The following themed portfolios will be on view at the Sam Fox School throughout the 2011 SGC International Conference:
Be Still My Heart!
Organizer: Xenia Fedorchenko
Location: Second Floor, Bixby Hall
Participants: Thorsten Dennerline, James Ehlers, Xenia Fedorchenko, Ben Herrera, Curtis Jones, Matty Kleinberg, Angela Malchionno, Kelly Moran, Ryan O'Malley, Tim Robtoy, Michelle Rozic, Jonathan Thomas, Joseph Velasquez, and Eric Woods.
Be Still My Heart! This earnest and romantic saying, often uttered by cartoon characters, is a direct expression of impeding tumultuous emotion, of a grappling for emotional equilibrium at the descent into chaos. Intra-personal relationships, sex, and power can be at the core of this exchange. In contemporary society, the saying can also be updated to inscribe our awe at technological and cultural advances, or powerlessness in the face of political or environmental forces we fail to comprehend. What do we see when faced with terrifying prospects of love or of solitude? What are the nuances that help maintain the equilibrium of the heart?
Cross Polinization: Emerging Artists in Contemporary Brazilian Print
Organizers: Edward Bernstein and Maria do Carmo de Freitas Veneroso
Location: Ground Floor, Bixby Hall
Participants: Tales Bedeschi, Virginia Candida, Ariel Ferreira Costa, Maria do Carmo de Freitas Veneroso, Rodrigo Freitas, Liliana Lobo, Samir Lucas, Paulo Nazareth, Camila Otto, Eugênio Paccelli, Isabela Prado, and Pedro Vener.
It is a given that we live not only in a global economy, but also in a global art community. Visual art, including print media, has followed the path of world music, creating a wonderful gumbo that retains important cultural traditions while selectively taking from other contemporary influences. Brazil is an important emerging power, both economically and culturally. In addition, Brazil is a very rich and true melting pot of European, African, Latin, and Asian ethnicities and cultures. The prints in this portfolio highlight these elements and feature emerging artists and post-graduates who represent this new paradigm in art and culture.
Image caption: Maria do Carmo de Freitas Venereoso, Maker of Dreams.
Digital Wunderkammer
Organizer: Mary Jones
Location: Ground Floor, Bixby Hall
Participants: Lawrence Anderson, Sandra Anible, Kimberly Arp, Margaret Caldwell, Randy Clark, Caye Dreiss, Rachel Epp Buller, Mary Jones, Cima Katz, Brian Kelly, Cory Knedler, Kathryn Maxwell, Tracy Otten, Andrew Polk, Kathryn Polk, Josh Ryther, Marsha Shaw, Larry Schuh, Robert Stephens, Alyssa Tauber, Aaron Tinder, and Josh Watts.
For any printmaker working today, digital technology has had an impact, calling the most closely held beliefs into question. And just as the advent of movable type, as well as the mechanical age, aroused deep suspicion, the digital era has brought with it a rupture in assumptions made about the nature of craft, authorship, and artistry. This portfolio embraces the disequilibrium that takes place when authorship is opened up, and is based on the premise of shared imagery. Each participant uses images from a digital wunderkammer—a collection of images contributed by the participants themselves, all of whom use digital technologies as part of their work process in some way—to create their own image, wholly and deeply personal. Like the traditional cabinet of wonders, this digital collection gives rise to curiosity, minvention, subversion, and play. Imagery is shared and repurposed, context is lost and regained, messages are mixed, technology intercedes; ultimately, art happens.
Image caption: Mary Jones, Six Corners.
Farming at the Edge of Equilibrium and Reverie
Organizer: Anita Jung
Location: Ground Floor, Steinberg Hall
Participants: Sandra Anible, Meaghan Busch, Tom Druecker, Michelle Dussault, Bill Fick, Susan Goldman, James Greene, Anita Jung, Marty Komorny, Michael Krueger, Mari LaCure, Jennifer Leach, Sarah Marshall, Robert Stephens, Sylvia Taylor, Jason Terry, Elmo Thamm, Richard Wenrich, Sarah Whorf, and Melanie Yazzie.
This portfolio is both a tribute to and a critique of the phenomenon of the virtual farm. The idealization of the family farm has become another nostalgic myth romanticizing our history. The majority of Americans currently have no direct experience with agriculture, except as consumers. There are only 1.9 million farms left in the United States, and it is debatable whether all of these farms produce enough to be the sole source of income for non-corporate owners. Yet the online application Farmville hosts more than 72 million virtual farmers monthly. On our virtual farms, the food is pure and crop prices are fixed; there are no environmental concerns or distractions, no fertilizer runoff or insect devastation. Animals wait patiently to be tended to, and there is no manure to shovel or antibiotics to inject.
Finlandia: Prints and Music in Response to Tom of Finland
Organizer: Ron Abram
Location: Second Floor, Bixby Hall
Participants: Ron Abram, Brian Barr, David Berube, Tay Cha, Kristin Drake, Christian Faur, Adrian Gonzalez, Christopher Hartshorne, Ivo Hofste, Richard Hricko, Timothy Lachcik, Michael Litzau, Lisa McLymont, Kat Marie Moya, Carrie Olson, Ryan Parker, Natasha Pestich, DJ Jeff Stallings, Chad States, Rochelle Toner, Jim Winters, and Michael Wertz.
Tom of Finland is an important cultural signifier to the gay community. While often noted as the "most influential creator of gay pornographic images" (by historian Joseph Slade), his life's work is currently in the midst of re-examination as visual culture historians and others consider the definitions and barriers between art and erotic art/pornography, and the movement of GLBT culture from the margins to the center of mainstream society. In selecting Tom of Finland, this portfolio seeks to come to terms with printmaking's parallel histories of art, pornography, and erotica, and the parameters that have separated or not separated each from one another. Highly explicit in nature, Tom of Finland's graphics offer contrasting points of reference for response on multiple personal levels. With issues of GLBT equality currently at stake in the United States country, the personal will no doubt be political, as the charged gay subject matter requires the Straight and GLBT portfolio artists to find personal equilibrium in their creative outcomes.
As the title implies, the idea of Finland the country being a site of equilibrium plays the structural role of metaphor in this portfolio. "Sisu" is a Finnish word meaning "strength of will, determination, perseverance, and acting rationally in the face of adversity." The poetic landscape that "sisu" alludes to is realized in the portfolio through the incorporation of the Finlandia Hymn, written in 1900 by Finnish composer Jean Sibelius. San Francisco DJ Jeff Stallings has mixed a CD for inclusion with the portfolio, sampling the symphonic poem with his own audio response to Tom of Finland. The Finlandia Hymn's lyrics, included on the portfolio colophon, can be interpreted as a basic manifesto for equality, and speak of opposing forces, equilibrium of night and day.
Image caption: Jim Winters, Honcho August 1981.
History of the United States, Vol. 1
Organizer: Brandon Gardner
Location: Second Floor, Bixby Hall
Participants: Brett Anderson, L. Blaksley, Heather Bryant, Erin Cross, Sydney Cross, Matt Egan, Andrew England, Jules Floss, Brandon Gardner, Rachel Gardner, Jon Goebel, Matthew Hopson-Walker, Crystal Kanney, Kurt Kemp, Andrew Kosten, Lynwood Kreneck, Carrie Lingscheit, Emmy Lingscheit, Rachael Madeline, Michelle Martin, Peter Massing, Ben Moreau, Johanna Mueller, Candace Nicol, Meghan O'Connor, Heather O'Hara, Matt Rebholz, Blake Sanders, Brandon Sanderson, Larry Schuh, Kevin Shook, Jeff Sippel, and Melanie Yazzie.
This portfolio is the first of seven installments (over seven years) that will create a comprehensive collection of the history of the United States. Each installment will cover a 35-year span, and each artist will be assigned one year within the installment period. For this installment, each participant made a print about a randomly selected, specific year between 1774-1809. The images range from a specific event to an overview of that entire year; they are satirical, serious, humorous, etc. The specific year assigned is included within the print or in the title of the piece.
Image caption: Brandon Garnder, Washington's Retreat: Battle at Brandywine September 11, 1777.
Janet Jackson's Intergalactic Mimetic Soul Shake Down
Organizer: Benjamin Love
Location: Second Floor, Bixby Hall
Participants: Julia Asherman, Chris Bostwick, Eli Craven, Jill Fitterer, Nicholas Johnston, James Lamarche, Odessa Leedy, Benjamin Love, Lee Marchalonis, Alexander Peace, Jon Sadler, Jewel Shaw, Stephanie Standish, Fabian Tabibian, Lisa Turner.
This portfolio is based on the synthesis of contemporary art ideas and the rejection of traditional printmaking ideas to create prints that expand the understanding of both. Contemporary art's use of space, its inclusive and accepting use of non-art materials, and its assimilation of popular culture are at odds with the inherent value structure of traditional print culture. Janet Jackson's Intergalactic Mimetic Soul Shake Down addresses the concerns of disequilibrium using the conceptual language of printmaking, mimesis, repetition, dissemination, and democracy. The relevance of printmaking culture in contemporary art relies on the assimilation of non-print ideas. Only by challenging its traditional value structures will printmaking maintain its relevance in the noise that is the contemporary world.
Image caption: Benjamin Love, Sparkle.
Printmaking and the Mundane
Organizers: Joseph A. Lupo and Janet Marcavage
Location: Ground Floor, Steinberg Hall
Participants: Erika Adams, Bryan Baker, Tonia Bonnell, Leona Christie, Amze Emmons, Mark Franchino, Kevin Haas, Anita Jung, Aurora Landin, Joseph A. Lupo, and Janet Marcavage.
Due to its inherent means for reproduction, printmaking can be considered less precious than other art forms. This non-hierarchical medium lends itself to expressions of quotidian life. Throughout the 20th and 21st centuries, printmakers have been interested in representing the everyday, regardless of their generational artistic beliefs. Martin Lewis, Peggy Bacon, and John Sloan created prints about their ordinary experiences in the 1930s and '40s. Ed Ruscha and Jim Dine both took their cues from Pop in the 1960s and '70s, but focused much more on commonplace objects and locations. Today, printmakers like Vija Celmins, Randy Bolton, and the contemporary printmakers included in this portfolio focus on repetition, familiar narratives, and objects of urban life. This portfolio crosses generations and finds common ground through familiar experiences and images. It also asks questions about printmaking, communication, process, and the importance of one's everyday experiences. How does the repetitive, manual labor of printmaking lend itself to recordings of the banal, unremarkable, or mediocre?
Image caption: Joseph A. Lupo, WALK.
Reality/Distortion
Organizers: Marlys Kubicek and Wendy Willis
Location: Ground Floor, Steinberg Hall
Participants: Jo Andersen, Donna Atwood, Stu Biscoe, Cristina Cardenas, Susan Carter Carter, Christine Dawdy, Barry Farmer, Linda Haas, Diana Hartley, Eric Hodgins, Carol Jenna, Sarah Kriehn, Marlys Kubicek, Susan Marquez, Joseph Marshall, Ann Otis, Leslie Parsons, Andrew Polk, Paulette Redmond, Susan L. Ritter, Marjorie Rogers, Jean Rossman, Catherine Ruane, Marika Szabo, Glory Tacheenie-Campoy, Joan C. Thompson, Audrey Van Kirk, Agustin Vargas, Wendy Willis, and Ilona Selma Yusuf.
This portfolio challenges the traditional form of the print exchange. Members of the Arizona Print Group created a unique work consisting of twenty-six 8" x 10" bleed prints collaged together onto one support sheet. This collaboration takes the vision of each individual artist and seeks to find equilibrium in a single image. Continuity comes from subject matter (Reality/Distortion), media (photopolymer plate), and the design element of a horizontal line that separates reality and distortion.
See-Saw
Organizers: Elizabeth Klimek and Tracy Pilzer
Location: Ground Floor, Bixby Hall
Participants: Georgia Deal, Nicole Hand, Melissa Harshman, Carolyn Hartmann, Elizabeth Klimek, Shaurya Kumar, Joe Lupo, Leah Matthews, Manuel Nararrete, Dennis O'Neil, Tracy Pilzer, Kathryn Polk, Roxanne Reed, Minna Resnick, Sean Starwars, Sylvia Taylor, and Melanie Yazzie.
This portfolio is a commentary on Newton's law of motion, which states that the mutual forces of action and reaction between two bodies are equal, opposite, and collinear. We have witnessed many changes in art; the origins of these changes have sometimes been catastrophic, sometimes been banal, but have always affected another entity. Through war, disease, invention, and economic shifts, art has been affected, and artists have documented these relationships. This portfolio invites artists to create a contemporary commentary on the relationship of partnering events, theories, or other such interactions, tangible or not.
Image caption: Tracy Pilzer and Elizabeth Klimek, Meridian Landscape 8.
Transitory Impressions
Organizers: Melissa Gill and Monika Meler
Location: Ground Floor, Bixby Hall
Participants: Rosi Bernardi, Marc Bosworth, Dustyn Brok, Christopher Ganz, Melissa Gill, Kevin Hass, Bill Hosterman, Ina Kaur, Haran Kim, Whitney Korstange, Delita Martin, Monika Meler, Ryan Parker, Tori Pelz, Kathryn Reeves, Mary Robinson, Jason Scuilla, Derrick Stanley, and Rina Yoon.
The idea of what a print is has changed drastically throughout the history of print media. Yet the one thing that continues to ring true is the idea that prints should last forever. Print artists are consumed with the idea of archivability. This portfolio examines the concept of the "forever print." The ephemeral prints in this portfolio are constructed in a way that allows them to change over time, exploring ideas of temporality and change. Artists interpret the idea of the ephemeral in many ways: Change can mean a physical change to the print, or choosing a concept that addresses change.
Image caption: Portfolio image, Transitory Impressions.