The Green Lion Gallery is proud to host a show of Greg Shattenberg’s multimedia work from Nov. 8 through Dec. 8.  The opening  reception for the artist will be Friday, Nov. 8 from 5 to 7 p.m.

Shattenberg’s work — prints, drawings, photographs, graphic typography — defies labels. Critic Carl Little, writing about Shattenberg’s recent show at the Maine Museum of Photographic Art, said “… layered, typographically-rich images using various printing techniques.”  

Greg himself says he works in “mixed media on paper.”  He also says that in his mind he makes drawings, because there is a layer that’s applied to the paper transferring pigment by friction — like with a pencil, but often using many other techniques and media too. 

Words are an important part of Shattenberg’s work, applied by letterpress, by typewriter, by photography, and many other means. They form part of an image that blurs and rearranges boundaries. Are they photographs, prints, drawings or poetry? They are partly all of them, and more. His recent show at the MMPA focused on some of his more photographically-oriented work, and his upcoming show at the Green Lion will highlight work that tends more towards drawings or even paintings — but, as always, very much multimedia, defying a simple label. 

As Shattenberg says: “It is about art and an art experience. Not about me. I am just the person who accidentally makes it. Within experience there is material. There are images and language, it gets processed and can take any form, but hopefully one thing we all can have in common is beauty. And possibly unpredictability.”

Shattenberg moved from the Pacific Northwest to West Paris, Maine in 1981, where he raised a family. He now has a studio in Auburn that houses his presses and associated equipment. He began combining words with drawings early in his career, saying “… it was both dismaying and irresistible to see that language was more interesting than drawing.” Consequently he found a letterpress, a proof press which is still in use along with other presses, printing technology, and many other ways to create an image on paper. Most recently he acquired a lithograph press. And he still draws, too, with fascinating results beyond easy description.

The Green Lion Gallery is located at 104 Front Street.