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THE INK SHOP
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Thursday
August 16, 2001
There's no brooking an argument with a title like 'Tis, the new
exhibition of prints on view at the State of the Art Gallery. Like the title,
the works themselves are strong and definitive while ranging widely in subject
and approach, not surprisingly, given that the artists hail from print workshops
in Ithaca, the Republic of Ireland and Northern Island. The show is the
brainchild of Ink Shop founders Pamela Rozelle Drix and Miri Amihai who, when
confronted with the daunting task of setting up their own print shop here,
traveled to Ireland in 1999 and 2000. (1) There
they met with fellow artists in long established workshops who could help guide
and advise them about setting up such a community-based endeavor. The workshops
-- Cork Printmakers, Black Church Print Studio, Dublin Graphic Studio, Seacourt
Print Shop, and The Belfast Print Workshop -- were largely established by women
printmakers and the advice they gave as well as the support proved infective.
All five workshops as well as the Ink Shop are represented in the
current exhibition with fifty artists works on display. It is an exciting
array of nearly all the traditional and some not so traditional print media, a
healthy sign that printmaking is remains well and strong both here and abroad.
Just stepping in the door, one can feel the excitement of these artists, in
their exuberant use of color and line, in their intense directness of approach,
in the enthusiasm that seems to radiate off the paper.
Take the work of Belfast artist Jill McKeown. In her photo-etching
"Self-Perpetuating #2" we are confronted with the stark back of
looming, mysterious figure facing an undefined landscape of dense whiteness
broken only by the cracks and shadows found in any remote setting. It is an
image of intense loneliness and yet in the figure ís domination we can feel a
great power too. McKeown frequent subject is the quarries around Belfast and
says "I am interested in human response to place and surrounding. In
particular how surface, texture and tactility relate to the senses."
Landscape is a dominant theme in these works. Cliona Harmey, a
visiting artist-in-residence to the Ink Shop this summer from the College of Art
& National College of Art and Design in Dublin, tries to capture the
fleeting natural phenomena as it occurs. In her digital print "Rossmore
Lake (reed writing)" the reeds form a language out of the silence of the
evening, forming calligraphic messages on the water's surface. It is a
provocative image, compelling the imagination to interpret the unreadable
message.
Mary Kpakra, from the Seacourt Print Shop, interprets the
landscape through her own experiences of Africa, India, China and Peru. She has
absorbed the colors of these places, the rich purples, golds and rusts hover
over her landscape be jewelling her New World. Like a rich textile, it captures
the exquisite beauty of a world awakening at day ís beginning. Another Seacourt
artist, Valerie Hamilton, uses bright, almost day-glo colors to achieve the same
hymn of praise to nature ís glory. It is easy to see in her work a deep interest
in music; she combines color, form and texture to create tension and harmony
simultaneously. Patterns are formed which capture the staccato of a single note
or the cacophony of many played together.
Kathryn Marshall's collagraph "Dancing Waves" in title,
color and image exudes an air of happiness that can barely be contained.
Although interested in formal elements of line, color and texture, there is a
freedom here as well that seems more concerned with playfulness and joy. She has
laid out her image almost in a figurative manner, with the waves forming arms
and legs, a bright orange rondel forming a head. There is something simple and
childlike here that buoys us up with its sheer exuberance.
Robin Cordiner uses equally vibrant color combinations in his relief
print "A Coal Drawn from the Fire" though here the landscape seems
about to explode of its own volition. Cordiner is broadly influenced by Greek
philosophy, Christian, Hindu and theoretical physics as well as nature and
geology and he tries to capture in his work, "the unreality of
reality."
One of the little jewels in this show is James McCreary's
mezzotint "Mist." The inherent softness of the mezzotint technique
enhances this lovely evening scene, gently washed in rich fall colors. It is the
kind of image that you can feel in your being, the mist gently encompassing and
gathering you in. Lynda Hamilton's nature in "Pictish Symbols & Old
Stone Standing" captures the more timeless aura of historical, often
pre-historical, structures often associated with the ancient Celts. "My
work is based on images of land with its own natural structures, or pieces put
there by people from pre-history to the present."
There are a few figurative works in the show and Eddie Rafferty's
etching "Jeremy" is an intriguing portrait. Rafferty says the his work
"is steeped in the tradition of storytelling and draws its inspiration from
my experiences in the townland of Ballynagarrick in County Down where I grew
up." In his work he captures a close-up of human nature and spirit of the
individual sitter, concentrating on the face ís dignity and the life story told
there. Margaret Arthur's "Dormant" is aptly titled. Two nude figures
curl parenthetically within each other ís arc, protective and at rest. It is an
image of late night serenity and peace, non-sexual and deeply moving . And Samantha Couture's book of monotypes entitled
"2 1/2 minutes feels just like that as you leaf through the images. The
figures almost flow from page to page, unencumbered
and quick-limbed. Monotype, quick and fluid itself, is the perfect medium to
capture this motion.
These are just a few of the many delights to be found in 'Tis.
It is a show not to be missed -- your
next chance may not be until 2002 - 2003 when they show together again, this
time in Ireland. footnote
Nancy E. Green is chief curator and curator of prints, drawings and
photographs at Cornell University's Johnson Museum of Art. |
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Tony
Ruiz Web Design © THE INK SHOP PRINTMAKING CENTER & OLIVE BRANCH PRESS, e-mail: artists@ink-shop.org
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