Review: Interventions: Reframing the Printed Image

With the Mid America Print Counsel conference 2016 being hosted by Indiana University Southeast and University of Louisville, it’s understandable why the Louisville area has so many gallery exhibitions and events for printmakers and all that appreciate printmaking. Whether you are planning your route for a day of visiting galleries or just have time to stop by one or two, an exhibition that you should consider seeing for the MAPC conference would be “Interventions: Re-framing the Printed Image” at 21C Museum Hotel.
This show was curated by Susanna Crum, Assistant Professor of Fine Arts at IUS and it goes hand-in-hand with the recent MAPC conference. The theme of the exhibition is concerned with mass media, politics, pop culture, and how the printed image can be used in a different way to convey a message. A broad array of prints and mediums were represented which made this theme and exhibition successful in regards to variety. The works not only held with the theme well, but also related to each other in some way or another such as concept or subject.

One that stood out almost immediately was Ibrahim Miranda’s “Isla laboratorio o 7 maravillas (Island laboratory or 7 wonders)” (2012).  He uses his thirteen-color screen print and woodcut to combine symbols from all over the world into one place or map. As it says in his statement, “ Opposites confront one another-- the handmade and commercial, fact and fiction, self and other.”  His use of bright and muted colors and style give his work the look of a classic map, but when you get closer to examine the details you see that there are the great wonders of the world like the pyramids and the Great Wall of China all next to one another. Miranda used printmaking to combine these ideas and images seamlessly into one piece, making his own utopia of Cuba.

Another work that you should see is Peregrine Honig’s “Father Gander Portfolio” (2006).  Created with lithograph and Chine-collé, these prints show a twist on classic fairy tale characters that look like they had come straight out of a book. Honig’s use of light colors and pastels gives the characters a sense of innocence, but you soon realize that isn’t completely true as you read the title page and each characters’ snippet of a story.  “ Peregrine Honig explores relationships between sexual vulnerability, social anxieties, and consumer culture “ as it says in the statement.

As one of the many exhibitions surrounding the MAPC conference, this is one many would want to see in person. Not only is it free to go into the 21C museum, but it is also open 24 house 7 days a week! So, this exhibition can fit into most anyone’s schedule easily even if just for a quick visit. And if there is enough time, the rest of the museum and restaurant is also open for a whole afternoon event. This is definitely a recommended show for the MAPC conference. Being able to compare them as a whole and see the individual artists’ work together in one exhibition to redefine prints is an experience, so go experience print!