Exhibition

STEPHANIE SANTANA, MARTHA ZELT & NANCY HELLEBRAND

April 19 - July 20, 2024

Stephanie Santana explores interior worlds, mythologies, navigational tools and resistance strategies within the Black diasporic experience. Working across fiber arts and printmaking, her intuitive practice spans time and geography with the intent of unearthing useful information. The artist frequently employs improvisational techniques and what feminist theorist of visual culture Tina Campt terms the “haptic encounter” with archival photographic imagery. The artist lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.

Martha Zelt: Printed, Folded and Sewn presents the innovative prints of Martha Zelt (1930-2023) made during her years in Philadelphia. From the 1960s through the 1980s, Zelt took an expansive approach to traditional lithography. She manipulated bought paper and made her own, introduced materials to the process such as textiles and fabrics, and supplemented her prints with additional media such as sewing and photocopy. Zelt’s increasingly experimental practice resulted in abstract prints of larger scale as well as dimensionality in works that she described as constructions. Zelt was featured in the group exhibition Women Printmakers at The Print Center, mounted as part of the original FOCUS initiative in 1974.

Nancy Hellebrand’s photographs of aging women’s bodies lay bare the physical realities of the female form that is often forsaken for youthful allure. Printed in miniature and rendered in deep, rich tones, her images grant these women a dignified beauty.

Program

50 Years of Women as Philadelphia Arts Leaders

May 2024

Philadelphia has a rich history of women leaders in the arts, including all but one of the 10 directors of The Print Center since its founding in 1915. This panel convenes a number of these exceptional women, including Christine Filippone and Ofelia Garcia, to discuss the role of women in the Philadelphia arts community over the past fifty years. Moderated by the current Executive Director, Elizabeth Spungen.