Language Forged Out of Place
Curated by Saya Woolfalk
Reception: Thursday, April 10, from 6 – 8pm
Exhibition Dates: March 19 – May 11, 2014
Hours: Weekdays from 10am – 6pm, and weekends from 12 - 6pm
Free and open to the public
Lower East Side Printshop is pleased to present Language Forged Out of Place guest curated by artist Saya Woolfalk. The exhibition will be on view at the Printshop from March 19 – May 11, 2014 with a public reception on Thursday, April 10, from 6-8pm.
The work submitted was laid out on the table and I looked closely at each piece seeking points of connection. Questions: What are these people thinking about? Who did they come in contact with? What does it mean to make work in a printshop? I made my selections by answering these questions using what I saw on that table: a group of artists grappling with printmaking as a medium and context, while accidentally or intentionally creating a common jive.
Each artist has created a particular language that collectively can be seen as a metaphor for how we remember and communicate through the printed form. Felix Plaza collects and displays a colorful grid of pop and historical imagery. Daniel Vasquez and Theresa Bloise make prints that evoke pictographic languages that might be used to write a new history of the world. Gianluca Rossitto, allows us to see traces of the image as it quickly fades into memory, while Golnar Adili's image insists upon its existence through obsessive stitching onto the printed surface.
About the Artists
GOLNAR ADILI (b. 1976, Falls Church, VA; lives and worksin New York, NY) received her BFA from University of Virginia and MA from University of Michigan College of Architecture and Urban Planning. Select exhibitions include Craft and Folk Art Museum, Los Angeles, CA; Chashama, New York, NY; and International Print Center New York, NY. She is the recipient of grants from the Pollock-Krasner Foundation, La Napoul Art Foundation, The Rockefeller Foundation, and New York Foundation for the Arts.
THERESA BLOISE (b.1978, Boston, MA;lives and worksin New York, NY) received her BFA from Rhode Island School of Design. Select exhibitions include Grin, Providence, RI; Governor’s Island, New York, NY; Smack Mellon, Brooklyn, NY; and Kentler International Drawing Space, Brooklyn, NY. She has been awarded fellowships from New York Foundation for the Arts, MacDowell Colony, and Artist in the Marketplace, Bronx Museum of the Arts.
FELIX PLAZA (b. 1946, Santurce, Puerto Rico; lives and works in New York, NY) received a Fine Art Certificate from New York Phoenix School of Design. Select solo and group exhibitions include Exit Art, New York, NY; 2B Gallery, Budapest, Hungary; Dieu Donne, New York, NY; Brooklyn Public Library, NY; and Donnell Library, NY. He is a former participant of Printline Exchange Residency, Belgrade, Yugoslavia and has work included in many private collections.
GIANLUCA ROSSITTO (b. 1986, Catania, Italy;lives and worksin New York, NY) received his BA from Academy of Fine Arts Venice, and MFA from Academy of Fine Arts Venice and Machester School of Art. Select exhibitions include Fondazione Pini Corso, Milan, Italy; Graphic National Institute, Rome, Italy; and Oktogon der Hfbk, Dresden, Germany. His work is included in the collection of the Museum of Graphic Arts De Portesio, Brescia, Italy.
DANIEL VASQUEZ (b. 1983, El Salvador;lives and worksin New York, NY) received his BA from Rowan University. Select exhibitions include Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Coalition, NJ and Studio 1950, New York, NY.
About the Curator
Saya Woolfalk (Japan, 1979) is a New York based artist who uses science fiction and fantasy to re-imagine the world in multiple dimensions. She has exhibited at PS1/MoMA; Deitch Projects; Contemporary Art Museum, Houston; Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati; the Brooklyn Museum; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; the Studio Museum in Harlem; the Frist Center for the Visual Arts; The Yerba Buena Center; The Newark Museum; Third Streaming; MCA San Diego; MoCA Taipei; and Performa 09; and has been written about in the New Yorker, Sculpture Magazine, Artforum.com, ARTNews, The New York Times, Huffington Post and on Art21’s blog. Her first solo museum show The Empathics was on view at the Montclair Art Museum in the Fall of 2012. She is currently an artist in residence at Smack Mellon, working on solo shows for the Chrysler Museum of Art (fall 2014) and Smack Mellon (fall 2014). She will also stage a performance this summer at the Asian Art Museum, CA while she is an artist in residence at the Headlands Center for Contemporary Art.
Lower East Side Printshop's programs have been supported in part by public funds from the National Endowment for the Arts, New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature, and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council. Private supporters have included: Lily Auchincloss Foundation, Milton and Sally Avery Arts Foundation, Bloomberg Philanthropies, Ford Foundation - Good Neighbor Committee, ICAP / John Nixon, Jerome Foundation, Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation, New York Community Trust, PECO Foundation, and the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.
This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.
This program is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.
We thank our volunteers, friends, members, and patrons for their dedication, support, and generosity.
