Opening reception Saturday, April 18th from 3-5 p.m. CT
BG Projects at the New Harmony Gallery of Contemporary Art proudly presents “The Zine Scene: A Regional Sampler” from April 18th through May 30th, 2026. Curated by Grant DiDomizio, the exhibition features participation from partners -- Maureen Langley (organizer, Bloomington Zine Club,) Prof. Brian Hitselberger of Purdue University (founder, Two Steps Press and Weather Station space,) Prof. David Wischer of University of Kentucky, and Dr. Gregory Blair of the University of Southern Indiana -- this invitational exhibit features work from five entities: Bloomington (IN) Zine Club, Purdue University, Two Steps Press, University of Kentucky, and University of Southern Indiana. The BG Projects will host an opening reception with some artists present on Saturday, April 18th from 3-5 p.m. CT. The reception will be free and open to the public with refreshments provided. Additionally, there will be a panel discussing zines, “Creativity in Self-Published Print Media,” at the Atheneum Visitors Center, 401 Arthur St., New Harmony, IN 47631, on Saturday, April 25th from 3 p.m. This panel will involve exhibiting artists Prof. Brian Hitselberger, Dr. Gregory Blair, and Prof. David Wischer, and is free and open to the public.
On view in the BG Projects, the exhibit delves into the increasingly popular art form of the “zine” -- self-published, small-circulation, and oftentimes non-commercial artist booklets. Traditionally favored for accessibility and ease of reproduction in alternative spaces, the medium has experienced a newfound popularity across college campuses in recent years. This presentation of recent work from Indiana and Kentucky-based artists includes a variety of artistic expression in the medium, from collaborative or student zines made with different printmaking or art supplies, to professionally published work. It pushes against the overwhelming popularity of consuming culture through digital devices, urging resistance to this mainstream through analogue methods of art production and engagement. Special to this exhibit, zine work on view will be available to mindfully touch and look through in the BG Projects gallery.
About Exhibition Partners:
Bloomington Zine Club is an organization based out of Bloomington Fine Art Supply (BFA) in Bloomington, IN. Formed in early 2025, the club hosts free monthly meetings, zine swaps, and artist demonstrations. Open to all, the club is composed of professional artists, student artists from nearby Indiana University Bloomington, and community members with the goal of promoting accessibility to Bloomington’s vibrant art scene. The club publishes a free resource on zine making, a zine library, and a quarterly collaborative community zine “CART,” or “Collection of Art from a Community of Artists,” both digitally and in-person. The club is led by artist Maureen Langley and BFA owner Heather Farmer.
Purdue University Rueff School of Design, Art, and Performance is a unit of the Purdue College of Liberal Arts in Lafayette, IN. The school operates a state of the art theatre, a collection of art/design books and periodicals in the undergraduate humanities libraries, and studios for interior design, ceramics, drawing, jewelrymaking, painting, photography, and printmedia. The Rueff School offers undergraduate and graduate programs in art/design education, film and video, industrial design, studio arts, interior design, music, performing arts, and more. For visual arts, students can exhibit in the Rueff Galleries or Ringle Gallery, and gather inspiration from the Degas Gallery. As a special opportunity, this exhibit feature’s work of Prof. Brian Hitselberger’s design class.
Two Steps Press is the independent publishing project of artist Brian Hitselberger, currently a Professor at Purdue University. Started as an extension of personal studio practice, Hitselberger began to incorporate artist book editions more intentionally into his practice with Counterspell in 2018 for a solo exhibition of the same name. Two Steps Press shifted again towards using the book form as an opportunity for collaboration and exchange with the publication of Slender Intuition in 2023. Within the last 3 years, Two Steps has begun to incorporate the risograph process. The focus of Two Steps Press remains on artist books, exhibition ephemera, and collaborations with other artists, with handmade editions generally in the range of 100-250 copies. Two Steps Press is currently based in The Weather Station, an artist-run project space and collaborative studio, in Lafayette, Indiana, USA.
University of Kentucky (UK) School of Art and Visual Studies, or SA/VS, operates in Lexington, Ky. A unit of the University of Kentucky College of Fine Arts, it has multiple art studios across ceramics, woodshop, sculpture, drawing, painting, photography, printmedia, digital media, fiber, 3D digital fabrication labs, and more. Its undergraduate and graduate programs, including a Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) and Master of Fine Arts (MFA), provide students with opportunities to explore various disciplines including studio art, art history, and visual communication. The school emphasizes hands-on learning in environments like its Bolivar Art Gallery. Related to this exhibit, Associate Professor David Wischer has taught a zine class and hosted a zine club since 2022. These activities let students gain experience mixing inks and printing zines on a risograph printer designed for high volume production.
University of Southern Indiana (USI) Art and Design Department, a unit of the USI College of Liberal Arts, operates from the university campus in Evansville, IN. It has multiple studios for ceramics, woodshop, sculpture, drawing, painting, photography, printmaking, and digital media. The USI Art and Design Department offers a Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Science, and Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) with concentrations in Art History, Graphic Design, Illustration, Interactive Media, Photography, and Studio. The department emphasizes key degree outcomes, including exhibits in the student gallery and exhibitions or fellowships with the USI Art Collection, Kenneth P. McCutchan Art Center/Palmina F. and Stephen S. Pace Galleries, and the New Harmony Gallery of Contemporary Art’s BG Projects. Emphasizing the last point, this exhibit features artwork from Dr. Greg Blair as well as past and current students of his zine class and graphic design class.
New Harmony Gallery of Contemporary Art is dedicated to enhancing the experiences of regional artists and USI students with with the exhibition space in the back gallery. Alongside gallery-curated exhibits, USI students are invited to submit exhibition proposals to BG Projects at NHGCA. Installation, media art, proposals that involve artists outside USI, and more are all encouraged. Through exhibition and curatorial strategies, new possibilities for collaboration and art practice can be envisioned with special mind to students and emergent artists.
New Harmony Gallery of Contemporary Art promotes discourse about and access to contemporary art in the Southern Indiana region.
