The Pull: The Past, Present and Future of Printmaking
Curated by Dave DiMarchi and Elizabeth Massa
On view: Nov 15 – Dec 10
Opening: Sat, Nov 15 | 3-5pm
Printmaking workshops in conjunction: details coming soon
Exhibition statement:
The Pull is the pulse of contemporary printmaking in its past, present, and future, as told through the practices of more than twenty working artists. Printmakers, teaching artists, and master printers reflect on these three moments in time, choosing to exhibit works from their personal archives, collections, or students. As part of this exhibition, and to engage viewers in a variety of ways beyond the walls of the gallery, there will be a reading table featuring handleable zines, artist books, and printed ephemera.
The Past: Where, when, and how did your practice as a printmaker begin? Is there work in your personal archive or collection that speaks to your roots as a printmaker?
The Present: Where is the pulse of printmaking right now? What is your position in the world of contemporary printmaking? The work you choose as “The Present” may be from your current practice, your students, or your collection – anything that reflects the current state and vitality of the field.
The Future: Perhaps the most ambiguous of the three, works selected as “The Future” seek to answer the unanswerable: what lies ahead for printmaking? This may include works from your current practice, unresolved pieces in progress, student works, or prints that hint at a new direction – exploratory, fresh, and full of possibility.
Unlike the immediacy of paint on canvas, hands shaping clay, or the shutter-click of a camera, printmaking is often a slow, deliberate process, built on relationships with stone, screen, metal, glass, and wood. Many of the works on these walls are but traces of the physical, mental, and emotional labor that goes into their making. This is the Pull that keeps us returning to the press and the print studio, time after time. As an indirect medium, printmaking often removes the artist’s hand entirely from the final impression; the print becomes the result of countless hours of work, technical mastery, and editioning, all absorbed into each sheet of paper.
This exhibition was born from that understanding. Like all artists, printmakers approach their craft through the lenses of process, concept, and practice. The Pull highlights not only the “how” of printmaking but also the “why.” Why are we drawn to print? What compels us to make marks, drawn, scribed, inked, scratched, brushed, and to communicate through these distinct gestures? The works here speak to each artist’s relationship with printmaking: their language, their rhythm, their why.
Finally, this exhibition celebrates the community of printmakers engaged in an ongoing dialogue about process and practice. For centuries, printmaking has been a communal art form, centered around the press – a shared tool too large or costly for most to own alone. Printshops have long been spaces of exchange: imagery, storytelling, technique, and time. They have welcomed collaboration among Master Printers, Teaching Artists, and makers of all kinds, painters, sculptors, designers, and experimenters alike. As we move further from analog processes, we ask: how do we, as printmakers, continue to sustain The Pull of traditional printmaking?
The artists:
Brett Lysne: @brett.lysne, brettlysne.com
Brett Taylor: @pt_press, bretttaylorprints.com
Myles Calvert: @squirrelpigeonfish, squirrelpigeonfish.com
Aaron Krach: @aaron_krach, aaronkrach.com
Brent Nakamoto: @mr.brentnakamoto, brentnakamoto.com
Henry Gepfer & Kit MacNeil: @henrygepfer & @kit.macneil
Angela Pilgrim: aplgrm, angelapilgrim.com
Ruben Castillo: @rubenbcastillo, rubenbcastillo.com
Michael Baum: @michaelbaumstudio, michaelbaumstudio.com
Kate VanVliet: @kvanvliet, @byoprint, katevanvliet.com
Josh Dannin: @joshdannin, joshdannin.com
Daniel Luedtke: @dnmldaniel
Sage Perrot: @haypeep, haypeep.com
Leslie Friedman: @lesliepvd, lesliepvd.com
M. Willie Garcia: @Matthewwilliegarcia, matthewwilliegarcia.com
Kath Yarkosky: @kyarkosky, yarkoskykl.com
Gary Lichtenstein Editions: @garylichtensteineditions, gleditions.com
Beth Sheehan: @sheeprints, sheeprints.com
Paula Horrigan: paulahorrigan.com
Brian Wagner: @hedgebitch, hedgebitch.com
Eric Avery: docart.com
Edie Overturf: @eoverturf, edieoverturf.com
Kaleena Stasiak: @kaleenastasiak, kaleenastasiak.com
Judith Brodsky, Brodsky Center at PAFA
