Printology

Printology examined street and urban art through the medium that has carried many of its images furthest: the print. Presented at the University of Arkansas–Fort Smith’s Windgate Art and Design Building from September 2015, the exhibition brought together more than fifty works by artists including Banksy, Invader, Shepard Fairey, D*Face, JR, Blek Le Rat and Swoon.

The selection connected familiar public images with the techniques and decisions involved in making editions. A work that circulates on paper has a different scale, material presence and audience from a mural, yet can retain the urgency and recognisability of an image first encountered in the street.

Rom Levy’s curatorial work on Printology drew on his experience of developing editions and collaborating with artists and printmakers. Presented within the wider context of The Unexpected, the exhibition brought that history into conversation with the murals being produced across Fort Smith.

The project offered a way to read urban art through its circulation: how an image passes between a wall, a studio, a printing workshop and a collection, and how each setting changes the relationship between the work and its audience.