Deborah Maris Lader: Barr Gallery Exhibition

Upon walking into the Barr Gallery, the atmosphere is very clean, neat, and quiet. The walls are lined with various sizes of prints made by artist Deborah Maris Lader. Deborah Maris Lader is the director, instructor, and Founder of the Chicago Printmakers Collaborative in 1989 to present day, and is the MAPC 2016 Conference Outstanding Printmaker. In her exhibition displayed in the Barr Gallery at Indiana University Southeast, each work has twists and turns to make the viewer slowly navigate through each detail and hidden narrative. Here you will find different printmaking techniques the artist used such as etchings, wood cut prints, reliefs, etc.

Murmuration (photo taken by Jessie Martin)

The artwork is rather interesting to observe. Each piece includes some type of bird, birds in flight, human limbs on birds, and each print has a peaceful element but also conveys danger and the need to fly away. Particularly looking at Murmuration, which is a 24x18 inch etching with chine collé and hand drawing, it initially appears as a print with just two Herons with an abundance of dark green and black dots. It wasn’t until viewing her personal art website that I found out that the assumed dots are actually tiny birds in flight, hence the title Murmuration, which is a flock of birds flying together and they sometimes make intricate flying patterns in unison. Upon discovering this information, the artwork became powerful in detail and thought.

Working On Wings To Fly, 2011 by Deborah Maris Lader

A similar case is with her 24x18 inch etching made in 2011 named Working On Wings To Fly. The viewer is face to face with a mix of realism and surrealism. The detail in the hands are carefully made and directs the audience to fix their eyes on the Heron trying to hold her baby, but she has a hole in her hand where the baby bird sits. One starts t wonder why the bird has human hands and what is the significance of the hole in the palm. Deborah Maris Lader states,  “I realized halfway through drawing this image on the copper plate that it was about me trying to cope with letting my special needs son leave the nest. He’s ready to fly, I want him to fly…his absence like a hole in my hand…” In the detail and content alone, it’s an interesting and beautiful piece, but once the veil is lifted to reveal the narrative that corresponds with this image, it makes the artwork more personal and meaningful.

One disappointment was the style of the frames. The frames for the prints seemed too clean and precise and felt as though it was confining the piece instead of letting it breath and be seen. The pieces had so much detail that could make the viewer follow each curve and line without being bored. The frame intervened with being able to be involved personally and intimately with the artwork. Displaying the artwork would have been very effective to mount the images on a hard surface and then make the image come off the wall by an inch or so. No frame, no restrictive outlines. This would have allowed the images to become more lively and true to themselves.

The spacing and grouping of the prints were nicely measured and thought-out to evenly fill the walls around the gallery so the viewer is surrounded in a sea of various printed artworks and their labels. A distracting element of the informative labels placed in the lower side corner of each print is the price being present. Giving the public the price could go two ways: the viewer is interested in investing in a piece and doesn’t have to ask for the price since it is conveniently on the tag next to the work, or the viewer is put off by the large amount displayed for select images and is in disbelief that just a print costs that amount. For those who are not knowledgeable about how much time and money can go into creating art; anyone could dismiss printmaking as something anyone could do. In reality this is not the case, printmaking is a tedious process depending on what method is being implicated. The thought process, materials, and hours put into even a small print could take a couple days to finish which is where the price is calculated based on the time and cost of materials used.  For the convenience of insight for the viewer, there should be a process poster or pamphlet placed in the gallery to give those new to printmaking a better idea into how these prints were created.

Visiting Deborah Maris Lader’s artist website is almost essential to view her exhibit to its fullest potential. The stories she tells for some of her pieces invites the viewer into her personal life which instantly creates a deeper connection to the art. She talks about her thoughts behind some of her prints, the meanings, the choice of imagery, and talks about her involvement with other medias. Even though there is a lack of information for the artwork in the gallery, the overall exhibit is enchanting and radiates mystery and curiosity for what the prints are trying to tell the audience.