There is something quietly powerful about a print that refuses to repeat itself.
In Cascade (How will you know where to go?), Verified People of Print Member Aaron Pennington presents a series of two-plate aquatinted line etchings in a variable edition of twelve. Each print features the same architectural image: a grated window seen from a first-person viewpoint. Yet no two impressions are identical.
The structure is held steady in etched line. The window remains fixed, rigid, defined. But behind it, the sky shifts. Each impression carries a unique split-fountain gradient, moving from cool to warm, sunrise to sunset. The result is a body of work where permanence and impermanence sit side by side.
The viewer stands outside the window. The scene becomes both barrier and portal. A threshold. A question.
Pennington’s practice often engages with systems as a way of locating personal meaning. In this series, the variable edition becomes central to that enquiry. While the etched plate remains constant, the ink transitions differently with each pull. Light is translated into colour. And colour refuses to stabilise.
“At sunrise and sunset, spaces hold colour for only a few moments before it dissolves. I’m interested in how those fugitive experiences can sit against something rigid and architectural.”
The grated window stages that tension. A stable structure absorbs the fleeting tones of the sky. The gradient becomes an emotional register laid across steel lines. What is solid remains solid, but perception shifts.
Much of Pennington’s work features mirrors or windows as symbolic devices. They function as portals, asking what happens when we look in order to locate ourselves. In Cascade, the question becomes directional. How do we orient ourselves when the light is constantly changing?
“The variable edition feels honest to the way we experience place. We return to the same structures over and over, but the conditions are never the same. Each moment casts something different onto what we think is fixed.”
Printed as a two-plate aquatinted line etching, the edition embraces the discipline of intaglio while allowing space for variation. The split-fountain technique ensures that each print carries its own atmosphere. No impression can be replicated exactly. The architecture anchors the composition, but the sky refuses permanence.
Aaron Pennington is an artist, printmaker, and educator from North Carolina. He received an MFA from ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena and a BFA in Printmaking from the Maryland Institute College of Art. His work has been exhibited across the US and internationally, including at the Boston Center of the Arts, Claremont Graduate University, and HVW8 Gallery Berlin. In 2025, he presented the solo exhibition Your Distance at Central Server Works in Venice, CA, and was included in Expanding the Field; New Ideas in and Beyond Print at the Triton Museum of Art in Santa Clara.
With Cascade (How will you know where to go?), Pennington pairs fixed line with shifting light. The edition becomes a meditation on direction, perception, and the way fleeting moments shape our understanding of place.
Website:
https://aaronpennington.com
Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/unforbidden.cashmere
As a Verified People of Print Member, Aaron Pennington is part of our global network of artists committed to expanding the field of contemporary print through thoughtful experimentation and material enquiry.
Want to know more about our membership? Give us an email at members@peopleofprint.com.
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