Greenville Center for Creative Arts (GCCA) in association with the Contemporary Print Collective is excited to announce the opening of the new Community Gallery exhibition, Unmasked. The exhibition features the work of CPC member artists and friends of the CPC, Kent Ambler, Jim Campbell, Steven Chapp, Kevin Clinton, Katya Cohen, Addam Duncan, Marty Epp-Carter, Barbara Ervin, Mandy Ferguson, Phil Garrett, David Gerhard, Luis Jaramillo, Nancy Jaramillo, Catherine Labbe, Shaun McCallum, Vivian Morris, Mark Mulfinger, Jane Nodine, Douglas Piper, Deborah Puretz, Roberta Restiano, Ambrose Rouse, Susan Staggs, Jared Stanley, Freda Sue, Mary Walker, Joel Wilkinson, and Gerry Wubben. The exhibition opens with a First Friday reception from 6:00 – 9:00 pm on Friday, September 2nd and continues until Wednesday, October 26th, 2022. The exhibition will also be open during the First Friday on October 3rd, 2022.

Art can provide an important intellectual and emotional outlet when the artist and the audience face personal and social challenges. After 2 years of an anemic social environment due to a challenging global crisis, privatization has trumped community in many respects. This process has been visually hallmarked by face coverings, which, while vital to public health, also represent the suppression of social interaction contributing to emotional isolation. In Unmasked, printmakers reintroduce themselves to society through self-portraits. Participants were asked to create a self-portrait that is recognizable yet not necessarily realistic. These portraits range in print media, from relief prints of woodcut and linoleum to intaglio and lithography.