ARTICLE | PG This Week

TRADITIONAL VS. UNCONVENTIONAL

October 12, 2003

By Christine Skorepa

A cat in a suit; the devil dancing on the face of a reclining man. It’s abstract and art that speaks of bright colours burning its image to memory.

Many different pieces of artwork grace the walls of the Two Rivers Gallery. These combine to form a unique exhibition of traditional prints from the permanent collection called Another View, and a comparative exhibit called Digital Prints. The prints in Another View are created by 12 artists who, through a wide variety of print techniques, produce images just as arresting as the originals.

This show, in comparison to the exhibit in the adjacent gallery, presents and interesting contrast between the two. The Digital Prints exhibit is a prime example of what can be accomplished by using more modern processes to create art.

“We’re asking people to make their own comparisons and connections between the two exhibits,“ says, George Harris, curator of the Two Rivers Gallery. “It is varied, purposely so.“

Photoshop is an example of a software program people and artists use to generate art, says Harris. It’s a different way to explore imagery and this exhibit is an interesting project in which the artist input raw material and change it into new pieces by using a computer. It’s a layering process that results in a variety of different artwork.

There are four artist featured in the Digital Prints exhibit. One of the artists is Alex Turner

“Essentially, what he’s doing is taking digital images and stitching them together,” Harris says. “His prints show the big box culture in relation to the passage of time. He’s using software images as a basic extension of what he can do as a photographer.”

…Harris brings up the question many people ask: Is a digital print an original work of art? Is it a reproduction? It only exist in the computer, not anywhere in the world other than as output, Harris says.

Discover the answer for yourself, and explore the world prints and various amount of print making techniques used in Another View and Digital Prints at the Two Rivers Gallery.