Commedia is currently on view at International Print Center New York. Curated by Tomas Vu, artist and Artistic Director of the Leroy Neiman Center for Print Studies. Here is his curatorial statement:
The title of the show, Commedia, is the original title of Dante’s Divine Comedy….Dante’s embrace and elevation of humble materials, and the specificity and personality they created, are reflected in the works I have selected….As the show has come together, it has been wonderful to see the works start to speak to each other….I see conversations starting in one place and finishing in another, I see the categories blur and then come back into focus, and I am taken to the same place Dante transported me to: wandering between states, striving for ascension.
My piece, The Inking Table, is a new addition to Place and Process. It is an image of daily work, artist and space carefully arranged. If I were to pick phrases from Vu’s summary, “embrace and elevation of humble materials” and “striving for ascension,” would be the shared sentiments behind this series.
Some of my favorite works from this show include Allison Bianco’s Leave Your Troubles Behind (top image), Todd Anderson’s Grinnell Glacier – The Last Glacier, and Kathy Aoki’s Makeup Myriorama (below). The latter also recently won Art in Print‘s Prix de Print, and I enjoyed reading about her process there.
A personal anecdote: I fleetingly met Kathy Aoki last year at a Christmas party in San Francisco. As her hostess gift, she brought several boxes of Good & Plenty, which was enough to make me like her forever.
What: Commedia: New Prints 2015/Autumn
Where: International Print Center New York
When: November 19, 2015 – January 16, 2016
Ambiance: printmakers “wandering between states, striving for ascension“
