By Liz Goldner | February 14, 2024
“Material Recovery” combines printmaking with assemblage, collage and sculpture to illustrate the iconography of the Port of Los Angeles in San Pedro, along with images suggesting the waste left there by the shipping industry. The exhibition of 81 pieces by 31 artists—using recycled materials—eclipses the “art for art’s sake” concept; yet, important aesthetic aspects are imbued throughout. The show was created by Lynk Collective, a group of SoCal artists who collaborate on projects and installations, employing printmaking techniques.
The collagraph, relief, monoprint, drypoint and etching prints, in figurative to abstract styles, depict the nearby industrial forms, along with natural and biomorphic images. Curated by Christina Yasmin Fesmire and Jared Millar, the pieces are printed onto reclaimed cardboard, paper, leftover chipboard, plastics, old compact discs, thrift store fabric and wood. The printed pieces, along with complementary sculptures, all created in 2023, present both the benefits and spoils of our industrial society.
The show’s centerpiece is the installation, Container, by Alexandra Chiara, Christina Yasmin Fesmire, Nguyen Ly, Diane McLeod, Jared Millar, William Myers, Olga Ryabtsova Paula Voss and Zana Zupur. The mosaic-style Container is composed of 32 collaged and printed panels on found paper, depicting the vistas, viewed from the nearby Gerald Desmond and Vincent Thomas Bridges, spanning the passageway from Long Beach to San Pedro. At 96 by 192 inches, the piece mirrors the size and shape of the metal shipping containers in the harbor, as seen from those bridges. While visually referencing cranes, bridges, machinery, graffiti, local fauna and flora, the work evokes the maritime world of longshoremen.
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