Anastasia Samoylova: FloodZone

Back and Forth: The Space in Between

September 24 — November 13, 2021

The Print Center is pleased to present Anastasia Samoylova: FloodZone and Back and Forth: The Space in Between, a solo show of work by Ivanco Talevski. Originally scheduled for presentation in 2020, the exhibitions were delayed by COVID-19 closures. We are delighted to launch the fall season by welcoming our community back to The Print Center to experience these two impactful and timely shows. 

Anastasia Samoylova: FloodZone

We are honored to be the premier venue in the Northeast for FloodZone, which features photographic works that examine the omnipresent effects of climate change in Miami, by the internationally renowned Samoylova. Through photographs capturing the effects of rains and floods, she sounds the alarm on rising sea levels in all coastal areas, including our very own Philadelphia.

Anastasia Samoylova: FloodZone features large-scale photographic works, complemented by an installation of spreads from her recent publication of the same name, that examine the omnipresent effects of climate change on Miami, Florida. Initiated in 2016, the project, which also encompasses a book published in 2019 by Steidl, is an observational study subtly documenting human impact on the tropical landscape. Through photographs capturing the effects of rains and floods, she sounds the alarm on rising sea levels in all coastal areas, including our very own Philadelphia. It does not present us with the familiar images of climate catastrophe, but instead reveals the traces in the everyday – from corners of dilapidated buildings and pools of stagnant water to sidewalks with battered trees and skylines of upturned billboards. Samoylova masterfully wields the photographic tropes of juxtaposition and reflection to create impactful images that reveal the impact of unchecked commercial development on the environment and its human inhabitants, as well as the indigenous flora and fauna. Selections from “FloodZone” have been exhibited widely, including most recently at the Orlando Museum of Art and the Multimedia Art Museum in Moscow, Russia. 

Back and Forth: The Space in Between

Back and Forth: The Space in Between is the first major solo show in the United States for Ivanco Talevski, known for his exceptional skill and compelling personal iconography. The exhibition maps the artist’s bifurcated existence between his adopted home of Philadelphia and his birthplace, Bitola, Macedonia. The immersive installation of new prints, drawings, projections and sound works investigates notions of memory, history and belonging, as well as the multiplicity of identities a single individual can embody.

Presented in The Print Center’s second floor galleries, the ambitious exhibition is comprised of an extensive group of new works based in the dualities of Talevski’s personal narrative: his childhood in Communist Yugoslavia and his adulthood in the United States, as well as his travels back-and-forth between his homes in Philadelphia and Bitola, Macedonia. Co-curated by The Print Center’s Executive Director Elizabeth Spungen and its Jensen Bryan Curator Ksenia Nouril, this exhibition reflects on how each of these places evoke the sense of home for Talevski. It includes a recent series of drawings, which he projected onto buildings in Bitola and then photographed. He layers and reseats salient graphic motifs: architectural structures, figures, foliage, mirrors and flags. Their amalgamation creates a space “in between,” an imagined community into which the artist welcomes us.