VIJA CELMINS: Prints 1983 to 1985

Celmins's virtuosic prints from 1983–85, employing mezzotint, aquatint, and drypoint to render oceans, night skies, and densely layered celestial imagery.

Why go

This focused exhibition captures a pivotal moment in Celmins's six-decade printmaking practice, showcasing her mastery of multiple techniques and her obsessive rendering of 'impossible images'—unbounded spaces like ocean horizons and star fields that resist specificity.

What to expect

Approximately 15 prints in various techniques (mezzotint, aquatint, drypoint, etching) on paper, including the monumental Strata (1983), made from 25 individual copper plates, and the Concentric Bearings series, which juxtaposes disparate motifs—night skies, airplanes, Duchamp sculptures—on single sheets.

Things to know

• Celmins has been a master printmaker for six decades, first studying the medium in the early 1960s.
• Strata (1983) combines 25 individual copper plates to depict densely packed stars with varying focus and scale.
• The ocean prints derive from photographs Celmins captured in 1969 from a Venice, California pier, carefully cropped to create allover compos
• The Concentric Bearings series brings multiple printing plates together on single sheets to create unexpected juxtapositions.
• In 2002, the Met organized a retrospective of her prints spanning 1962–2002; in 2015, the Vienna Secession presented her complete prints.
• Celmins moved from Los Angeles to New York in 1981 and continues to live and work there.

Plan your visit

Open Tuesday through Saturday, 10 AM to 6 PM. For inquiries, call 212-243-0200 or email inquiries@matthewmarks.com.