BRONX, NY.- Morphology of the Print examines the form and structure of contemporary printmaking. The exhibition includes the work of 28 artists, both established and emerging, who push the boundaries of the medium or explore its strategies and techniques in new ways. Artists’ books, sculptures, assemblages, and installations are exhibited alongside two-dimensional works and blend a wide variety of printing methods, such as monoprint, linocut, silkscreen, etching, and lithography.

Beryl Corot, establishes a dialogue between traditional and contemporary forms of embroidery. In the abstract compositions Weaver's Notation
Variation 1 (2012) and Weaver's Notation
Variation 2 (2012) the printing patterns resemble both pixels and ancient stitching techniques, and are combined with digitized embroidery. Fireworks and colored smoke, an indirect printing process in itself, have long been basic methodologies in Rosemarie Fiore’s work. Her print, Smoke Painting Monotype #5 (2012,) was created using a smoke painting machine developed by the artist, and inked, hand-cut stencils that were transferred as a monotype to the paper in the press. Rob Swainston’s large-scale print installation A New System Every Monday (2013,) calls attention to the dramatic spaces of the gallery’s Marcel Breuer building. His grid-based work richly layers printmaking techniques, 18 feet high then extending out from the wall for another 5 feet. The title alludes to Breuer’s response to the charge of repeating himself. (“I can’t design a whole new system every Monday morning.”)

In Sarah Sze’s black and white silkscreen and laser engraving, Eyechart (2012,) precisely cut letters pop out of the paper to stand vertically. The work conveys the artist’s concerns with perception and representation of space. Jill Parisi’s installation, Radiolaria (2005 - present), of hand-colored etchings draws inspiration from botanical and zoological species. Her translucent paper shells are also pyrographed, a method of burning paper which allows her to reach a variety of patterns.

The works in this exhibition break the mold of traditional printmaking and place this media in the center of artistic experimentation. They update the discussion on this ancient technique to the challenges formulated by society and technology today.

Morphology of the Print runs through January 8, 2014.

Artists: Ghada Amer and Reza Farkhondeh, Yael Brotman, Melissa Brown, Lesley Dill, Rosemarie Fiore, Scherezade Garcia, Jane Hammond, Valerie Hammond, Beryl Korot, Joyce Kozloff, Nicola Lopez, Marie Lorenz, Whitfield Lovell, Tammy Nguyen, Jill Parisi, Elaine Reichek, Alexander Ross, Jens Schubert, Jean Shin, James Siena, Gary Simmons, Jeremy Coleman Smith, Josh Smith, Kiki Smith, Rob Swainston, Sarah Sze, Randy Wray, and Andrea Zittel.

Curators: Susan Hoeltzel and Yuneikys Villalonga