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major mission of the MidPoint Music Festival is to draw attention to the region’s creative community, and 2010 has a new offering: the MidPoint Poster Expo, focusing on contemporary music and event posters, mostly with limited print runs. Many of the posters are silkscreened by hand, but other applications will be on view as well.
In many ways this expo represents a revival of the 1960s era of silkscreened posters, which actually is enjoying a renaissance in Cincinnati. Despite more marketing happening online than in print, today the poster is as important as ever. People just love to look at them.
The MidPoint Poster Expo will be on display in the lower level of Know Theatre of Cincinnati, 1120 Jackson St., Over-the-Rhine. It’s free and open to the public.
Helping to organize the exhibition is Brian Bergen of Powerhouse Factories in Newport Kentucky His firm is a “go to” design group, creating posters for concerts all around the country. A quick glance at their portfolio shows off work for artists like Wilco, Spoon, The Black Keys and OK Go!.
Powerhouse Factories has long participated in Flatstock, a series of poster conventions held at various locations around the world by the American Poster Institute. First organized in 2002 via an Internet message board, Flatstock attracts thousands of visitors at South By Southwest, Pitchfork, Bumbershoot and other notable music festivals.
Bergen says MidPoint could attract similar attention here in Cincinnati.
“There will be a Flatstock exhibition happening in Hamburg, Germany, at the Reeperbahn Music Festival during the same days as MidPoint,” he says. “We believe in the concept and its organizers. We want to see this poster expo grow into one of the ‘can’t miss’ events of the summer. It has the potential to attract even more great artists, musicians and fans to the area.”
The MidPoint Poster Expo will display work from Powerhouse Factories as well as FNHarsh (Dayton, Ohio), Southpaw Prints (Cincinnati) and Warnick Art (Cincinnati).
