June 23 – October 3, 2021 MIA Galleries Miami International Airport The Eye Has to Travel Gallery Concourse D | 2nd Level | near Gate D29 | post-security
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#ArtsatMIA
Art can be a perfect form of escapism a means to go to fantastic places limited only by the extent of one’s imagination.
- Brian Reedy
MIA Galleries is pleased to present Key West and Other Unusual Places, an exhibition of printed works by two prolific Miami-based visual artists and printmakers, Brian Reedy and Tom Virgin. The exhibition is based on Reedy’s rich, otherworldly imagination and Virgin’s travels to artist residencies across the United States. Brian Reedy is best known for his whimsical block prints. Block printing is a form of printmaking that involves the carving of linoleum or woodblocks and printing the resultant images on paper, cloth, or other material. Reedy uses one of the oldest techniques of making prints from a relief surface in a process he finds cathartic and fun. The bold and graphic qualities inherent in block printing best convey mood and feel in the mysterious and intriguing images he creates. Reedy grew up in a small town and often used art as a means of escapism, creating images from his imagination for self-entertainment and creative outlet. He still maintains this approach to artmaking, and his block prints incorporate the same elements of fantasy narrative. Reedy’s art is a playful and nebulous form of storytelling. He creates strange and unusual places by combining fantastic imagery that could be either arbitrary or symbolic and can be taken as social commentary or interpreted as the viewer fancies. The linocuts in Key West and Other Unusual Places stem from Reedy’s lifelong fascination with dinosaurs, the paranormal, and the supernatural. His travels and admiration of the architecture of India, Japan, and Thailand have also had a profound influence on his image-making. Reedy hopes that his block prints can take passengers and airport staff to a place a bit detached where one can take things less seriously. The exhibition’s theme “escapism” was conceived by Brian Reedy and Tom Virgin – two Miami artists demonstrating the enthusiasm, commitment, and sensibility of printmaking and its fascinating qualities. Viewers are invited to let their imagination take flight around the real or escape to an imagined world.
Brian Reedy is a Miami-based artist specializing in block printing, a form of printmaking involving the carving and printing of linoleum or woodblocks on paper. His work is best described as whimsical, often with pop culture themes, influenced by traditional Ukiyo-e Japanese and European Medieval block prints. Reedy operates a successful online Esty shop called WoodcutEmporium. Reedy’s work can be found at Outre Gallery in Melbourne, Australia; Galerie F in Chicago, IL; and Bottleneck Gallery in New York City, NY. Reedy’s artwork is used on apparel in Hot Topic stores nationwide and at Uniqlo stores in Orlando, FL; San Francisco, CA; and NYC. He has produced licensed artwork for Marvel, DC, Warner Brothers, Disney, and Fortnite. Brian is also an art teacher at Miami Arts Studio 6-12 @ Zelda Glazer. Instagram.com/brianreedy
Brian Reedy, UFO over Bombay, 2020, linocut, 12 x 15 in.
Brian Reedy, T-Rex Saucer, 2020, linocut, 12 x 15 in.
Brian Reedy, Reptilian Hideout, 2020, linocut, 12 x 15 in.
Brian Reedy, First Arrival, 2020, linocut, 12 x 15 in.
Brian Reedy, Dinosaurs, 2020, linocut, 12 x 15 in.
Brian Reedy, Inner Earth, 2020, linocut, 9 x 12 in.
Brian Reedy, Dino Ark, 2020, linocut, 12 x 15 in.
Brian Reedy, Moon Palace, 2018, linocut, 20 x 26 in.
It is my intent to offer travelers a jump
start at the beginning of their journey, or one last hurrah upon their return. - Tom Virgin MIA Galleries is pleased to present Key West and Other Unusual Places, an exhibition of printed works by two prolific Miami-based visual artists and printmakers, Brian Reedy and Tom Virgin. The exhibition is based on Reedy’s rich, otherworldly imagination and Virgin’s travels to artist residencies across the United States. Tom Virgin is an artist, printmaker, and letterpress printer that works at the intersection of image, prose, and design; his work spans various media from prints and book arts to sculpture, public works, and installation. Virgin’s visual art practice included printing, painting, drawing, and book arts before his entry and lifelong passion for letterpress - the traditional but not obsolete practice of setting movable type and printing by hand. The setting of Virgin’s work is rooted in shared experiences and relationships formed during collaborations in interdisciplinary projects with other visual artists, poets, and writers. Virgin uses contemporary printing technologies and the traditional “hands-on process” of printmaking to produce compelling textures and surfaces that carry the active hand of the artist. Key West and Other Unusual Places features a selection of Virgin’s works on paper, woodcut prints, metal drawings, artist books, and other ephemera, such as vintage maps, posters, and postcards. Communities and geographies represented here come from his travels to Key West, Florida; to national parks at Glen Arbor, Michigan; Chesterton, Indiana; and artist residencies in Portland, Oregon and Red Wing, Minnesota. Follow this compelling visual storyteller to the Midwest and other locations across the U.S. The exhibition’s theme “escapism” was conceived by Brian Reedy and Tom Virgin – two Miami artists demonstrating the enthusiasm, commitment, and sensibility of printmaking and its fascinating qualities. Viewers are invited to let their imagination take flight around the real or escape to an imagined world.
Tom Virgin is a Miami-based artist, proprietor of Extra Virgin Press, and for twenty-five years, a Title I Public School Art teacher. Virgin received his BFA in Printmaking and Painting from Florida Atlantic University in 1989 and his MFA in Printmaking at the University of Miami in 1994. Since then, he has studied printmaking, book arts, and letterpress in over forty post-graduate classes around the United States and teaches workshops in those subjects. Born and raised in Detroit, on jazz, blues, Motown, and rock & roll, Virgin has spent twice as much time in Florida than in his native Michigan. Residencies around the U.S. in artists’ communities and national parks have also informed his practice. His collaborations, prints, book arts, and public art often depict shared civic resources such as public schools, National Parks, and his home states (Michigan and Florida). Extra Virgin Press began creating community around letterpresses in 2015, winning a Knight Arts Challenge Grant from the John L. and James S. Knight Foundation. Other significant support has come from two Oolite Arts, Ellies Creator Awards; a Wavemaker/Long Haul Grant; and support from Miami-Dade County Cultural Affairs; the Miami Foundation; and many other community partners. His artist books are included in the collections at the University of Miami’s Special Collections, MiamiDade Public Library’s Permanent Art Collection, The Bienes Museum of the Modern Book, the Jaffee Center for Book Art, and the Museum of Contemporary Art in North Miami (MOCA), and others. . extravirginpress.com
Tom Virgin, Big Lobster (from escape*…restrictions apply, first book of the Escape series), 2004/2020, hand colored letter press print, 11 x 14 in.
Tom Virgin, Half Bubbles & Big Pine (from artists book Escape 2 from Escape series), 2004, inkjet print, 22 x 15 in.
Tom Virgin, Custom House Museum (pop-up from artists book Escape 3: SDR2 from Escape series), 2008, 15 x 22 in.
Tom Virgin, 13 Views of Mt. Hood: with Fisherman, 2010, woodcut print, 20 x 16 in.
Tom Virgin, Vintage Michigan map with letterpress additions, 2021, 30 x 29 in.
Tom Virgin, Red Wing: World’s Largest Boot, 2012, woodcut print, 20 x 16 in.
Tom Virgin, Time (text from LaRose by Louise Erdrich), 2015, letterpress broadsheet, 15 x 12 in.
escape Part of Speech: noun Definition: breaking away; getaway, the act or an instance of escaping, as from confinement or difficulty; a means of avoiding. Freedom from worry, care, or unpleasantness. Synonyms: abdication, avoidance, AWOL, beat, bolt, break, breakout, bypassing, circumvention, decampment, deliverance, departure, desertion, disappearance, dodging, duckn escape to the Florida Keys would not be complete without a trip to ing, elopement, elusion, elusiveness, eschewal, its Southernmost Point, Key West. To be specific, without partaking evasion, evasiveness, extrication, fadeout, flight, in the “Duval Crawl,” you will not have experienced Key West. The “crawl” forgetfulness, freedom, getaway, hegira, lam, is a pointed reference to the generous placement of watering holes along leave, liberation, out, outbreak, powder, release, the pedestrian route, and their effect on ambulatory travel. It is a memorescue, retreat, runaround, shunning, sidesteprable event, provided one is not too frisky with the libations. Key West is ping, slip, spring, withdrawal Part of Speech: not like the rest of Florida, the United States, or at times it seems, the rest verb Definition: avoid, break away from, to break of the Earth. loose and leave suddenly, as from confinement These images come from more than five years of visits to “Key Weird,” as or from a difficult or threatening situation, to fail it is sometimes affectionately labeled; and they pass along my impressions to be fixed by the mind, memory, or senses Synof various cultural institutions such as: Hemmingway Days, Bahama Fesonyms: abscond, avoid, bail out*, break out, bolt, tival, nights out escaping more rural locations to the east, and of course.... burst out, burke, bypass, circumvent, cut and Fantasy Fest. It is a tourist town not unlike many, perhaps with a slightly run, cut loose*, decamp, depart, desert, disapmore tawdry edge to it. They seem to enjoy it that way. The rest of us are pear, diversion, dodge, double, duck, duck out, welcome to find an escape there, provided we can find our way back. elope, elude, emerge, eschew, evade, flee, fly, fly the coop, get around, getaway, get away with, get off*, go scot-free, lam, leak, leave, make getaway, make off*, make oneself scarce, miss, outflow, outlet, pass, play hooky, rescue, run, run away, run off, run out on, shake, shun, sidestepping, skip, slip, slip away, spill, steal away, take a powder, take flight, take on the lam, tone, vamoose, vanish, vent, work out of, wriggle out
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Introductory text from Tom Virgin’s Escape 3: SDR2 from Escape series, 2008, 15 x 12 in.