AUTUMN ‘23 ARTIST IN RESIDENCE EXHIBITION

an exhibition by Brett Davis, Marsha Mack, & Marissa Nicole Stewart

December 9, 2023 - January 20, 2024

Opening Saturday, December 9th, from 3:00 - 6:00pm, Columbus Printed Arts Center will present their Autumn ‘23 Artists in Residence Exhibition, featuring new work by its latest cohort of artists in residence: Brett Davis, Marsha Mack, and Marissa Stewart. Materially disparate but thematically linked, works in the exhibition speak to each of the artists’ practices which converge on topics of family, heritage, health, and wellbeing. Working independently from one another, the exhibition showcases varying disciplines that incorporate printmaking processes to unconventional ends.

Brett Davis, whose photo-based practice frequently involves his three-year-old daughter and collaborator, Toko, utilized multiple abandoned floors of the building to present large-scale, site-specific installations. His installation, Joy Like a Fountain, features nearly 400 photo transparencies installed in the windows of an unfinished industrial wing of the building housing CPAC. Selected photographs taken over the past six years, Joy Like a Fountain, is the largest photo compilation by Davis to date. Additionally, on the third floor, Davis’ piece, Love Like an Ocean, is an immersive 12-foot-long kaleidoscope of hanging collage panels. In both of these projects, the combined creative output of Davis and Toko speaks to visualization and strength of familial bonds. Davis will also display a 58-page zine made with the Risograph printer at CPAC titled, Nenne. Copies of the edition of 20 zines are for sale through the artist.

In her first venture into intaglio, Marsha Mack created 18 hand-sawed copper plates to create a suite of monotypes. Coordinating with an 8-foot porcelain charm bracelet displayed in the CPAC gallery space, Mack’s works combine personal symbols with imagery taken from Asian candy wrappers. Playful yet introspective, Mack’s practice decodes and re-codes her mixed-race heritage, consumption habits, and perpetual longing.

Marissa Stewart’s practice traditionally involves members of her family and the photographic medium. In this experimental departure, Stewart set out to reflect on herself and her relation to health and wellbeing focused on her Type 1 diabetes while utilizing mediums and processes new and unfamiliar in her regular practice. All of the work consists of Stewart using the medical waste that was collected during the 3-month residency and using it in various ways: photographic, installation and sculptural. The work ranges from a selection of photographs, a plaster sculpture piece, a set of large, perforated paper works and various installation-based pieces.

Spanning the building beyond the parameters of the print shop, the variety of materials, methods, and techniques featured in the Autumn ‘23 Artists in Residence Exhibition mirrors the differing interpretations of printmaking processes by its current residents. Newcomers to printmaking, Brett Davis, Marsha Mack, and Marissa Stewart find common ground throughout the building and between the presses at Columbus Printed Arts Center.

-Exhibition statement by Marsha Mack