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NEW LONDON, N.H., Jan. 18, 2006 — The Colby-Sawyer College Fine and Performing Arts Department will present an exhibition of contemporary prints that explores the broad theme of domestic policy. Through a series of lithograph, intaglio, digital, photo-collage, silkscreen and block prints, some 30 artists from around the country provide fascinating and far-flung interpretations of domestic issues, ranging from home and family concerns to political and governmental policies.


Ashley Worley, Manage, linocut

A festive opening reception for “Domestic Policy: An Invitational Portfolio” will take place on Thursday, Feb. 2, from 7 to 9 p.m., at the Marian Graves Mugar Art Gallery at Sawyer Fine Arts Center. Phyllis McGibbon, associate professor of printmaking and drawing and co-director of architecture at Wellesley College, will present a gallery talk at 6:30 p.m. The reception provides guests with opportunities to meet and talk with the artist about her ideas and approach to artwork. Refreshments will be provided, and the public is encouraged to attend. Admission is free. The exhibition will continue through March 7.

The exhibition originated at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, where art professor Beth Grabowski invited a diverse group of printmakers to respond to the resonant and potentially provocative theme of domestic policy. Through a variety of approaches and techniques within the printmaking medium, the artists examined the home front, specifically, divisions of domestic labor, children and their impact on an artist's productivity, the marginalization of women's issues and marital bliss. Other artists turned to the nation's complex internal affairs, exploring broad issues such as AIDs, education, the environment, welfare reform and health care in their work. And still other artists used the printmaking medium to express their political views on government policies and actions.


Lee Marchalonis, Re Telling, spoon printed relief

Mugar Gallery Director Rebekah Tolley contrasts the exhibition with a solo show, where as in a novel, each work is like a chapter that contributes to a whole narrative. “This exhibition is more like an eclectic collection of essays where all the works under one theme explore many different directions,” Tolley explains. The artists had a year to complete their prints, after which a “giant exchange” occurred in which all the participants received examples of each other's work, according to Tolley. “A portfolio exchange is something printmakers like to do, both to collect prints of their peers and to honor the very essence of printmaking…Printmaking is an essential form of communication, which promotes mass literacy and knowledge. Making prints and spreading them around is by nature a powerful thing.”

In “A Change of Pattern,” a print created with intaglio and lithography techniques, Janet Bellweg approached the domestic policy theme as a way to comment on how societal rules and stereotypes define and govern relationships. “A china pattern, selected by the bride before the wedding, becomes a symbol of the marriage and her move toward domesticity,” she says. “'A Change in Pattern'” suggests the physical change that occurs…as well as a change in behavioral and emotional patterns equated with the notion of marital bliss.”


Oscar J Gillespie, Guarding the
Nest, engraving & color aquatint

Oscar Gillespie, in “Guarding the Nest,” explores his conflicted ideas about a man's responsibility to protect his family. As he contemplated the project, he came across a piece he created in 1980, after the birth of his son, in which he considered his role as a father and head of a household. “Now, in this time of war, I find that the roles have changed,” he said. “My son, now 24, is in the U.S. Marines and is working and sacrificing to guard the nest.” In his print, created through engraving and color aquatint, Gillespie revisits his original interpretation of “domestic policy.”

Professor McGibbon will provide a gallery talk about the art of printmaking. Her lithograph “Seige,” created with her husband Mark Wilson, is included in the exhibition. Described by the Los Angeles Times as a “tinderbox of ideas and allusions,” McGibbon's work incorporates drawing, lithography, reprographic constructions and large temporary site works. An award-winning artist whose prints and artist books are included in more than 30 public collections, she earned her B.A. and B.F.A. degrees from the University of Wisconsin and has worked in open access print studios in Scotland, England, Canada and Belgium.

“Domestic Policy: An Invitational Portfolio” has been exhibited in Washington, D.C., Wellesley, Mass., El Paso, Tex., and Fresno, Calif. This exhibition is made possible through the generous support of friends of the Marian Graves Mugar Art Gallery. Gallery hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., and other times by appointment.

Colby-Sawyer, founded in 1837, is a comprehensive liberal arts college located in the scenic Lake Sunapee Region of central New Hampshire. Students from 25 states and five foreign countries learn in small classes through a select array of programs that integrate the liberal arts and sciences with pre-professional experience.

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