University of Maryland to launch rock poster exhibit in Feb.

The union between the museum world and the music world just keeps getting stronger.

On top of the Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art’s “Sympathy for the Devil” exhibit (covered in our December/January issue) and the Smithsonian’s “Recognize” exhibit (covered in our forthcoming February issue), The Art Gallery at the University of Maryland is about to put up an exhibit celebrating the rock poster.

Spearheading the project are printmaking professor Justin Strom and exhibition designer John Shipman, who tells Paste that his exhibit—while certainly not the first—is the largest rock poster show yet.

The exhibition will include about 10 pieces each from 27 artists or groups, almost all of whom will allow patrons to buy posters right off the wall. (Well, they’ll be shipped to you after the exhibit. But still.) Prices range from about $15 to $100.

Oddly, the name of the exhibit is Sweet. Shipman hit on the name while surfing around rock-poster website GigPosters.com. “It seems like every time somebody put up a poster, the first response would be, ‘sweet,’” Shipman says. “I loved it, and it just kept sticking.”

Sweet: The Graphic Beauty of the Contemporary Rock Poster, which is free to the public, will run from Feb. 6 to March 29 on campus at the University of Maryland. The exhibit will be open from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Saturday, and until 6 p.m. on Wednesdays. For more information, call 301-405-2763 or visit the gallery's site below.

Related links:
The Art Gallery
GigPosters.com

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