Tag Archive "the-print-center"

Prints return–John Caperton on artblog radio next Monday

Used to be prints were dowdy and derriere garde. No more. Silk screens, books, zines, yurts. Print Center Curator John Caperton knows where the wild things are, and talks to us next week about the print revival among young artists. He also talks about the The Print Center past and future and Philagrafika’s halo effect on a venerable but modest institution that usually works in the shadow of the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Below is a 29-second sample clip from our talk. Tune in next Monday to hear the entire episode. John ... More » »

Weekly Update – old and new at the Print Center

Looking to the past and the future, the Print Center this fall celebrates old-school letterpress and youth-culture favorite screenprinting.

The 84th Annual International Competition: Photography at The Print Center

The Print Center’s 84th Annual International Competition: Photography, one of the nation’s oldest juried exhibitions of its kind, has managed to stay relevant yet another year with the help of guest curator Ingrid Schaffner. Schaffner, the senior curator at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia, has brought together a group of 40 artists out of a pool of 550 (not an easy task). The result: a pastiche of work investigating a myriad of themes such as dystopic landscapes, melancholia, communal living and the creative process. Schaffner describes the exhibit as a “picture show” and appropriately likens the viewing experience ... More » »

Weekly update — Philagrafika at the Print Center

This week’s Weekly has my review of the Philagrafika show at the Print Center. There are many treats in the print festival Philagrafika 2010. One of the best is in the upstairs gallery at the Print Center—the Space 1026 yurt, a demure, grand dame of an object that is the embodiment of the one for all, all for one spirit of the hard-working Chinatown collective.  The yurt (see Printeresting website for working photos) is one of several installations at the Print Center in a large Philagrafika group show featuring 14 artists and art collectives from around the world. Not surprisingly, ... More » »

Hot off the presses–The Print Center finds its inner kid

Andrew Jeffrey Wright performs his notorious, x-rated stand-up comedy act at the Print Center tonight. 7:30 p.m., only five bucks! Now that’s an unlikely pairing–prints and comedy!

Foreclosed at The Print Center and across America

Tommy Reynolds, Needing Something for Which There is Nothing, 2008, inkjet print, unique The Print Center exhibit Foreclosed, which features work by photographers local and unlocal who construct installations and then photograph them, is the first curatorial outing there of sharp-eyed and alert curator John Caperton. I love that Caperton is doing what more and more curators starting to do here, placing local work in a national and international context. Philadelphia photographers Gillian Pears, Tommy Reynolds and Ryan Widger are clearly rowing in the same stream of artmaking as the three others in the show–Chicago-based Melanie Schiff, who we saw ... More » »

Interview–The quirky John Caperton at the Print Center

Melanie Schiff, Spit, Lambda Print, 30 x 40, 2006, taken from her website ; ©Melanie Schiff Here at artblog we’ve been waiting with bated breath to see how John Caperton will put his mark on exhibits at The Print Center, the venerable organization that dates back to 1915. We were astonished by the choice, not because Caperton isn’t great. After all, here are a few of his independent curatorial projects in Philadelphia: Cathartic Disgust Gestalt at the late, lamented Project Room, featuring work by Tristin Lowe, Charles Burns, Philip Mott and Robert Beck. Think vomit materialized. I Saw the Light, ... More » »

Leaves, dead or alive: Mike and Doug Starn at The Print Center

Doug (in stripes) and Mike Starn at The Print Center before the opening, with Executive Director Elizabeth Spungen behind. Doug and Mike Starn (they are identical twins) grew up in Absecon, N.J. But their art career is pure New York, and they have never shown here in Philadelphia. They are at The Print Center with an exhibit called Black Pulse 2000-2007: Doug + Mike Starn. I stopped by the day the exhibit opened, and got to ask Doug Starn lots of questions. The plan for the South Ferry Station installation. The high point was his video iPod with touch technology. ... More » »

Print Center curator named

The Print Center has named John Caperton its new curator of prints and photographs (isn’t that all they show there, anyway?), starting Sept. 5. John’s previous experience includes Locks Gallery and the Fairmount Park Art Association. I think this is really good news!

Prints for the 21st Century

Looking decidedly awake and aware, The Print Center’s 81st annual printmaking competition exhibit perked me up on an otherwise less-than day on the art circuit. The Philadelphia Museum of Art’s associate curator of prints and drawings, Shelley R. Langdale, culled 44 works by 42 artist from more than 1,600 works of mainly U.S. artists. Serena Perrone, The Origin of Self-Sacrifice, woodcut, silverpoint, goldpoint on mylar, 48 x 72″ The mysterious narratives were what most captured my interest (I confess that print methodology interests me only in so far as it affects what the final product looks like). The first floor ... More » »