Cultural edifice Wayne State University has one of the most impressive gallery spaces in Detroit. The Elaine Jacobs Gallery is currently exhibiting STILL PULLING which is an elaborate look at the more traditional aspects of printmaking that are almost extinct in the digital age.
"The artists chosen for this exhibition create prints as a mainstream activity. They utilize traditional print processes and shared aesthetic of abstraction that references nature. Artists represented in Still Pulling include: Sarah Amos, Sean Caulfield, Charles Cohan, Gail Deery, Denes Galfi, Anna Hepler, Eunice Kim, Amanda Knowles, Karen Kunc, Kimiko Miyoshi, Tomomi Ono, Chris Papa, Ellen Price, Roselyn Richards, Barbara Robertson, Elizabeth Sadoff, Roxanne Sexauer, Tanja Softic, Seiko Tachibana, and Akiko Taniguchi."
Today most artists are struggling more than ever to keep the work coming. Digital prints have been seen as a cheap and effective means to get work out, retain an original and make a little bit of money. The classic time consuming and toxic methods of printmaking still hold a quality that these digital methods have not yet attained. We will see what happens ten years from now as technologies improve and digitization becomes even less expensive.
Still the process of physically manipulating a surface, planning, articulating and the inherent layering involved in this creative form is by itself an exercise that is profitable and difficult to put a price tag on.
