Coinciding with the Lunar New Year celebration on Friday, Feb. 16, 2018 MICA transformed the Brown Center atrium into an exhibition of poster designs from the 2016 Shenzhen International Poster Festival in Shenzhen, China.
Featuring 82 posters designed by international artists and designers, the exhibition is an opportunity to highlight global design culture, and reflects the growing international student body at MICA.
“I was really proud and excited when I heard that my city and MICA would collaborate on a poster exhibition together. That means a lot to me, and I believe my experience in Shenzhen provided me the initial motivation to think about how can I put my cultural experience and graphic design together,” said Esther Jiao ’19, third-year Graphic Design B.F.A. student from Shenzhen.
The exhibition at MICA marks the first time the poster festival has traveled to the United States, following its tour at the University of the Arts in Poznan, Poland. The posters showcase a range of themes and subject matters, from promoting cultural events to sustainability initiatives to social activism.
The initial poster festival in Shenzhen was a competition judged by MICA Graphic Design Chair Brockett Horne, along with Stephan Bundi, Melchior Imboden and Kan Tai-keung, who reviewed more than 2,100 entries from over 40 countries. When the exhibition debuted at the Guan Shanyue Art Museum in Shenzhen in 2016, over 500 posters were featured.
Not only was MICA represented at Shenzhen through Horne, but students from MICA’s undergraduate and graduate programs had poster designs featured in the student competition.
“It was thrilling to not only represent North America judging this international poster festival, but also to see MICA students showing their work with some of the best young design talent in the world,” said Horne.
The selection on view at MICA represents a diverse and international group of designers, including Kumjun Park, Sven Tillack, Brousse & Ruddegkeit, Allain Le Quernec, Sha Feng, Yin Zhongjun, Sui Haoran and Nikodem Pregowski, among others.
The exhibition is on view through Thursday, March 1, 2018 at MICA’s Brown Center.