“”How doÿlabels affect how we view others and how we view ourselves?”” artist Kathryn Maxwell asks. In fact, students, professors, and curious community members come to the Joseph Gross Gallery to view this printmaker’s answer. The exhibition of her work, entitled “”Framed by Appearance,”” deals with issues of image, power and personality through her striking prints.

Maxwell, however, had other intentions. Her work is meant to capture the audience- to draw them in and allow them to wrestle with ideas of prejudice and preconception from both sides of the frame.

As the audience ambles around the gallery, a very real example of this becomes apparent. Reminiscent of a pastel version of the carnival photo booth, three-faced cutout frames hang suspended from the ceiling.ÿA different label is inscribed on each side of the frame. As the viewers look throughone side, the observers on the other side see a different adjective: a title applied by an outside observer. The dichotomy of inside-outside labels is one that Maxwell plays with throughout much of her work.

“”Printmaking is always on the wall or thought to be on the wall,”” she said, “”and I wanted to, in some way, represent the idea of inside and outside labels.””

The idea of appearance stretches beyond words and labels, into the physical perception. One expansive example of Maxwell’s work, titled “”Obsession,”” takes up an entire wall.

“”It just looks like a pattern, and like a part of the wallpaper that you could dismiss,”” she said. However, closer inspection reveals eyes, small mirrors and detailed designs scrawled across the space in purples and silvers.

Her goal is to point out that “”there’s no way that you’ll know even the people closest to you in entirety.””

Artists, politicians, advocates, those apathetic and the blissfully ignorant can all find something here that speaks to them.

framed by appearance
kathryn maxwell

Joseph gross gallery

runs through
Feb. 18