Atlanta’s Museum of Design Atlanta, better known as MODA, is inviting the city to look at one of printmaking’s oldest techniques with fresh eyes. Its exhibition ‘Shaping & Re-Shaping: Experiments in the Relief Print’ is now on view at the Midtown museum through January 11, 2027, filling the galleries with woodcuts, linocuts and experimental works that show how much invention can come from a carved block, ink and pressure.
Relief printing is beautifully hands-on: the artist cuts away everything that should stay blank, inks what remains raised, and presses the block to paper. MODA’s show leans into that spirit of experimentation, tracing how contemporary printmakers push the method in new directions — layering color, combining blocks, and letting happy accidents become part of the finished image. It is art you can almost feel being made, groove by groove.
The exhibition also marks a milestone for the museum. During its run, MODA celebrates its 20th anniversary as Atlanta’s design museum, two decades of exhibitions that connect design to everyday life. An anniversary lineup like this one is a reminder of how lucky the city is to have a museum devoted entirely to the designed world, from graphics and furniture to the prints on its walls today.
Visitors can find MODA at 1315 Peachtree Street NE, right in the heart of Midtown’s cultural corridor and an easy stroll from the High Museum and the Woodruff Arts Center. If you have never tried printmaking, this is the show that might send you home wanting to carve your first block.
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
