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Work by Christopher Wallace (UNT Printmaking MFA candidate) is included in Rum Riot Press: A Printeresting Curatorial Project, a small press exposition of artist's publications this summer at Space Gallery in Portland, Maine. The exhibition includes work from over sixty artists, designers, and publishers from around the world.
Opening Reception: July 26, 2012 from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m.
Where: Space Gallery, 538 Congress St., Portland, ME 04101
From Printeresting's Rum Riot Press website:
Rum Riot Press explores how DIY and small press publishing can foster communication and offer an alternative to mainstream media sources. Our invitation to collaborate with Space Gallery coincides with a major resurgence in self-publication, which is a mode of communication that offers agency to anyone willing to participate. Given the current small press explosion, now seems like a good time to marry the mistakes of the past with the possibility of the present.
The title of the exhibition, Rum Riot Press, alludes to a brief period of civil unrest that occurred in Portland over a hundred and fifty years ago. The so-called "Rum Riots" were sparked by an effort to prohibit the distribution of alcohol. The unrest was perpetuated by cultural misunderstandings between new and established residents, and a general failure of communication. We chose this moniker for our exhibition because Rum Riot Press will serve not only as a site of small press exhibition, but also of localized production. Rum Riot Presswill operate as a functioning small press production and distribution site for the duration of the exhibition. With 'zine workshops, readings, and related events, we hope to engage the Portland community in a conversation about the role print can play at this unique moment in history.
The exhibition will also mark the debut of Printeresting's Guide Zines. We've invited about a dozen artists not normally associated with zine culture to design simple publications that explain how to do something. Subjects are up to the creators and will likely range from specific art making tips to the mundane. Produced in a letter-size paper format that can be folded down into a booklet following simple instructions. The Printeresting Guide Zines will debut at the Rum Riot Press exhibition, and then will be released, one per month, in our popular PDF of the Month series on the Printeresting website.
Space Gallery is a non-profit contemporary art space focusing on contemporary, emerging and unconventional arts, artists, and ideas. In our collaboration with Space, Printeresting sees an opportunity to merge our missions in a way that will bring a global art practice into conversation with a particular local creative community. To that end, all publications from this exhibition will become part of Space Gallery's new 'Zine Library, which will be open to the public and the first of its kind in Portland, Maine.
