Fluid Mechanics is guest curated by Alexandra Riesco, Tandem Press 2025–2026 University of Wisconsin-Madison Graduate Student Curatorial Assistant. During her time at Tandem over the past year, Riesco has familiarized herself with many of the prints created at Tandem Press. As one of her final projects, she was challenged to conceptualize and curate an exhibition, selecting pieces from the Tandem Press inventory and contextualizing them to create a unique statement.
Fluidity is defined as the ability of a substance to flow easily, the quality of being smooth and continuous, or the state of being unstable, likely to change repeatedly or unexpectedly. Artists use fluidity both conceptually and materially to express a range of seemingly contradictory ideas: stillness and motion, serenity and distress, unpredictability and the breakdown of boundaries. The quality of fluidity is directly tied to how liquids behave. Liquids respond to their environment, changing shape to fit their container. They are also transparent, acting as a lens to highlight or distort their surroundings. Beyond how these substances physically behave, different fluids—water, tears, beer, ether, etc—can each carry their own meanings.
Fluid Mechanics features work by local Madison artists as well as selected works from Tandem Press’s inventory, each using or expressing fluidity in different ways. Created in a variety of processes and techniques, including printmaking, sculpture, photography, and painting, these works demonstrate the wide range of ideas and emotions that fluidity can express.
This exhibition includes works by Baran Ataei, Suzanne Caporael, Emma Harris, Dani Hughes, Marie Lorenz, Cameron Martin, Judy Pfaff, Jane Rosen, Alison Saar, and Christian Ulloa.
Alexandra Riesco is an artist and printmaker from Miami, Florida. Her work is heavily influenced by the natural world and the dynamic processes that drive it. After completing a semester-long geology field program, she discovered the parallels between the forces that shape the planet and the slow, physical processes of printmaking. Her interest in the sciences and deep love for the outdoors feeds her practice, which incorporates drawing, printmaking, and papermaking to explore the bodily experience of the landscape, mapping and the geologic record, and the possibilities of a reciprocal rather than controlling relationship with the environment. Riesco received her B.A. in Studio Art and Biology modified with Earth Sciences from Dartmouth College in 2017, where she won the Robert Read Prize and the Artist’s Book Prize. After spending a few years working in outdoor education, Riesco returned to printmaking and has worked as an assistant printer, workshop instructor, and manager of a fine art print publisher. She is currently pursuing a Master of Fine Arts degree in Printmaking from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, where she received the Graduate Research Scholars Fellowship from the School of Education.
