On Friday, March 1st, Ashley Stagner’s new exhibit, titled “BIFURCATE – A Selection of Intaglio & Relief Prints,” debuted. The interesting mix of different types of prints and subject matter was a pleasure to see in person, as the intricate details were on prominent display. Some of the more notable images were of carnivals, forests and other landscapes. Most of the prints were small (less than a size of printer paper), but had great composition and showed three-dimensional space in a picturesque manner.

As a young artist, Stagner went to Hamilton College where she studied art. She is ambitious and it shows in her work. In this show, there are mezotints, intaglio prints and reduction prints. The works are all available for sale.

“The prints are beautiful objects of decoration, but also have deeper meaning, which is what makes them incredibly successful. The attention to detail and craftsmanship is fantastic,” senior Cory Berg said. Stagner has created art to live with that can be exhibited publicly as well.

“My favorite print was Grandma’s House because it took a subject that is normally bright and cheerful, instead making it dark and mysterious,” junior Lizzy Blanchett said.

The dark presentation of happy subjects was something I noticed in many of Stagner’s works, but Stagner insists that she is not trying to scare people with her artwork. Some of her work seems to suggest something eery and sinister, but that may be more due to popular culture and scary movies more than anything else.

Perhaps the most notable prints are those of recognizable everyday objects we use for communication, like phones. There is an iconic quality to Stagner’s simple prints, as they make us think by showing us that less is more. Many of her images only use a small fraction of the paper, but that’s because Stagner isn’t trying to be comprehensive. She just wants us to think about what is right there in front of us. Stagner refers to these simple pictures as “loaded objects”, meaning that they have significance outside of their basic function.