The homage paid to artwork chosen for the 85th Annual International Competition: Printmaking at the Print Center is both weighty and judicious. This event avoids being one of those shows with picture-packed walls that give your eyes hiccups before you can start looking. Instead, it's a rather small display - 41 works by 25 artists, chosen from more than 1,400 entries submitted by 350 artists. Making the selection were two distinguished curators, Sarah Suzuki of New York's Museum of Modern Art and Emi Eu, director of the Singapore Tyler Print Institute. It's a sophisticated display with noticeable Philadelphia and Brooklyn accents, and strong showings of linoleum cuts and woodcuts.
Front and center just inside the door is especially noteworthy work by two participants. Kakyoung Lee, a Korean-born Brooklyn artist, puts you in mind, momentarily, of those crowded shows with picture-packed walls. Ah, but there's a difference: Hers is an awesome series of 156 etchings in a minute-long video loop of people walking by Brooklyn's Grand Army Plaza crossroads. (The Metropolitan Museum of Art has bought a complete set; etchings from a second set are being sold individually.) A recent Pollock-Krasner fellowship winner, Lee displays an admirably dogged independence, evolving private rules matched to her intuitive pace. The whole series of three sets is done on one frail Plexiglas plate.