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but, also is pleased to present our inaugural project, Poster Show, a curated selection of limited edition posters. Poster Show features work by 34 artists from across the country, with the vast majority hailing from Washington, D.C. It will be on view and on sale from February 6- March 13, 2021 at but, also’s temporary space at 3015 Georgia Ave NW, Washington, D.C. 20001 and online at but-also.com till April 30, 2020.
Posters are replicable, inherently expansive in form, and are able to simultaneously reference their commercial and fine art origins. Operating through but, also’s mission to support artists in the invention and sales of “merch,” Poster Show is carving out a small space for these 34 artists to explore what a poster would look like from their individual perspectives. Artists have an extensive history of using the medium to subvert institutional limitations of art, produce editionable prints and products, and work irrespective of the poster’s original designation as advertisement.
The artists in Poster Show showcase a range of ideas in response to the wildly open prompt of “poster” that are critical, fun, inventive, uplifting, and meaningful. Through the lens of a poet, illustrative patterning can transcend the language of a poster to a hybrid document; for a painter a portrait can transform the message or broaden the audience when replicated. Assemblages challenge what a poster can be, while photography engages in a multitude of histories of replication, representations and visual narratives. Bold, text-based posters toy with the origins of advertising and messaging. The accessibility of a poster is the core of both the medium and the project. Embedded into the form, and built into the vision of but, also, the range of work in this first project points to the breadth of art and its potential reach. This is an exploration of “accessible collecting” - not “affordable art,” but art and merchandise made by artists with rich practices of their own, who are engaging in a different form, deviating from their main practice, or leaning into one aspect of it - to make sure they can keep making what matters to them rather than bending their entire practices to the whims of the consumer. The work in Poster Show is engaged, serious, poetic, funny, free from institutional control and working against it. This project loosens the grip of what an exhibition is, and leans into art as a multitude of practices.
but, also’s brick and mortar space on Georgia Ave is host to all the editions produced by the artists in the project, and will be on view by appointment. The space will be adhering to Washington, DC’s Covid-19 protocol. Individual posters will be hung and on rotation in the newly renovated space. The space is a creative respite: for you to be able to view these works in solitude, because you kind of have to. Our inherently funky DC storefront space will be punctuated by the impressive range of poster designs. A chair in the corner for you to imagine living with the work, a plant on a table to make you feel welcomed. A lamp? Yes, we think there will also be a lamp. As the editions are collected they will no longer be available, making the digital archive living and changing as the project progresses.
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