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You are here: Home / Iskra Shows, Upcoming and Past / Iskra in Prints Today at SAM Gallery

Iskra in Prints Today at SAM Gallery

May 30, 2016 by Iskra Leave a Comment

View Corridor, archival pigment print by Iskra Johnson
View Corridor, limited edition archival pigment print, 20 x 49 inches, © Iskra Johnson

 

PRINTS TODAY | CONTEMPORARY PRINTMAKERS

Wed June 8- Thu July 7

Reception Thursday, June 9th, 6-7:30 PM

SAM Gallery at Seattle Art Museum, 1300 First Avenue, Seattle WA 98101

 

It’s about time printmaking got some love in this town, and I am happy to say it’s big love! On June 8th Seattle Art Museum opens its much anticipated show “Graphic Masters: Dürer, Rembrandt, Hogarth, Goya, Picasso, R. Crumb. In conjunction,  SAM Gallery launches “Prints Today,” featuring six contemporary Seattle printmakers including Troy Gua, Rachel Illingworth, Curt Labitzke, Stephen Rock, Kate Sweeney and myself.

The prints I have made for this exhibit explore new combinations of surface, photography and collage and include elements of my recent paintings. The imagery reflects my experience as a walker in the city, exploring the edge zones of industry and gentrification, the anonymous poetry of the street and the quiet places where nature sustains contemplative refuge in the midst.

I hope to see you at the opening!

 

REpose, Archival pigment print, © Iskra Johnson
Repose, limited edition archival pigment print © Iskra Johnson

 


 

In other news, I am part of a lovely guest exhibit at Columbia City Gallery curated by Sue Danielson and Fiona McGuigan. “Confluence: The Duwamish Project,” can be seen through June 26th. 4864 Rainier Ave S | Seattle WA 98118 | 206.760.9843 Hours: Weds-Sun 11am to 7pm.

Kirkland Art Center’s Annual Artist’s Exhibition, in which I have a print from the Floating World series,  continues through June 11, details here.

Stay tuned for a new collection of work coming up in September, with a return to botanical themes.

 

Filed Under: Iskra Shows, Upcoming and Past, Prints Tagged With: art openings seattle, Contemporary Prints, Iskra shows, prints Today, SAM Gallery, seattle art events, Seattle artists

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I have been obsessed for well over a decade by the I have been obsessed for well over a decade by the line between the photographic and the drawn. This is simply a media test, or an “under drawing“ for something else, but it gave me pause. It suggests so many different qualities of mood: Foreboding, calm, dichotomy, a family photo poorly developed, the cloudy skies of the Pacific Northwest, or the fugue state one falls into after turning the pages of our days as a failing empire. “Our“ refers to those of us who live in the USA although now it should be called the DU USA, as in disunited United States. That disunity is a powerful disruptive pain that I feel daily. Also, as we phase out medicine, research, medical care, and with that presumably self-care, this was created, for those who are curious, with a cotton ball by #JohnsonAndJohnson (my father’s Swedish ancestors) on a Talens sketchbook. As I said, I’m testing. How much of the world can I take in before I shut the door and become an art nun and don’t look up until the last minute?
Sunday concentration drawing, testing a new notebo Sunday concentration drawing, testing a new notebook( and my attention span. . .)
Today’s mood, from the morning walk. Today’s mood, from the morning walk.
A metaphysical idea waiting to become a drawing. A A metaphysical idea waiting to become a drawing. All day I have been studying graphite, the most evanescent of mediums. Fragility. Once you break the egg, scatter the nest, leave the children without family on an abandoned beach, what then? 

I have spent the day drawing. In the background, which becomes foreground with one click, is the news of the rounding up of another thousand or so human beings by bounty hunters given a quota, thrown into concrete cages and disappeared because someone decided that America is no longer the home of the #huddledmasses.

The plaque on the Statue of Liberty says:

“Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

Noem and Holman have not, apparently, run their hands over these words.

How do you continue making art at a time like this? You chase the metaphor. There is always a constant truth beneath the chaos.
Media studies. Addition and subtraction. Media studies. Addition and subtraction.
Somehow, between checking the news and the usual d Somehow, between checking the news and the usual distractions I managed to complete a drawing. Going back to the beginning: drawings in dust. 9.5 x 12” Charcoal powder, compressed charcoal, charcoal pencil on Moleskine. I feel peaceful for the first time in weeks.

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