The Rubin Center for the Visual Arts is hosting “A Piece of Our Mind,” an exhibit that showcases the poster works of graphic artists Joe Scorsone and Alice Drueding.
“Most of our work focuses on sociopolitical and environmental topics.
“Sometimes we aim to raise awareness of an issue, other times we want to generate new interest in a familiar subject,” Scorsone and Drueding said in an email interview.
The 47 posters in the exhibition speak about hunger, the environment, immigration and human rights using humor, irony and the power of visual literacy, according to the Rubin Center website.
“Scorsone and Drueding utilize the accessibility of the poster and the power of visual literacy, irony and humor as a vehicle to contribute to a critical discourse in a deeply divided time, both socially and politically,” the exhibit description on the website states. “The widespread impact of the wit and profundity of these works on the viewers lingers long after they are experienced, and it also teaches us about the enduring influence of visual culture throughout changing times.”
In one of their pieces, a fish – half flesh and half skeleton with the word “CO2” on it – portrays how carbon dioxide kills life on Earth. Another piece shows a bird with the point of a pen instead of its usual head, making a point about freedom of speech.
Scorsone and Drueding have been designing posters together since 1986, according to the Rubin Center website.
“At the suggestion of Professor Anne Giangiulio, a former student of ours who is familiar with our work, we were asked by UTEP if we would be interested in exhibiting our work there,” the artists said. “As former teachers, we like the idea of exhibiting in university museums and galleries where the work will be seen by people of different ages and areas of expertise and interest.”
Scorsone and Drueding’s award-winning work has been shown in multiple exhibitions and publications around the world, as well as some permanent collections.
The exhibit opened Jan. 24 and runs through April 12.
The artists will be at UTEP the second week of April to judge graphic design categories for the 2019 Annual Juried UTEP Student Art Exhibition, according to Rubin Center Director Kerry Doyle.
For information on the artists, visit www.sdposters.com. For information on the Rubin Center and its exhibitions, visit www.utep.edu/rubin.
