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Forearms of Steel The Print Center reviewed by |
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One of Philadelphia's oldest galleries is showing some of its youngest artists. 13 printers from the Space 1026 collective, which has just reached its fourth year of buffeting the wrinklies, are showing their work in the topmost corner of The Print Center, which has been around since 1915. Known for their great silk screened exhibition cards, daft use of phraseology and fly-posting this bunch is dedicated to a distinct approach to art practice and marketing. Hip without being hipster, this simple installation of prints, photographs, banners, and stuffed things focuses on what could otherwise be an unfocused and overhung show. These artists know how to hang a show. Andrew Jeffrey Wright's Forearms of Steel, a linear representation of overdeveloped forceps grasping a squeegee serves as the poster for the show -- it contends that although the artists are serious about their work they are also seriously tongue-in-cheek. In addition, the poster-child contributes striking screen-prints of modified advertisements. Woman in Undergarments, a waif-ish model corseted even further by Wright, the Warhol-esque Donut in NY and The Stomach Thief riotously discuss America's contradicting obsessions with food and being skinny. Benjamin Woodward, co-founder of Space 1026 and alum of RISD Film School, displays his gnarly, bizarre screen-prints of rats fighting. These printers do not stick to tradition. Instead of thick white paper they print on ledger sheets, stuffed words, and newsprint--- or don't print at all. Text runs through the show offering "tips for teens," in Matt Bassett's God's Creatures Pass Judgment, Jennifer Davis' stuffed words which proclaim nonsensically "every claimed past keep glory," and Adam Wall's amusing tiled photographs of the plasticity of Americana or "Ameriwaste."
© 2002
Nicole Roszko and InLiquid.com;
images copyright © The
Print Center and Andrew Jeffrey Wright |
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