Joe Tsambiras, along with 3 other artists in a collaborative exhibition, won Creative Loafing’s Reader’s Picks Award for Best Opening and Best Gallery Show in 2010. Now, opening at Kibbee Gallery on April 7th, Tsambiras has curated a group printmaking show featuring 13 Atlanta Printmakers.
ECHOES
Andrea Sanders, 3 am Train to enlightenment
Interview with Joe Elias Tsambiras
Q: Joe, can you tell us a little bit about the show you are curating at Kibbee Gallery next week.
A: Echoes gathers together thirteen artists who are working in the printmaking medium. It is a celebration of printmaking and the specific qualities it contains…
Q: What was the original idea behind organizing this show?
A: The initial idea came because I wanted to put together a book or a zine that would be a compilation of artists’ and poets’ work that, when combined together, would create a community displaying how people could coexist together in a creative, functional way... and also not be boring. That was about six years ago. That idea has formed into this group show. Books and galleries have very much in common, except that books are moving, portable galleries. Unlike a book, a gallery is less maneuverable, and yet… it’s like a stationary book with walls… and it’s also temporal.
Q: How did you choose the artists that will be in the group exhibition?
A: I knew I wanted the show to be all printmaking, so I looked to the Atlanta printmaking community first. There are so many good artists here in Atlanta, and I didn’t just want to ask anyone whose work I just felt was good. I have been thoughtful in selecting artists with a specific temperament so that when their work coexists in the show something new and interesting may emerge. Basically all of these artists not only care tremendously about what they create, but they also have the technical skills to pull off what they set out to do.
Q: Does the show’s title, Echoes, describe a common thread shared between the artist’s works that will be on view?
A: Mainly I just like the word. I think it works also because it is about repetition, which is a large part of the printmaking process. Also it is about sound and vibrations… and music is very important to me.
Q: I understand that you will also have some of your own prints in Kibbee next week. Can you tell me what those pieces are about?
A: Yes. I have two pieces in the show. They are about love, wounds, beauty, movement.
Q: Is this a theme you have been working with for a while now? And how has it changed/evolved over time?
A: Yes. I’m getting closer to what I want to portray every day. I want to create work that moves me… moves people. If I keep working hard, by age ninety I will be able to create moving pictures.
Q: In just a few words, describe what one should expect to experience when viewing the Echoes exhibition.
A: Well, technically, the full title of the show is Echoes: Adventures in Printmaking. Expect not to be bored. I’d like to think of this show like an episode of 3-2-1 Contact if anyone remembers that PBS gem.
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| Matthew Sugarman |
ECHOES
Featuring: Karen Cleveland, Marian Depetris, Becky Furey, Ashlyn Pope, Chris Neuenschwander, Samuel Parker, Plastic Aztecs, Paul Rodecker, Andrea Sanders, Stephanie Smith, Dorothy Stucki, Matthew Sugarman, & Joe TsambirasOpening Reception: Saturday, April 7, 6-10
* in participation with Ponce Crush gallery night*
The title "ECHO's", conjures up for me a time
ReplyDeleteand place...like 1800-1906 plus more time and
"kindred spirits" when the rolling hills of Virginia and West Virginia are covered with the colors, gold,tan, brown,maroon,& reds and blue skies with
roaming puff clouds move with the soft wind...then comes the snow scene in black & white..continuing to float through time,Echoing all around me .It's spiritualy renewing (if you're silent)
you can literally hear the echo of time.....