Amanda Lebel. Photo: Yaquelin Shephard.
CURATED BY: AMANDA LEBEL
8TH ANNUAL CT PRINTMAKERS INVITATIONAL | WEST GALLERY | AUGUST 15 - SEPTEMBER 14, 2019
As a former participant in the Connecticut Printmakers’ Invitational, I was honored and excited to select this year’s artists. I wanted the exhibition to show the diverse nature of contemporary printmaking through many mediums, contents and styles. This year’s participants are a mix of artists; some more established, and others that are just breaking through, and some of the artists work mainly in printmaking while others work in a variety of media.
Pheobe. Stone Lithograph, 15in. x 22in.
IRENE BEDNARCZYCK
8TH ANNUAL CT PRINTMAKERS INVITATIONAL | WEST GALLERY | AUGUST 15 - SEPTEMBER 14, 2019
My recent work involves creating drawings and prints the way one would find images in the clouds: intuitively and without much planning. Figures come forth from marks and shapes that do not initially hold any meaning and some boundaries are a little fuzzy, just like dreams we try to remember in the morning from the night before.
"Irene Bednarczyk’s lithographs have a dreamy, surreal quality enhanced by her expert use of touché washes. Her spare and rustic colors beckon back to a time rooted in tradition, but her subject matter challenges us to look inward, as well as forward." - Amanda Lebel.
Wellbeing is Our Birth Right. Letterpress print from wood type, 17in. x 11in.
"Emily Larned is a graphic designer who uses letterpress as just one of her chosen mediums. Her works are incredibly topical in 2019, and her use of feminism and social justice as an inspiration is often seen in her art by using historical documents as a jumping off point." -Amanda Lebel
EMILY LARNED
8TH ANNUAL CT PRINTMAKERS INVITATIONAL | WEST GALLERY | AUGUST 15 - SEPTEMBER 14, 2019
I have been publishing as an artistic practice since 1993, when as a teenager I made my first zine. For me, publishing as an art practice involves researching, editing, writing, designing, printing, hand-binding, and distributing. It is an intellectual activity, an aesthetic activity, and a passion project, uniting head, hand, and heart. I have several different publishing projects, and Alder & Frankia is the name of the imprint I use for publications that are (1) collaborations with other artists, thinkers, doers & friends; and/or (2) anthologies and reissues of radical archival material which encourage us to remake our worlds. The alder is a birch tree that flourishes in unexpected places thanks to its symbiotic relationship with the microorganism frankia, which lives in its roots. The alder feeds the frankia sugar, and in return the frankia converts nitrogen into a compound that enables the alder to thrive. While researching the 2017 Alder & Frankia book “Our daily lives have to be a satisfaction in themselves” (documenting 40 years of Bloodroot, the feminist vegetarian restaurant and bookstore in Bridgeport, CT), I spent a lot of time in Bloodroot’s archive at Yale, reading leaflets they sold in their store in the 1970s, 80s, and 90s. I was fascinated — and alarmed — by how much some of the material still resonated today. The works in this exhibition are the first in a series of reissues which amplify and graphically reinterpret historic feminist ephemera. What ideas, strategies, and tactics from the past can we borrow to bring forth a feminist future? Included in this show are unique installation versions of Alder & Frankia pieces that also exist as inexpensive multiples. Net proceeds from Efemmera Reissue #1 will be donated to the Black Women’s Health Imperative, and net proceeds from Efemmera Reissue #2 will be donated to the National Organization for Women.
Morning Paper. Monoprint, 31in. x 44in.
MICHAEL LEVINE
8TH ANNUAL CT PRINTMAKERS INVITATIONAL | WEST GALLERY | AUGUST 15 - SEPTEMBER 14, 2019
Michael Siporin Levine is a visual artist, working in drawing, printmaking, video and installation. Blending autobiography, history and invention, Michael uses a mixture of observation and process to create imagery with open-ended narratives. Through technique and process, he allows an initial idea to change, abstract, and evolve. Using drawing as a foundation he lets process inform decision-making while working in various printmaking techniques, collage, as well as video, animation, and installation. Working with and against a technique encourages his experimentation with the medium, allowing a greater opportunity for chance and discovery to play a role in the process.
"Michael Siporin’s figurative monotype and relief prints are brightly colored and full of texture. They are a part of his “Green Screen” series where lights are projected on the works, in a direct reference to today’s media driven culture. By using such transient techniques, he is able to make statements about the impermanence of imagined, as well as real, spaces." -Amanda Lebel
Drinking From The Fountain. Woodcut, 41in. x 56in.
CHRIS O'FLAHERTY
8TH ANNUAL CT PRINTMAKERS INVITATIONAL | WEST GALLERY | AUGUST 15 - SEPTEMBER 14, 2019
My recent drawings and prints depict teenagers in the suburbs looking for a sense of escape through small house parties and other mischievous behaviors. Drawing from personal experiences, the work is semi-autobiographical, and relies on the combination of memories and imagination to create the narrative. The awkward characters that fill the pictures are constantly in a state of falling in or out of the pictures. With arms flailing into the picture, the characters are often cropped abruptly and in sensitive areas such as their necks or wrists adding to the awkward compositions. The in-consistence and shifting view offers a playful look into a world of binge drinking and strange love triangles. This series was heavily influenced by early 20th century German Expressionist woodblock prints where I found inspiration in the expressive use of black. Soon after studying the works of Kirchner, I began to incorporate this black along with a strong pop element into my own woodblock prints. I was looking to balance humor and horror within the work by conflicting use of bright colors and black. Additionally, the use of decorative cut papers and excessive patterning became a focus.
Winter Reverie Reflected II. Monoprint, 40in. x 28in.
MARGOT ROCKLEN
8TH ANNUAL CT PRINTMAKERS INVITATIONAL | WEST GALLERY | AUGUST 15 - SEPTEMBER 14, 2019
Margot Rocklen began making prints at Carnegie Mellon University, where she majored in Graphic Design. She studied printmaking at the Tyler School of Art in Rome, Italy. Margot is on the arts faculty of Gateway Community College in New Haven. Before beginning her teaching career she worked in the printing and advertising industry. She taught design, illustration and typography courses at Paier College of Art and the Cooperative Arts and Humanities Magnet High School in New Haven. Ms. Rocklen’s printmaking techniques include: monotype, Japanese woodblock, polymer plate intaglio, pochoir, collagraph, and viscosity color printing. Her mixed media work often combines printmaking with drawn, painted, collaged or digital material. She prints by hand or intaglio press. In April, 2019 Margot and four other members of the Printmakers’ Network of Southern New England displayed their work in China, at the University City Art Museum of Guangzhou Academy of Fine Art. In conjunction with the exhibit they conducted lectures and demonstrations at the Academy. In May 2019 Margot’s print Autumn Sequence: Waiting Four was awarded the Weiss Sisters Prize for a Print at the 118th Annual Juried Art Exhibition of the New Haven Paint & Clay Club. Dr. Elizabeth S. Hodermarsky, Sutphin Family Associate Curator of Prints, Photographs and Drawings at Yale University Art Gallery, juried the show. Margot’s style is narrative, with a touch of irony. She uses elements from her sketches and photographs to develop a composition and color palette that reflect her point of view on social and environmental issues. Margot’s objective is to suggest rather than define meaning. It is important to her that viewers recognize the inspiration for a print and why it might be significant.
Envelop. Digital, lithography and monotype, 18in. x 25in.
SARAH SPARKOWSKI
8TH ANNUAL CT PRINTMAKERS INVITATIONAL | WEST GALLERY | AUGUST 15 - SEPTEMBER 14, 2019
The new subject matter I am exploring has helped my artwork evolve tremendously. I now have such an intensity about this work that I feel compelled to explore the idea across all mediums. My subject matter is a commentary on the factory farm industry, zeroing in on the slaughterhouse. I am examining the line between innocence and ignorance, narrative trope and clinical reality, sacrifice and rape. Though my images do not overtly describe these realities, this undefined gray area is the primary driving force behind my work. I add unexpected elements/components to each piece, just enough to throw the viewer off balance. I believe art is more effective when the viewer has to engage with the work rather than being strictly confronted. It is important to remain somewhat elusive in the subject matter leaving the viewer to open up their own relationship with the piece. My work consists of found images of animal organs, skeletal structures and other animal body parts, which I distort in my work. A female human figure accompanied by a halo or crown also takes center stage in my compositions. The figure adds a much-needed quality to balance the other imagery: the ability to create life rather than destroy it. The halo/crown is important to the composition and symbolically represents power or a power we are supposed to trust, respect, and honor. In addition, I overlay a variety of hand drawn elements, such as, symbols, diagrams and mapping to tie the piece together. While imagery is central to my art making, medium also has a significant role on my work. The ability to do a transfer with acrylic gloss medium allows me to create images on different surfaces (paper, wood, metal, plastic, and found objects). In addition, the ability to layer digital images with lithography and monotype allows me to achieve dynamic results. In the future, I want to expand beyond the slaughterhouse and move into all aspects of animal cruelty: bull fighting, animal testing, fur trapping, the general disrespect of innocent creatures. I would hope that my images convey a narrative like a fable; the image contains a lesson, a warning, a conflict or a universal truth. This could happen with prints, or expand into other media such as sculpture, installation, and drawings.
New Territories/Daybreak. Monotype, 20in. x 20in.
DEBORAH WEISS
8TH ANNUAL CT PRINTMAKERS INVITATIONAL | WEST GALLERY | AUGUST 15 - SEPTEMBER 14, 2019
Exploring and bringing attention to the natural world is timely and timeless. As a painter and printmaker I have chosen to investigate the physical and emotional nuances of our environment. My intent is to offer the viewer recognizable imagery, however my techniques intentionally render the location nonspecific. Inspiration/information is continually gleaned from sources as diverse as a panoramic rock- bound vista to the minuscule hatched markings on a tiny mollusk in a salt marsh. Surface markings record this process. Subject matter is not predetermined, it is intuitive and emerges as the process progresses. The work is created from memory of observation, emotion and awareness.
Low Tide. Solarplate, 8in. x 10in.
ANNIE WILDEY
8TH ANNUAL CT PRINTMAKERS INVITATIONAL | WEST GALLERY | AUGUST 15 - SEPTEMBER 14, 2019
These intimate etchings are love letters to the coastal landscape that recall a memory, or evoke a quiet moment in nature, as the weather change or the sun goes down. Offering an opportunity to pause and contemplate the serenity and beauty of the shoreline. I work directly on the unprocessed plate using a variety of tools to create spontaneous and accidental marks that read at the landscape.
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