Printin' @ MoMA

Whether we're translating a photograph from digital to polymer media, printing with chocolate powder or on wood veneer, we’re always interested in combining the old and new, marrying the tradition of letterpress with modern innovations that suggest new expressive possibilities.

Printed from photopolymer plate at Swayspace

Detail of dot pattern created for translation from digital to polymer

For more inspiration on how to creatively push the medium, check out Printin’, one of two print exhibitions currently on view at MoMA as part of their twenty year survey of the role of the print in contemporary art.

Curated by the artist Ellen Gallagher, Printin’ displays Gallagher’s epic print portfolio DeLuxe alongside works by artists of varying disciplines and time periods, all of whom use printmaking in ways that both celebrate and challenge the medium. Filmmakers, sculptors, collage artists, print makers and designers appear side by side in this show, linked by a shared drive to push beyond the perceived conceptual and physical limitations of the print.

Gallagher's print portfolio, "DeLuxe"

Ellen Gallagher

Two (of many) favorites from the show include Alois Auer’s bat and snakeskin impressions, created by pressing the objects between two lead plates and inking them, and a spread from Rodchenko and Stepanova’s USSR in Construction. But there are plenty of inspiring and curious works in the show, on view through May 14 in The Paul J. Sachs Prints and Illustrated Books Galleries, 2nd floor.