We live in an ever changing society, and in 2024 experiences hardly ever stay stagnant. The content we intake, and the art being produced, is dominated by new forms of technology. These technologies hold opportunities for vast innovation, however, at times these changes shut out the circadian experiences that came before. How can we intersect the rituals of the past within current art-making? Print Center New York will be diving into these ideas in their upcoming group exhibition New Voices: Ritual.

Opening on June 6, Ritual, will be on view at Print Center New York’s Jordan Schnitzer Gallery. The exhibition is the second installation in the annual New Voices cohort, an open call artist program intended for US-based artists looking to expand their abilities and add to their professional development through group exhibitions. 

The exhibition will be led by Olivia Shao, the first Burger Collection and TOY Meets Art Curator at the Drawing Center. Shao has organized exhibitions and projects at independent spaces, galleries, and institutions in New York City, Los Angeles, and various spaces in Europe and Asia. This year, the cohort will have six artists participating that were handpicked for their unique artistic styles and individual histories.

The idea of rituals and how they play a role in art-making, dominates this exhibit. Within the US, our cultural landscape continues to expand immensely, and especially within the current climate, change is inevitable. Shao asks the question “How can ritual ground us and help us make sense of the world around us?” 

The six artists in Ritual, Ruben Bryan Castillo, Andrew Gonzalez, Elnaz Javani, Naomi Nakazato, Jonathan Sanchez Noa, and Kate VanVliet, use their unique cultural backgrounds as a reference point for their work, and how their personal rituals fit into the history of printmaking. Combining traditional print media sculpture, fiber, assemblage, and installation, they are able to examine the daily tasks we participate in, diving into the transformation of objects as a reference for repetition, and the lack of rituals we see within society today.  

New Voices launched in 2022, and is an opportunity for young artists to play with their techniques and grow their skills. With a new theme and curator each year, the cohort is able to discover artists from all over the country. While artists do not need to identify as printmakers to apply, they must integrate a form of print into their work. 

Print Center New York is an organization dedicated to the education and appreciation of printmaking. Exclusively focused on the medium, the non-profit uses exhibitions, public programs, education, and artistic development to challenge perception. While rituals exist differently today than in the past, artists in the present day have the opportunity to create new rituals within art-making, through new materials and mindsets portrayed through their pieces. 

‘New Voices: Ritual’ will be on view at Print Center New York’s Jordan Schnitzer Gallery from June 6 through August 24.