Marie Watt at Print Center New York

This tower of blankets embodies the memories of individuals, responding to an open call, who donated them to artist Marie Watt during the pandemic.  Now a highlight of Watt’s retrospective, ‘Storywork: The Prints of Marie Watt’ at Print Center New York, the stack is reminiscent of mid-century minimalism but favors warm materials and personal associations over cold, fabricated components.  Watt’s stacks are sometimes accompanied by metal I-beams that reference her fellow Seneca citizens’ work in New York’s steel industry, while her use of textiles refer to Native American practice of gifting blankets at important life events.  Watt’s other signature forms (ladders and looping dream catchers) and nods to cultural figures like Marvin Gaye and Jasper Johns broader her own story, celebrating cultural interconnectedness.

Marie Watt, Blanket Stories: Great Grandmother, Pandemic, Daybreak, reclaimed blankets and cedar, 2021.

 

 

Jacquelyn Strycker in ‘New Voices: On Transformation’ at Print Center New York

Jacquelyn Strycker uses the risograph mechanical copying/printing process to create abstractions that look like sewn textiles, a fruitful juxtaposition of the machine made and handmade that makes her work a standout at the opening of Print Center New York’s engaging new group show of work by emerging artists.  This piece’s profusion of pattern came from Strycker’s decision to embrace complexity.  Sometimes printed on handmade and Japanese papers or, in this piece titled ‘Dream House,’ made using cotton stuffed with Poly-fil, the resulting forms resemble a curious mix of quilt, garment and architecture.  (On view in Chelsea through Aug 25th).

Jacquelyn Strycker, Dream House, sewn risograph on cotton stuffed with Poly-fil, 2023.

Nicole Eisenman at Print Center New York

Known as a painter, Nicole Eisenman’s forays into sculpture over the past few years have earned her accolades in gallery shows and the 2019 Whitney Biennial; now, her decade-long experimentation with printmaking is the subject of an informative and visually gratifying show at the Print Center New York.  Emphasizing process and creativity, a series of eight prints made during stages of the creation of the 2012 etching ‘Watermark’ illustrate her progress.  Here in the final version, Eisenman brings us into the intimacy of her family home, complete with her mother, father and her two children who read books at center.  We see the scene through Eisenman’s eyes as she eats from a bowl and looks out over a room alive with unspoken thoughts.  (On view through May 13th).

Nicole Eisenman, Watermark, etching and aquatint, ed of 25, printed and published by Harlan & Weaver, New York, 2012.

Bethany Collins in ‘Visual Record: The Materiality of Sound in Print’

Bethany Collins’ artwork is about language, specifically its potential to communicate or to completely fail to do so.  In the Print Center’s engaging fall/winter group exhibition ‘Visual Record,’ Collins presents ‘America:  A Hymnal,’ a book featuring one hundred songs set to the tune of ‘My Country Tis of Thee.’  Since the 18th century, new lyrics have been written for this song in support of such divergent causes as temperance, suffrage, abolition, and the Confederacy.  In Collins’ book, printed lyrics run below notes that have been burnt away by laser cutting, demonstrating that the classic tune has itself become a battleground for various ideologies.  (On view through Jan 21st).

Bethany Collins, America: A Hymnal, book with 100 laser cut leaves, 6 x 9 x 1 in, 2017.
Bethany Collins, America: A Hymnal, book with 100 laser cut leaves, 6 x 9 x 1 in, 2017.

 

 

 

M.C. Escher at Bruce Silverstein Gallery

Just as a tiny shift in perspective can cause a straightforward transparent cube to morph into an impossible cube, M.C. Escher’s architecture in this 1958 print is believable on first glance, until matching up columns to arches proves otherwise.  The lithograph is one of 75 artworks on view in Bruce Silverstein Gallery’s exhibition of the Dutch printmaker’s work from the ‘30s to late career. Inspired by the impossible cube, a version of which is being held by a seated man on the lower terrace, Escher delights viewers by confounding us.  (On view in Chelsea through Nov 20th).

M.C. Escher, Belvedere, lithograph, printers proof, 18 ¼ x 11 5/8 inches, 1958.