Currently, the 39th Bradley International Print and Drawing Exhibition is being shown at four gallery spaces in our community. Our nation’s second-oldest print and drawing competition is a biennial event that brings the best in printmaking and drawing to central Illinois.

This year the exhibition’s juror was Aurora De Armendi Sobrino, who has selected a very diverse group of artists from across the US. and from abroad. The professor of Printmaking at SUNY-New Paltz, carefully reviewed 639 submitted works of art from which 114 are currently on display.

Her choices were informed by extensive experiences in the graphic arts. De Armandi Sobrina joins a long legacy of printmakers who did graduate work at the University of Iowa. She has worked in Fine Arts publishing with Two Palms, the Lower Eastside (NYC) Printshop and as an independent master printer. She has accumulated a vast knowledge of printing and drawing processes and techniques as an educator and practicing artist, giving her the capacity to act as Juror and make well-informed choices.

As a migrant from Cuba, she literally ventured on a raft to America. Her determination to seek the true meaning of freedom and creativity guided her as she chose and curated this biennial event.

Overall, De Armendi Sobrino was impressed with the quality and craftsmanship of the artwork submitted as a cross section of Contemporary Art and what artists are thinking about and creating today. She felt it important to step outside of her own sensibility as an artist in order to grasp a wider creative pulse of what’s happening globally in this moment.

Many of the works struck a heartfelt chord for her in the way they engage with the materials they use. She responded to the sense of intimacy that characterizes artwork whose materiality feeds the imagery and becomes a personal visual language.

Aurora De Armendi Sorbino acted as juror — but in the end became more an arbitrator to initiate a conversation that brought artists together in very exciting discussions.

The Bradley International Print and Drawing Exhibition is defined by life experiences, and how universally we can all be a part of each other’s lives. So many artists are motivated by diverse inspirations, various life experiences and the celebration of materials. The 39th edition of this exhibition offers viewers all of these and more.

Intertined

In each gallery we find human relationships that affect and intertwine each artist. There is a friendship and kinship that tends to supersede artistic conflicts. Drawing is a direct form of communication that — through mark-making — visually engages the individual to scrutinize and appreciate surface, gesture, mediums and often raw emotions. Printmaking often considers the process first — perhaps pushing beyond traditional processes — to enrich a support or surface with unique treatment of the matrix, whether it be wood, linoleum, copper, stone or an alternative source. Bradley’s exhibition highlights many works that elevate both traditional methods as well as 21st century options that are exciting and monumental.

Often, we are confronted with experiences where the sum of the parts is greater than any singular component. This is what makes the 39th exhibition so impressionable. One cannot leave any of the galleries without some self-reflection.

In the Hartmann Center Gallery, there are several traditional drawings that make indelible impressions on the visitors. Christopher Troutman’s drawing is a wonderful fractured planar scene of a village. Here, he places us as the viewer on a balcony overlooking a myriad of tonal rectangles and squares seeking an escape from this Escher-like labyrinth.

The charcoal drawing “Sinkholes of a Faultless Void #10” by Michael Covello and Elizabeth Schineider is rendered in a German-referenced, angst-filled view of a neighborhood. The movement of fluid, drawn lines countered by the same erasure of lines in the background, emphasize an implied persistent destruction by nature. Scrawled across a spiraling pool is “Are you coming to get me?” In light of the numerous natural disasters that have afflicted our nation — hurricanes, flooding, and, most recently, the fires in California — are they questioning our own involvement in aiding our neighbors?

Transcendant

A simple intimate act can transcend centuries. “The Kiss” by sculptor Auguste Rodin originally represented Palio and Francesca, two characters borrowed from Dante’s Divine Comedy. Rodin demonstrated the value of tenderness on a monumental scale. “The Kiss” was then captured more abstractly by Brancusi in the 20th century. Forward to the present century, and artist Michael Morgan invites enthusiasts at Hartmann Center to bear witness to that same passionate moment in a small drawing of the same title. Two individuals are kissing amid a crowd, unapologetic and yet tender and lost in that moment.

With a great curiosity of materiality, two artists used YUPO for their drawings. YUPO is recyclable, waterproof, tree-free synthetic paper that makes it the perfect choice for an alternative support for artists. The attributes of YUPO are the smooth surface and the durability that it will not tear. It also stands up to the rigors of the elements and demanding environments so artists can aggressively incorporate various media in creating their art without erosion.

Abstractions by Michael Gilbert and Lisa Madden prove this alternative paper source can challenge each of them to commit to mark-making and allow the materials to prove their effectiveness. Gilbert’s strong geometric style works well with his tight rectangular composition. Madden’s choice of gestural strokes allows her to capture a loosely lateral grid reminiscent of paintings by Gunther Forg. Both address the incredible translucency of marks on the YUPO surface and make it their own. These artists demonstrate the innovative use and exploration of materials in the 21st century lends itself to great success.

Two central Illinois artists who have dominated the printmaking scene for decades are Cathie Crawford and Sarah Smelser. Between these two printmakers, they have been in 16 Bradley International (nee National) Print and Drawing Exhibitions. Both are dedicated to unique disciplines that best reflect their talents as well as the mediums they have invested in for decades. Each has a visual language that is undeniably their own.

Thrashing

 

Sarah Smelser’s monoprint “Brings Back the Time XIV” is from a series of monoprints she created while in residence at the Contemporary Print Media Research Center at UC-Santa Cruz. As the artist reminisced, “The resulting body of work reflects my ruminations and research as each morning’s march up and the evening stroll down revealed something different — equal parts new and familiar.” This series, “Thrasher,” recalls an outdated farm machine used for separating seeds from straw and husks. This became a metaphor for leaving one’s home or safe space for a transformative experience or journey to the unknown.

Crawford’s reduction woodcut, “Apricity,” introduces us to a space where a glacier meets the barren land; this imagery demonstrates her continued interest in climate change and the effect it has on our earth. Apricity is the warmth of the sun when surrounded by the ice and snow of the winter. Paired together, both of these works give us reason to pause, reflect and appreciate our environments and our relationships with those spaces that have meaning to us.

Check out the artwork through March 28 at BU’s Heuser Art Center Gallery and Hartmann Center Gallery, the Gilmore Auditorium Gallery at the Peoria Riverfront Museum, and the Peoria Art Guild.

Contact each venue for times when they are open to the public. Admission is FREE to all venues.

Artists from central Illinois participating in the exhibition this year include: Cathie Crawford, John Heintzman, Angela Risinger, Hattie Lee Mendoza, S.J. Boyd, Michael Gilbert, Isabella Gray — all from the Peoria area; Sarah Smelser, Amy Chiappetta, Morgan Price — from the Bloomington/Normal area; Katrina Morrison, Bishop Hill; and Christopher Troutman, Shane Rodems — Champaign/Urbana area. Support for each participating institution comes from the Illinois Arts Council, a state agency.