When I walked into the Brand X Editions: Innovation in Screenprinting exhibition at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, I expected prints. Flatness. Repetition. Familiar images made reproducible.
What I encountered instead was depth; images that breathed, surfaces that shifted depending on where I stood, and works that could not be consumed at quick glance. These prints were not prints at all; they were living, layered worlds. And in their complexity, I found myself reflecting on the human condition itself.
We, too, are not singular. We are accretions of experience, memory, and desire. And in the hands of Brand X Editions exhibit, screen printing became the perfect mirror for that truth. Ahead, find out what I learned about the exhibit that will run through November 16.
Finding Beauty In Layers
One gallery stopped me in my tracks: multiple walls devoted to Chuck Close’s Self-Portrait. The exhibition displayed not just the finished work but its iterations; the meticulous build-up of more than 91 layers. Ninety-one.
Standing before them, I felt the weight of my own layers. How each year, each heartbreak, each triumph adds another veil of color and another pattern of texture. The portrait wasn’t merely a likeness of Chuck Close; it was a reminder that identity is never fixed, but formed slowly and painstakingly — layer by layer, through accumulation.
Rashid Johnson’s Untitled Large Mosaic gave me a similar feeling. It took more than three years to produce a single print. Three years for something most would assume could be run off a screen in an afternoon. But that is the genius of Brand X. They don’t just print; they experiment and innovate until the work carries the same gravity as the artist’s vision.
The scale of this piece, coupled by its layered complexity, is something I’ve never seen in contemporary printmaking.
The Inspiration Behind The Brand X Editions: Innovation In Screenprinting Exhibition
As I moved through the exhibition, I realized these prints were not about ink and paper. They were about life: its accretions, its difficulties, its surprises.
Brand X’s story reaches back to the 1970s, when its founder Bob Blanton first encountered the possibilities of screenprinting at Styria Studio— the same workshop that produced editions for Warhol, Rauschenberg, and Lichtenstein.
Drawing from Brand X’s legacy, curator Louis Marchesano aimed to inspire the next generation of creators — and to remind us that screenprinting is a medium open to everyone. “I wanted to honor the extraordinary history of Brand X and the incredible technical creativity they brought when working with the most amazing artists of the late 20th century and the 21st century,” Marchesano shares.
He hopes visitors take the inspiration they find here and bring it into their own lives, whether that looks like designing a t-shirt or even a protest sign. Like the layered prints themselves, these acts remind us that being human means constantly layering expression onto our existence and finding ways to leave our mark.
Reclamation And Redefinition
For artist Emily Mae Smith, screenprinting allowed her to deconstruct the way women’s bodies have been flattened in art history and reduced to symbols without agency. By substituting a broom for a feminine figure in her painting Poetry (Toy in Blood), she was able to sidestep old codes and open new possibilities.
“A broom is a tool that is often associated with feminine labor, but also significant in mythology through the implementation of the witch,” she explains, noting that screenprinting is less about what lies beneath and more about what insists on being seen. “For me, it becomes about invisible work, the difficult work.”
It was a gentle reminder to reclaim our surfaces and to allow ourselves to be textured and complicated rather than flattened into someone else’s symbol.
Trusting The Proccess
Jamie Miller, a printer at Brand X, gave me insight into the unseen emotional labor behind the artists’ work.
“Artists are used to working alone in their studios,” he explained to BrownStyle Magazine. “For them to come into an environment— which might seem cold at the start— they’re putting themselves out there. Developing that trust and convincing them we’re empathetic to what their art is, that’s important.”
He continued, “Once we cross that threshold, the creative process really begins. It is printing, but it’s not just printing.”
To learning more about the exhibit, visit: Brand X Editions | Philadelphia Art Museum
Editor’s Note: This story has been edited and condensed for clarity.
By BrownStyle Magazine in Special Editions
72 pages, published 1/17/2025
