ROUX
In 2011 the artist collective ROUX was formed as part of the inaugural exhibition series PrintHouston. ROUX contributes to the discourse of contemporary printmaking by using traditional and experimental methods while highlighting the diverse art practices of Rab?a Ballin, Ann Johnson, Delita Martin and Lovie Olivia. These four artists? works navigate between styles of the past and the proposed future and addresses experiences unique to Women of Color residing in the American South. These four artists not only embrace and challenge drawing conventions in medium, surface and concept but apply unusual approaches to the process and ingredients of printmaking. Identifying as installation, video, mixed media artists, sculptors and painters as well, they make the common voyage ? once a year - to the arena of Printmaking. The four are intrinsically invested in a dialogue with print, pattern and mark-making; both two dimensionally, as well as, taking these marks, line, erasure / transparency, memory and process, off the page to flirt with a three dimensional environment. From digital plaster fresco to traditional works on paper to more organic approaches like printing on feathers, glass and fabrics, the works summon an ingrained dialogue with the historical and formerly domestic spaces.