Pick me up 2012

Pick me up is an annual contemporary graphic arts fair held at somerset house (since 2010) that showcases the work of up and coming or popular graphic artists from the UK and overseas.
This being my second Pick me up, I knew what to expect and wasn't surprised by the walls of printed A2 work with the ocasional hand drawn piece dotted about the place. I was equally un-shocked by the possibility of making my very own silk screen t-shirt with a nicely drawn something or other on the front. These are things that happened last time. True, you don't get that at the Tate or the National Gallerie but it's not exactly ground breaking either. Maybe I'm being cynical and not revelling in the popularity of my field (graphic printmaking) like Amelia. She refers to the collection as "a fabulous preponderance of screen prints and risograph images", saying that these methods are beloved because digital imaging is so wide spread. Could print making even be comparable to impressionism as a response to photography? or has it reached the level of being kitch? The techniques used are often fairly old and the visual styles are the same as if they were digitally printed, so what makes them different from that? After all riso prints are basically richer colour digital prints.

I did have a strange feeling half way through the show when I realised I had seen a lot of the pieces before on websites like tumblr and ffffound. I'm not sure exactly how I feel about this. In one way it's a good thing as great work is shared around to people that can't make it to galleries every week. But then, when I go to a gallery I want to see something that I can't find on the internet. Or at least if you can find it, it hasn't got the same quality of image (texture of paint on canvas for example). When all the images are mechanical prints to start with, the digital or book prints aren't far enough away from the originals quality for the original to be worth visiting. The only saving graces are the prints that are done by hand like the few etchings and the single small room of hand pulled screen prints. I think I should just buy the books and not go to the shows in the future. I doubt the images will loose on feeling from being printed in a book and on the off chance that there is one piece that I feel I need to see in person, I can always pop in for it.