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Work created by visitors hangs on clothesline at "Graphic Liberation!" at Opalka Gallery in Albany, N.Y. The interactive exhibit explores political iconography through workshops. (Katherine Kiessling/Times Union)

Visitors work on their own designs at "Graphic Liberation!" at Opalka Gallery in Albany, N.Y. The interactive exhibit explores political iconography through workshops. (Katherine Kiessling/Times Union)

Stamps of common iconography used in protest images sit at a "Graphic Liberation!" workshop station at Opalka Gallery in Albany, N.Y.  (Katherine Kiessling/Times Union)

Black and white reprints of political posters line the back wall of "Graphic Liberation!" at Opalka Gallery in Albany, N.Y. The posters are easy to remove so visitors can read the imagery's history on the reverse or make copies for their own creations. (Katherine Kiessling/Times Union)

AIDS activist Gran Fury’s “The Government has Blood on Its Hands” poster has been overlaid with immigration imagery by a "Graphic Liberation!" visitor. The exhibit runs until October 29 at Opalka Gallery in Albany, N.Y. (Katherine Kiessling/Times Union)

A Riso printer, used for high-volume commercial printing, sits in the corner of "Graphic Liberation!" at Opalka Gallery in Albany, N.Y. Visitors are encouraged to use the printer and the wall of political poster reprints to create their own posters. (Katherine Kiessling/Times Union)

Example posters sit on a rack at "Graphic Liberation!" at Opalka Gallery in Albany, N.Y. The interactive exhibit explores political iconography through workshops. (Katherine Kiessling/Times Union)

A screen printing plate is loaded at one of the workshop stations for  "Graphic Liberation!" at Opalka Gallery in Albany, N.Y. (Katherine Kiessling/Times Union)

A screen printing plate is loaded at one of the workshop stations for  "Graphic Liberation!" at Opalka Gallery in Albany, N.Y. (Katherine Kiessling/Times Union)

Screen printed abortion rights posters dry next to the screen printing station at "Graphic Liberation!" at Opalka Gallery in Albany, N.Y. The interactive exhibit explores political iconography through workshops. (Katherine Kiessling/Times Union)

Plastic is taped down under the screen printing station for "Graphic Liberation!" at Opalka Gallery in Albany, N.Y. The interactive exhibit explores political iconography through workshops. (Katherine Kiessling/Times Union)

"Graphic Liberation!" at Opalka Gallery in Albany, N.Y. explores political iconography through workshops. The interactive exhibit is kicking off the gallery's 20th season. (Katherine Kiessling/Times Union)

"Screenprinting Biennial," curated by Nathan Meltz with guest jurors John Hitchcock and Mizin Shin, showcases artists using screen printing methods in conventional and unconventional ways at Opalka Gallery in Albany, N.Y. The exhibit runs until Oct. 29. (Katherine Kiessling/Times Union)

"Gone Fishing" by Asuka Oshawa is one of the pieces displayed in "Screenprinting Biennial" at Opalka Gallery in Albany, N.Y. The exhibit, curated by Troy artist Nathan Meltz with guest jurors John Hitchcock and Mizin Shin, runs until Oct. 29. (Katherine Kiessling/Times Union)

Daniel Luedtke's "Heart Fruit" is on display at "Screenprinting Biennial" at Opalka Gallery in Albany, N.Y. "Screenprinting Biennial," curated by Nathan Meltz with guest jurors John Hitchcock and Mizin Shin, showcases artists using screen printing methods in conventional and unconventional ways. (Katherine Kiessling/Times Union)

A close-up of Mary Claire Becker's "Tulipmania: Mosaic Virus," which applies screen printing techniques to vinyl wallpaper. The piece is on display at "Screenprinting Biennial" at Opalka Gallery in Albany, N.Y. (Katherine Kiessling/Times Union)

Blake Sanders' "Anywhere I Lay My Head" is on display at "Screenprinting Biennial" at Opalka Gallery in Albany, N.Y. The exhibit kicks off the gallery's 20th anniversary season. (Katherine Kiessling/Times Union)

Galleries have a Golden Rule: Don’t touch the artwork. Opalka Gallery in Albany is shattering that rule with Josh MacPhee’s “Graphic Liberation!” on display through Oct. 29. The exhibit encourages visitors to not only observe what's on display there, but to touch and also create. 

The interactive exhibit and the fifth “Screenprint Biennial” curated by Nathan Meltz, kicks off Opalka’s 20th anniversary season, which will challenge what a traditional gallery can be.

Judie Gilmore, who on Friday wrapped up her five-year tenure as director of the gallery on Russell Sage College’s Albany campus and will stay on part-time as the special projects director, said the milestone season will consist of 20 experiments, starting with the current exhibits. 

“My vision for the gallery was to really think about it as a very different type of space and to think of it more as a platform for all kinds of activities and programming. It’s still art centric, but I wanted to really flex the idea of what a traditional kind of academic gallery space was.”

“Graphic Liberation!” is a collection and adjoining workshop covering generations of iconography used by activists. A wall of brightly colored protest posters by various artists is adjacent to a work area that encourages visitors to explore the issues they’re most passionate about through imagery.

 “For me, this is also like a political act, to encourage everyone to say there are things that we all don't like in the world that we would like to change,” MacPhee said. “And to not just be receivers of images but be able to create them without feeling like you have to know how to draw or that you have to be a capital ‘A’ artist.”

While spoken and written languages between oppressed groups differed, MacPhee said visual language was universal.

“You could have a group of farmers in southwest India who all raise their fists in the air. Then you can have a group of miners in South Africa who recognize that and see that as the same symbol that they use, and it’s a symbol that goes back to before the French Revolution.” 

Brooklyn-based MacPhee has trained instructors to run “Graphic Liberation!”workshops and guide visitors through its interactive components. Opalka is also collaborating with various local organizations, including housing rights and veteran groups, to bring them in for specialized workshops. The advocate groups will be able to design work about issues important to them and use the Risograph printer — built for commercial printing —to make copies of their posters to distribute throughout the Capital Region.

“It'll be, hopefully, a visual representation about what our community cares about,” Gilmore said.

“Graphic Liberation!” is about this kind of engagement. Black and white prints of iconic social justice posters, like AIDS activist Gran Fury’s “The Government has Blood on Its Hands” poster, hang along the back wall, inviting visitors to take them off, read about the iconography’s history on the back, then make copies to collage and layer. Workstations snake through the exhibit — a table of colorful paper and scraps of poster copies fill a table next to the RISO printer; an overflowing box of symbolic stamps and ink pads sit among blank bandanas and paper; and the two screen printing machines surrounded by plastic are stationed near the exhibit’s entrance, set with a design of pennant flags proclaiming a women’s right to choose. Creating work is a major component of the exhibit.

“I'm nominally the artist, but I'm really the organizer,” MacPhee said. “I'm just shepherding all this material — I didn't make most of it. So I’m more of a conduit than a creator, in a way.”

“Graphic Liberation!” is joined by a more traditional exhibition, “Screenprint Biennial.” Curator Meltz started “Screenprint Biennial” in 2014. Only one other screen printing biennial exists in the world in Tokyo, and the Troy-based artist wanted to bring the celebration of screen printing, his preferred media, to the United States. This year’s “Screenprint Biennial,” with guest jurors John Hitchcock and Mizin Shin, showcases 25 artists imbuing screen printing techniques in conventional and unconventional ways, such as  through 3D sculptures and video. 

“Screenprint Biennial” has been presented throughout the country, including once before at Opalka in 2018. The exhibit returns to Opalka this year before traveling to Mirabo Press in Buffalo.

Where: 140 New Scotland Ave., Albany 

When: Noon to 5 p.m., Tuesday through Friday: Noon to 8 p.m., Thursdays

For more information: opalka.sage.edu/

“It's great to start off in my kind of home base stomping grounds and share my screen printing with the community,” Meltz said.

Opalka is hosting a reception for “Graphic Liberation!” and “Screenprint Biennial” on Friday, concurrent with the return of the gallery’s popular pop-up beer garden. Its full 20th anniversary season will be announced at the end of September.

Katherine Kiessling covers arts and entertainment for the Times Union. The New Jersey native has written for syracuse.com, Central New York Magazine and Charleston City Paper. You can reach her at katherine.kiessling@timesunion.com.