National Non-Toxic Printmaking Invitational

Barbara Elam

Barbara Elam is an assistant professor in printmaking and photography at Rockford College in Illinois. She received a BFA from the University of Texas at Dallas and an MFA from East Texas State University. Solo exhibitions have been held at Irving Art Center, Texas; University of Dallas; Emison Art Center Gallery at DePauw University in Greencastle, IN; and the Bunting Institute of Radcliffe College. Among her many group exhibitions are the Los Angeles Printmaking Society, Rare Prints at the Fogg Art Museum of Harvard University, and American Printmakers at the Print Club in Philadelphia. She has been a Visiting Artist at Boston University, University of Oregon, and Illinois State University, as well as a Bunting Fellow at Radcliffe College. Her work is in the collections of the Fogg Art Museum at Harvard University, the Indianapolis Museum of Art, among others.

Barbara Elam’s work is mysterious and elusive, exploring the meaning inherent in art’s presentation of women. Her exhibition catalogue explains, “Her monotypes are cleverly layered images that can be suggestively provocative and absorbing....These works depict a rational space that is undercut by Elam’s employ of mirrors and reflections....These women almost fill the confines of their mirrors and in a way seem trapped within them, imprisoned in a highly decorated cage...Our employ of the mirror to gaze at these women considers the transgressive nature of the voyeuristic gaze....The mirror serves as a metaphor for art, for its tendency to frame things, to provide a certain declaration of truth while still leaving much ambiguous.”