Kate McQuillen: Crush, Gush
@ Spudnik Press Cooperative
1821 W Hubbard St Suite 302 Chicago, IL 60622
Opening Saturday, March 28th, from 6PM - 9PM
On view through Friday, June 12th
Spudnik Press Cooperative presents all new work by Chicago-based artist Kate McQuillen. The exhibition, titled “Crush, Gush” will feature artwork produced primarily during her recent Spudnik Press Residency (Fall 2014) as well as a limited edition artist book.
The printing press is a tool that creates its product through extreme pressure. The works in this show cite materials that are also results of extreme pressure: namely, oil and diamonds. Themes of crushing and erupting are depicted as natural, yet violent, processes that are tied to these valuable elements within the earth.
Bouncing light, angled surfaces, erupting forms and petroleum products are presented throughout the show in prints and printmaking materials. Tympan grease, a facilitating material for press operation, becomes the markmaking material in images of erupting crude oil spindletops; in other pieces, the crushing action of the printing press reworks images into fractured, compressed surfaces. McQuillen considers the value we place in these materials that come from deep within the earth, the human fascination with them, and the extreme conditions under which they are produced.
On view in the printshop, adjacent to the annex gallery, is Sequestered Spaces: New Work by Adrienne Miller. Within the tradition of landscape art, the term picturesque refers to a view where the human presence is apparent. Adrienne Miller uses this history to create print works that communicate an exploration of human psyche through constructed space. Open land represents possibilities while the more confined environments allow for Adrienne to communicate tension or anxieties that we encounter on a day to day basis – literally at times feeling as though the walls are moving in on us. Adrienne uses holes as absences or earth being dug up, displaced, or tunneled through to reference the retrieval and archival of memory.
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Tags: installation, printmaking
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