PHILAGRAFIKA 2010: The Graphic Unconscious―Works by Oscar Muñoz and Tabaimo

The printed image lies at the heart of the work of many international contemporary artists, but just as printed materials have become so ubiquitous in our visual culture that they are barely noticed, so too have print processes become an integral part of art-making without always being acknowledged. Concepts of imprinting, multiplicity, and reproduction, as well as printed images and print techniques are frequently used by artists who do not think of themselves as printmakers. As artistic vocabularies have expanded and mixing media has become commonplace, artists have increasingly pushed the boundaries of printmaking to achieve specific aesthetic and expressive goals. The vital role of the printed image in contemporary art is the focus of the international festival, PHILAGRAFIKA 2010, to be held throughout the city of Philadelphia January 29 through April 11, 2010. The core exhibition of the festival, PHILAGRAFIKA 2010: The Graphic Unconscious, will be shown across five venues, including the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The Museum will display installations by two artists, the Japanese artist Tabaimo (b. 1975) and the Colombian artist Óscar Muñoz (b. 1951), that explore the translation of printmaking into other mediums and expand the conceptual boundaries of printmaking. Examining the relationship between image and memory the work of Oscar Muñoz defies characterization by medium, blurring the boundaries between photography, printmaking, drawing, installation, video and sculpture. Muñoz uses innovative processes, such as screenprinted charcoal portraits on water, to create images that address the ephemeral nature of human existence, memory, and history. Muñoz will present two projects in the Berman Gallery at the Museum: his screenprinted charcoal self-portraits on water, Narcisos en proceso (Narcissi in process), 1994-ongoing, and a set of video projected portraits of people who are deceased or who have disappeared, Biografías (Biographies), 2002.

The subjects of Tabaimo's extraordinary video installations include public restrooms, commuter trains, and bathhouses—places where anonymity and intimacy collide. Through such projects she explores the undercurrents that can disrupt the orderly surface of contemporary Japanese society; seemingly mundane tasks and events often take absurd, comical, and occasionally grotesque twists in her work. Drawing on the aesthetics of traditional Japanese woodcuts as well as the frequently violent narratives of Japanese comics (manga) and animation (anime), Tabaimo's video projections (often life-size or larger) are installed in well-defined spaces or stage-like settings in which they directly confront, envelop, or otherwise encompass the viewer. The U.S. debut of her video installation dolefullhouse, 2007, in which she continues her examination of the complexities of everyday life, will be presented in the Museum's Stieglitz gallery. The institutions participating in The Graphic Unconscious, are: Moore College of Art & Design; Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts (PAFA); Philadelphia Museum of Art, The Print Center; and Temple Gallery, Tyler School of Art, Temple University. A total of thirty-five artists from eighteen countries will be represented in the exhibition. PHILAGRAFIKA 2010 is the inaugural presentation of a festival celebrating the print in contemporary art that is based in Philadelphia with installations and exhibitions at a broad range of over eighty cultural institutions and sites throughout the city. See www.philagrafika2010.org for more information.

Organizers

These exhibitions, part of the multi-site exhibition PHILAGRAFIKA 2010: The Graphic Unconscious, were organized by the Philadelphia Museum of Art in collaboration with Philagrafika, a nonprofit arts organization in Philadelphia that provides leadership for large-scale, collaborative initiatives with broad public exposure.