New Fonts: Text as Art at Gateway Arts

An Artists’ Reception will be held on Tuesday, May 2, 2023 from 12-2pm.
A Closing Reception will be held on Thursday, June 1, 2023 from 5-7pm.

A Statement on New Fonts from curator River Cortes

Language and text can be used in countless ways, even within their usual confines. These artists have elected to include some form of written text in their two-dimensional work, with a variety of results. Sometimes labels enhance the content and composition; sometimes the visual character of the text comprises content of its own; sometimes the text expresses a difficult-to-define impulse unique to the artist.

We often see imagery and text combined within prescribed forms: advertisements, illustrated stories, images labeled for clarity, memes. When an artist works outside these forms, there are pitfalls – the redundant and prosaic on one hand, the maudlin and cliched on the other. Ideally, the artist moves beyond conventional boundaries intuitively but intentionally, opening authentic ground. This is what the featured artists have done.

Gateway Arts Gallery programming is supported in part by a grant from the Massachusetts Cultural Council