On view in the LAB space in conjunction with the Under Pressure show, a recent collaboration between Graphic Arts Workshop and the Print Club of Rochester presented a diverse group of prints in various techniques from the West and East Coast associations.
Two of my favorite prints from the Graphic Arts Workshop happened also to be two of the smallest. Power Moiré by Anthony Ryan (above left) and Three of Spades by Mariko Jesse (above right) were both tiny prints floating in a clean expanse of paper frame. Ryan’s work pulls the viewer close and in, while Jesse’s card-like plate had a milkiness to it that made me want to pick it up off the paper.
From the Print Club of Rochester, I was drawn to two pieces for their chromatic cleanliness. Treasure Sun Set by Carol Aquilano is a color reduction woodcut at its boldest, with all the transparency and sticky-edged carving marks of relief as expressive medium, while Katherine Baca-Bielinis’s Philadelphia Charm gives an impressionistic glimpse of a column, an archway and the beginning of an ornate ceiling. It’s as if we are watching these forms develop and vanish as they pass in and out of view – that the viewer might even be necessary to their existence.
Finally, a conceptual piece from Adam Werth, president of the Print Club of Rochester. The materials description on the information panel reads: non-variable data, inkjet, collage. It’s a bit of a troll piece as well since the portfolio format dictates that it must stay on top of the print stack for the creases not to flatten or warp the other prints. I currently have this work in my studio – a good reminder on several levels. The title: 😉.
What: Graphic Arts Workshop and Print Club of Rochester
Where: Rochester Contemporary, Rochester NY
When: September 2 – 25, 2016
Ambiance: the unbound bounty of bi-coastal brotherhoods
