Constant Pressure: A Visual Exploration of Identity, Activism, and Collaboration
JUN 9–SEP 24, 2023
Free Public Opening on June 9, 5–8 p.m. with a Free Public Gallery Walk with Fatherless at RAM
Exhibition and free admission sponsored by The Kjellstrom Family Foundation; Dean Alan Olson Foundation; Lisa + Mark Lindman; Rockford University and Wells Fargo Advisors. In-kind support provided by Dick Blick and Speedball
Constant Pressure: A Visual Exploration of Identity, Activism, and Collaboration is an assembly of artists whose work has impacted Fatherless along their journey. The artwork is a reflection of engagement, community and the democratic nature of printmaking itself. Featured artists include Aida Wilde, Atlan Arceo-Witzl, CHema Skandal!, Fatherless, Ganzeer, Jesse Shaw, Liz Born, and Nicole Marroquin.
Fatherless is a Rockford, Illinois based artistic collaboration between Javier Jimenez, Greg Lang, David Menard, and Ben Rider (U.K.). Since 2010 Fatherless has been known for a variety of large-scale graphics that use appropriated and manipulated imagery to explore socially conscious ideas through printmaking, painting, collage, and installation. Their work has been exhibited nationally and internationally and is held in many public and private collections.
Fatherless has consistently pushed forward with a counterintuitive approach to not just screen printing, but artist collaboration as well. Members of Fatherless operate as a unit working freely with each other’s ideas and imagery. This process does not reveal any individual artist or “father” but rather an amalgam of the whole. Each piece is a one-off monoprint that will never be repeated. The collective power of the individuals allows for a wide range of ambitious projects that satirize what they see as “our consumer-driven, media-saturated, disposable culture.”
Constant Pressure is a printed reflection and response to the ability that lies in art to challenge and expand our perceptions of the world around us.
Constant Pressure is organized by Rockford Art Museum Chief Curator, Carrie Johnson. The exhibition is sponsored by the Kjellstrom Family Foundation; Dean Alan Olson Foundation; Lisa + Mark Lindman; Rockford University, and Wells Fargo Advisors with in-kind support from Dick Blick and Speedball. Related educational programming is sponsored by Women’s Art Board and partially supported by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council Agency.
