Past Exhibitions
"10" Zea Mays Printmaking's 10th Anniversary Portfolio: 3/19/10 - 4/20/10
Half a World Away: 3/19/10 - 4/20/10
Cathy Osman: Reservoirs: 2/12/10-3/13/10
Fuzzy Logic: Drawn to Print: monoprints by Esther S White and Pam Crawford, with Joyce Silverstone: 1/8/10-2/7/10
Annual Members Exhibition: 11/13/09-12/24/09
Printed Pairs: 10/1/09-11/9/09
Selected Work from the Archive: 7/1 - 9/30/09
Prints by Mark Zunino, Anna Lee Lipman and Arielle Marks: 5/23 - 6/27/09
Out-of-Print: 4/4/09-5/2/09
Touching Space (Flow): 1/27/09 - 2/27/09
Imagined Space: Joan Dix Blair and Sarah Blackwell: 12/5/08-1/11/09
2008 Archive Exhibition: Imbroglio: 7/1 - 9/15/08
Grabados de la Habana:
Cuban prints from the collection of Steven C. Daiber and Jacquiline A. Hayden: 5/20 - 6/27/08
Visual Fields: Nancy Van Deren, Sarah Creighton, Erika Radich: 4/8 - 5/9/08
Interpreting Nature: Neil Brigham, Tracy Ducasse, Kate Jenkins: 3/1 - 3/30/08
Stephanie Cramer: Painter as Printmaker: 1/8-2/17/08
Annual Members' Exhibition: 11/6-12/10/07
BookMarks ZMP: 9/11-10/26/07
Innovative Processes: 5/25-6/29/07
Unique Transfers: Juried Monotype Exhibition: 4/6 -5/18/07
Images of Growth: 3/1-29/07
Fine Lines and Shadows: Victoria Burge and Nancy Diessner: 1/12-2/16/07
Alex Chitty and Lynn Peterfreund: New Prints: 12/8/06-1/8/07
Annual Members Exhibition: 11/8-22/06
Below The Surface - Juried Intaglio Exhibition: 9/8-10/28/06
Germination: New Work by Liz Chalfin and Alison Williams: 6/20-7/21/06
Reflections: Collagraphs by Diane Kazar Worth, and Relief Prints Invitational: 4/21-5/31/06
Folklore Arena: Prints by Aaron Piziali, and Solar Plate Prints: And Invitational Portfolio: 3/10-4/14/06
Meredith Broberg, "Matters" and Margaret Jean, "Spaces": 1/20-2/28/06
Third Annual Artist's Books Exhibition: 12/2/05-1/13/06
Two-Way Mirror
May 7 -June 18, 2010
Victoria Burge, Iowa, photopolymer
An exhibition of contemporary prints selected from the Zea Mays Printmaking Flat File along wtih New York artists curated by David Gibson, Article Projects, New York City, New York.
Featuring prints by Joan Dix Blair, Meredith Broberg, Victoria Burge, Anne Burton, Victoria Calabro, Amy Chaiklin, Peggy Cyphers, Anita Hunt, Louise Kohrman, Jolynn Krystosek, Lillianna Periera, Joyce Silverstone, Claudia Sperry, Fumiko Toda, Nancy Van Deren, and Carolyn Webb.
"10" Zea Mays Printmaking's tenth anniversary portfolio
3/19/10 - 4/20/10
Half a World Away
3/19/10 - 4/20/10
Zea Mays Printmaking and Wharepuke Print Studio (Kerikeri, New Zealand) are co-exhibiting a selection of prints from our respective studios. Although separated by half a globe, both studios have a dedication to safer, non-toxic and sustainable printmaking practices. This exhibition showcases the work of thirteen New Zealand artists who are committed to green printmaking. (the entire exhibition from both continents will be on view at A.P.E. in Northampton, May 2010).
Kathy Osman: Reservoirs
2/12/10-3/13/10
This body of work is loosely based on elements, which suggest blood flow, aquatic life, chain reactions and the teeming life of a microscopic world.
I use the collagraph print process combined with repeated overprinting using monoprint, stencils and hand painting. Each piece of the grid is printed on a small press. I continuously rotate the individual plates, a process while frustrating is also exhilarating. Chance and the recognition of a cohesive whole are dynamic strategies in these prints.
Fuzzy Logic: Drawn to Print
1/8/10-2/7/10
Annual Members' Exhibition
Once a year we install an exhibition of works from our members. This year's annual exhibition features twenty-eight prints showcasing what's been happening in our studio this year. The prints range from representational to abstract and include etchings, monoprints, relief prints and photopolymer intaglio prints.
Printed Pairs
10/1 - 11/8/09
T. Ducasse, "Koi"
Experience allusions of cooperation, repetition, reproduction, and movement in
Zea Mays Printmaking’s exhibition, Printed Pairs. This original show, curated from the Flat File Project by Zea Mays Printmaking Interns, Elena Betke-Brunswick and Megan Klazura, was created to show all the shapes, sizes and ways two things can be put together. Two fish dancing in a whirl of swirls, symmetry of a living body: two hands, two paws, shared experience of siblings, and pools of balanced reflection, are complete pairs in this exhibition.
Selected Works from the Archive
7/1/09- 9/30/09
Zea Mays devotes the summer season to expanding the knowledge of many different non-toxic printmaking techniques through a variety of workshops. Students of all levels and interests come together in the studio during these classes, resulting in a very diverse body of work.
Selections from the Archives, Zea Mays’ summer art show, brings teachers, students, studio members, and visiting artists together in one space. Carefully selected and curated by studio interns Leslie Dorcus and Alexis Estrella, Selections from the Archives represents a broad selection of work created at the studio. Although each piece has a strong individual essence, the space offers a venue for each to come together, creating unique and unexpected relationships.
These works act as a representation of the unlimited possibilities that result from workshops at Zea Mays. Most of the techniques taught here are displayed, working as both a celebration of learning and a teaching tool. Selections from the Archives gives artists a chance to display their discoveries and successes while inspiring new students.
Prints by Mark Zunino, Anna Lee Lipman, and Arielle Marks
5/23/09-6/27/09
Out-of-Print
Prints, Collages and Assemblages by Lilly Pereira and Doris Madsen
4/4/09-5/2/09
Touching Space (Flow)
1/27/09 - 2/27/09
An exhibition of prints curated from the Zea Mays Printmaking Flat Files by guest artist/curator Karen Dolmanisth as part of an occasional series of in-house exhibitions pulled from our collection by visionary thinkers, feelers, artists and curators .
Since 1978, Dolmanisth has been pushing the boundaries of contemporary experimental art. She has produced site-specific earthworks, environmental sculpture projects, and transient, action-centered happenings. She has created work for traditional museum and gallery venues and for such non-traditional spaces as railroad tracks; vacant lots; abandoned mills, factories, mental health facilities; cemeteries; rivers, lakes, the ocean; New York City piers; cornfields, woods, and mountain trails.
In Touching Space (flow) – Dolmanisth selected 40 works from over 300 in the Zea Mays Printmaking Flat File. She selected work based on an intuitive response and perceived relationships between the pieces. The non-traditional installation of the work in the studio’s gallery extends her vision of how the works “touch space and flow” into the physical space of the gallery. Artists represented in the exhibition are: Meredith Broberg, Anne Beresford, Carolyn Webb, Liz Chalfin, Joyce Silverstone, Anita S. Hunt, Louise Kohrman, Claudia Sperry, Joan Dix Blair, Joan Wiener, Nancy Van Deren, Nancy Diessner, Erika Radich, Lynn Peterfreund, Margaret Jean, Sheryl Jaffe and Susan Silverman.
Throughout the month long exhibition, Ms. Dolmanisth will be adding subtle 3-dimensional installation elements of her own, helping to articulate the concept of Touching Space (flow). During the closing reception, on Friday, February 27th, Ms. Dolmanisth will present a talk/performance as part of the exhibition.
Imagined Space
Printed works by Joan Dix Blair and Sarah Blackwell
December 5th, 2008 - January 11th, 2009
Joan DixBlair will be exhibiting two multi-paneled prints. "My Indigo Manuscript" is a six-panel monotype which is a narration using imagined night sky images. "Hot Pink" is a two panel monotype which considers the idea of camouflage"
Sarah Blackwell's large installation of abstract prints will fill the gallery wall. "These monotypes are an exploration of light, rhythm, memory, and the passage of time. They are inspired by planets moving toward and away from each other in space and by people moving toward and away from each other on earth; the infinitely large and the infinitely small."
2008 Archive Exhibition: Imbroglio
Curated by Susanna Haas and Rachel Sperry
July 1 - September 15, 2008
The 2008 Archive Exhibition is comprised of works donated from members of the studio and workshop students.These pieces demonstrate a variety of printmaking techniques, many of which were taught in this summer's workshop series. We made our selections without a specific theme in mind, choosing prints simply for their aesthetic value. As we began to hang our initial selections, we realized through trial and error which combinations of prints created the strongest interactive dynamic. As more of the prints found their place on the wall it became difficult to find the final images that would unify the show. The prints of the archive address a varied spectrum of thematic content; therefore we put our efforts into creating a visually cohesive exhibit without an underlying theme. As a result we have prints that range from representational to non-objective, color to black and white, and that use innovative and non-toxic variations of traditional printmaking methods.
Grabados de la Habana
Cuban prints from the collection of Steven C. Daiber and Jacquiline A. Hayden
May 20 - June 27 2008
Steven Daiber and Jacquiline Hayden have traveled to Cuba annually since the spring of 2000. During the academic year of 2003-04 they lived in Havana, Cuba for ten months, where Steven had the opportunity to work in five different print shops with a variety of Cuban artists. Two of these are state run print shops that provide equipment, supplies, and opportunities for Cuban artists and foreigners to work. Another two shops are unofficially run, providing the same services and more. The fifth, a private shop recognized by the government, is amazingly equipped with an abundance of inks, paper and presses. This is Cuba, the state and private enterprise coexisting, waiting for change.
In Havana, living with a Cuban family, Steven and Jacqueline worked with Cubans caught in the political bind between Cuba and the United States, using humor and creative inqenuity to survive and prosper. The prints in this exhibition were made by Cuban artists of all ages, from young college graduates to seasoned printmakers. The artists exhibited in Grabados de la Habana look at contemporary life in Cuba, masculinity and power, the daily water supply, old cars and hope.
Visual Fields:
Nancy Van Deren, Sarah Creighton, Erika Radich
Although the language of landscape and abstraction weaves these three artists together, the excitement of the show comes from the particular way that each artist responds to simple forms and subtle color.
Nancy Van Deren's painting background is informing this current work. She is showing prints that include marks and looping lines within or behind color fields that define her found shapes.
Sarah Creighton is showing her new work that incorperates her experiences in the landscapes of the Connecticut River and intuitive abstractions focusing on reflection, pattern and the play of light.
Erika Radich's images are created in a layered approach. Her forms grow into roundness, tossed into shapes that live in and through multiple textures. As a whole, the "visual fields" that these three artists create leave us feeling open, curious, and looking very closely to light and form.
Interpreting Nature: Neil Brigham, Tracy Ducasse, Kate Jenkins
February 26 - March 28, 2008
Three member artists will show prints exploring various interpretations of the natural world. Neil Brigham, an illustrator by profession will exhibit beautifully crafted relief prints of fish, frogs, birds and woodland animals. Tracy Ducasse's relief prints emphasize the intricate patterning found in the natural world. Kate Jenkins's expressive monotypes are infused with impressionist color. Each artist brings a unique vision of the outdoors into our gallery.
Stephanie Cramer: Painter as Printmaker
January 8 - February 17, 2008
Stephanie Cramer will be exhibiting her monotypes along side several of her large vibrant paintings at the Gallery at Zea Mays Printmaking, Florence, MA. Zea Mays gives Cramer a place to work communally with other artists. "Normally the process of painting is isolated, Zea Mays gives me the opportunity to work in the presence of other artists. "My preference is monotype, the most closely related to the process of painting, often called the painter's printmaking process.
"Center stage in my art is the figure- an object in motion, as if the figure is caught, just for an instant, a glimpse, a snapshot before the gesture is complete. I'm not in search of exact representation. I'm intent rather on provoking a sense of tension or intensity. These plus color bring the emotion to the print."
Zea Mays Printmaking Annual Members' Exhibition
November 6 - December 10, 2007
Each year we take the opportunity to showcase the range of work being produced by members of the Zea Mays Printmaking community. This exhibition features the work of 27 of the 47 members of the studio. You'll find etchings, woodblock prints, linoleum block prints, embossings, photopolymer intaglio prints, monotypes, and mixed media work ranging from representational to abstract. Eclectic in its mix, the show is an opportunity to investigate the creative dialogue taking place at Zea Mays Printmaking and to experience a broad range of expressive printmaking. Zea Mays Printmaking is a studio, workshop, educational facility and research center dedicated to new approaches in printmaking. We focus on safer and non-toxic approaches to printmaking for the health of artists and the environment. The Annual Members' Exhibition showcases the high quality of work being produced without the use of harmful chemicals.
Artist Members exhibiting prints include: J. Addas, Anne Beresford, Joan Blair, Neil Brigham, Meredith Broberg, Victoria Burge, Liz Chalfin, Stephanie Cramer, Sarah Creighton, Nancy Diessner, Tracy Ducasse, Rachel Gugler, Anita S. Hunt, Sheryl Jaffe, Anna Lee Lipman, Doris Madsen, Lauren Mills, Lilly Pereira, Lynn Peterfreund, Linda Suzanne Price, Erika Radich, Joyce Silverstone, Susan Silverman, Cyndy Sperry, Margaret Jean Taylor, Judith Wolf, and Diane Kazar Worth.
BookMarks ZMP 4th annual juried artists’ book exhibition
as part of Museums’ 10 BookMarks program
September 11 - October 26 ,2007
In the hands of artists, books become magical things: a marriage of image and text, a sculptural object, a visual journey, a playful encounter, or an interactive experience. The visual experience unfolds scene upon scene, page upon page, and the viewer gets an intimate, tactile experience. Through bookmaking, artists find new ways of communicating and constructing meaning. This year’s exhibition is juried by Ruth R. Rogers, Special Collections Librarian, Wellesley College. Ms. Rogers is a serious collector and promoter of artists’ books, Rogers organized ABC: the Artists’ Books Conference, held in June 2005 at Wellesley College, and published the related exhibition catalog, Resonance and Response. Most recently she was the juror and guest curator of the national exhibition Beyond Words: Artists’ Books at the University of the South, in Sewanee, TN.
BookMarks ZMP showcases a broad range of interpretations of the artist’s book, from contemporary expressions to more traditional structures, with the common denominator being that each of the books incorporates hand printmaking. Some of the books are built around textual narratives or poems, while others are purely visual experiences. The books being shown in our studio Gallery are for sale, and range from one-of-a-kind visual books to illustrated letterpress editions. Artists whose books will be on exhibition come from all over the United States and Canada and include: Ashlee Weitlauf, Mary Taylor, Margaret Jean Taylor, Anita S. Hunt, Martha Galuszka, Steven C. Daiber, Tara O’Brien, Marvel Maring, Ginger Burrell, Brian Borchardt, Nicole Dore Brunet, Melissa Kaup-Augustine, Sun Young Kang, Annie Zeybekoglu and Nancy Diessner.
BookMarks ZMP presents viewers with the rare opportunity to handle the books on exhibit. Artist’s books are usually displayed in closed cases and actually “reading” them is not possible. At Zea Mays Printmaking, visitors are invited to take the books off the shelves and explore them fully at their own pace.
Innovative Processes
Abbie Hendrickson - Constance Jacobson - Joyce Silverstone
May 25 - June 29, 2007
Printmaking is an art form that has evolved over five centuries. Tradition carries printmaking forward, but artists will always be developing new ways of mark-making, toward personal expression. Innovative Processes showcases the work of three artists, Constance Jacobson, Abbey Hendrickson, and Joyce Silverstone, who are pushing the medium in different directions through experimentation and exploration.
According to Constance Jacobson, her pieces, from the series Greymatter , grew from an investigation into "ways of creating images that looked like they belonged to the microbial world, but have no basis in real science." She uses powdered graphite and oil as the medium for its simplicity, fluidity, and sensitivity. She then manipulates this non-traditional ink using eyedroppers, rollers, brushes.
Abbey Hendrickson's interests in layered images and bookmaking structures have been fostered by her involvement with printmaking. Unlike a traditional printmaker, she creates prints with the intention of altering each one separately, which allows her to consider a broader range of possible relationships. She finds using unconventional media such as tea, gesso, and found materials along with traditional printmaking processes easily lends itself to the creation of books and zines.
Joyce Silverstone prints onto the surface of clayboard panels with layers of ink run through the press, focusing on the plate and what remains of the images over time. The processes of printmaking- stenciling, rolling, carving, transfer drawing- all contribute to building the images that emerge on the panels. When the inks dry on the panels, she continues working on the content of the image by sanding off some layers, or adding more directly by rolling over the layers, or transfer drawing into the surface again.
Unique Transfers: Juried Monotype Exhibition
April 6 - May 18, 2007
Curated by Nicholas J. Capasso, Ph.D.,
curator at the DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Garden,
Lincoln, MA
Zea Mays Printmaking put out a wide search for artists working with nontoxic materials to create monotypes. Our call for entries included a wide scope of national and international artists. This exhibit, featuring a select number of these artists, is an in-depth look at the art of the monotype, chosen by Nicholas J. Capasso, curator at the DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park located in Lincoln, MA. Each artist is showing a series of related monotype images that explore the distinctive vocabulary of the unique print. Artists included are Todd Munro (Montreal, Canada), Joan Hausrath (Pawtucket, RI), Beatrice Bardin (New York, NY), Lynn Peterfreund (Levertt, MA) and Coco Berkman (Gloucester, MA).
Printmaking is traditionally a pretty toxic art medium, involving the use of solvents and other dangerous chemicals to create images. Zea Mays Printmaking's mission is to promote the use of safer and non-toxic printmaking methods through research, education and practice. Our exhibition program seeks to showcase the wonderful achievements in the field of safer and nontoxic printmaking. This particular exhibition brings together the work of several artists working in nontoxic monotype for an in-depth look at many of the possibilities of working "green". In addition, the exhibition presents the work through the discerning eye of one of our regions preeminent art curators.
Images of Growth
March 1 - 29
Liz Chalfin, director and founder of Zea Mays Printmaking, gave me the delightful task of curating a show from the studio archives. The archives are prints donated to the studio by artists working here or passing through in classes offered in new methods of safer less toxic printmaking. I came into the studio on a cold winter day to open the print drawers and open my self to see what would start shaping into a show. While the studio filled with streaming light and a visiting intern came in to start work, and a new member was getting familiar with the feel of the presses, the helpful, generative field of being at Zea Mays struck me as the obvious theme for a show. The studio is growing and thriving in large part through Liz's hard work and clear vision of what she wants: a place where artists and students can be creative and thrive.
I chose images that speak to me about growth and expansion. Some of the pieces became teachers for me: techniques that are intriguing or make me interested in the process; expanding my understanding. Others speak about growth in a poetic way responding to natural forms with a sensitive touch; expanding my awareness.
My hope is that the relationship between these prints and the vision that we aspire to will generate more growth and depth in our community of artists, in surprising and beautiful ways. Each artist working here contributes to the growth and depth of our knowledge. This show doesn't represent every artist working here. These selected works are meant to celebrate and stand as metaphors for how we are growing.
-Joyce Silverstone
Fine Lines and Shadows:
New Prints by Nancy Diessner and Victoria Burge
January 12 - February 16, 2007
Both Diessner and Burge created new work for this exhibition. Diessner is Associate Professor and Chair of Interdisciplinary Studies at Chester College of New England in New Hampshire. Her work is in major collections in the US. Her current work explores the new processes of photopolymer intaglio. Diessner's photo based images of humans and animals explore the common ground between the species. Victoria Burge lives and works in western Massachusetts. Over the past month she has been at an artists residency program in northern Vermont working on a series of encaustic paintings entitled," The Names of Things". Her etchings combine a childlike naiveté with a darker, edgier feel to create images that haunt and entice.
States Diessner: "I'm always trying to get to something--an image, a color, a feeling--that seems honest and real to me. My work begins with a photographic image--an image of something in the world. But that's just the beginning; I then put the image through various processes, working to transform it into something more emotionally expressive. Transformations come about in several different ways: sometimes they're created through deliberate action, sometimes through the very nature of a particular printing process, and sometimes through pure accident. What is consistent is that I'm always looking for that point when what is photographically real remains in the image only as a memory, and the image finds a new life and vitality--a new reality--through the lines, colors, gestures, scrapes, and textures that are layered over that memory. The work for this show at Zea Mays is primarily photopolymer multi-plate prints. The images in the prints are dogs and humans, sometimes alone and sometimes together. What matters to me in the prints is what that subject matter is trying to express. In this case, these prints are really about breathing and about longing--the eternal saudades-- something shared in different measure by humans and by beasts. "
Burge writes, "Printmaking is a new medium for me, and therefore, much of my work is the result of fortuitous mistakes. Luckily, I enjoy the crackle of broken lines, the noisy tones of roughly wiped plates, and the scratches and bites that develop from missing a primary step. There is a clumsiness that comes with being a beginner. Yet, there is also something delicate. It is a precious place, as it is fleeting. Very quickly one learns the right tools and materials to use, as well as, the results of different processes; one develops an order to one's method, and the ways to do it better. However, in the halcyon moments of being a novice, one is permitted to be awkward. There is a freedom in this. The ego is a bit more forgiving; and the work that comes of it, although often not what one expects, is consistently exciting and informative. My most recent etchings explore my unknowing. What has evolved is a tremendous amount of learning and a collection of simple, often child-like prints each with an air of darkness, a sense of humor, and a bit of hope."
Alex Chitty and Lynn Peterfreund: New Prints
12/8/06-1/8/07
Both Alex and Lynn are exhibiting prints created druing recent artists residencies. Most of Peterfreunds prints wiere created between January and July 2006 when she had the opportunity to be an artist in residence at Kala Art Institute in Berkeley, CA. Lynn states, "I'm very interested in continuing to use drawing and photographic elements to combine monotype with intaglio and photographic printing. I work spontaneously with colors, marks, forms and compositions to express the rhythms and qualities of a state of mind or emotion whether in the form of a print or a photograph. I'm attracted to compositions that are both disorienting in terms of where and what one is seeing, and centering in terms of how it pulls together feelings and relationships."
A native to Miami, Florida, Chitty has studied and sketched in museums and laboratories in the Philippines, Palau, Belize, Argentina, England, and throughout the United States. After graduating from Smith College with a self designed major in fine art, biology and education, she studied printmaking at Zea Mays Printmaking and in New York City at The Lower East Side Printshop , ABC No Rio , and The Art Students League. In the spring of 2006, Chitty was an artist in residence at the Sitka Center for Art and Ecology in Otis, Oregon. She is currently attending the Graduate Printmedia Program at the Art Institute of Chicago. Chitty is an artist and a biologist. Her work stems from a fascination with mankind's relationship to the environment, and a curiosity with the ways that scientists have collected and documented nature throughout history. Chitty's work tweaks traditional printmaking techniques to create quasi-scientific documents that are sculptural, interactive, and have the potential to influence how we regard our environment.
Annual Members Exhibition
November 8-22, 2006
The Members' Exhibit showcases the dynamic range of work currently being produced by Zea Mays Printmaking Studio members, most of whom live in the Greater Pioneer Valley area. An exciting array of styles and techniques are on display including etchings, monotypes, linocuts, and photopolymer prints. Artists included in the exhibit are Stephanie Cramer, Victoria Burge, Judith Wolf, Kate Jenkins, Tracy Ducasse, Laure Biron, Jennifer Addas, Anna Lee Lipman, Doris Madsen, Julia Courtney, Rachel Gugler, Margaret Jean, Anita Hunt, Diane Kazar Worth, Lynn Peterfreund, Carolyn Webb, Sarah Creighton, Liz Chalfin, and Joyce Silverstone.
Below the Surface
Zea Mays Printmaking’s 1st Juried Intaglio Exhibition -
juried by Peter Pettengill, Wingate Press
September 8 - October 28, 2006
Below the Surface was selected from submitted prints by Peter Pettingill, a master printer with over twenty years of experience in the field of intaglio printmaking. He trained and worked at Crown Point Press in California from 1978 - 1985, and went on to establish Wingate Studio in New Hampshire, where he continues to print and publish etchings by contemporary artists. Wingate has produced prints by Walton Ford, Sol LeWitt, Robert Ryman, John Cage and many others, including “local” artists Gregory Gillespie, John Gibson and Richard Ryan. He has served as an adjunct printmaking instructor at Smith College and acted as master printer for print workshops at Smith, Hartford Art School and Boston University.
Entry to Below the Surface was open to artists affiliated with Zea Mays Printmaking - studio members, workshop participants and guest faculty - many of whom live in the Greater Pioneer Valley area, and artists from around New England and from as far away as Philadelphia are also represented in the show. Mr. Pettingill states about the experience of selecting work for this exhibit: “After more than twenty-five years of working with intaglio printmaking, I still continue to enjoy looking at prints. The sheer physical presence of a printed sheet arrests me even before I have had a chance to consider its image. My preferences are definitely colored by my interest in the technical aspects of printmaking. I like to get up very close. Prints will always reveal something new in the close reading of them. It is my prejudice as a printmaker to want to examine them closely to decipher their technical secrets. These technical aspects are what attracted my attention in the prints I selected for this exhibition. I might find someone working in a technique that is familiar, but employed in a way that surprises me or teaches me something new. As I looked at the various submissions, I was reminded over and over of the variety of results that ensue from individual printmakers working in their own studios with their own secrets. I have tried to include as wide a range of style and technique as possible. Because of space considerations, I also tried to limit my selections to one print per artist. In some cases, prints intended to be shown as a group were kept together. In all, I feel that this exhibit is a testament to the life and vitality of printmaking in our time. In studios like Zea Mays and others across the country and around the world, artists are pursuing their vision, experimenting with safer materials and inventing the techniques to employ them. They are combining these new ideas with the centuries old methods that are the legacy of art history. The results, I feel, are both encouraging and inspiring.”
The work on display encompasses many working methods, materials and techniques within the realm of intaglio printmaking, including etching, drypoint, mezzotint, aquatint, photopolymer, Solar plate and a surprising number of mixed media processes.
Germination - New Work by Liz Chalfin and Alison Williams
Exhibit dates are June 20 - July 21.
In this joint exhibit, both Liz Chalfin and Alison Williams utilize photopolymer printmaking to incorporate elements of drawing, photography and found materials into layered monoprints. Chalfin explores many ways that humanity is involved in the act of creation / destruction in a new series of prints. Chalfin states: “As human beings we are all creators in one sense or another - we make objects, relationships, experiences. And at this point in human history we also make life in a way never achieved before. Humanity is intricately involved in the physical, spiritual and metaphysical act of creation - we are the architects of our own evolution. These prints strive to give a sense of the beauty, fragility and potential inherent in our current state of creative power.” She explores these issues in her work through the use of symbolism.
Williams tries to translate her political and social ideas as well as convey her love and concern for the environment through her work. The images she uses are collected from books, poems, drawings, photographs, nature and textiles as well as old letters and writings that she has found. She enjoys taking old and disused objects and redefining them, making them take on a new life, changing them to relate in new ways with other objects. Williams’ work is about interpretation and transformation, about relationships between old to new, between objects, colors and textures as well as between herself and the viewer. Inspired by landscapes large and small, her latest work focuses on growth, memory and uses plant imagery to create layered patterns. The prints are at times presented as they came from the press and at other times transformed, enlarged or reduced by digital means, then printed onto paper or fabric.
Alison Williams is an artist specializing in Drawing, Painting, Printmaking and Photography. A native of New Zealand, she has a Drawing and Painting Degree from Edinburgh College of Art, Edinburgh, Scotland.
Liz Chalfin is visual artist and art educator. She is founder and director and resident artist of Zea Mays Printmaking in Florence, Massachusetts. Chalfin teaches workshops at Zea Mays and on the road at colleges and art centers regionally. She is also adjunct faculty in Lesley University’s Creative Arts in Learning graduate program. She exhibits her prints, drawings and artist’s books nationally in solo and group exhibitions. Her work is in the permanent collections of the Smith College Museum of Art and Mortimer Rare Book Room, the De Cordova Museum and the Boston Public Library. Chalfin has had solo exhibitions at the University of Maine, Augusta and the Wisteriahurst Museum.
Reflections: Collagraphs by Diane Kazar Worth
and
Relief Prints Invitational
April 21 - May 31, 2006
Diane Kazar Worth's current work consists of relief collagraphs printed on silk as well as on paper. Her imagery is restrained, simple, and abstract and the long narrow shapes reflect a Japanese influence in format as well as in style. These images are meant to allow the viewer a quiet space for reflection, remaining open enough for various thoughts to emerge.
Ms. Worth has been a printmaker for more than 20 years and has studied and worked at various schools and printshops including Greenfield Community College, the Museum School, Tokugenji Press in Kyoto, Japan and Zea Mays Printmaking. Her work has been exhibited in the United States, China, and Japan. She works in a variety of print mediums including drypoint, aquatint, collagraph and monoprint.
In a concurrent exhibit in the gallery, Ruth Ginsberg-Place and Bobette McCarthy show recent woodcuts, alongside reduction linocuts by Susan Jaworski-Stranc and mixed media relief prints by Wendy Ketchum.
Folklore Arena - Prints by Aaron Piziali and
Solar Plate Prints: An Invitational Portfolio,
MARCH 10 - APRIL 14, 2006
In Folklore Arena, Aaron Piziali exhibits prints that use several techniques - silkscreen, letterpress, linoleum cut and drypoint - to present images and ideas about our relationships with identity, the brain and learning disabilities. From these prints, a folklore of ability and history emerges. Piziali states: “This is a personal attempt to map the mental environment created by the simple acts of thought, those that are successful and those that not.”
Aaron Piziali currently works at the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art and as a farm hand for a local organic farm. His interests and work have been in Special Education in local high schools, as an assistant for autistic youth, and other youth/community arts work for the last twelve years. Aaron has published an autobiographical essay in the book, Learning Disabilities and Life Stories, in which many of the ideas for this show had their genesis.
Solar Plate Prints; An Invitational Portfolio is a new collection of prints by nine members of the Zea Mays Printmaking Studio. Participating artists are: Meredith Broberg, Liz Chalfin, Stephanie Cramer, Tracy Ducasse, Anita S. Hunt, Kate Jenkins, Aaron Piziali, Judith Wolf, and Diane Worth. This portfolio project was initiated by Dan Welden, a developer of the Solar Plate Printmaking technology and co-author of Printmaking in the Sun, a recently published textbook on the subject. Mr. Welden has been touring the world in the last decade sharing his new innovation and exploring its potential with artists.
The art of printmaking has a rich tradition of technical innovation. And even though prints are still made the same way Rembrandt did 500 years ago, new printmaking technologies continue to be developed and practiced by contemporary artists. The latest trend is in safer and non-toxic approaches to traditional printmaking. One of the most recent developments is Solar Plate Printmaking, in which an etched plate is made through the use of a light sensitive, water soluble photopolymer emulsion.
The Pioneer Valley is home to Zea Mays Printmaking, one of only a few printmaking studios nationwide that is dedicated to safer and non-toxic approaches to printmaking. Thus it was a perfect fit when Dan Welden asked Liz Chalfin, Director of Zea Mays, to take a stack of solar plates back to the studio and put them in the hands of member artists. The resulting prints are an exploration of the potential of this new medium by local artists. Nine of the studio's member artists were selected to use the printing plates to create an edition of prints for the portfolio. The images explore the potential of the medium - manipulated digital photography, pencil, ink and charcoal drawing and various combinations of all.
Meredith Broberg "Matters" and Margaret Jean "Spaces"
1/20 - 2/28/06
Meredith Broberg’s gallery installation, entitled "Matters," combines drawings and prints with notes from artists, engineers, librarians, cooks, kids, inmates and others about what matters most in life. The images are glimpses of the stuff of every day - garden produce, dragonfly wings, friends’ faces, pine cones, plastic dinosaurs, etc. The notes are personal, anonymous responses to the quesion “What matters most in your life?” In bringing together images and words about daily life, Broberg hopes to illuminate how we pay attention to the matters of our own lives. “Daily life can seem so busy, that it’s easy for me to lose touch with what really matters. So sometimes there’s a gap between what I do during the day and what I value most. Drawing helps me bridge that gap - it’s a way for me to slow down and really pay attention to something or someone,” explains the artist. Ms. Broberg’s work often takes the form of artists’ books, which sparked her interest in juxtaposing words and images in this installation. She decided to include the handwritten notes because she “wanted there to be a text that was personal but that went beyond what I thought. I wanted to see if there would be any overlap in what matters most to a variety of people.”
Meredith Broberg received her MFA from the University of California at Berkeley. Since then, she has received several awards, including a Fulbright Fellowship in Costa Rica, and a scholarship to Anderson Ranch Art Center in Colorado. She lives in Easthampton, MA.
Margaret Jean exhibits a series of new prints entitled "Spaces," which layer color and unrelated images “without intent.” Her new work has a randomness, suggestive of collage, that originated five years ago when she began sifting through her prints of 25 and 30 years ago. She felt a physical sense of freedom as she cut some up, saved others, printed new images on top of old ones, and threw alot away. Jean also sites seeing John Cage’s prints made from shards of glass as an inspiration in creating this new body of work.
A resident of Amherst, MA, Margaret Jean grew up in Austin, Texas. She holds an MFA from the University of Massachusetts and a BA and an MA from Mount Holyoke College. She describes her studies with Hans Hofmann after graduating from college as crucial in developing her feeling for color relationships. She has exhibited her work widely in group exhibitions and in solo shows in New England including exhibits at the Bunting Institute at Radcliffe College, Amherst College, and at AIR Gallery in New York City. Her handmade books and prints are in the collections of the New York Public Library, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Wellesley College, and Houghton Library at Harvard University, among others.
THE 3rd ANNUAL ARTISTS’ BOOKS EXHIBITION
December 2, 2005 - January 13, 2006
Martin Antonetti, Curator of Rare Books at Smith College juried this wondrful exhibtion. Mr. Antonetti selected 20 works by 14 New England based artists for the exhibition. Artists included in the exhibit are: Meredith Broberg, Valerie Carrigan, Liz Chalfin, Nancy Diessner, Anita S. Hunt, Louise Kohrman, O. Kline, Veronica Morgan, Emily Orzech, Amaryllis Siniossoglou, Claudia Sperry, C. David Thomas, Alison Williams, and Diane Kazar Worth.
Mr. Antonetti states: “Humorous or haunting, bursting with energy, each of the books in this exhibition presents its own kind of "visual literature" in which language and image are used and juxtaposed in a way that extends and enhances the meaning of both. You'll see a wonderful mixture of word and picture magic, a strange mind geometry not found in any other media, and an imaginative and esoteric architecture holding it all together. These artist's books are explorations of the domain of the book: a highly-charged meeting ground between literature, printmaking and applied arts, where technical skill and the ability to develop literary and visual content are combined in the same crucible.”
3rd Annual Artists’ Books Exhibition presents viewers with the rare opportunity to handle the books. Artist’s books are usually displayed in closed cases and actually “reading” them is not possible. At Zea Mays, visitors are invited to take the books off the shelves and explore them fully at their own pace. The exhibit showcases a broad range of interpretations of the artist’s book, from contemporary expressions to more traditional structures, with the common denominator being that each of the books incorporates printmaking. Some of the books are built around textual narratives or poems, while others are purely visual experiences.