Who is Joe Cali?
Let me introduce Joe Cali to those who have not have the pleasure of meeting him personally at recent pen shows.
Joe Cali is husband, father, architectural designer, accredited artist, sculpture and pen maker. Joe's artistic talents were born from his thoughtful perspectives and shaped in a lifetime of observation and reflection.
During the 1950's, Joe, just out of the military, looking at his native urban landscape with a newly broadened vision created such works that would evoke the praises of such famed artists of the times, Agnes Martin, Lenore Tawney, Robert Indiana, Ellsworth Kelly and Jack Youngerman. From a small loft on the tip of lower Broadway, Joe began to develop the "arch theme" paintings, building on academic training at Baylor University, University of the Philippines and Pratt Institute, and on his work created for solo exhibitions in the Philippines, Outside studio walls he absorbed the energy of the City and the synergy of the artistic life around him. He credits long walks and longer talks with Agnes Martin for "supplying the formative substances" that would sustain his work.
The early substance has contributed to his current series of paintings and etchings. This New York, which began as a re-investigation of the arch and rectangular forms, has systematically been transformed to the study of rectangles exclusively. These rectilinear compositions give evidence of a graphic structural language. This work is, moreover, the product of two decades and more of life experiences outside the work itself.
In his private life Joe took on the renovation of a 150 year old barn that would be home and studio. In his professional life, he pursued a highly successful career as an architectural designer. While an associate in the architectural firm of James Baker and Peter Blake, for example, he created a large courtyard paying design for the Brooklyn Museum. He later established his own design firm in Manhattan, and has since retired. During those demanding professional years Joe's art was confined to watercolors and to the development of a significant portfolio of photography. In 1991, however, he returned to painting. The next year he produced a series of etchings published by Museum Tower Editions, out of the Patricia Branstead Studio. It is interesting to note that this resumption of work was predicted some thirty years earlier by Agnes Martin who suggested that Joe would return to painting in his fifties and produce his most significant and meaningful work, during the next twenty years.
Above adapted from a review by J.N. Meyers
Joe Cali's work is included in exhibitions and collections at the following, which is only a short list of his exhibits.
- Dallas Museum of Fine Art, Texas
- Brooklyn Museum – Permanent Collection, Brooklyn, New York
- Museum of Modern Art, Lending Service of New York, New York
- Little Rock Art Center – Permanent Collection, Little Rock, Arkansas
- Kohinoor Museum – Permanent Collection, New Jersey
The plaza in front of the famed Brooklyn Museum is the work and design of Joe Cali.
Okay, you say, what does all this has to do with the pen community. Well, during this heyday and continuing to the present, Joe Cali was and still is an avid pen collector. Since his retirement and without the pressures of his professional life Joe now has the time to devote to a passion that has existed for many years. His desire to design and make a fountain pen, with style and flare and most of all whimsical appeal. After talking about his desire to make pens with his wife, she presented him with a lathe and the rest is history.
Joe has been attending several of the pen shows, exhibiting is work as a pen manufacturer and has achieved an unusual rate of success. At every show Joe has sold pens. His pens are in demand and he can't make enough of them to satisfy this demand and more importantly, he does not want to mass-produce his creations. Each of them is custom made by hand, hand finished and lovingly brought to life, one at a time. He does not repeat his designs and has created each of them from different materials. The latest material that he is using is an industrial plastic used to make precision parts, with the look and feel of black hard rubber. It is a wonderful material and with the whimsical accents, these pens are a delight to use and own. Joe uses button filling systems in all his pens and likes to use vintage 14 and 18 kt gold nibs and their respective feeds. With the overwhelming demand for his product he has been forced to use some modern nibs and feeds in some of his pens.
This pen is made from industrial plastic and embellished with blue marbled resin; it has a Wahl Eversharp Skyline nib and feed.
The materials used in his creations are vintage celluloids, resins, acrylics and gray and black industrial plastic. Each pen takes approximately 4-6 days to complete and PenstopOnline has had the honor and good fortune to be able to presents this collection to you. You can find a complete representation of Caliper Studio's designs on our website. Since they are all one of a kind, they are subject to prior sale. All of his creations are fitted with custom designed and hand made sterling silver clips. Each pen is priced at $325, including shipping and insurance. Some of the pens are large full bodies pens, while other designs are short and squatty in design.
Joe and his lovely wife, Ann, will continue to attend pen shows whenever possible and are scheduled next to be present at the Boston Pen Show. Those of you who attend the various pen shows will have the opportunity of meeting Joe, talking with him and sampling his latest creations.
Here are a few more of his wonderful designs:
Industrial plastic with vintage 14kt gold vintage nib and feed.
[Photo not yet recovered] — Another made from industrial plastic with vintage 14kt gold vintage nib and feed.
This pen has a black industrial plastic cap and section, with a black and pearl resin body and topped off by a vintage stock red hard rubber blind cap, with a 14kt gold vintage nib and feed.
Here is a short and squatty gray and pearl marbled acrylic with a whimsical blind cap resembling ivory. The nib is an 18kt gold Bexley nib with a medium point.
Red and black marbled beauty has a vintage nib and feed. This is a large pen, bulky in the center, and very comfortable to hold and use. The design of the section is made to allow a comfortable grip no matter what size hand you have.
Each of the pens designed by Joe have been designed with the users' comfort in mind. All of the pens are to be used, not just admired and all of them, while unique, are quite the same in quality and workmanship.
These pens are the labor of love and each and every one of them shows that love.
A full selection of styles and colors are available from PenStop — you can visit the PenStopOnline website here.