During DWNTWN Art Days, 2015, artist Nick Gilmore will print the streets of downtown Miami as blind-embosses which will be exhibited as Paper Pavement at Turn-Based Press. The artist will be live-printing the work during mid-day Friday, September 11, and the exhibition will open Friday evening at 7 PM.
Paper Pavement tells a story of history and the future, the passage of time, the urban underfoot.
A steamroller navigates within the boundaries of a major commercial development zone, printing paper impressions of the streets along its path. Crumbling asphalt, utility covers, traffic signals, cement patchwork all characterize the area and its history in a way mostly ignored; easily disregarded. The impressions will tell the narrative of the place as it exists that very moment. A rutted road or cracked sidewalk takes on a different presence when transferred into a form embossed into paper. This Paper Pavement is displayed as a record and reflection of a city on the cusp of transformation.
Nick Gilmore is a sculptor, and an adjunct professor of printmaking at FIU.
A satellite presentation of Paper Pavement will be on view at the Miami Center for Architecture and Design, also opening Friday, September 11, 2015. MCAD serves as the welcome center for DWNTWN Miami, and will be the Miami Downtown Development Authority‘s headquarters during DWNTWN Art Days this year.