Like a snowflake, a fingerprint or DNA strand, art imitates nature and life in that no two works are identical. An exhibition by the self-described “collaborative print posse” Fatherless, at the IS Projects visual foundry in Fort Lauderdale, applies that maxim to the repeatable medium of printmaking. No two pieces the same, “no matter the scale,” says the online preview page for “Print Posse Theory,” a show in which mass production is turned against itself “to create something singular and unique.”
Located in both London, England and Rockford, Illinois, the five members of Fatherless have oddly contrasting home bases and a shared goal of empowering the masses through art. Their output has antecedents on both sides the Atlantic, from a color-shot style of Americana that echoes Norman Rockwell and Andy Warhol, to the hit-and-run tagging of British trickster Banksy. Their prints occupy, parody and illuminate what Fatherless calls today’s “consumer driven social climate.”
It’s a perfect fit for an insurgent print workshop and exhibition space, and as IS Projects’ gallery coordinator Sammi McLean tells PureHoney, the pairing was all but inevitable once IS owner-director Ingrid Schindall met Fatherless artist Javier Jimenez at a printing event. The exhibition has been up since mid-May and runs through June, with an opening reception this Saturday, May 25.
Attendees will get a glimpse of the powerful, industrial theatrics of printmaking and be let in on a tradecraft that doesn’t often spill its process secrets. Fatherless puts the heavy machinery of the medium to work with a fabricator’s laser-like deadline focus, spreading visual messages far and fast with rapid-fire machinery and power-pop visuals,
Featured pieces brilliantly, precisely depict humanity at its most transcendent and stagnant. They’re a harmonious juxtaposition of the color, effervescence, malice and greed woven into our conflicted natures. “Print Posse Theory” is also an eloquent call to action and justice: With inspiring wit and skill and perceptiveness, it demolishes the self-defeating idea that individuals cannot step up and be the masters of our collective fate.
“Print Posse Theory,” featuring works by the Fatherless Collective is at IS Projects in Fort Lauderdale thru June 30. isprojectsfl.com ~ Freddie Zandt
