News Release

Hicks Art Center Gallery Makes an ‘Imprint/Impact’ on Philagrafika

Printmaking exhibition through March 9 is an independent project of Philadelphia’s international festival

Bucks County Community College’s Hicks Art Center Gallery makes its own imprint on an international arts festival with “Imprint/Impact” through March 9.

The exhibition, curated by Professor Caren Friedman, is an independent project of Philagrafika 2010, Philadelphia’s international festival celebrating print contemporary art. The show consists of creations by Gail Deery, Tony Rosati, John Strawn, Shelley Thorstensen, and Sergei Tsvetkov.

“These artists have been selected for the quality of their work, their dedication to the printmaking medium, and their connection to both the contemporary art world and the visual arts community of Bucks County,” said Friedman, who teaches printmaking, book arts, and 2-D design at Bucks. “Collectively, they share a commitment to the discipline of printmaking while demonstrating the diversity of approaches intrinsic to this versatile medium.”

Shelley Thorstensen, In Other Words, lithography, etching, and relief.

For example, Thorstensen’s multilayered prints seamlessly blend together the traditional printmaking methods of intaglio, relief, lithography and silkscreen.  Her prints investigate the creative tension between two- and three-dimensional space, external observations and internal reflections, and the duality of body and mind, according to Friedman. 

Strawn’s Protests and Parades series was inspired by such diverse influences as Memorial Day parades, antiwar protests, Chinese folktales, and George Orwell’s Animal Farm.  He creates graphic silhouettes that fuse human figures, animals, and machinery in these collographs, which use found materials arranged in collage form.

Rosati renders subtle gradations of light and shadow in his “eggstraordinary” selection of egg-related mezzotints.  Incorporating a variety of pun-infused titles, these intimate pieces explore the velvety richness of the medium and reflect his extensive knowledge and mastery of intaglio printing.

In conjunction with “Imprint/Impact,” the Tyler Gardens Collaborative Mural will be created and displayed from February 10 through March 31 in the Gallagher Room of the Rollins Center on campus. Based on an image of the formal gardens behind the Tyler Hall mansion on campus, this 10-by-15-foot mural will be comprised of one-foot linoleum squares individually carved and printed by Bucks faculty, students, retired faculty and alumni.

The Hicks Art Center Gallery is located on the campus at 275 Swamp Rd., Newtown. Parking and admission to all events are free, part of Bucks County Community College’s ongoing contribution to the cultural richness of the area. For more information, visit www.bucks.edu/gallery or call 215-968-8425.

“Imprint/Impact” and the Tyler Gardens Collaborative Mural are independent projects of Philagrafika 2010, an international festival involving more than 75 independently curated projects throughout the region. 

“Imprint/Impact” is supported in part by the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, a state agency, though its regional arts funding partnership, Pennsylvania Partners in the Arts (PPA).  State government funding for the arts depends upon an annual appropriation by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and support from the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency.  PPA is administered in this region by the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance.