Picture taken by Gabbie Lee/ Assistant Photo Editor
CARLY KNASZAK
Special to The Leader
Marion Art Gallery presented “We Were All – Endi Poskovic: Printworks,” on Friday, Oct. 17.
Poskovic’s work consists of hand carved woodblock prints, in which he puts ink on the blocks with rollers and then transfers them to paper to produce the work of art. Poskovic is also a Professor of Art and Design at University of Michigan. He described his work as “hint[ing] at the dichotomies that exist in life and encourag[ing] the viewer to explore universal themes of cultural displacement, fragmented memory, transformation and revival.”
A few days before the event, Poskovic was setting up his own exhibit with art director Barbara Räcker. But he stopped as his longtime friend Alberto Rey, who is a Distinguished Professor of Drawing and Painting, came and embraced him.
“I have known Alberto since grad school, which would be 30 plus years. He is one of the reasons why I came to Fredonia,” Poskovic said.
Thursday night, Poskovic hosted a lecture called “The Paradox of Remembered Landscapes” to a packed hall in McEwen. Some students were required to go for class attendance, but the students got their worth when Poskovic explained that in his early twenties, he already had had his very first art exhibit at Buffalo’s Albright Knox Art Gallery in 1993. He went into detail about artists that inspired him and the long process that went into carving each woodblock. His prints are influenced by cinema, classic Japanese woodblock prints, devotional pictures and Eastern European Propaganda posters.
“I thought it was an interesting and innovative way to deliver an image. I also like how it has somewhat of a stained glass effect to it, as well,” sophomore Cally Hess said.
“A critical element in many of my relief prints is the placement of invented phrases and words that are cut in wood, placed and printed below the images. Created in actual and faux Romance and Germanic languages, the captions contribute to interpretations that may simultaneously appear to be real and fictitious, rational and absurd,” Poskovic said.
“The intersection of the image and the written word in my prints reinforces the act of reading the two in a single context as a source of unlimited interpretive possibilities.”
Junior Riley Cole, who visited the gallery on Saturday, said “I like how the works seem so simplistic and evoke such complicated feelings.”
On Saturday, Oct. 18, Poskovic hosted a printmaking workshop for a limited amount of people that had to make a reservation in advance, during which he showed the step by step process of how he makes his artwork.
“I think it’s really interesting and awesome that he can make art like that just by carving wood and stamping it. I like it a lot,” said senior Amanda Ongley.
Poskovic has represented the United States at major international exhibitions for prints, including the Taichung International Print Biennial, Taiwan; Krakow International Print Triennial, Poland; La Biennale Internationale d’Estampe Contemporaine de Trois-Rivières, Canada; Egyptian International Print Triennial; Deutsche Internationale Grafik-Triennale, Frechen, Germany; Tallinn International Triennial (Estonia); Xylon International Triennale, France and many more. His works are in permanent collections all around the world.
The exhibit runs till Nov. 19. Gallery hours are noon to 4 p.m. from Tuesday through Thursday, noon to 6 p.m. Friday through Saturday and noon to 4 p.m. on Sunday.