Art exhibition to showcase Dunham’s work

 Well-known painter and printmaker, Carroll Dunham, opens a show at the University Art Museum today.
   The work, sprawled throughout the gallery space, takes the viewer on a journey through Dunham’s growth as a printmaker.
   Dunham, who is best known for his paintings, made his first print in 1984 at the request of Bill Goldstone. This black-and-white print is among the 27 years of prints in the collection hanging in the university museum.
   “The work is really encyclopedic in a way,” said Janet Riker, Museum Director, “It was very important that it was hung in chronological order, and I really feel that I have a new understanding of Dunham as an artist as I walk through the show.”
   The prints, true to Dunham’s painting style, combine cartoon-like drawings with a vivid color pallet that encourage people to engage in the psychosexual content of each image and narrative. The work seems to possess a union of mind and body, shape and color, masculine and feminine that weaves through the foreground and background to create complex networks within a shallow depth of field.
   Walking through the show it is as if you are standing over Dunham’s shoulder as he is working through these complex ideas.
   “You can really feel the efforts, the struggle, and the intellectual rigor that is involved with creating the artist’s voice,” said Riker.
   The show, which is on loan from The Addison Art Gallery, showcases only Dunham’s print-making work, a body that has been overlooked even by those in the art community.
   Although his underlying style is the same, the process of printmaking is much different than that of painting. In painting you make your mark directly on the canvas; you can immediately see the results of your thoughts.
   In printmaking this is not the case. The lines and shapes that make up each piece are a result of a series of processes.
   Dunham starts by hand making his paper and meticulously engraving the lithograph to create his distinct strokes. Once the products to make the prints are ready he must then work with a printmaker to create the finished product.
   Although Dunham collaborates with a printmaker, he is still completely engaged with the entire process, making sure each line is the correct, color, thickness and length.
   By paying close attention to detail he is able to give each mark value within the pieces as a whole. From paper texture to embossing and engraving, subtle details in his process seems to make the prints jump off the page and confront the viewer head on, creating an aggressive energy within the crude sexuality of his work.
    “People think they know Carroll Dunham from his paintings, but you probably don’t know him until you see this work,” said Riker.
   The exhibition will be on display until April 3 with the opening reception Tuesday night from 5:00-7:00 p.m. Dunham will be speaking at the University at Albany on Feb. 22 at 7:30 p.m.