
Beyond the Great Eclipse: 1000 Riot
2009
Beyond the Great Eclipse: 1000 Riot draws the eye into a charged field of layered marks, where Arceneaux deploys the photogravure etching and aquatint process to build a surface that feels simultaneously archival and alive. The work's title anchors it within the artist's broader fascination with historical rupture and collective memory, and the printmaking medium itself becomes conceptually resonant, a technology of reproduction pressed into service for ideas about repetition, mass action, and the way events leave traces across time. The rich tonal range achievable through direct-to-plate photogravure allows Arceneaux to compress imagery and texture into a single plane, generating visual density that rewards sustained looking. Arceneaux, who emerged from the Afrofuturist and conceptually rigorous Los Angeles scene, consistently works across media to destabilize linear historical narratives, and this print distills that ambition into an intimate but commanding format. At 63.5 by 44.5 centimeters, the work operates at a scale suited to close encounter, pulling the viewer into its internal logic rather than overwhelming the room. Produced in a limited edition of forty and signed by the artist, it carries the credibility of a carefully considered object rather than a peripheral gesture. Published by Paulson Fontaine Press, a studio with a distinguished track record of working alongside artists for whom the print is a primary site of inquiry rather than an afterthought, the work benefits from rigorous technical execution that honors the complexity of Arceneaux's source material. For collectors interested in the intersection of political history, image theory, and printmaking craft, this piece represents a substantive and historically grounded acquisition.
- Medium
- Direct to plate photogravure etching and aquatint
- Sheet
- Signed
- Yes
- Location
- Paulson Fontaine Press, Berkeley, CA
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