Woodmere Art Museum

Woodmere Art Museum celebrates the importance and richness of the art of the Philadelphia region. Woodmere is pleased to present two Independent Projects in conjunction with Philagrafika 2010:

Symbiosis: A Selection of 20th Century Prints by Philadelphia Artists
Curated by Tony Rosati

Woodmere Art Museum’s collection of prints represents a variety of printmaking methods by an array of artists. Symbiosis reveals a diversity of artists and their pluralistic approaches to making prints. The resulting symbiotic relationships among the artists, museums, art schools and colleges produced a fertile, cultured context for Philadelphia printmaking. This exhibition strives to show the historical evolutions and transformations of such enduring, lasting relationships and to celebrate the artists and their prints.

Image: Tony Rosati, White Water. Monoprint, 6x8 in. Woodmere Art Museum, Philadelphia. Gift of the artist.

Counterpoint: The Leap from Vision to Print
Shelley Thorstensen

Our eyes are tactile organs. We trace form, the feel of what we see; we see and remember. Thorstensen’s work takes an unmediated leap from vision to print. Traditional printmaking—intaglio, lithography and silkscreen—marry seamlessly in layer upon layer attesting to external and internal reflections, to the duality of body and mind.  Ultimately, Thorstensen uses printmaking technology as a tool, not unlike a brush on canvas, to create work that records the splendor around us as well as the uncertainty of our existence.

Image: Shelley Thorstensen, A Mother's Heart, 2002. Etching, relief, and screen print, 7 3/4 x 9 3/4 in. Woodmere Art Museum, Philadelphia. Purchase, Charles Knox Smith Fund, 2003.