The Maude Kerns Art Center is proud to present “Beyond the Print,” featuring the work of local artists Mika Aono, Tallmadge Doyle, Sarah Grew, Julia Oldham, and Libby Wadsworth, opening with a public reception on Friday, April 4, from 5 – 7 pm. “Beyond the Print” is on view through May 2.
The artists featured in this exciting exhibit extend the medium of printmaking “beyond the print” by the innovative use of materials and diverse techniques, creating unique and powerful visual statements. They share a common concern for and engagement with a world facing ecological collapse caused by climate change. Their hope is to reveal connections between works, ideas, and materials, to highlight the resiliency of nature, and engage the viewer in a conversation about contemporary challenges.
Mika Aono moves into the realm of the conceptual with her piece Marks You Carry, a print left on your mind, what she calls a “collaborative project with accidental participants.” The setting includes a desk lamp, brown noise, a sketchbook, and a Sharpie, along with instruction provided by Aono. She invites visitors to record their thoughts as they contemplate Aono’s project, to essentially create a “print” in their minds of the experience. Aono plans to publish the words collected from gallery visitors in a zine format.
Tallmadge Doyle combines printmaking with drawing and painting, creating multi-layered images that blur the line between various mediums. She displays pieces from a series titled “Celestial Oceans,” merging images of microscopic ocean life forms with depictions of star formations of the solar system. Using this invented imagery, Doyle hopes to educate and inspire the viewer to consider pressing environmental issues related to climate change.
Sarah Grew intertwines art history, philosophy, natural science, and digital technology in her art practice, creating photographic installations that use historic printing techniques to address contemporary issues, particularly climate change. Grew creates several installations for “Beyond the Print,” including a piece titled Hanging by a Thread - 12 Endangered Wildflower Species of the PNW, which consists of 12 hanging slips of glass, each printed with an image of an endangered species.
Julia Oldham works in a range of media, including printmaking, animation, and digital media to create images that highlight the uneasy collision of nature and technology in a world on the precipice of environmental collapse. For “Beyond the Print,” she exhibits three prints as well as two short films, including Dendrostalkers, a fictionalized account of two sisters who attempt to film trees that have evolved into higher beings (“Dendrotropes”) to avoid clear cutting and the disastrous effects of climate change.
Libby Wadsworth couples the visual and verbal through her photography/ letterpress printing projects that focus on what she sees as “intimate, often overlooked encounters” between the natural and the built environment. Wadsworth photographs urban trees and their root formations within the context of human-built structures. She pairs images and texts, using the language of romance to describe these encounters, and revealing how both the natural and the built environment are altered as they adapt to one another.