Art Metropole will be exhibiting publications from its Distribution and Library Services Programs at this year’s conference of the Art Libraries Society of North America (ARLIS/NA) in Pittsburgh, PA. The conference is an important part of our yearly efforts to place artists’ publications in public and institutional collections around the world.
The theme of the conference is POP!. Intentionally open to a variety of interpretations, the conference planners hope POP! will elicit a sense of playfulness. Of course, it’s a nod to the Pop Art movement which is deeply rooted in Pittsburgh and the greater Ohio Valley. From canonical icons Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein to the first nationally syndicated Black woman cartoonist, Jackie Ormes, the history of Pop is baked into the DNA of the region. More contemporary Pop artists like street artist Jordan Wong, Jenny Holzer, and Keith Haring–all born and raised in the Ohio Valley–underscore that our history and our future are made richer as they become more inclusive and diverse. POP! is a celebration like opening a bottle of champagne but it is also a reckoning as we are compelled to pop preconceived notions. POP! offers the society an open-ended prompt to interpret and explore–it’s a source of renewal, imagination, and expansiveness that begs the question, what sort of future can we create together?