“SOMATIC PAUSE”: The Arts Council of Princeton adds to their public art presence in Princeton with a new mural on the corner of Spring and Witherspoon streets. Designed and installed by ACP’s current artist-in-residence Dave DiMarchi, it is a large-scale adaptation of DiMarchi’s exploration in collage-style printmaking, painting, and digital techniques.

The Arts Council of Princeton (ACP) unveiled a new community mural recently in downtown Princeton titled Somatic Pause. Designed and installed by artist Dave DiMarchi, this immersive, multimedia public art piece can be found on the side of Village Silver on Spring Street.

Fashioned after both the artist’s workspace and print editions he created during his current ACP Anne Reeves Artist-in-Residency, Somatic Pause invites Princeton to contemplate the transformational power of rest, and how time changes each of us.

Somatic Pause — a wheat pasted, painted, and collaged installation — is an ephemeral one. Meant to change over time, the mural will be exposed to harsh winter weather, early spring rains, and glaring sun, each doing its own work to fade, soften, tear, and mar its surface. Change is the constant.

DiMarchi is a queer, multidisciplinary printmaker and artist working in printmaking, papermaking, and sculptural book forms. He engages in a relentless material practice, nurturing ideas into singular and editioned works. As a multidisciplinary artist, he has exhibited works on paper, installations, and books in the U.S. and internationally. He maintains a small collaborative studio and art space in New Hope, Pa., and teaches printmaking, papermaking, and book forms extensively throughout the New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania area. This fall, he was chosen as the ACP Artist-in-Residence, which will allow him to continue to explore collage-based multimedia and print works. View more of his work at @9inhandpress or 9inhandpress.com.

This is the ACP’s eighth rotating mural on Spring Street. In July of 2020, when most of town was shut down due to COVID-19 regulations, the Arts Council team painted their first mural in this location, Stronger Together, as a message of support and solidarity. Since then, the rotating approach has allowed the ACP to showcase local artists, making Spring Street a new destination to enjoy colorful and thought-provoking public art.

DiMarchi’s work will be on view on Spring Street until spring 2023, when a new mural will take its place.

For more information, visit artscouncilofprinceton.org.