Philadelphia’s art scene is buzzing with creativity this fall, and there’s still time to catch a pair of exciting exhibitions that stretch printmaking far beyond the traditional flat page. The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) and Brandywine Workshop and Archives have teamed up for two companion shows, on view through October 26, that celebrate experimentation, collaboration, and bold new ideas.
At Brandywine Workshop’s Printed Image Gallery on South Broad Street, PrintLab: Material Futures brings together eight artists — Albert Chong, El Anatsui, Willie Cole, Delita Martin, Kakyoung Lee, Jocelyn Akwaba Matignon, Didier William, and Lavett Ballard — whose works explore themes of migration, spirituality, memory, ancestry, and cultural exchange. Visitors will encounter woodcuts, photolithographs, projected animation, and hybrid pieces blending analog and digital techniques: Chong transfers photographic imagery onto copper, Lee turns 300 woodcuts into a digital animation, and El Anatsui and Cole translate their celebrated sculptural approaches into large-scale prints.
Across town at PAFA, the companion exhibition Proof Testing: The PrintLab Artist Residency at Brandywine Workshop and Archives offers a behind-the-scenes look at the creative process, pairing finished works with the very printing blocks used to make them.
With just a few weeks left to see both shows, it’s a perfect reason to plan an art-filled day in the city.
Photo: Delita Martin, The Little Rootkeeper, courtesy of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and Brandywine Workshop and Archives.
