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Exhibitions

The Reflective: The SGCI Archive at 50

An Appeal from the Graphic Impressions Coordinator

The Reflective exhibition debuted at Our Shared Future, the 2022 SGCI conference hosted by UW-Madison. Representing a wide array of print disciplines and priorities it is indicative of the outstanding legacy and potential educational resource of the SGCI archive. The Zuckerman Museum at Kennesaw State University, under the guidance of Director of Curatorial Affairs, Cynthia Thompson, has stewarded the archives as it continues to grow and evolve with every conference. How can we make use of the collection so that it is more than an ever-expanding flat file that sits largely unopened? One way is to digitize the archives so that it can be a virtual resource for students and print scholars in perpetuity. The Museum personnel must focus on their continuing programming, so there is an opportunity for we, the members, to preserve our archives and make them accessible to all. Discussion has begun to create an internship program for students with an interest in art history and/or curation to come to KSU in the summer to help digitize the collection. This would require an additional financial commitment for the organization. If this exhibition is a reminder of the value of our illustrious past and exciting present and you want to see the archives be a continuing resource for reflection and inspiration please consider donating to SGCI. If you’re at an institution that could be interested in working with the organization and the museum for an internship program please reach out. This is a special priority for me, currently in its infancy, I will return to following the Puertograbando conference. Please stay tuned!

Curatorial Statement

The Reflective: The SGCI Archive at 50 presents a rich selection of offerings illustrating the notable and vital developments in the field of contemporary printmaking practices over the course of decades. The SGCI organization has long maintained national and international recognition in the discipline of printmaking, which now extends into the collaborative arenas of both papermaking and book arts. In a physical, historical, and visual sense, this exhibition frames the context of this art-making discipline as punctuated milestones chronicling the past while embracing the mutualism of shared futures.

Celebrating the broad definition of “print” to include an interdisciplinary approach and expansion of print media, The Reflective illuminates the achievements made by contemporary artists who are challenging and redefining the medium to create works that are technically and conceptually diverse; innovative and consistently flawless in craftsmanship; and above all mirror each of the artists’ concept and vision.

–Cynthia Nourse Thompson, Curator
Bernard A. Zuckerman Museum of Art

 

A sitting African elephant joins a woolly mammoth in this composition. The background is printed in a warm red and minty teal layer with flying birds over the elephant and a silhouette of a tree behind the mammoth.

Sydney A. Cross, Extinction, 2014. Lithograph. Gift of Geo Sipp.

An image mimicking a museum catalog features a red grid filled with specimens and archeological artifacts like those founds in a natural history museum printed in blue. The blue text "Phantoms of Lost Museums, Catalogue II, Volume VII" sits in the center of the top third of the "cover".

Mark Dion, Phantoms of Lost Museums, 2014. Lithograph. Gift of Geo Sipp.

An arrangement of turquoise, pin, and black ovoids create a roughly symmetrical composition. Around the center, four swallows in light blue converge on a fifth in the center. The background is populated with contour studies of flowers in white and additional swallows in cream on the brown base layer.

John Hitchcock, Kaku, 2014. Screenprint. Gift of Geo Sipp.

The text of a poem, biological explanation, and Fibonacci sequence diagrams sit upon layered images of sea shells in browns and grays.

John Risseeuw, Ptero Lives!, 2014. Letterpress and polymer relief plate. Gift of Geo Sipp.

A bucolic, 18th century style landscape of two figures at the edge of a cliff overlooking a river and mountain range is confronted by intensely colored, almost psychedelic stones and a red stream and a volcanic explosion from one of the mountains in the middle ground.

Shawn Bitters, Unrequited, 2019. Archival Inkjet and screenprint. Gift of the artist.

A grid of fine, red lines at offset angles are printed on a sheet of cream and moldy green handmade paper.

Joan Hall, Ghost Nets, 2009. Collagraph and photolithograph on handmade paper. Gift of the artist.

Flower-like shapes in lime green and pink float among a photo of a tranquil, flooded landscape

David Charles Chioffi, Matrix 75813, 2018. Archival pigment print and letterpress. Gift of the artist.

A fanciful, deteriorating island surrounded by a hazy black halo. Above, an inset of the heads of flowers seemingly emitting pollen.

Jill Ho-You, Dissipation, 2020. Spitbite etching. Gift of the artist.

Undulating layers of white line work evoking coral and wood are surrounded by wisps of cloud and stars on a dark blue ground.

Melissa Smith, Caught in the Moonlight, 2020. Etching. Gift of the artist.

The left shoulder, upper arm, and chest of a figure rendered in layers of cream and brown populates this image. On the arm are tattoos in blue that reference Indigenous motifs of the Americas. The tattoos are labeled "2, 5, 4" implying a guide to their meaning.

Fidencio Fifield-Perez, Come Te Gusta La Mala Vida, 2020. Reduction linocut. Gift of the artist.

A crowded arrangement in primarily indigo and white, this scene is filled with a white galleon floating on a sea of indecipherable script perhaps from a ship's log, approaching a landmass in the distance. Above, microscopic closeups of pollen loom like moons, joined by a small golden moon, and topped with a vintage map of constellations.

Mark Bovey, Arrival, 2020. Lithograph and screenprint. Gift of the artist.

The shape of Hispaniola--Haiti and the Dominican Republic--is printed in black surrounded by a yellow outline. Beneath, the text "Nuestra Futura Isla" (Our Future Island) is created by a the ground of abstracted swooping marks in gray and orange.

Pepe Coronado, Abusa Coral, 2019. Screenprint. Gift of the artist.

A woman stands in the center of the page where half the body is light skinned wearing black, the other dark skinned wearing white with white hair. She stands in an implied box of water in front of a house with tropical plants pouring out of the windows on the light side, and covered in foliage on the dark. The figure holds a black hand emerging from the plants on the light side and holds a white hand emerging from the foliage covering the house on the dark.

Elisa Dore, Which Half of You is Puerto Rican?, 2019. Woodcut. Gift of the artist.

A tessellated pattern in blue evokes waves and sea creatures.

Stephanie Meracado, Untitled, 2020. Relief. Gift of the artist.

A funeral for a bee larvae attended by other insects includes the text "If bees disappeared from Earth, humans would have 4 years left to live". Surrounding the funeral scene nude humans are in agony, like those cast into hell in medieval last judgment motifs. Above a king and owl loom with the text "Doomsday Clock" at the top with a rabbit hanging off the clock in the "o" of the word clock that is nearly to midnight.

Sue Coe, Doomsday Clock, 2019. Linocut. Gift of the artist.

The word "navigate" hovers over an image of heavy cloud cover in gray with a layer of rusty red collagraph with varied grooves and splotches printed lightly over the clouds.

Beth Grabowski, Unusual Circumstances, 2020. Collagraph, lithograph, screenprint and German etching. Gift of the artist.

A silhouette in red ink overlays a landscape in warm colors. Imagery is printed on cream colored hand made paper with irregular edges that is mounted on white paper.

Emily Arthur, Silhouette at Eagle’s Nest, 2007. Intaglio and lithography on handmade paper. Gift of the artist.

A three dimensional star form like an ornament sits upon light gray lines evoking a map with intermittent red dots in varied sizes. Behind, a gray green background is interrupted by splotches of dark gray and two clouds in black that enter the image at the left corners.

Tanja Softic, Melencolia, 2020. Etching, photopolymer, Chiyogami, and Kozo. Gift of the artist.

A map of North America from 1803 with the route of the Lewis & Clark expedition stitched in red thread through the fabric. The portion of the route that Sacajawea led is in bolder stitches. Colonial place names and Lewis & Clark have been stitched over as well, leaving an emblem that says "Peace and Friendship". A small image of Sacajawea is stitched into an inset claiming the bicentennial of the expedition as her own.

Gina Cestaro, Sacajawea, 2006. Digital print hand-stitching, fabric, and cotton thread. Gift of the artist.

A overhead perspective of protestors, many with hands up, being met with armed riot police.

Art Werger, We are All One, 2019. Intaglio. Gift of the artist.

A badger and moth are accompanied by a line drawing of human feet in an etching in black ink that sits upon a beige woodcut background filled with text like a notebook or field guide in white.

Lynne Allen, Threatened, 2009. Etching and woodcut. Gift of the artist.

A diptych showing a fern sprouting from a base that evokes shells, tubers, and grubs.

M.J. Park, Lifeforce: Womb, 2002. Relief print. Gift of the artist.