The contemporary print differs from the contemporary painting or drawing in numerous ways. For one thing, it’s a form not as often seen. Many of us are not overly familiar with its properties or processes. We wonder over it; we stare harder at it. The print, outside of its graphic-design context, can seem an intimate object, requiring close inspection, great attention to small markings, a monocular eye. The range of subject matter, aesthetic predilections and physical processes on view in C33’s presentation (in conjunction with Anchor Graphics) of the “International Print Center New York’s 25th New Prints Exhibition,” which showcases prints made in the past year by forty-one international artists, is impressive, especially given the small space and salon-style display in C33’s gallery. A lot of material has been fit into a very intimate space. From William Kentridge’s stereoscopic scenes to Roser Sales’ beautiful silkscreens on felt of Spanish trees to Michele Oka Doner’s large-scale print made with organic plant material to Jessica Dunne’s spit-bite aquatints “Breakthrough” and “The Chilly,”small photographic views of urban tableaux, the show seems to present one of everything printable. Like most survey shows, this one is more broad than deep, but for those of us in need of a printmaking crash course, or just a refresher, this really fits the bill. (Michelle Tupko)
Through February 22 at C33 Gallery, 33 E. Congress.
Symbols of Life: A Review of Theaster Gates at the New Museum in New York City Gates unites his artistic beginnings as a ceramics sculptor with the impressive amount of objects that he has acquired as an archivist. Titled “Young Lords and Their Traces” it follows the lineage of his artistic and archival practice through multiple times and histories.
The Craft of Reparations: DePaul Art Museum Connects Local and International State Violence “Remaking the Exceptional: Tea, Torture, and Reparations | Chicago to Guantánamo” at the DePaul Art Museum examines the question of reparations by tackling two cases: the well-documented tragedy of Chicago police torture and the ongoing international scandal of Guantánamo Bay.
