Andrew Jeffrey Wright performs his notorious, x-rated stand-up comedy act at the Print Center tonight. 7:30 p.m., only five bucks! Now that’s an unlikely pairing–prints and comedy!
Wright is performing in conjunction with his exhibit at the very same venerable institution more known for making nice than making dirty.
Lest you think this is a criticism of either institution–the AJW or the PC, that is not the case. Wright’s comedy includes incisive social observations amid the potty humor, and I do declare I find myself aflutter with the notion that the Print Center has finally connected with its inner little bad boy.
While you’re there, you can catch Wright’s exhibit there–Movement I, Movement II and a Sculpture. Some highlights, in an installation that includes prints old and new and what he describes as 8th grade graffiti, are some really great photographs of peeps and things that push abjectness to the nth degree. The whole thing turns the fine artiness of the venue on its ear, and it’s without a doubt the best use of that downstairs space ever, competing with its slight dowdiness for the poor poor pitiful me award.
The multi-talented UArts alum is the maestro of abject, with none of the macho that dominates Paul McCarthy’s abject. I guess I think that raises AJW’s abjection even higher.
And whether you’re rich or poor, you might like to know that Wright sells his prints by the yard. No kidding. Their price is based on their size. Period. Top dollar for the screenprints is $40. Only the large digital photo prints cost the big bucks–500 of them!
And on another note, the upstairs show is the annual printmaking competition, which looks more in tune with Wright than you might have imagines. Some highlights include Karisa Senavitis and Kevin O’Neill, aka Will Work for Good, for their group of low-production-value zines and posters, Clear Communications, which won a Silicon Gallery award!
The winner of the solo show is Andrew Koslowski. One of his prints in the show, The Ambassador (Is There Anyone Else Out There?), mixes a survivalist theme with Japanese print history, seascapes and comics. His poster shilling gen-you-ine Titanic merch “collected at the time of the wreck” may also have a nautical theme, but it too turns contemporary cliches into cosmic irony.
John O’Donnell’s Shark Comes Home Drunk #2 seems like a good print to have a conversation with Andrew Jeffrey Wright, downstairs. O’Donnell recently showed at FLUXspace–check out Kelani’s write-up and the crazy pix!
Ian Ruffino’s Misspelled Word, which talks about stitches, warps, woofs, encoded language and all sorts of things in a minimalist grid that’s Agnes Martin on steroids stood up against my biases against Minimalism.
Graham McDougal’s untitled pair of screenprints on newsprint have a wonderful push and pull between what’s precious and what’s not, what’s scrutible (is this a word?) and what’s inscrutible–another outlier choice from me.
There’s lots more here to admire, thanks to jurors Shelly Bancroft and Peter Nesbett, the owners and publishers of Art on Paper as well as founders and directors of Triple Candie gallery in Harlem. They have brought fresh eyes, making room for printmaking that undergone change in both method and content. The 33 prints were selected from 1,900 images, and a number of the artists are from Philadelphia and environs, including Alice Austin, Gerard Di Falco, J. Gregory Pizzoli, John Williams, Vivian Wolovitz and others. All the artist info with images are on PDFs on the Print Center’s website–a little unwieldy, but it’s there!!!
Both exhibits will be up until August 1.
