It’s been a big week for the print and book arts. Two exciting group shows opened Friday, one of local printmakers and the other of Tufts-affiliated book artists.
In East Somerville, New Impressions Print Studio opened its first-ever exhibition, celebrating the tactile, expansive and enchanting world of printmaking. The studio held an open call for submissions for which there were only two requirements: that the prints be original and handmade, and that the artist drop them off directly at New Impressions. The result is a beautiful and wide-ranging celebration of local printmakers. Applications were juried by Brooke Stewart, who received her Master of Fine Arts from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts.
Abstract works shine in the show. An intaglio print by Andrew Palladino has a mess of intricate scribbles and frenetic line work centered around a square. With intaglio printing, the sunken area holds the ink; on the right of the image, an unwieldy blotch of pigment showcases the method’s capacity for softer and less detailed compositions. In Anne Russell’s gorgeous black-and-white piece “Microcosm,” she leverages the methods of monotype. Small, precise circles look like cell structure diagrams, and a mix of painterly stroke marks ground the line work in a soft black- and-white background. Maya Stern’s “Naturalization” lithograph and silkscreen print is another highlight: A set of eyes in soft focus are set in an ornate frame, staring at the viewer. Winding red patterns swirl in the background.
A newcomer to the Somerville printmaking scene, the New Impressions shop opened last spring. It’s exciting to see it spearhead not just printmaking education, but also exhibitions – a beast all its own.
At the Medford Arts Collaborative, Tufts SMFA professor Chantal Zakari has curated a lovely artists book exhibition with students and alumni. The works, arranged on tables for browsing (and for sale) with examples from inside them hung nearby, range in form and content, but a sense of intimacy is a throughline. Zoya Amrit’s “33 answers to fall in love” is a touching portrait of a person as they answer a series of increasingly personal interview questions, borrowed from a study designed to make strangers fall in love. Jamie Atchinson’s “he does my shot for me” showcases the experiences of folks in t4t (trans for trans) relationships, and the closeness that a shared transition can provide. Clara Davis’ “private accounts” explores the phenomenon of young people oversharing on social media; Davis abstracts the messages, cropping images and texts so much as to be illegible. Shaheed Abdullah, who earned his bachelor of arts from Tufts while incarcerated, takes us through the journey of spiritual transcendence and change he experienced, even amid incarceration. It’s thrilling to be able to slow down for these pieces. Every page is its own work of art, every book a wildly different journey.
The exhibition at New Impressions Print Studio, 52 Broadway, East Somerville, is on view until Nov. 15. “Design.Book.Art” at Arts Collaborative Medford, 162 Mystic Ave., on view until Nov. 7.
Share your own 150-word appreciation for a piece of visual art or art happening with photo to editor@cambridgeday.com with the subject line “Behold.”
Feature image: Zoya Amrit’s “33 answers to fall in love” from the “Design.Book.Art” show at Arts Collaborative Medford.
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