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Jennifer Manzella – “Under the El Front and Master” copper etching, 9” x 9”, 2019,

Jennifer Manzella  – “Under the El Front and Master” copper etching, 9” x 9”, 2019,

I’m an artist who works mainly with printmaking; drawing and photography are often a large part of that process. Because of my experience living in many different types of environments, including several major cities in the northeast as well as thru hiking the Appalachian Trail in 2003, I find that the focus of my prints is about observing landscape, land use and the conflict within those scenes. I depict landscape in my prints but I enjoy the translation of imagery through the process of printmaking. My practice is really centered on this process of translation, which offers unpredictability, technical problems, and happy accidents.
This series of prints features tiny copper etchings; small isolated landscapes that depict empty building lots throughout the city of Philadelphia. This is a two and half year project that was initiated in the fall of 2016. I started photographing and creating sketches of these wild urban spaces that exist in forgotten lots and old structures; tiny ecosystems filled with weeds, feral cats, trash and occasionally a community garden. Some of these lots had been cared for and become green spaces within these marginal neighborhoods while other lots are representative of years of neglect. At this time I noticed that these empty green spaces were disappearing quickly as real estate prices were skyrocketing and developers were filling the spaces with high priced townhouses and commercial properties. The result is a rapid rate of gentrification in North and South Philadelphia neighborhoods. This series of prints forms a portrait of the transitioning city landscape that is not unique to Philadelphia but represents a larger trend in urban real estate that favors profit over the need for living green spaces.

Skills

Posted on

March 30, 2020

Skills

Posted on

March 30, 2020