At a conference in Detroit over the weekend Mary Manusos received the award for Outstanding Printmaker of the Year.
Printmaking, which may best be known from the pop art icon Andy Warhol, is the recreating of images of everyday objects. Mary Manusos, a professor emeritus at Ohio University, took this concept to the architecture of Latin America.
Manusos was honored at the 2014 Mid-America Print Council Biennial Conference as the National Award Recipient Outstanding Printmaker of the Year in Detroit over the weekend. The award is given to prominent artists in the style of printmaking, which aims to copy images in a new, original way.
She has been a professor at Ohio University since 1972 and has been printmaking since the ’60s, recreating images on paper and other mediums that capture the architecture from her travels in Latin America.
“I decided very young that what people left behind was their memorial to their culture,” she said of the abandoned buildings she depicts. “The things that are left behind are very important. … I think about that often when I’m working.”
All of her prints are on paper she makes herself; she manipulates the textures of the paper to correspond with the piece.
“The images I make are my reality,” Manusos said in her artist statement. “When I am in my studio, that paper, ink and paint I work with feel parallel to my existence.”
Her work is a part of many public collections — most notably in the the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. Her work has been displayed in more than 250 exhibits in the United States, as well as several abroad.
She found out that she was receiving the award in March, when she was asked to put on an exhibition at the conference, as well as deliver the keynote speech.
“It means a lot that they’ve picked me, and that they appreciate my artwork for being special and unique,” Manusos said.
The award has been given out every other year since the conferences’ inception in 1994. Manusos is the 10th person to receive this award.
Richard Wilhelm, faculty member in human and consumer science education, said it’s important that these distinguished professors are highlighted for their accomplishments.
“She’s an example of what greatness is at Ohio University and in education,” Wilhelm said.
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