The Artists Collective | Spartanburg will present an exhibition by the Greenville Contemporary Print Collective – “Inked, Brushed, Rolled and Penciled: Collective Perspective: Seeing Outside the Box, Prints and Exploratory Artwork in Other Mediums” – July 11 through Aug. 27 in the Solomon Gallery. The show will feature works by 16 Print Collective artists and three invited members of the Artist Collective.
An artists’ reception will be held Thursday, July 20, as part of ArtWalk Spartanburg.
Participating members from the Contemporary Print Collective will be Barbara Ervin, Susan Staggs, Marty Epp-Carter, Katya Cohen, Steven Chapp, Shaun McCallum, Jared Stanley, Joel Wilkinson, Roberta Restaino, Catherine Labbe, Gerry Wubben, Nancy Jaramillo, Luis Jaramillo, Mandy Ferguson, Meredith Bogardus Skinner and Orlando Corona. Three Artist Collective | Spartanburg artists participating by special invitation will be Jim Creal, Hague Williams and Addam Duncan. An exhibition of prints and artwork in a variety of media by each participant.
The artists from the Contemporary Print Collective will show member prints in tandem with artwork created in other media, according to Nancy Jaramillo and Catherine Labbe, organizers of the exhibition.
The exhibition has no theme imposed on the artist, showing artwork selected by the artists that is of significance to them, they add.
Barbara Ervin, co-chair of the Contemporary Print Collective, says, “Although for printmakers, printmaking is a definite passion, sometimes that passion spills over into creating with another medium, such as oil or acrylic paint or pencil. Creative minds use what is best for their expression. This show will be a collection of just that. There will be printmaking pieces as a starting point from all of the artists, but there also will be examples of other mediums, or lesser-known printing methods that show how diverse their creative work is.
“The viewer will be transported to a whole different place and frame of mind. Because of our diversity in styles and subject matter, there will be something for anyone’s ‘getaway’ to the Solomon Gallery at Artist Collective Spartanburg,” Ervin adds.
The idea for the exhibition originated when Steven Chapp, one of the founders of the Contemporary Print Collective, was offered the opportunity for a one-person show at ACS. “However, the Contemporary Print Collective of Greenville is near and dear to his heart, so he suggested that he would prefer a group exhibition of the CPC member artists,” Jaramillo says. “Steven has always been impressed with the printmaking and letter press facilities in the ACS Printery. He thought it would be a great opportunity to spotlight the art of printmaking and the marvelous collection of antique presses and facilities in the printery.” Chapp also suggested including works in other media that printmakers use as inspiration for their artwork.
Co-chair and participating artist Susan Staggs says the Contemporary Print Collective members “share a love for printmaking and express their ideas through using traditional, non-traditional, experimental and expanded mediums. The crossover between print, paint and photography can become blurred within the artmaking process depending on the artist’s focus.”
Staggs adds, “The professionalism, in the artwork which is offered to the public in conjunction with the exposure through the media, the ArtWalk and the fabulous downtown venue provides a rich experience for the viewer and for the incredible artists working throughout the state. The exhibit space also offers such a large, gorgeous, versatile space in which to view the art.