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Makeready 1: Isaac Tin Wei Lin: One of Us
September 7 – November 20, 2010
Thursday, September 16: Reception 5:30-7:30pm

PHILADELPHIA: The Print Center announces One of Us, a newly commissioned installation by Philadelphia artist Isaac Tin Wei Lin. This inaugurates The Print Center’s Makeready series which will exhibit work commissioned from artists exploring the significance of the printed image in contemporary art. Lin’s installation will fill an entire gallery with two- and three-dimensional printed and painted elements inspired by current events, Islamic calligraphy, street art and cartoons.

One of Us consists of several large-scale sculptural elements, covered in screenprints of repeating patterns. These patterns continue over the walls and floors of the space, creating an optically dazzling installation. The space will be transformed into a veritable cartoon flash mob, with enormous cats shown rushing through the space. This work will be the artist’s most ambitious installation to date and builds on several recent projects, including a room constructed out of cardboard and covered in prints created for the Fleisher/Ollman Gallery, Philadelphia. “Isaac’s paintings are intensely intricate, bordering on psychedelic, in their woven layers of color and varied densities of line. In contrast to the sixties retro work that has become so trendy elsewhere, Isaac’s is psychedelic, not by style, but by effect,” said Lawrence Rinder, Director of the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive.

Isaac Tin Wei Lin was born in 1976 in Wilmington, DE. After receiving a BFA in Painting from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1998, he returned to Philadelphia and joined Space 1026, a collective of artists based in Chinatown. In 2005 he completed an MFA in Drawing/Painting from California College of the Arts, San Francisco. Also in 2005, he completed a residency at the prestigious Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. He is represented by Fleisher/Ollman Gallery, Philadelphia, where he had a solo exhibition in January 2010. His work has also been recently shown at Cinders Gallery, Brooklyn; Giant Robot, New York and the Painted Bride Art Center, Philadelphia.

Makeready 1: Isaac Tin Wei Lin: One of Us will be on view at The Print Center from September 7 – November 20, 2010. The reception for the artist is Thursday, September 16 from 5:30-7:30pm, with a gallery talk by the artist at 5:30pm. The Print Center’s Makeready series is made possible by a grant from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.

Andrew Kozlowski: Dear Tree Hugger…
September 7 – November 20, 2010
Thursday, September 16: Reception 5:30-7:30pm

PHILADELPHIA: The Print Center announces Dear Tree Hugger…, an exhibition of new prints by Andrew Kozlowski, an artist based in Richmond, VA. He was awarded this solo exhibition from The Print Center’s 83rd Annual International Competition: Printmaking in 2009. The works in the exhibition explore Kozlowski’s interest in the pursuit of an authentic natural experience in a world degraded by environmental encroachments and disasters.

Kozlowski’s larger body of work is characterized by disparate approaches and appearances, and contains extended series on a wide variety of subjects. Often they explore highly specific events, ranging from natural disasters to failed technologies, with darkly humorous depictions of the detritus that is left behind. The artist finds both creative inspiration and frustration in pondering these events, and considers his work to be an attempt “to dissect health problems, environmental disasters, political crises and our continued inability to successfully navigate them.”

Kozlowski currently teaches printmaking at Virginia Commonwealth University, The University of Richmond and the Corcoran College of Art & Design in Washington, D.C. As a freelance art critic he has written for Art Papers, Richmond’s Style Weekly and NY Arts Magazine. He received his MFA in Painting and Printmaking from Virginia Commonwealth University in 2007 and his BFA in printmaking from Tyler School of Art, Temple University in 2003. His work has been included in numerous shows in Knoxville, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Richmond and he recently completed a residency at the Frans Masereel Center in Belgium.

Andrew Kozlowski: Dear Tree Hugger… will be on view at The Print Center from September 7 – November 20, 2010. The reception for the artist is Thursday, September 16 from 5:30-7:30pm, with a gallery talk by the artist at 5:30pm.

Pulling from History: Letterpress
September 7 – November 20, 2010
Thursday, September 16: Reception 5:30-7:30pm

PHILADELPHIA: The Print Center announces Pulling from History: Letterpress, which presents letterpress works made by contemporary artists side-by-side with historic examples providing a context for the approaches utilized. For this exhibition, The Print Center’s Jensen Bryan Curator John Caperton was joined by Co-Curator Matt Neff, a Philadelphia printmaker who also runs the University of Pennsylvania’s Common Press.

For the exhibition, Caperton and Neff asked contemporary artists, curators and collectors to share examples of letterpress works that they found to be inspiring examples of the form; the exhibited works range from a beautifully crafted guide to type fonts to a poster advertising a demolition derby. The works in this exhibition have been lent from several public collections including the Free Library of Philadelphia and the University of Pennsylvania, along with numerous private collections. Artists in the exhibition include Ken Botnick, Johanna Drucker and Carl Pope.

Letterpress is a form of relief printing using cast individual letters and images, which are set together in a form. It was the most common technique for printing text from the time of its invention by Johannes Gutenberg in the mid-15th Century until the 19th Century. Since then, the use of letterpress has diminished in commercial use, but it has recently enjoyed a wide artistic revival, coinciding with the significant current interest in the use of handmade processes in printing. A growing number of organizations and schools are now teaching letterpress, including several in the Philadelphia area, and the medium has become popular with young artists, graphic designers, illustrators, bookmakers, as well as crafters selling their work on Etsy, a social commerce website focused on handmade and vintage items.

Pulling from History: Letterpress will be on view at The Print Center from September 7 – November 20, 2010. The reception is Thursday, September 16 from 5:30-7:30pm, with a gallery talk by John Caperton and Co-Curator Matt Neff at 5:30pm.

The Print Center Receives $100,000 Gift from
Julie Jensen Bryan and Robert Bryan

PHILADELPHIA: The Print Center is pleased to launch its 100th Anniversary Celebration with a leadership gift of $100,000 from dedicated supporters Julie Jensen Bryan and her husband, architect Robert Bryan. This gift will fund the Jensen Bryan Curatorial Chair, held by John Caperton, in recognition of the significant impact the curatorial position, first established with Julie’s support in 2000, has had on The Print Center’s ability to produce outstanding programs, and will enhance the organization’s capacity for greater endeavors. Executive Director, Elizabeth Spungen said, “With this generous funding we will bring a new level of excellence in programming to our audience, presenting the central role the printed image has in contemporary discourse and reflecting the increased sophistication and relevance The Print Center has set as its standard.”

Julie Jensen Bryan is active in many cultural and charitable undertakings, and has been closely involved with The Print Center since the early 1970’s, as its mission coincides with her abiding interests in both printmaking and photography. She is an accomplished photographer, well-known for her spare and elegant architectural images; her photos have been shown internationally, and she is noted for her iconic portraits of Maggie Kuhn, the founder of the Gray Panthers. Jensen Bryan began her career as a medical researcher at the University of Pennsylvania, where photography was used as an analytic tool, and developed her artistic skills at the Photography Place and Maine Photography Workshops with Arnold Newman and Mary Ellen Mark and at the Philadelphia Museum of Art with Martha Zelt. In 1976 she dedicated herself to photography and studied in New York with Lisette Model and worked at Aperture. In the 1980’s she joined The Print Center’s Board of Governors, as her first Board position, and has remained a dedicated member and active supporter of the organization ever since. In addition to The Print Center, Jensen Bryan has been a dedicated supporter of The Photo Review, and is on the Women’s Board at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, where she has been involved with their major event, USArtists: American Fine Art Show, since its inception in 1992. Both she and her husband Robert are Associates of the Philadelphia Museum of Art and are Friends of their Alfred Stieglitz Center, and Robert serves on the Associates Board. As the Publicity Chair for the Community Clothes Charity (CCC) Jensen Bryan volunteers a great deal of time to its annual designer clothing sale held in Strafford, PA which benefits a different nonprofit each year.

This extraordinary contribution will support the curatorial growth of The Print Center, as well as serving as a spectacular first gift in honor of our 100th Anniversary which will be celebrated in 2015.  

John Caperton, Curator at The Print Center since 2007, assumed the title of Jensen Bryan Curator in May 2010. Caperton received his AB in Art History at the University of Chicago and was most recently the Exhibitions Coordinator at Locks Gallery, Philadelphia, where he organized exhibitions with artists Virgil Marti, Polly Apfelbaum, Thomas Chimes, Eileen Neff, Stuart Netsky and Clare Rojas. He has also held positions at the Fairmount Park Art Association of Philadelphia and the Anderson Gallery at Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA, and served as guest curator at Vox Populi and the former Project Room in Philadelphia.

Jensen Bryan has said, ”The Print Center has always been near to my heart. It is a warm and welcoming art space in the center of town that has long supported artists and collectors. Having a dedicated Curator has truly made a difference in the quality of the exhibitions program. No longer a local membership driven organization, the quality and critical recognition of its shows have been elevated to international importance, and in turn brings the best in contemporary photography and printmaking to our community. I am thrilled to offer our support to further the excellence and curatorial vision The Print Center has achieved.”

The Print Center Receives $80,000 Award
from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts

PHILADELPHIA: The Print Center is pleased to announce the receipt of $80,000 for two years of program support from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. With this generous funding we will be bring a new level of excellence in programming to our audience, presenting the central role the printed image has in contemporary discourse and reflecting the increased sophistication and relevance The Print Center has set as its standard. Executive Director, Elizabeth Spungen said, “We see this award as a strong endorsement of our past work and a clear vote of confidence in what is to come.”

The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts was established in 1987. In accordance with Andy Warhol's will, its mission is the advancement of the visual arts. The Foundation's objective is to foster innovative artistic expression and the creative process by encouraging and supporting cultural organizations that in turn, directly or indirectly, support artists and their work. The Foundation values organizations like The Print Center who make contributions to artists and audiences and to society as a whole by supporting, exhibiting and interpreting a broad spectrum of contemporary artistic practice.

The Foundation is focused primarily on supporting work of a challenging and often experimental nature, while noting that the interpretation of those terms may vary from place to place and culture to culture. In this regard the Foundation encourages curatorial research leading to new scholarship in the field of contemporary art.

The Foundation is committed to the precept that the arts are essential to an open, enlightened democracy. It therefore seeks to advance an inclusive cultural dialogue by providing resources to organizations that support artists reflecting a diverse society and by affirming that freedom of artistic expression is fundamental to such a society and must be vigorously protected.

The Print Center supports printmaking and photography as vital contemporary arts and encourages the appreciation of the printed image in all its forms. The Print Center presents a variety of programs for the public including exhibitions; The Print Center Gallery Store, which offers  the largest and most diverse selection of contemporary prints in Philadelphia; the longest running annual international competition for prints and photographs in the country; and an extensive series of education programs and special events.