Berkeley Times writes up the Light/Dark Show

Untitled Billboards by Jenny Robinson

The Berkeley Times wrote up a 3 page article about the California Society of Printmakers Light/Dark show!

You can download the PDF here: Light-Dark-Berkeley-Times

Filed under: Article, East Bay, Link, Show Review

Anthony Ryan visits SF MOMA’s Shadow Shop

Imen Yeh and Nian Hua Workshop assistant John Watts

This week I visited the Shadow Shop at SF MOMA and became a participant in the “Nian Hua Workshop” a project of the San Francisco based printmaker and conceptual artist Imin Yeh. Those of you familiar with Imin Yeh’s work know that
she embraces an idea of the multiple print as merchandise.She brilliantly accessed
this aspect of printmaking in her graduate school project “Ben Jam” in which she produced 85 woodblock portraits of Benjamin Franklin and sold them for $100 dollars each. In theory the $8500 generated would have obviated the need for her to take out a federal Stafford loan for her degree at California College for the Arts.

This pragmatic, sardonic approach to art production dovetails perfectly with Stephanie Syjuco’s Shadow Shop project, a component of “The More Things Change” at SFMOMA through April 28. Artist Stephanie Syjuco has created a museum store with in the Museum. Functioning as a critique of the commercialization of the museum space (particularly during hard economic times), it s also a way for Syjuco to honor to the Bay Area Artist community that has nurtured her career. The sale of the 200 artists’ wares featured will result in 100% profit for the (local) artists involved. Nian Hua Workshop is a “live project” within Shadow Shop where Yeh enlists visitors to the exhibition be producers of a series of hand colored woodcuts the artist created specifically for the exhibition, images of (invented) beneficial deities for the Chinese New Year (Yeh has first hand experience with the sale of such “auspitious” cultural objects having worked in the store at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco). Far from sharing the glory of the artist’s accomplishment these visitors get a taste of the anonymity of assembly line production (they are assigned a number and given strict directions on how to execute their tasks). Aside from receiving part of the fruit of thire labors in the form of a print these workers do not enjoy the profits of the sale of said objects. Yeh’s ability to work in traditional printmaking forms while using them as a vehicle for her critique of consumerism and the commoditization of cultural difference is an inspiring lesson in the contemporary relevance of printmaking.

Nian Hua Workshop ended February 24 but you can still visit the Shadow Shop
until April 24 at SFMOMA.

Anthony Ryan at the shop

Filed under: Article, From the President, Museum, Products, San Francisco, Show Review

CSP 98th Annual Membership Exhibition: 2011 Alameda Library

The Artists with Exhibitions Chair Gary Comoglio

The California Society of Printmakers’ 98th Annual Membership Exhibition held at the Alameda Library had a wonderful opening show. The above photo shows CSP artists Maryly Snow, Gary Comoglio, Herlinde Spahr and Bonnie Randall Boller. The ladies each discussed their work in the show, themed “A Marriage of Opposites: Love & Hate, Life & Death, Heaven & Hell.” There is a current write-up of the show in The Island, an Alameda newspaper. There are more wonderful pictures from the show on the CSP’s Facebook page. The show runs through January 29th.

Filed under: East Bay, From the Editor, Show Announcements, Show Review, Alameda Library, Annual Membership Exhibition, Bonnie Randall Boller, Gary Comoglio, Herlinde Spahr, Maryly Snow, The Island

Dasiy Eneix’s Museum Visit: San Francisco Legion of Honor’s JAPANESQUE

Tomoko Murakami demonstrates Japanese ukiyo-e printmaking techniques.

 

CSP member Daisy Eneix visited the Legion of Honor’s Japanesque show recently and wrote about it on her blog. She was able to watch a demonstration on Japanese ukiyo-e printmaking techniques by Tomoko Murakami.

Head over to her blog and take a look!

Filed under: Article, Link, Online, San Francisco, Show Review, Blog, Dasiy Eneix, Japanesque, Legion of Honor, Museum, San Francisco

The Tri-City Voice reviewed the Adobe Gallery Show

Adobe Gallery hosts California printmakers
By Julie Grabowski

Originally printed in the Tri-City Voice Newspaper, May 18, 2010

Printmakers share their talents and vision in a new exhibit at Castro Valley’s Adobe Art Gallery beginning Thursday, May 20. “Printing from Perception: Observing Minute Details and Grand Gestures” features work from 63 members of the California Society of Printmakers (CSP) exploring various subjects and techniques using traditional materials.

“Printmaking as an art medium focuses both on extremely old and extremely new methods of producing the end image, a work usually, although not always, printed on paper, small enough to be both intimate and bold at the same time,” says CSP representative and exhibiting artist Lila Wahrhaftig. “It has always been one of the most accessible of all the fine art mediums, both in size and in price compared to painting and sculpture. Each hand done print, whether a monotype or one of an edition, small or large, detailed or sweeping, is an original work of art showing the vision of a particular artist.”

Regina Stadnik delivers a contemporary image of motorcycle and sidecar composed from traditional woodblock prints titled “Ready to Leave,” while Gustavo Mora Perez’s “Untitled” incorporates woodcut, linocut, and photocopy techniques. Susan Trubow uses serigraph (silkscreen print) in her seascape “Evening,” and Kim Vanderheiden employs letterpress (hand-set type), solar etching, and linocut to create “Dissonance of Friends and Neighbors.” Maryly Snow’s “Species” is a concerned composition about the degradation of animals using monotype, a unique printed image that is repeatable.

“The work of our members may incorporate the traditional methods, i.e. woodblock or woodcuts, linocuts, all intagio techniques (etching, engraving, aquatint, etc. all done of a raised plate), colographs (works done on a built-up plate), serigraphs, lithographs, stencils, and letterpress,” says Wahrhaftig. “These may be combined with photo techniques, digital work, hand coloring and drawing, transfer prints, embroidery, collage, and anything else a printmaker artist may find useful, beautiful, and archival.” Some members also create handmade artists’ books, which is a related art form.

Filed under: Show Review, Uncategorized, "Tri-City Voice" "CSP Show", Adobe Art Center

A Visit to the Adobe Art Center by Maryly Snow

The California Society of Pritnmakers recently had a group show “Printing from Perceptions” at the Adobe Art Center in Castro Valley, CA.
The following is from one of the exhibiting artists. -Ed.

I had overheard Cary Comoglio and Mark Welschmeyer extolling the virtues of the Adobe Art Center. That was at one of our Centennial committee meetings. I was curious about the place because I’d never heard of it before. Normally I’d drop my piece off at whomever’s local spot was available, but after years of depending on the kindness of others to deliver or retrieve my work, I decided to check it out for myself.  The internet gave me understandable directions; except for the part about the long wrap-around drive way. After passing a lively game of Bocce ball, I found the place. Humble. Real adobe? Probably.

I confess. Initially I was disheartened. There were partial walls covering the windows. Not my idea of a “professional” gallery. But I was there, piece in hand, nothing to lose, so I dropped off my framed piece, a monotype.

Adobe Art Center

I was unable to attend the opening. However, I made a visit the following week with two friends in tow: a printmaker from Monterey, and a friend who has lots of original art in her house and is a writer and singer, almost an artist, yes?

We were enchanted! We had the place to ourselves. We did not feel self-conscious talking aloud (perhaps the gallery sitter was hard of hearing). In any case, we spent more than an hour walking through the exhibit trying to decipher the media and techniques used in each piece. The non-printmaker among us was captivated by our knowledge, or at least conjectures, about methodology, and we, in turn, were captivated by the mystery of technique. This turned out to be one of the BEST walk-throughs ever!  Why?

CSP Members in front of the authors' artwork.

As we were starting to leave, one of my two friends commented on the display itself, not the individual pieces. We started noticing the various groupings, some by color or frame of theme, and suddenly we saw the individual pieces coalesce into a unified whole. It’s tough to hang group shows that work, but this was another instance of the masterful skilled hanging eye that Gary and his helpers, whomever they are, bring to CSP! Job well done!

Maryly Snow
www.snowstudios.com

Were you at the show? Leave your reflections in the comments!

Filed under: Show Review, Adobe Art Center, CSP Show, Maryly Snow

Hecho en Mazatlán /Made in Mazatlán review

Hecho en Mazatlán /Made in Mazatlán

Museo de Arte, Mazatlan, MX – December 4, 2009 – January 8, 2010
StoneMetal Press, San Antonio, TX – May 8 – June 19, 2010

a review by Grace Andriola Purpura

Glen Rogers is a strong force in the world of art and architecture. A versatile artist as well as master printmaker and teacher, she is a leader in the development of new art forms. In her quest for artistic expression, she has invited artists, both local and international since 2007, to share in the experience of furthering their own personal expression through printmaking in her studio and workshop in Mazatlán, where she now lives. “Hecho in Mazatlán/Made in Mazatlán”, shows the fruits of her labor and that of her workshop participants. A handsome show, it reveals the work of thirty-eight diverse artists from Mexico, the United States, Canada, Australia and Europe. The work ranges from abstraction to realism and shows a full spectrum of the monotype process.

Glen Rogers & Kathleen Pittman at StoneMetal Press

Though unique as a printing medium, monoprinting has existed since the seventeenth century. Degas, Gauguin, Pissarro, Kandinsky and Picasso have all experimented with it.

Monotype (or monoprint) – often called the “painterly print” – is a one-of-a-kind print made by applying ink to an acrylic or metal plate. The plate is then run through an etching press with a damp sheet of paper, transferring the image to paper. Monotype has a spontaneity and freedom that other print processes, such as lithography or etching, do not. You can work in any style – from detailed, traditional styles to looser abstractions, incorporating photography, collage, text, to fine line work. Artists use everything from brushes, fingers, rags, hand-rollers, and stencils to achieve a multitude of textures and looks.

Filed under: Article, Show Review, Glen Rogers, Grace Andriola Purpura, Made in Mazatlan, Monoprint, Monotype

Block Party: California in Relief, prints merge art, history, politics

By DeWitt Cheng

Relief printing is simple —everyone knows the potato print— but woodblock prints and moveable type made modern science and the modern world possible. Prints, pamphlets and broadsides, easily reproduced and disseminated, were the blogs of the pre-industrial era. This exhibition of approximately a hundred relief prints follows the development of modernist styles in California over the past century. Curated by Art Hazelwood (who assembled the concurrent From Hobos to Street People at the California Historical Society), California in Relief (which borrows its name from Richard Wagener’s 2009 woodcut book) illuminates left-coast politics and history as well as esthetics.

Richard V. Correll, linoleum cut, 9 7/8″ x 15 1/8″, 1943, collection of the Hearst Art Gallery, college purchase, 2006

Filed under: East Bay, Show Review, Art Hazelwood, California Labor School, DeWitt Cheng, Graphic Arts Workshop, politics, relief, woodcut