have become highly collected for their remarkable resemblance to the painting in texture and color.

Paula Scher's work has been exhibited all over the world and is represented in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art and the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum in New York, the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., the Denver Art Museum, the Museum für Gestaltung Zurich and the Bibliotheque Nationale de France and the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris. Her teaching career includes over two decades at the School of Visual Arts, along with positions at the Cooper Union, Yale University and the Tyler School of Art. In 2002 Princeton Architectural Press published her career monograph "Make It Bigger." Most recently, she exhibited THE MAPS at Maya Stendhal Gallery in January 2006, and continues to play an important role at her New York design firm Pentagram. Her Web site is www.paulascher.com.