Starting tomorrow, Philadelphia will turn into a venerable mecca for all things print, thanks to the inaugural triennial of Philagrafika. Philagrafika is a citywide festival that will exhibit and bolster the profile of contemporary printmaking practices of over 300 artists from across the globe in 88 venues right here in Philadelphia.
The festival runs through April 11 and at its crux is The Graphic Unconscious, the main exhibition hosted by Moore College of Art & Design, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia Museum of Art, The Print Center, and Temple Gallery at Tyler School of Art.
In addition to The Graphic Unconscious, Philagrafika also encompasses Independent Projects, involving 78 other cultural hubs in the city, and Out of Print, a historical take on printmaking at five separate Philadelphia institutions.
Philagrafika 2010 is the culmination of years of work between Artistic Director, José Roca and a team of curators. While the festival aims to highlight conceptual approaches to print as a whole, the deluge of work and about five years of planning have been divided between the curators at each venue to reflect their own mission and ideals. Chief Curator and Director at Moore, Lorie Mertes, who has been playing a major role in the citywide event for the past three years, said that Moore’s galleries reflect the school’s emphasis on textile and graphic design, ornamentation and patterning. A theme throughout is “the idea of the repeat found in fine art,” said Mertes.
With The Graphic Unconscious taking place across five venues, the fare is varied and complex. The artists from Space 1026 have a colorful yurt filled with their usual and expected ephemera at The Print Center, alongside quirky comics from the Johannesburg Bitterkomix duo.
Columbian, Óscar Muñoz’s portraits at the Philadelphia Museum of Art entail a process that is truly fleeting and worth seeing up close.
Kiki Smith, a heavy hitter in the art world, has a set of large-scale lithographs up at PAFA.
At the Temple Gallery, Francesc Ruiz’s Newsstand, replicates a Philadelphia newsstand pandering “imaginary periodicals” that revolve around Philly-specific issues.
Regina Silveria’s instillation at Moore, Mundus Admirabilis and Other Plagues expresses total infestation by using a porcelain dinner set with an embroidered tablecloth at the center of a room with walls ominously covered in massive black insects, suggesting the deterioration of life within the common act of eating.
The festival looks to unite a worldwide and local community with such wide-ranging participation between artists and spaces–one can only hope that the public will turn out to make Philagrafika 2010 a success.
Philadelphia is a historic city for printmaking, seeing as it was the place where our country’s constitution was printed, along with the first paper money, so it is only fitting that Philadelphia plays host to “one of the largest arts events in the US.” The iconic image of Benjamin Franklin standing at his printing press might serve as the old symbolic catalyst for printmaking in this country, but Philagrafika focuses new energy on the medium that the curators hope will bring these contemporary practices to the forefront of the art world’s consciousness.
Philagrafika opens Friday, January 29 at 10am at the five participating venues for The Graphic Unconscious. For more information on times and ticket prices, visit the Philagrafika website. For a complete list of events and openings, visit their calendar.
