It’s a transfixing stare, made more intense by the medium. A woodcut hearkens back to an earlier time — and, in German Expressionism, an earlier mode of expressing anxiety. But Allan Greenier’s much more modern piece makes a strong case for the old medium’s abiding ability to create arresting art. He also gives it an interesting spin, in that the face in the picture is that of Boris Karloff, best known as the monster in 1931’s Frankenstein.
This mixture of cultural touchstones and concepts appears throughout “Prints from the Underground,” a show of works by artist Allan Greenier running this month at the Mitchell Branch Library in Westville. “Allan Greenier has been a printmaker since 2010. To put ‘bread on the table’ he enjoyed two careers: 20 years as a pre-press employee in printing companies, and 30 years as a software developer. Both careers inform his printmaking practice,” Greenier writes in an accompanying statement.
He offers another angle on his pieces as well: “As a younger man Allan wrote, drew and published ‘underground’ comix. He continues to publish zines and prints as The Useful Knowledge Press. He enjoys all printmaking techniques — wood engraving, woodcuts, etchings, silkscreens, lithographs and monotypes. He likes to combine these techniques.”
