NIU Art Museum hosts Cannonball Press Exhibition

ROOT HOG, OR DIE!
Mike Houston and Martin Mazorra run the explosive Cannonball Press in Brooklyn, N.Y., while working as independent artists. Once called world kings of scruffy pirate black and white hillbilly printmaking, they are among the leaders of a recent revival of the woodcut medium.

Through their mammoth-scale woodcuts and three-dimensional installations, often incorporating performance elements, Mike and Martin present an unabashed voice in their art, said Michael Barnes, NIU School of Art associate professor of printmaking. Their subject matter is steeped in down-home vernacular and popular culture, mixed with a little moonshine and rockabilly. They work with straight forward black-and-white imagery in woodcut and often shun the term fine art dealing with the print in its true democratic form for the people.

For its NIU exhibition, Cannonball Press will explore the boom and bust in the economy, sharing an early American settlers philosophy of work or die.

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