Exhibition: Hot Plate
I went to the private view of ‘Hot Plate – an exhibition of international printmaking that breaks free from the frame‘ at the Phoenix gallery in Brighton on Friday night. Our MA Digital Media Arts course leader Sue Gollifer is the artistic curator of the project. Sue has invited curators from 9 countries to select printed works from some of the most innovative contemporary printmakers in their field.
As we enjoyed a glass of wine in a rather hot gallery, we were treated to a visual feast of installations and unframed works, clustered on the gallery walls. Pieces exhibited included those made by the more ‘traditional’ print making techniques such as etching, lithography and screen printing, to more contemporary techniques. I was particularly interested in the digital art and the use of digital imaging techniques, printed onto cloth, synthetic paper, metal and plaster board.
Plume by Mark Bovey
My particular favourite was a digital piece, Mark Bovey’s ‘Plume’ from The Ledge Series, 2010. This is a suspended piece: an inkjet print on plexiglass and a digital projection. It illuminated the room and I found it really quite beautiful as the clouds slowly rose and quietly subsided away.
Turmoil from Within, Christophe Meul
Other eye catching favourites of mine were the giclee prints by Christophe Meul, called ‘Turmoil from Within’ from the ‘The Cycle of the Human Condition’, 2009. I found them immediately engaging and could have immersed myself in their hidden depths for hours.
There were of course the quirky and the humorous prints, alongside the geometric and abstract pieces from a broad cultural and geographical group of printmakers. I found the work worked together eclectically but successfully. I liked the fact that the pieces weren’t framed and in some cases stuck to the wall with pins. There was a ‘rawness’ to the exhibition and an informality which allowed me to simply enjoy the collection.
The Phoenix gallery is an excellent exhibition space. Sun streaming through the glass windows, casting long shadows on the white walls and works of art, on a hot summers evening, as an image maker I was inspired. I sometimes feel that printmaking is viewed as the poor relation to painting. Yet the techniques and materials presented in Hot Plate, show us that printmaking deserves more attention. That perhaps our idea of ‘fine art’ should extend from framed paintings to pieces made by a variety of techniques that offer their own personality to a piece. And yes, that includes digital art.
This exhibition deserves attention.
Hot Plate – 3rd July to 15th August 2010
The Phoenix Gallery, 10 – 14 Waterloo Place, Brighton, BN2 9NB
