When speaking with the widely exhibited Toronto-born, St. Louis-based printmaker Carmon Colangelo, it’s easy to get a sense of his sincere love for the printmaking process. He admits all it took was one lithography class during his time in college at the University of Windsor, in Ontario, to be “completely drawn in” to printmaking.
The inaugural dean of Sam Fox School of Design and Visual Arts at Washington University since 2006, Colangelo now not only spends his time working with the faculty of the various art programs he oversees, he also pursues his dream as a full-time printmaker, with many of his works having been collected by such prestigious art museums as the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York and the National Museum of American Art in Washington.
At 7 p.m. today, Colangelo will speak at the Visual Arts Building, where he will discuss his influences, theory, and various processes that have shaped his artistic practice.
“My work combines a wide range of printmaking media,” he said. “From lithography, intaglio, silkscreen, relief, and digital printing in various combinations, [I] create unique, one-of-a-kind impressions called monotypes as well as print editions. I love the versatility of printmaking as a medium of innovation, collaboration, and experimentation.”
For his most recent exhibition, Colangelo used the versatility to produce a generative series titled *Here be Dragons: Below the Fold*, in which he printed from laser cut plates on folded paper to create a number of “colorful, haptic, and dimensional works.”
“The term ‘here be dragons’ may have first appeared on the Lenox globe in the year 1510 as a marker for dangerous and uncharted waters ahead,” Colangelo said. “It’s intended in my work as a metaphor for the anxieties, fears, and instability experiences around the world with climate change and in the current precarious political environment; while [the phrase] ‘below the fold’ is a play on fake news and is used strategically to conceal and reveal pieces of information and to create dimensional elements.”
He described his interest in the idea of psychogeography — the study of laws and specific effects of the geographical environment on the emotions and behavior of individuals — and he has made several works in which he maps everyday experiences and records ephemeral information in the age of social media.
As a highly esteemed artist whose work has been featured in 40 solo shows and more than 150 group exhibitions both nationally and internationally, while also being represented by various American art galleries, it’s hard to say what Colangelo will do in the years to come, but chances are, he’ll make use of his expertise as an accomplished printmaker.
“Printmaking is one of the only artistic media that truly lend themselves to the process,” Colangelo said. “While it requires significant technical knowledge and experience, it allows for tremendous flexibility, improvisation, and the ability to generate multiples and variations, which is an endless source of surprise and inspiration.”
Carmon Colangelo Lecture
When: 7 p.m. today
Where: E125 Visual Arts Building